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Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine Vol 03 Issue 09
------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine -------
Vol 3, Issue 9
Today my daughter, Kaylie, turned 18 months old. There have been
some challenging moments, but for the most part, she has been an
absolute charmer. Watching her change and learn has been one of
the best parts of my life of late. It's amazing to watch her
become her own little person.
One of her favorite new words of late has been "uh-oh". She uses
it a lot. Sometimes she even uses it correctly -- like when she
trips over her own feet -- other times, she just belts it out for
no particular reason (or none that we've been able to
determine). The best ones, though, are when she intentionally
drops something, then looks up with those innocent baby-blues.
"Uh-oh!"
On my end, I've been working with a different kind of dropping
lately. And while it isn't as cute as my darling daughter, it
certainly is a sight more useful. I've been using a new tool
called "DropBox". It's a cool way to share and backup files of
any kind across any number of computers. Check out the details
below.
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In This Issue...
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1. Article: A DropBox in the Bit Bucket
2. Shameless Self-Promotion
3. The Fine Print
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1. Article: A DropBox in the Bit Bucket
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Ironically, despite the fact that I'm a sole proprietor, I always
have to share my work with other people. Whether it's the
client, a collaborator, or a subcontractor, we often need to
share files of various descriptions through the course of our
work. Sometimes this can be done simply, by just emailing the
information back and forth. Sometimes we need something much
more sophisticated, like a version control system, which can keep
track of all the changes that each person makes to each
individual file and to provide the means to merge any conflicting
changes. Sometimes, though, you need something somewhere in the
middle. That's where DropBox comes in.
DropBox (http://www.getdropbox.com/) is a nice little tool that
provides up to 2 gigabytes of space (for their free offering).
That space is located "in the cloud". This means that you can
have multiple computers all accessing the same data.
Of course, DropBox gives you the ability to share files with
anyone else on the network. Just type in their username and it's
done. This is similar to the way that Google Docs does things.
If either of you makes changes to files within the shared area,
the system automatically notifies anyone else with access to the
files.
Free shared storage isn't really revolutionary, but what is
exceptionally cool about DropBox is that it acts like a directory
on your computer. This means that you can access the network
files just like any other files on your computer. What's even
better is that it works on just about any operating system. It
has easy installation instructions for Windows, Mac, and even
Linux. This is really nice for me because, while I have both a
Linux and a Windows machine, several of my clients work
exclusively with OSX-based Macintosh computers.
The DropBox site has a number of articles on other uses you can
make of the networked space. The one that I thought was pretty
clever was to save your ongoing computer games there so that you
can access them no matter where you are. The site also has a
library of third-party add-ons which allow you to do even more
with your space.
Of course, there are a few limitations on the service. The 2G
limit for the free account is a big one. Also, files which are
shared count against the space quota for everyone sharing them.
Despite the limitations, though, this is a pretty impressive
service that just might meet your needs. Since it works
seamlessly with your operating system, you don't have to figure
out a clumsy Web-based interface. Just drag and drop or copy and
paste. However you feel most comfortable, DropBox can help you
out.
Do you use any online disk space service? Which ones? Drop me a
line at gpeters@cyberdatasolutionsllc.com with some of you
experiences.
Copyright 2009, Greg Peters
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2. Shameless Self-Promotion
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The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg
Peters, owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data
Solutions. CDS has been helping website designers develop better
web presence for their clients for more than a decade. Visit us
on the Web at www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your
webmaster.
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3. The Fine Print
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