Sync notes, photos, and more w/ Conduit
Submitted on May 7th, 2007 by admin
Filed under Storage and Productivity and Software and Linux
No. of comments (1)
Backing up your data is extremely important, because quite frankly, you never know when your data will become corrupted. The problem with backing up data, is that it can sometimes be a little tedious. Enter Conduit, a small Linux application which makes the process very simple.
At the moment, I’ve only tried backing up my TomBoy notes to BackPack, but it’s also possible to save photos from F-Spot to Flickr, the ability to sync folders, settings files, e-mails to GMail, and more. It’s still an early release and a bit buggy, but is an excellent tool which will prove extremely helpful. Conduit is free and available only for GNU/Linux.
Make your Ubuntu desktop look like OS X
Submitted on October 29th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Storage and Graphics and Resources and Linux
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A few years ago, the OS X Aqua look was hot, and I belonged to a community of users which modified their Windows (and sometimes Linux) desktops to look like Apple’s new OS. We had people writing applications to clone OS X features (some which Apple shut down), some writing themes, others drawing up new icons. Recently, I decided I was growing tired of the default Ubuntu desktop so I figured I’d start modifying it, and I came upon Lauri Taimila’s site which has a very handy guide to making Ubuntu look like OS X. It’s not exact, and some of the links in the guide seem to have gone missing, but overall, I’m quite happy with the conversion, and it was fairly easy to do. In the end, you’ll have much of the eye candy available to Mac users and your desktop will look a whole lot better than all that brown.
Bypassing Genuine Windows Advantage
Submitted on October 29th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Storage and Resources and Windows and Security
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Windows Genuine Advantage (or WGA) is a piece of anti-piracy software that Microsoft has started using in their applications and software updates to verify that those who wish to install the software are using legitimate copies and not pirated ones. While this may seem good and dandy, WGA has caused problems even for users who actually bought copies of Microsoft software, so you may find that you need to bypass it. There are some products on which WGA can be bypassed with a piece of software called Orca. Open the installer with Orca, then select CustomAction, then on the CHECK_WGA action, select Drop Row. Next, look for the CheckWGA dialog and change the value from 2 to 0 and save. Now you can run the installer WGA free.
Install Flash 9 in Flock
Submitted on July 26th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Storage and Browsers
No. of comments (1)
For months, I’ve been using Flock as my default browser in favor of Firefox (mainly for the excellent del.icio.us integration). While Flock is derived from Firefox code, users may find certain sites may not work properly if you’re a Flock users, particularly those requiring Flash 9 to work (like the recent MySpace update). If you want to use Flash in Flock, here’s how to do it.
First, you’ll need to install Firefox (I chose to download the zipped version for quicker installation), then go to Adobe’s website and download Flash. Open the installer and choose your Firefox plugins folder. When that is done, simply copy NPSWF32.dll from the Firefox plugins directory, to the Flock plugins directory. Restart Flock and you’re done!
[Via Flock]
Gizmo offers free VOIP to landline calls
Submitted on July 20th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Storage and The Mac Side and Services and Windows and Linux
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The Gizmo Project has been around for a while and we’ve mentioned it once or twice before. Even though I like using the program quite a bit, something has kept me from completely dropping Skype in favor it Gizmo, though that may soon change as Gizmo is now offering free VOIP to landline calling to over 60 countries!
There is one catch though…any number you wish to call must be registered by a Gizmo member, so don’t go ahead and start calling grandma; get her to sign up first. Second, if you want someone to call you, you’ll need to fork up the cash and have a phone number tied to your Gizmo account (which is just like US$3 a month). While not as free as it may sound, the new VOIP to landline calling feature should definitely be easy enough to do, and hey, maybe you can just sign your friends up so you can call them.
[Via Engadget]
Parazz Mini Viewer
Submitted on April 20th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Storage and Reviews and The Mac Side and Windows
No. of comments (1)
I know, I KNOW!!! I’ve been talking about photo online services over and over again. But I am a photographer/graphics designer and I’m always constantly looking for places to store my photos. I’ve been using Parazz for awhile because they upgraded my account for free since I was a beta-tester. They’ve got lots of work to do but overall great service/concept.
They’ve recently rolled out a new feature called the “Parazz Mini Viewer”. It’s actually a small Flash driven photo album that you can post on your own website. I’ve posted mine on my blog. You can go check it out by clicking here. They’ve still got some bugs to work out, such as: none of the photos actually link out to the actual image. This service is a work in progress. Much to improve here but they are heading in a good direction. Check them out at www.parazz.com or stop by my album at www.parazz.com/albums/j5uh.
Zooomr
Submitted on April 19th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Storage and Reviews and Services
No. of comments (4)
Zooomr - I just started using this new online photo service about a month ago. Found it on Techcrunch blog. I like it but once again loads kinda slow!!! Tagging feature is awesome, I’d say it’s better than Flickr and Parazz. But I wish they had an uploading program for your desktop so you can just drag & drop photos into the uploader like Flickr and Parazz does. Also Zooomr offers you 50mbs monthly bandwidth. Thats 30 more mbs than Flickr. Check them out.
Online file storage shootout
Submitted on February 2nd, 2006 by admin
Filed under Storage and Resources and Services
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While it is an article I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time, it looks like I’ve been beaten to the punch. Michael Harrington over at TechCrunch has done a great write-up of some of the available online file storage services. Most simply offer upload/download services, while some, like OmniDrive support read/write functions on the server, meaning that you could open a Word document right from OmniDrive and have to save only changes, not the entire file again. The service comparison is neatly presented on a feature chart making it very easy to read. Enjoy!
By the way, I’ve been contacted by Box.net and they’ve got some promising things in the pipeline… 
[tags]web, storage, services, reviews, techcrunch[/tags]
Agatra, now with more features
Submitted on February 2nd, 2006 by admin
Filed under Storage and Services and Security
No. of comments (1)
Back in November, I wrote a short piece on Agatra, a free, web-based service which helps you keep track of all your passwords online. I received quite a few e-mails and some comments wondering about privacy concerns as a result, and through some discussions with the company’s president, Andrew Hayward, I’ve been assured there is nothing to worry about. The site has recently been updated with some new features; of particular interest is a new compatibility mode which will allow anyone to access their passwords through mobile devices like mobile phones, PDAs, BlackBerrys, and more. Additionally, Agatra now also supports tabbed automatic logins for all you Firefox users.
[tags]agatra, passwords, security, services[/tags]
Google Toolbar for IE offers new features
Submitted on February 1st, 2006 by admin
Filed under Storage and Browsers and Services and Windows
No. of comments (1)
I’m generally not very keen on using browser toolbars unless they really do provide well integrated features into services I use very often. The only toolbar I used for a while was the del.icio.us toolbar, though I no longer need to since I’m a big fan of Flock (HUGE. Yes, I am). Anyways, Google just announced on Monday an update to their Google Toolbar which has some pretty cool new features which anyone who uses mostly Google services should at least check out. Some of the key new features include the ability to add customized buttons, enhanced searching capabilities with built in search-as-you-type, the ability to send pages to friends and family via e-mail, blog, or SMS, and finally, integration with the just released Google Bookmarks (more on that one soon), yet another bookmarking service. The new toolbar is currently only available for Internet Explorer, but a Firefox version is coming soon.
[Thanks, Angela!]
[tags]google, toolbar, software, bookmarks, internet explorer, tools[/tags]
