Store your home inventory list online using StuffSafe
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?
StuffSafe is an online system that enables you to create an inventory list of your household items and keep them updated. As it is account based, you won't need to worry about other people accessing this data and, better still, as it's online it's always safe even if your home computer is damaged. As long as you can remember your password, you can access the contents from anywhere at any time.
StuffSafe link.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 
The other day we featured the 
Take your laptop on the road and you'll find a whole host of WiFi networks. Often it's difficult to figure which is a preferred network, a legitimate network and one you can connect to as part of your subscription service. Then you have the problem of remembering the various username and passwords required to connect to a network. Do you write them down, store them on your computer or try to remember?
From time to time, you stumble across a tool which is particularly useful. This term can be applied to Remote Buddy, which is a remote control application for your Mac. Sound boring? Think of this scenario. Try and get hold of an old PowerPC based Mac Mini and then set this Mac Mini as an iTunes-based audio server. Next, buy one or two Airport Express devices and connect these up to your hi-fi, TV or even directly to your self-powered speakers. Next, grab a remote control - better still, an iPod Touch - and then install 
During the last couple of years we've seen the release of various applications that are designed to get your website online, professionally, with the minimum of fuss. We're talking everything from the initial design through to hosting and uploading the files to the remote site. Take a tool such as Rapidweaver or Sandvox and you'll get your website up over a weekend. Snag is, the more that people use these apps, the more likely we'll realise that they were created by these kind of design tools.
When you're on the road, if you bring your own laptop, you can't afford to install your own software, so you just stick with the basics. There will be times when you receive a PDF document by email and are asked to make a few changes. You may want to type up your own page, or add an index, then include this within the existing PDF document. However, you'll need a PDF editor to do this and you won't want to make a purchase to make this small addition.
The problem with owning a PC is that, after a months of installing and using software, it seems to operate at about half the speed as when you first purchased your computer. Applications start when you boot your machine, your Registry is cluttered with erroneous information and your drive becomes fragmented. We'd all love to go back to how our PC used to operate and you can get close by regularly optimising your memory, drive and installed applications. 
When providing files to other Internet users, we often try and email large attachments and then wonder why the recipient hasn't receive your email. The other option is through a chat-client, which will give you a direct link to the other user. However, you have to sit there and manually send each file and it's not the easiest way to get large photos or files to other users. You could put them on your homepage, but then you'll be restricted by bandwidth limitations.
If you're one of the many people who is struggling to meet their new year target, then you may need to resort to some old fashioned paper-based planning and organisation. The snag is, can you find the motivation to draft the document you need to keep yourself organised? Thought not. Luckily for you, there are other people doing this for you.
It's the 2nd of January and we're back to work again, feeling a little bloated, overweight and struggling to get up this morning. You may (or may not) have noticed that things on Download Junky have been rather quiet since the week before Christmas. This is partly due to the Christmas and New Year break and also down to the limited number of software releases during this quiet period for developers.
Although most of us still use an offline client to access our email, one key reason for this is that we often have multiple accounts and archived email, contact information and more. If you've not heard from someone for a while, quickly search for their last email and drop them a quick note. It's all very easy to do this from within your existing email client. However, now Gmail offers over 5GB worth of storage for hosting your email, there's no reason why you couldn't migrate some of your Outlook-based email across to your online account.
We've spent months talking about portability, with the facility to take portable apps on the road and keep your private data stored on a portable USB stick. However, one site has gone much further than this and has decided to create a complete personal desktop that you can log in and access, from any computer and any location. 
We bet you bought a DTP with the sole purpose of using it to create an invite, whether this was a wedding, birthday or one-off party. Once you get designing your invite, you'll quickly realise that it's much harder than you expected, especially when you try and find graphics to make up your document. It would be far easier if you could do the whole thing over the Internet as most of your friends and family have an Internet connection.
Although the Internet is a worldwide phenomenon, there are some unique, well-designed and useful sites that are only available within a particular territory. One of these is the superb 
Only yesterday did we mention that you could edit and work with an online version of OpenOffice. This would enable you to store your documents, spreadsheets and database online and then edit them through the web version of OpenOffice, rather than trying to drag your office suite on the road. With more apps going online, and with fast broadband becoming the norm, there's no reason why you can't drop your install CDs, grab a laptop and then work with your apps through your browser, without having to install to your PC. In the near future you won't need to install a thing, apart from the OS, and everything will load from a ultra-fast flash drive, rather than hard drive.
With employees having to attend meetings outside the office, work across different buildings and even the odd day from home, we're having to move around our data, bookmarks, document templates and other tools. We could use the Internet to back up and store our data and then install various applications on a USB stick and then take that with us on the road. However, there are other options. For instance, Ulteo have introduced a system so you can use 
You know the score, you buy your software and then receive a serial code by email. Two years later, you want to reinstall this software and can't find the original email. Worse, you can't find the order number so you can't login to the original site to find your code. Software suppliers might help - as they don't want a disgruntled customer - but in most instances their orders are accepted by a specialist online e-commerce company such as Digital River.
We'd all like our own homepage on the Internet. You can use this for writing your own personal blog, displaying your latest holiday photos or making files available to download to your friends and family. You can even hide areas on your site so only certain people have access. The snag is, how do you get this website online? You may need hosting, you may have free web space. You'll also need some basic web design and image editing skills. One option is to use a tool such as the superb Rapidweaver. The other option is to get someone to do the site for you.
There are times when you find a genuinely useful application which you know might prove useful in the future. For instance, I've often wondered if I could edit and manage this Junky blog from a PDA or similar portable device. Writing the blog would be relatively easy, preparing and editing the photos would not be so easy. What would be required is a portable or online image editor that would enable me to grab a photo from a collection (on or offline), edit as required and then export in the right size and format.
From time to time, we'll need to send someone an invoice, a covering letter or write up a contract for someone who intends to work for us. You could pay a lawyer to write this document for you, but if it's generally fairly informal, you won't want to pay for this service. However, you might not have the skillset or ability to write the document yourself.
Most companies only really want to put basic information online and keep it updated. Information about the company, directions, contact details, a little history, some downloads and perhaps images of various products and so on. The snag is, getting this professional designed and implemented can take ages, particularly if you want some kind of CMS so employees can make changes - without affecting the site structure. The alternative is to design your own basic site, although getting started is the hardest part.
With later editions of Windows or Mac OS X, you have the capability of logging in to a computer, wherever it is connected to the Internet, as long as you know the IP address and the login/password (oh, and remote access is enabled). If you can log on to a remote computer or use a remote computer as a home-based server, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to share your printer with another Internet user. This means you could print your work on a printer, whether it is connected in a building down the road or at the other side of the world.
We've been speculating for months now, but it looks like Google are finally about to release their storage depot for storing or backing up your files online. If you have a Google Mail account, you're able to store nearly 3GB worth of email, for free. If you require more space, you can purchase more. You can also store and share your photos using the Picasa Web Albums and, again, you have the option to purchase additional space.
Far from being an online auction house, eBay is almost an online shopping portal for people wanting to buy their goods. It's fairly easy to make money through eBay, but more difficult to get noticed and, if you start from scratch with no feedback, you'll need some eye-catching professional auctions so that you look like you've bothered to make the effort. Here lies the problem. Most eBay sellers simply use the standard browser-based tools to create their auctions and do not know that you can manage the visuals that make up your auction, through another specialised application.
Microsoft's Windows Live service contains a myriad of online and offline tools that enable you to check your email, manage and share your photos, host and store data online and much more. They've now gone much further and added the facility for you to point a domain name to the services, so instead of using live.com or live.co.uk, you can now use yourdomain.co.uk and your Windows Live-based email will go through the Live service, even though it looks like you're hosting your own email, site and so on.
If you speak more than one language, one of the key advantages must be sourcing products from outside the United Kingdom. We all know that we often pay over-the-odds for our electronics products and, as they are created for the European market, there's no reason why you can't buy a digital camera in Italy and use it in the UK. However, why not go further and use an online store, such as Amazon, to source your products? If you speak the language, you won't need to worry about translation.
As many employees now work from home or outside the main office, we need to find new ways of keeping everyone aware of company-wide meetings, events, important tasks and even shared contacts. If your company uses multiple operating systems, then you'll know it's hard to find collaboration software that will enable you to share information across different browsers and systems.
One way or another, most of us have some kind of portable access to the Internet, whether it is through our laptop, PDA or mobile phone. The latest mobiles enable access to WiFi networks, so you can pick up the latest news, your email or chat to friends through an IM client. However, to use a WiFi network, you'll need an ongoing subscription. You then need a network that's part of your subscription. Using a third-party network for free has been proved to be illegal, without permission of the network owner.
There are times when you just need to make the occasional alteration to some CSS code, provided to you by another web developer. You don't really need to wheel out a commercial CSS editor for this purpose, when you simply need to make a couple of minor changes. A text editor isn't the best solution as you'll be lacking the correct formatting and colour coding.
Managing your employees is never easy. It's made worse when they are not all located in your office. Your department could be made up of people working in another building, town or even from home. This makes communication rather tricky as they'll all be wanting to maximise their time, tasks, sales techniques and their holiday. Sometimes you might find that your employees seem to working in competition against each other, rather than combining forces to maximise your revenue streams.
When you have files that you want to get across to other users, most of us would attempt to email across to other people or log on to Messenger and send them through IM. However, this requires the other person to be online and for them to manually process the incoming download. There must be a better way and a more automated method of getting files to other users. Say you want to share your photo collection, for example?
We know of an easy way to create a professional website, without having to understand the code the makes up the web pages. Well, ok, you might need to know some basics, but essentially you can produce a site within minutes. How is this possible? Through a template-driven web design tool. Simply pick a template that meets your requirements, then make the pages around the templates. Drop in the images you require, write some basic text, upload to your homepage and you've got a site.
It's rather stunning to see some modern web designers refer to themselves as 'web developers' when they barely understand HTML, never mind more advanced web code. Seriously - whilst old school web designers spent their time learning HTML, Javascript, CSS and hand-coding pages through Homesite, Dreamweaver and other tools, modern new media designers prefer the WYSIWYG and tools that enable you to code up pages using templates, rather than getting in to the code. However, to get the most from any commercial website, you really need to be able to understand the majority of the code basics behind your web pages.
Designing web pages that work across multiple browser on different operating systems, isn't always easy. Whilst you're coding up your pages, you can preview your work, locally, but it's not always the same as previewing your pages, live, after you have uploaded them to your server.
When you have a remote server, where you store your website, FTP site and perhaps your backup files, the problem is that you don't always have time to manually log on to the server and check it hasn't gone down or offline. It's too easy to forget. Although some service providers supply you with server-monitoring software, if you run your own server, you'll need to do this yourself.
Did you know that some ISPs give you a static IP address when you signed up? They don't readily admit this, but some of the cheaper broadband ISPs (names withheld for obvious reasons) give you a free static IP address, whether you pay for this option or not. How can you find this information? Check your router and if you have the same IP address for any length of time, you've been given a static IP address. The advantage? You can use a dynamic name redirection service such as DynDNS, register a domain and then point the domain to your IP address. You give someone ftp.yourdomain.com and they end up on a server installed on your home PC.
There are plenty of TV adverts telling us to switch to another gas or electricity provider, or use a insurance search engine to take the hassle out of searching through various deals to find the best insurance for your car. The same theories apply to broadband. How many people really spend time looking through various broadband promotions and, if they do, it's easy to overlook the restrictions on each services. Sure, a monthly download limit of 2GB might seem excessive, but you might soon find that you're downloading movies from the web and one single DVD-quality movie would instantly exceed this basic 2GB/month limitation.
There are so many uses for the free web space you're given, free of charge, when you sign up to your broadband provider. Sure, it might only be 50MB, but you could compress your digital photos and create an online photo slideshow. Another alternative is to use the space to host files for download, or as an invitation for a forthcoming party and more.
When we run a search through a major search engine such as Google, we want as much information as possible as we don't really have the time to visit every site to determine if it meets our requirements. To make a decision on the sites we think are worth visiting, we read the description, usually provided by the person who designed the site. You could easily end up on a rogue site or simply a site that isn't as described by the developer.
Developers speak a universal language and a person coding a game in the UK could easily be joined by another developer based in India, Poland or another territory. However, sharing a project, the files related to the project, managing the elements required to finish the project, is the difficult part. The more users you add to the project, the more likely it will spiral out of control. You need project development software and you need to be able to share the development plans with the other users.
Why do most users own a webcam? I mean, really how many times do you sit in front of your computer and 'chat' live with other users? Some do, many do not. If you're the latter, why not make use of your webcam by using it as a surveillance and security device? For instance, if your computer is facing a window, you could use a webcam to keep an eye out on anyone trying to break in to your apartment. Sure, you're not going to probably see this happening live, but there's a good chance you'll have recorded the pictures and might catch the thief.
Some of the features within Mac OS X are both innovative and rather exciting. Some are based on previous technology and Yahoo Widgets were one of the first suppliers (Konfabulator) to produce a widget-based system for both the Mac and Windows platform. Widgets enabled software developers to produce code that enabled the end-user to search for information, use an application through the system-friendly widget and much more. Most widgets were cross-platform, so could be developed for both the Mac and Windows.
There's nothing more effective than showing another user how to perform a particular task, face-to-face. Anyone who works in technical support will know that talking a user through a problem can take longer, become frustrating for both parties and not achieve the required end result. If the tech support guy was in front of your computer, they'd be able to find the fault and show you a workaround, within minutes.
With Google offering over 2GB worth of email space, free of charge, to every user, it was only going to be time before someone developed an application to use this space for storing files, rather than just email. 2GB for email is rather overkill. Google are due to launch their own backup and file management tool in the future, but so far that hasn't surfaced.
When you sign up to your broadband provider, you're given space for your own homepage. Really, how many people have the knowledge to make use of this homepage and make it look half-decent? It's hard enough designing your own website, but getting it on to the site is also problematic. Most people give up before they even get to the first hurdle. There are plenty of WYSIWYG web design tools around, so it's much easier than you think.
The Internet enables you to obtain old and rare videos or live audio, but playing them back, despite owning a modern computer, may be more problematic than you realise. Windows Media Player, QuickTime and Real Player may all be installed on your computer, but they don't support some of the codecs used to encode video in the 90s. You might stumble across the audio codec, so you can hear the sound from the video, but not the picture.
Whether you dream or think of ideas during office hours, the problem is remembering and taking notes of our ideas and thoughts. Although we all think we have good memories, keeping track of our ideas isn't always easy.
Some Internet providers used to (and may still do) set up their own proxy server that would speed up and limit access to the Internet. Many companies use a proxy server to limit access to particular websites or to throttle access during the day. You can set up your own proxy server. If you have a home where each family member wants access to the Internet, you can determine when and how they access the net.
Not that long ago there wasn't such thing as a WYSIWYG web editor and certainly no template-based editors. If you wanted to code your own website, you had to get in to the raw HTML and create the page from scratch. When Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) were developed, this enabled designers to create a palette of styles and colours that can be applied to any page or site.
Skype is a fantastic tool for chatting or communicating over the Internet. With fast broadband, you can make almost free phone calls to other Skype users. You can also use the traditional method, by writing messages through the builtin chat tool, much like MSN Messenger or similar. However, what happens if someone tries to call you and you're away from your computer? Not particular professional.
During the day, sitting in the office, our flat or house remains unguarded. Many flat owners do not have a burglar alarm and are easy targets. Why not put your webcam to use and use it as a security device to record activity within your apartment? Using a motion detector would enable you to turn on the camera when and if someone enters your flat. It's worked - there was someone on the news recently who recorded someone breaking in to his flat when he was away on holiday.