Synchronise your files using Allway Sync
Using a
portable hard drive, USB stick or even your iPod in ‘disk mode’ is a convenient
way of working between different computers. They enable you to take your apps,
files and work documents with you, whether working from home or on the move; you
can take virtually all you need on a single memory stick and leave your laptop
in the office. Things become a little bit more confusing if you’re working on a
document, and you save it over the previous one, or perhaps give the new
document a similar filename. How do you keep track of your most recent
work?
The problem with insurance is that you are never prepared for the time when you need to make a claim through your insurance company. We often fail to keep an inventory list up-to-date and, even if we do, if you suffer from a major natural act (such as water damage), your paper-based inventory list may be destroyed. How would you make a successful claim when everything was lost in the flood?
Well, I suppose the title got you hooked, at least. I don't understand 'social networking'. Although I have an account on LinkedIn, and occasionally use the site to contact old business contacts, I'm not a massive fan of something like Facebook, unless you're 17 and find it interesting to show all your friends photos of you on the lash, at Glastonbury or other real-life event. Why they need to see these things? When was there a time where we felt compelled to share our social life with people who weren't even involved in the event? Bizarre.
The problem with any website is getting the layout as professional-looking as a DTP generated magazine. It's very difficult and there are so many inconsistencies across web browsers, particular on older computers. What looks good on Firefox 2 may look poor on Internet Explorer 6. Believe it or not, there are still a fair few people still using the old IE.
Who needs software when you can run either your business or home applications, online? We recently stated that Soho Online would enable you to run your office suite, online, without having to install Microsoft Office. Even better, it has support for Office 2007, which is lacking in some commercial off-the-shelf applications. Well, now you can design, create and host your own website, without even leaving your web browser.
The problem with the heavyweight audio and video players is that they prefer their standards and will always encourage you to use the codecs that they supply with their player. This often means you'll need more than one player installed just to play back different video types. As you'll know, you'll then be bombarded with questions on whether you want to associate the player with different media types when you start up the player. Annoying.
Only yesterday we discussed the advantages of storing your notes within Evernote. This tool enables you to collate your notes, info and other details and then quickly locate the data when required, due to a super-quick search engine. However, it's quite a formal way of storing your notes and probably not the ideal tool for young kids who are used to storing their thoughts in a scrapbook.
After a while
PCs build up clutter, cookies, unwanted files and applications that are no
longer in use, but are occupying space and in some cases system resources. The
trouble is, with something like the Windows Add/Remove utility, although it’s
supposed to remove installed applications, certain files will remain on your PC
which will also hog the Registry, stay in the startup procedure and more. What
if you want these files removed completely and your Registry kept lean and free
of clutter?
Computer
manufacturers often baffle you with numbers, statistics, and facts and figures
to make their PC stand out from the others. This is all well and good, as long
as you have a good understanding of computers. The trouble is, not everyone
understands the promotion, or the words used in the adverts. Yes, a machine may
be ¨good value¨ but if it’s only designed for a particular purpose, it may be
little use buying a PC designed for your managing your media if your kids want a
PC for gaming. It would be great to compare components and specs before parting
with your money. 
Most audio
fans collect and store music that they have obtained from various sources. CDs,
music purchased online or even music recorded from old cassettes can all be
stored on your computer. However, having a number of audio files in varying file
formats can be frustrating, especially when most players will only read a select
number of audio types or the sound quality and aural performance various
depending on the original recording. 
Since the
public release of Vista, a few of us have opted to upgrade, although almost all
new PCs will ship with the new operating system as default. Although parts are
much improved, certain aspects of Vista such as the ability to tweak and
optimise hidden settings are even more inaccessible than under XP. The reason
for this is that a basic vanilla operating system is pre-installed and is not
always configured to maximise system resources, such as your graphics card or
fast Internet connection.
When the MacBook Air was released, people complained that they didn't believe a 80GB drive enabled enough storage space to manage their apps, music, data files and photos. However, if you're clever, you could use a media server to store your music and then simply share the music with the laptop. If you wanted to save drive space, avoid installing large applications and do your work, online. For instance, there are online photo editors, data storage tools and more.
There are a
wide range of personal firewalls available to download, from commercial apps
through to freeware, all of which claim to offer better, or a more specific type
of protection than the next. Every firewall protects your machine to some degree
but, with the constant barrage of malicious software attempting to infect your
machine, which one offers the most up-to-date and intelligent protection against
files attempting to write to your PC and users attempt to intrude from outside
your network?
Only a few short years ago, designing your homepage required you to master something like Adobe Dreamweaver. Although it's not overly complicated, the interface is enough to put off most novice web developers. This is why tools such as the Mac-only Rapidweaver have been a revelation. They enable you to take an existing template and then populate your site by inserting important information, such as your contact info and logo. Publish and you have your own professional website.
Use a PC
regularly, whether at home or work, and you realise it doesn’t take long for it
to accumulate junk. Removing this build up of unwanted files and folders is
important if you want your machine to run smoothly. Not only will erasing junk
help speed up your PC, but organising the applications that start with your
computer, and being able to quit an application that is performing erratically
are other important factors when maintaining system performance.
I'd admit that a year ago I had a conversation with a software developer and said that I couldn't see how current applications could be developed beyond their current revisions. Apart from supporting Vista, what do some of the more recent commercial applications offer to most end users? However, I didn't expect so many developers to turn to the Internet and develop applications that would utilise the Internet to enable you to manage your finances, without installing a desktop application, or synchronise files.
Although an odd way to start a blog, we're really excited about the forthcoming Evernote 3. We're busy testing it and it will enable you to store your notes, work, information, sync these online, across computers and between a PC or a Mac. So, you could use it to store your tasks and notes, then grab these on your Mac, when you get home. If you're out on the road, login to your online account and access them without requiring the desktop tools.
We're big fans of portable applications. Indeed, we still don't believe that end-users realise they can take their iPod Classic or Nano and use it in 'disk mode' as an external hard drive. It's a lightweight method of connecting an external drive to your laptop. If you normally take your iPod with you, copy across your portable apps, files and work info and keep it all self-contained with the iPod. The only problem is that these portable applications won't be accessible from your regular Start Menu, so you need an alternative.
We've mentioned this a few times, but there is so much free photo management software, that commercial developers have to do something a little special to get noticed. To be fair, Adobe and Apple have achieved this with Lightroom and Aperture, offering advanced tools for the semi and professional photographer. These two tools stand out from many apps for this reason. However, iPhoto is enough for most Mac users and tools such as Picasa are excellent Windows photo editing tools.
Take a look at the most popular applications on vnunet.com and you'll notice that they are generally free security tools. AVG Anti-Virus 7.5 dominates the 'most popular' list and, quite honestly, seems to have been stuck at 7.x for ages. The latest version has 
Removable memory cards are great, as you can quickly move files between different computers. However, share these cards between different users and you might find that another user deletes the contents before you can get round to copying the files to your machine. This means you could quickly lose your digital photos, audio files or more. Files that are dragged to the trash are not deleted from your system so can quickly easily be recovered from the source.
Have you ever looked at the source from any recent website? Take a look at the new vnunet.com, for example. It's nearly all made up from style sheet code. Cascading style sheets (CSS) enable you to define how you will format a web page and then drop in the styles required. This also reduces the amount of web code listed on a page, confusing most end users. Even most HTML coders can get confused by well designed CSS. To create your own style sheet, you need a CSS editor so you can quickly create the markup required for your pages.
With so many
different options, goods and favourite sellers, eBay is almost the shopping
channel for many, enabling individuals to set up their own home store without
having to leave their computer. Up until recently we had to rely on web browsers
to control and manage eBay content or use a third-party application that was
authorised via eBay in order to obtain access. However, this has all changed
with an official tool for buyers, from eBay.
Ideally we'd only use one device to manage all our services, whilst we're on the move. Talk phone calls, send SMS messages, write email, browse the web and store portable apps, files and more. The problem is that there isn't quite a device that is suitable for all these purposes. The iPhone won't work in 'disk mode' for example. Another alternative is a Windows-based mobile device and then install the third party tools you require.
We've written about the use of portable applications both here on this Junky and on vnunet.com on numerous occasions. You can use portable applications to take your favourite desktop tools on the road, either installed on a USB stick, your iPod or an external drive. Find any PC, connect your USB stick and you can use these apps without having to write personal information back to the host computer. Ideal for anyone who has to use another users PC, an Internet cafe or on a hotel PC.
Work on some documents at work and you might be under pressure to get the work done by the end of the week. The only option would be to burn the files to disc, take home, edit and then burn back to disc and take to work the next day. The other option is an external USB stick, but your work computer may be restricted, so this may not be viable. One answer is to backup your documents online and Google have introduced a Documents service that enables Google account holders to backup their data.
Office workers who want to share their tasks, meetings and event schedule with other workers, generally use Microsoft Outlook, in combination with an Exchange server. The problem is that if you want to merge calendars and share information with users outside your network, you may need to resort to an online calendar service such as Google Calendar. 
Although we're not quite at the public beta stage, it's been noted that Microsoft have contacted a few members of the public to ask if they want to sign up for beta-testing the first beta of Internet Explorer 8. This does mean we're going to get Internet Explorer 8 some time during 2008, possibly close to the release of Firefox 3, which is probably due this side of summer.
Storing your files online isn't a new idea. Even way back in 1995, files were downloaded from FTP sites, rather than a website. Even your free homepage is, effectively, a site where you could upload and download files. As long as you can remember your login/pass (or change it to something memorable), you can login, upload, then download from another computer. However, both Microsoft and AOL have attempted to make this a seamless process for novice users by offering free 5GB worth of storage, along with tools to enable you to backup your data.
Search engines do not have the time or capacity to filter rogue sites, so they often leave the end user to make their own decision on whether a site is legitimate or not. Snag is, how do you make that decision? Unless you're a web developer, a rogue site may appear to be well designed, professional and implemented with secure encryption. One way around this problem is to rely on other people's opinion and see this opinion as soon as you enter the site.
If you take a camera on holiday, you'll soon find that your 2GB SD card is filled with your holiday snaps. Move them across to your computer and most people will delete the original photos. Snag is, there is often a photo that you wanted to keep or didn't download to your computer. It's the same with your computer - drag a file to the trash and empty the trash. Most people think the file has gone for good, but it's easily recoverable using the right software.
There are times when you lose data or find your system won't start and then you realise you have no system recovery software, no boot CD and no way of repairing your computer. You then waste precious time at work without a computer or trying to solve the problem. It might be as quick to wipe Windows and re-install, but then you lose your fonts, system preferences and other personal data. The answer is to pre-install some recovery software that can sit dormant on your machine, until you have reason to utilitise the resource.
With the rising popularity of using a USB stick to store your data, files and applications, there's no reason why you couldn't install the majority of your key applications on your USB stick and then simply connect this to the computer where you want to produce your work. The only problem is that sticky notes, where you'll place your thoughts, 'to do' list and forthcoming tasks, tend to be posted to your desktop.
Many of us do not bother to backup our important files simply as we can't be bothered to set up a schedule and then burn the files to disc. We're under the false impression that any backed up files will be out of date so quickly, it makes backing up our files almost pointless. The thing is, most of us have free web space with our broadband connection, so there's no reason why you can't use this to backup data. Only you have the username and password.
Although Windows ships with the free Windows Movie Maker, it's fairly limited and not really suitable for anything but the basic video editing. The snag is, the next stage up means that you really need to know what you're doing. Apple's Final Cut Express or Pinnacle Studio are both home video editing packages, but really suited towards semi-professionals, perhaps who want to produce wedding videos on behalf of their clients.
Security software has worked the same way for years, without too many issues. However, it is open to potential issues. For instance, your anti-virus definitions are produced on a reactive basis, where the developer will respond to the latest threats and hope they get an definition update out quickly enough to prevent you from being infected by this threat. It works for most as viruses are spread slowly.
Instead of being flexible with consumers who spend money buying genuine DVDs, the manufactures make us sit through 'do not pirate this' videos, before we get to see the main event. We're then only able to see our DVD within our local region, so there's no point brining back a DVD from the States. Want to backup or store your movie on your home media server? Forget it, it's encrypted.
Back in 1998 it wasn't Microsoft Internet Explorer that was the leading web browser, it was Netscape Navigator, which was the Mozilla Firefox of the day. Indeed, Mozilla Firefox has some history in the old Netscape, as it was born out of the original death of the Navigator browser. However, Microsoft decided to integrate the browser in to the operating system and the rest is history.
If you were going to consider an email client, what would be your final choice? There aren't too many email clients available and the market is dominated by the paid-for Microsoft Outlook and the free Mozilla Thunderbird. Recenty Qualcomm stopped developing the Eudora email client and decided to help with the next version of Thunderbird. Indeed, at one stage there were rumours that there wouldn't be a new version of the free email client.
Although few consumers are aware, the developers behind OpenOffice are some of the largest corporations, with both Sun and IBM teaming up to work on the next version, 
There are an increasing number of online media portals where you can stream and watch videos, clips of films, sporting highlights and various creative and humorous home-made videos. Sometimes though, you may come across a video that you want to share with others or store on your PC or, perhaps, locate a video you have been searching for, such as an old music video you used to own on VHS cassette. Most of these online media portals operate with a view-only policy. 
People love
the idea of having new technology, so when there’s a major release of an
operation system, we rush out, install and then realise most of our software
won’t install. Apart from a few visual improvements, did you really need to
upgrade to the latest OS? There are other options. For instance, you could
choose to visually enhance your current operating system and bring it in line
with the latest revision. There are plenty of customisation tools that will
enable you to get more from your current OS. 
Only a few years ago an FTP client was an essential part of accessing and using the Internet. You needed an FTP client to download files from various FTP servers (you local ISP often would mirror files in order to speed up downloads from a local provider). Recently, with the rise of fast broadband, the requirement for an FTP client is less important. Indeed, most modern Internet users won't even stumble across the need for a standalone FTP client as this facility is built in to their web browser. However, if you ever need to put files on to the Internet, perhaps a remote server or homepage, you still need an FTP client to get files uploaded.
Few organisations have their employees hosted within one large building, partly due to logistics, finances and the various corporation merges and takeovers which have resulted in additional building space being made available. The snag is, how do you incorporate user interaction between these buildings? It's difficult to know who is in the office or whether they are in a meeting, which rooms are available short notice and, if you do organise a meeting, how to invite other employees.
If you're a Mozilla Firefox 2 user, waiting for the major new revision to be launched, you may want to consider giving the new 
There are a rising number of PC users moving over to the Mac and using the Intel-based system to run Windows in native mode on their computer, through the Bootcamp technology. In fairness, you could also use virtualisation to run Windows XP without a great deal of slowdown. It works effectively. Of course, you could use the Mac OS X operating system for your daily OS. This is an option I've attempted on numerous occassions, but then end up back using Windows for various reasons. Still, I'm using Windows on a dual-booting iMac, so I'm half way there.
Less than five years ago, most corporate users would use Lotus Notes across their system, rather than the more expensive Microsoft Office. In recent years, the IBM developed Lotus Notes has become less familiar to the average user, so home users revert to other software, whether this is Microsoft Word or the free OpenOffice. However, now there is an alternative with the free IBM developed Lotus Symphony, which is available for Windows or Linux. A Mac preview is due soon.
Most of the
current and latest graphics cards enable users to browse through and adjust a
number of display settings. However, the settings will often be pre-configured
for the particular graphics card installed in your machine. This can be
frustrating, what if it doesn’t enable you to adjust particular settings? If
you connect an additional monitor, switch to an alternative or similar, often
you might want to tweak the settings to adjust manually.
You may have noticed a handful of key Mac applications online over the last few days. Mainly as I've been testing Leopard and running XP and Vista under virtualisation, on my Mac. So, this has given us the chance to put some key Mac applications online. The kind of apps that make you wish you owned a Mac, partly as they are so well made. These include 
