Nick Projects

Drop box is a worthwhile tool for doing some basic file synchronizing between a few computers.  I don’t know if I would recommend it for storing your life’s collection of digital photos,  but if you had a handful that you wanted to move between your laptop and desktop it would be a good tool.  Likewise I wouldn’t keep my MP3 collection on it,  but if there were a CD I wanted to listen to at the office drop box lets you move the files fairly seamlessly.   Drop box is a good service because it’s goal is to synchronize files across the internet.  This means that the idea isn’t to be accessing files from a web disk or a web based location, rather, they are housed on a local computer and then uploaded and downloaded.  This is a good way to go for web based storage because no matter who you are,  your local computer is faster than the internet.

Also Dropbox has some team features other than synchronization that makes it worth mentioning.

• Drop box allows you to access your files online.
  This is a cool feature for college students and other people who find themselves using public or computers that are not their own but still want their stuff.
• Drop box keeps a revision history.  This is a pretty good thing for most people who find themselves revising documents.  Or even worse work with other people who revise documents.  Each time a file is synchronized a backup of the original is kept.  This way if you accidentally save over your changes or someone else s you can roll back to the previous copy.
• Drop box allows you to share files with other people.  This is sort of cool.  With Jungle disk you would have to set up a unique bucket and trust people not to snoop through your stuff.  With drop box you can say mom gets to see this folder but not others. ( not that I encourage hiding things from your mother)

In conclusion,  I have Jungle disk set up and working well so I probably won’t be using dropbox for too much, but it is a good solution if you aren’t ready to comit to a full online storage solution.

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Delicious

The preciseness of one browser feature through the generations of different browsers has been a cornerstone of the internet.  The bookmark has truly stood the test of time and been a go-to function for many web users everywhere.   The problem is that now days most people use the web everywhere which makes the concept of a set of bookmarks locked into one computer a little dated.  Delicious has been around for several years now and is really one of the most simple and most effective bookmarking utilities out there.

Delicious not only pushes your bookmarks onto a website that you can access from anywhere.  Which is really enough to migrate from the crappy bookmarking functions built into most browsers, but, it adds an exceptionally effective tagging system for organizing your bookmarks.  This allows you to add several descriptors to your bookmarks to make them easy to find later.  For example, you could tag a Newsweek article about Russia as Newsweek, Russia, January,2008, or final report.  This would allow you to find all articles from January 2008 or all Newsweek articles very simply.  This simple organization allows you to bookmark anything that could be interesting because managing hundreds of bookmarks isn’t so cumbersome.

Another great feature of delicious is the ability to search bookmarks that other people have tagged.  This is a cool feature for two reasons.  While Google has a great relevancy indicator there is a gap between what people will click on and what they want to revisit.  If you are looking for a specific website say… wordpress templates it is great to be able to search within the sites that other people felt strongly enough to bookmark.  If for some reason you want to keep a bookmark private you have that option too.

These great features combined with simple to use browser buttons makes delicious a great substitute for a the antiquated browser based bookmark systems.

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I always feel a little bad when a good idea gets badly executed.  I feel like it discredits the idea because others look at the resutls and say, “well that didn’t work.” MiBook looks to be destined for this fate but deserves a mention because the idea is solid and the media they have been able to procure is impressive.  Unfortunately, this device is boasting an average amazon rating of two stars and even a complete gadget freek like me looks at it and says ” too expensive for what it does”  so… don’t expect the product link to work for years to come. Unless they have enough cash stockpiled to come out with a solid version 2.0

How the MiBook could be cool

My wife watches the food network constantly.  We tivo several of her favorite shows and for a short while were even dilligent enough to keep the shows and burn them out to DVD off of our DVR for archive purposes.  So, the idea of a digital device that could mix text recipies with video of their steps and be browsable and available in the kitchen or garage where I actually need the instruction seems like a slam dunk for a person like me.  I think the biggest hang up is that the content is stuck on SD cards,  which isn’t bad in and of itself but there is not really any support for updating them.  Which means you are limited to the current stock of $20 SD cards with content on them.  If this platform is to take off there should be a way to get content via wifi,  or at least a way to download new content to th cards so you aren’t stuck with the same 10 recipies,  who needs that?

If there were a MiBook like system that cold be updated and maybe if the silly picture frame fit into a special cutting board so that it were actually a logical fixture to keep in your kitchen this system could be a really cool thing.  I’m thinking this could be the big christmas gift in 2012 if they can shore up the device shor commings and promise me 5 new dishes each week ( even with comercials on them).

One upped before launch

Unfortunately for the MiBook Similar devices already exist and will trump it in the market.

• Nintendo DS, has wifi capability and two screens which is cooler than one.  Also they are heavily marketing their recipe game that teaches you how to cook.  If this takes off so long Mibook I’ll take the one that plays games.
• PSP has pretty good web support,  a welcrafted site could dominate on this platform.
• Iphone
• Ipod touch

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While there are dozens of ways to remote into someone’s computer to poke around and take a look; Ammyy Admin is probably the most simple one I’ve used.  The program is a single exe which doesn’t install anything,  you could run it from a thumb drive if you wanted.  Once the program is open your friend connects and recieves a number that they can read to you or IM if they are inclined.  You use the number to gain access to their PC and everything is done.  The program doesn’t stay running after you remote in and your friend always has to grant you controll so there isn’t much concern for security.

To download Ammyy-Admin just go to:

http://www.ammyy.com/en/

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Digsby is great

If you are looking for a way to keep tabs on several instant message accounts,  email accounts, twitter and face book all in one place;  Digsby is for you.  This is the most fully functional multi-IM client i’ve ever used,  and I’ve used them all ( I think).  Digsby doesn’t bog down your system,  it does a good job of connecting to different services and it incorporates way more web services.

Two thumbs up!!

http://www.digsby.com

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Scanners have several large drawbacks when it comes to working being a great solution for personal archival.  The image quality on pretty much any scanner now is great but its sort of tedious to take whatever you are working on -> move to the computer room -> put pate one on the scanner -> scan the image and then deal with the rest of the scanning software and then repeat for each item/page.  The problem is basically that the process is such a pain it never winds up getting done.  Newer  scanners and software help with this issue,  Neat Receipts and the Fujitsu Snap Scan are both supposed to be great products, but, none can operate away from the computer.  None, are able to sit in a corner of my kitchen waiting for the receipt when I get home from the grocery store.   (more…)

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