Microsoft has released Windows Live Sync, a free utility that syncs folders among two or more computers and makes it possible to share synced folders with others. It is the successor to Foldershare - and really not much more than a facelift for Foldershare. It accomplishes an important goal for Microsoft, though, by integrating the service with the Windows Live ID authentication that is driving all the other online services from Microsoft. Here's the blog from the Windows Live Sync team.

If you're not familiar with Foldershare, here's some background and an explanation of the basic principles. Windows Live Sync runs continuously on your computer; you can designate any folder and Windows Live Sync will copy the contents of that folder to any other computer of your choice running the software. The two folders will then always be kept in sync - if something is deleted from the folder at one end, the same file will be deleted at the other end, for example.

The program only copies files when both computers are turned on and running the program online at the same time. That can cause confusion - I know people who shut down their office computer at the end of the day, went home and turned on their home computer, and were disappointed that they didn't have their synced files. I was ready to criticize them for being unclear on the concept but what I found was that this is a hard concept and frequently leaves people confused or frustrated. I don't want to dissuade you from trying it! Just plan to give it some attention until you have that "Aha!" moment.

Windows Live Sync closely overlaps the Live Mesh service, but as far as I know the two services run on completely different underpinnings. I have this vision of the two Microsoft teams fighting it out for dominance and we'll find out at some random time which one is the victor and which program will die. Maybe they'll both live forever. Maybe they'll both be renamed and squished together by spring. Who knows?

There's an interesting detail in one blog today: apparently Windows Live Sync will be quietly included with every copy of a new version of Windows Live Photo Gallery due soon. That might just be to help people make their photos available on every computer in the house, or perhaps to make it easy to share photos with friends and grandparents. But I've also seen speculation that it will be set up to automatically copy your photos to the online photo storage space provided for free by Microsoft (which is now tied in to the Skydrive service). This will take careful work - many people are overwhelmed by all the names floating around and are ready to drop out at the first confusing bit.

FOLDERSHARE USERS: You'll be prompted to install this update automatically. There may be some confusing bits - you'll have to associate it with a Windows Live ID (and create one if you haven't done that yet), and you'll have to start from scratch to set up shared folders with others. Let me know if you have any problems!

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, photos, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 12/12/2008 12:42:00 AM | permalink

Ho hum. Another day, another batch of updates.

Microsoft released its regularly scheduled monthly updates last night. Your computer may have restarted automatically last night or it will tonight.

If you are using Live Mesh, there is an update that reportedly improves a number of features. Mesh may prompt you to install it at some point soon - I'm not sure if it's completely automatic.

You might want to take a look at the available updates proactively. Go to the Microsoft Update page. In Windows XP, you'll arrive at a web site where you can click the Custom button; in Vista, you'll open up the built-in update program where you can click on View Available Updates.

In addition to any required updates, you'll likely see some "optional" updates. Some of those are interesting! I found the Live Mesh update listed there today. If you're on Windows XP, you might find Windows Search 4.0, a truly useful tool. Perhaps you never got around to Internet Explorer 7, which is significantly safer to use than IE6.

Be careful installing hardware updates that way. If your hardware is working, you may want to be conservative and not install an updated video driver or network card driver. I have mixed feelings about suggesting that because many of the new drivers can be a significant improvement, but installing hardware drivers through the Windows Update system does not always go smoothly and I don't want you to blame me.

The other optional updates are likely to be safe. See if there's anything you're missing!

Labels: IE, search, software, Vista, web_services, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 12/10/2008 10:51:00 AM | permalink

I've been using my PayPal account more frequently to buy things online. It's connected to my checking account, so a payment made with PayPal is withdrawn directly from the bank account. Typically the payment requires a transfer to a different browser window for the PayPal authentication, then back to the merchant's web site, which in the past had sometimes been a tricky dance for Internet Explorer to handle. Lately all the transactions have gone smoothly. The merchant gets all the name and address information from PayPal so it's frequently faster to finish a transaction.

It's a little harder to use Quicken to reconcile payments from the checking account that go through PayPal. If you download transactions directly into Quicken from the bank, the check register shows a PayPal transaction but doesn't get the name of the actual merchant. (Recent versions of Quicken are supposed to integrate with PayPal to download transactions directly from PayPal online but I haven't been brave enough to try it - the reports aren't very encouraging.)

Many of you are moving more and more of your purchases online, and buying online will come even more naturally to our kids. PayPal is testing an interesting service, the "PayPal Student Account." You can't try it yet - it's being tested by an invitation-only group.

The goal is to give teenagers some financial independence but let the parents keep some control. Parents with a PayPal account set up a sub-account for each teenage child and put in some money (a single chunk or a recurring amount like an allowance). The child can spend the money anywhere that PayPal is accepted online, or (optionally) can be given a MasterCard debit card.

Parents can set alerts to monitor the account and can disable the account any time. And my favorite feature - if a teen needs money unexpectedly, he or she can send a text message to PayPal ("Get $50), and PayPal in turn will send a text message to the parent, who can approve it and transfer the money with a reply text message.

The New York Times noticed this a few days ago. No word on when it will go into broader testing or get a full release.

Labels: business, parents, web_services

posted by bruceb at 12/09/2008 12:25:00 AM | permalink

Windows Live Skydrive has been updated with a new look, 25Gb of free storage space, and new options for storing and sharing photos. There is some integration with an updated version of Windows Live Photo Gallery but I haven't yet explored how that works. If you're not using Skydrive yet, here are my notes about it.

That's 25Gb of free online storage space. That's a lot of space! Hotmail users have also been bumped to 25Gb of free storage space for email, in addition to the Skydrive space. You can share files with the world or with individuals and there's no longer a need for people to sign in with a Windows Live ID to see a shared file.

The redesigned front page for Skydrive is quite elegant. I don't see a big advertisement like the one in the screen shot from last month. Ah! I  get it now. The ad is displayed if you look at someone else's Skydrive space, or if you're not signed in. The elegant display is for your own Skydrive account after signing in.

Folders that contain photos are set apart automatically, and they look just great, with built-in controls for slideshows and very nice thumbnails. When photos are shared, it appears people can download the full-sized files instead of being limited to a low-resolution version of a photo - a common problem with online photo services until recently.

The folder shown below, by the way, contains my favorite wallpaper images for widescreen monitors, gathered from all over the web. You probably know this but bear in mind - if you get a full-sized image onscreen that you like, you can right-click it and click on "Set as desktop background" to make it your wallpaper. With these images, for example, if you click on a thumbnail, you're taken to a page showing a small version of the individual image. If you click on that image and click on "Open," you should see the full-size image. That's the one to use for your wallpaper. Go take a look!

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, photos, web_services

posted by bruceb at 12/04/2008 09:55:00 AM | permalink

There was finally an official notice and some details about the plans to replace Foldershare with a new program named "Windows Live Sync" in December. Here's the blog post with the announcement today. If you're unfamiliar with Foldershare, I wrote this description a couple of years ago.

The program(s) do a simple job: they keep a folder in sync on more than one computer. You can have a folder on your desk at the office and another one on your desk at home, and the files will always be the same in both places - as long as both computers are online and running the software at the same time. If you edit a file at home, the edited version will be waiting for you at the office. You can share a folder with others and files will be copied among everyone, avoiding the need for email attachments. This is genuinely helpful in many circumstances but it was tricky to set up and I've known many people who found it confusing to use.

Microsoft purchased Foldershare a few years ago and is now revamping it so it fits with the other "Windows Live" branded programs. Among other things, that means that access to the new Windows Live Sync will be controlled by your Windows Live ID, just like all the other Microsoft services, instead of the separate, unrelated name and password used by Foldershare.

The migration to Windows Live Sync will cause some disruption for some Foldershare users - basically, if you've been using Foldershare then the new service will automatically begin syncing the same folders among your own computers but you'll have to re-create the shares with other people.

Windows Live Sync will allow you to sync up to 20 folders with 20,000 files each, doubling Foldershare's limits. That's nice but not what I expected. The service allows two computers to talk directly to each other with virtually no involvement by Microsoft's servers other than connecting the computers - I don't understand why you can't connect virtually unlimited folders and files.

Reportedly there will be particular attention paid to photos in the new program, making it simple to make your photos available on all of your computers as well as integrating with Windows Live Photo Gallery somehow or other.

So that's all great, but you'll see one question asked over and over in the comments to today's announcement: why does Microsoft have two programs - Foldershare/Windows Live Sync and Live Mesh - that perform almost identical chores? Does it make sense to learn Windows Live Sync and start using it when Microsoft appears much more committed to Live Mesh?

That's a good question. There's no answer to it at the moment.

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, remote, web_services

posted by bruceb at 11/21/2008 01:27:00 AM | permalink

I am happy to announce that Microsoft formally unveiled Microsoft Online Services today.

I am a Microsoft partner authorized to sell and support Microsoft Online Services. I expect to set up many of my clients with Exchange Online for their mail. If you're interested, please call me or drop me a note! I do not need to be in your geographic area to assist you with this.

This is the first big step by Microsoft to deliver online services directly to customers, part of its effort to redefine the entire company and move some of your data to the online cloud. I've already written up the background information you need to understand Microsoft Online Services - click here for information about where this comes from and how it fits in your world.

Basically, each Outlook mailbox is hosted by Microsoft for a monthly fee. (An Outlook "mailbox" is the term for the entire set of Outlook folders, including contacts, tasks and calendar.) The hosted Exchange service allows you to connect to your Outlook folders in a variety of ways:

• MULTIPLE COMPUTERS  The same Outlook folders can be displayed on multiple computers at multiple locations. You can use your Outlook folders seamlessly from a desktop computer at the office, a desktop computer at home, and a notebook computer on the road, and Outlook is always up to date at all locations.
• MULTIPLE LOCATIONS  Office workers can be linked together and share Outlook folders even if they are in different offices.
• WEBMAIL  Outlook folders can be accessed online through Outlook Web Access - full access to all Outlook folders presented in Internet Explorer, like other webmail services.
• PHONE  Windows Mobile 6 devices can sync email, calendar, and contacts over the air continuously.
• SHARING  Calendars and address lists can be shared with other people in the office.
• SECURITY  Microsoft provides virus and spam filtering.
• REDUCED COSTS  Microsoft is responsible for backups, database maintenance, security updates, and upgrades.

Microsoft has put together a very robust service that will be used by businesses of all sizes, including big enterprises that want to outsource their mail. It is best suited for small businesses if they fit within these parameters:

• The company has a domain name for mail, or wants to begin using one.
• There are a minimum of five email users.
• All computers are running Windows XP Professional or Windows Vista Business (or Ultimate), and all computers have Microsoft Outlook 2007 (or are prepared to buy it).
• The company is not set up with Small Business Server, which already includes Exchange Server. (It's possible to combine service from Microsoft with the onsite Small Business Server but I'm not sure the benefit would justify the cost for very small businesses.)
• In addition to the $10/month cost per mailbox, there will be some setup costs. You don't want to set this service up without assistance! As with anything new these days, I'm learning about hundreds of quirks and potential pitfalls as I set up clients. Call me before you sign up!

Here's Microsoft's press release about the new services, which include Sharepoint and other online services.

Other companies also offer hosted Exchange mailboxes which might be better matches for some people. I'll write more about those soon. Start to think about the advantages of having access to your Outlook folders from anywhere!

Labels: business, mail, Microsoft, mobile, Outlook, SBS, web_services

posted by bruceb at 11/18/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

Microsoft is updating and integrating all of its "Windows Live" services. The results are overwhelming and quirky but the changes  include some things that are even attractive for cranky old folks like me that have no idea what to do with a "social network." (I'm not sure but I think it requires friends, so I have no reason to go there.) In particular, Windows Live Skydrive is getting some exciting new features but there is still some confusing overlap in Microsoft's services for storing and sharing files online.

The updates are a bit of a blur, really - it will mostly be people under 25, I think, that have a lot of names in Windows Live People and sort them into Windows Live Groups so it's easier to send them invitations to Windows Live Events that are tracked on Windows Live Calendar, with RSVPs sent using Windows Live Messenger and photos shared afterward on Windows Live Photos. Honest, those are all names of interlocking pieces of this big social network, which is all free and all tied together, and that's just the half of it - there are pieces that will run on mobile phones and pieces that will interact with other online social networking sites and a toolbar for Internet Explorer and a piece that will deliver pictures straight from your cell phone to a digital picture frame (honest!) and on and on. Here's an article about the upcoming new releases, and here's a press release that runs through most of the highlights.

Let's focus on Windows Live Skydrive, a free place where you can store files online that can be accessed from anywhere. You're required to have a free Windows Live ID to get started but that's nothing new - all these services are built around your Windows Live ID. You can have private folders on Skydrive, or you can share folders with specific people, or you can have folders that are open to anyone. Skydrive is one of the services that I strongly recommend you become familiar with! It will quickly become a tool that you use routinely.

When Skydrive is updated, everyone will be able to store up to 25Gb of files online, up from the current limit of 5Gb. That's a lot of space! There are big improvements to the way photos can be stored and shared, with bigger thumbnails and instant slideshows and tighter integration with Windows Live Photo Gallery. Right now it's clumsy to move files around on Skydrive; the update will make it possible to move and copy files between Skydrive folders.

And in one welcome improvement, apparently it will be possible to share files with people even if they do not have a Windows Live ID. That's been a stumbling block, since many people aren't ready to figure out the Windows Live ID concept.

One change to Windows Live Skydrive leaps out at me from this screenshot of the update - Microsoft has decided to put really big advertisements on the web pages for some of these services. Oh joy!

Now for the confusing part. Look at this list of Microsoft services.

• Windows Live Skydrive lets you store files online and share them with others.
• Windows Live Sync will be the new name of Foldershare, which syncs folders among several computers, either your own or shared with others.
• Live Mesh lets you store files online, share them with others, and sync folders among several computers, either your own or shared with others.
• Office Live Workspace lets you store files online, share them with others, and open them directly into Microsoft Office programs.

The overhaul of the Windows Live services announced yesterday does nothing to simplify that lineup. If Live Mesh lives up to its potential, it can absorb and duplicate all of the other services; perhaps that's the ultimate goal and the other services are only temporary, since it will take several years to build out Live Mesh and the framework it rests on.

While we wait, go start using Skydrive and Live Mesh. They're worth knowing about!

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, mobile, photos, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 11/14/2008 01:06:00 AM | permalink

Finally, some online technology that you can use!

In the last ten years, many newspapers, magazines, and other publishers experimented with putting material online behind walls set up for subscribers only. One by one, the experiments failed to attract much interest and frequently instead drove consumers to free alternatives, so for the last few years more and more content has been made available for free, albeit surrounded by ads. Even television shows are increasingly likely to be available online, at least for a while, at sites like Hulu and Fancast.

Now a big barrier falls in the world of newspaper syndication. United Feature Syndicate is the first of the comics syndicates to put all of its content, including years of archives, online for free at comics.com. A quick, free registration is all it takes. (Well, almost all. You have to respond to their confirming email. My copy got caught in my spam filter, but once I figured that out everything went fine.)

The selection is only fair but it includes Get Fuzzy, Pearls Before Swine, some great editorial cartoonists, and every single Peanuts strip ever published, all 21,010 of them. You can view the comics online with a customized page displaying the comics you choose or get a daily email, plus you can set up an RSS feed of your favorite strips. If you're reading blogs every day, you really should take the time to learn about RSS feeds!

Go read comics!

Labels: humor, web_services

posted by bruceb at 11/12/2008 01:27:00 AM | permalink

Acrobat 9 Professional builds on the features in Acrobat 8 that made it an important tool in many offices, especially law offices. There is a vastly improved document comparison routine and enhanced Bates numbering, for example, along with small improvements in transfers to Word, file splitting, and other features.

Acrobat 8 introduced PDF "packages," single PDF files that contain multiple PDFs assembled from multiple sources. Packages are particularly good at storing email folders; a single PDF can contain messages that are listed individually, stored in the PDF with their attachments, and can be sorted and searched. Here's a good explanation of Acrobat packages.

In Acrobat 9, packages have been dressed up into "Portfolios," which have some dramatically different features. In a Portfolio, many documents can be gathered together into a single file, where they will be stored in their native format - a Word file is stored as a Word file, a spreadsheet is a spreadsheet, and so on - instead of being converted to PDF format. Only a few clicks are required to add a welcome page, a page with either thumbnails of the contents or a list, a logo, and more.

A well-designed wizard makes Portfolios easier to create than packages were, so the new features do not require rocket science to use. It is important to know that Portfolios can only be opened by Acrobat 8 or 9, either the full edition or the free Reader. If they're opened in Acrobat 8, a warning message appears and many of the cool display features are lost, although the contents are still listed and the files are fully usable.

Adobe included "Binders" as a way to ensure some backward compatibility. Binders take longer to assemble and don't look as interesting, but it is possible to use Binders to gather groups of PDFs into a single file that can be opened by any version of Acrobat from version 5 forward.

The good folks at Acrobat For Legal Professionals put together a lovely guide for lawyers about Portfolios and Binders, with detailed, illustrated instructions about how to create a professional looking Portfolio with all the documents normally presented on paper at the end of a real estate closing. It's well worth reading if you use Acrobat - the results are compelling.

I was drawn to the presentation by something different. I'm not convinced that many small offices will use Acrobat.com to share files; we are overloaded with new services and forced to be selective about which ones get our attention. But the widget that was used on the blog to display a thumbnail of the file and allow it to be downloaded from Acrobat.com - well, it's just super. Really, go to the blog post and look at the little thumbnail of the document, which you can use to page through it and zoom to full screen and then download the actual PDF.

It looked so nifty that I just spent the last 45 minutes trying to get the same widget embedded in this post so you could see it. I've been introduced to an interesting variety of error messages, endless hourglass, and crashed copies of Internet Explorer. Which goes back to my point about taking these services seriously! Given time, I would discover the quirk that allowed the "Embed" feature to work and I'd be able to use it going forward. We don't have much time. Don't plan to use any new technology without effort!

Labels: Acrobat, business, law, web_services

posted by bruceb at 11/07/2008 01:45:00 AM | permalink

"Windows Azure" is a terrible name but you need to be aware of it anyway. Windows Azure is a breathtakingly ambitious platform outlined by Microsoft at last week's Professional Developer Conference, another attempt by Microsoft to position itself to profit from a paradigm shift that will be just as important as the move to the Internet in the 90s.

Yesterday I used word processing as an easy example to imagine what it would be like if you had universal access to your files with the ability to open and edit them from any computer. Of course, it's just as easy to imagine having easy access from anywhere to your Excel spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations, with the programs running in a browser if you don't have a copy installed on the computer nearby.

Okay, now stretch a little bit. Imagine that you could have something like the same experience on your phone - Windows Mobile can sync folders using Live Mesh and it runs little tiny versions of Word and Excel. Photos can be moved around from computer to computer and/or stored online, too, so you might not be surprised by this anecdote from someone who tried using Live Mesh on his phone to sync the folder where the phone stores pictures. There were the pictures on his computer a few minutes later with no muss, no fuss, no action required at all. The camera on the phone looks a lot more usable all of a sudden!

But now let's take a big step. Windows Azure is a platform that will allow you to run programs that are identical to programs installed on your computer but which are actually running from Microsoft's online servers. Microsoft's goal is to have all of its programs run from Microsoft's data centers in such a way that you cannot tell the difference between a program hosted online and a program on your computer. The developer tools will allow all the other software vendors to do the same thing.

Some of you already have experience with that. Businesses running on Small Business Server use Outlook to connect to mailboxes stored in Exchange Server. At the office, people open Outlook to do their work; away from the office, they might use Outlook on their notebook computer, or they might check their mail or calendar on their Windows Mobile phone, or they might use Outlook Web Access to display their Outlook folders in a web browser. Outlook Web Access is already significantly improved in Exchange 2007 so it more closely resembles Outlook, and it only takes a small leap of faith to imagine the experience being identical to using the full program.

The Azure framework is intended to give developers the ability to present their programs to you over your Internet connection so that virtually all the hard work is done by the online servers. Microsoft or Google or Amazon have responsibility for holding the data and backing it up; when a program is updated, the updates are applied at the source instead of requiring you to take steps to install updates on each of your computers.

I'll be writing more about Live Framework, the unified underpinning of the various Windows Live services as they become increasingly integrated, and Microsoft Online Services, which will introduce hosted online Exchange mailboxes to many of my clients. They're early signs of this movement to online services that will change your life, whether you're ready or not. There are many miles and many competitors and the future is not assured for Microsoft, but make no mistake - the company has staked its future on this ambitious transformation.

Here are some more early comments on Windows Azure: Dan Farber on "Microsoft's Manhattan Project"; Robert Scoble says not to underestimate Microsoft's ability to turn a corner; CBS News on the Azure launch; and Joe Wilcox on the significance of the project:

"I simply cannot overstate how enormous an undertaking is Azure. Microsoft plans to support cloud services in every product. Azure is hugely ambitious and will transform Microsoft, whether or not the vision stated on Monday makes it to market. As such, Azure is enormously risky and its success as envisioned is uncertain."

Labels: business, computers, file_sharing, Google, Internet, mail, Microsoft, mobile, Outlook, photos, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 11/04/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

Windows Live Mesh has just been updated, as of about noon on Thursday 10/30. If you are using it already, you will be notified to install the update; it will stop working until the update is installed on each computer running it. If you are not using it yet, it has been fully opened up to everyone - read about it, make sure you have your Windows Live ID set up, and you are free to sign up.

Windows Live Mesh is a place to store files online, a program that runs on your computer to keep folders in sync on multiple computers, and a way to get remote access to your computer from anywhere. Live Mesh now supports Macs, and limited testing has begun for Windows Mobile devices. (Click here for more information about the Windows Mobile client.) You will be able to take a picture with your cell phone and have the photo show up immediately on your PC and your Mac, or share files with anyone by sharing a Live Mesh folder so they can access it online or synced to their own computer.

The remote access is extremely well designed and will make it unnecessary for most people to pay for a subscription to LogMeIn or GoToMyPC. Connecting from one computer in your Mesh to another one is a single click - hover over the Mesh icon and click on "Connect." Files can be transferred between the local computer and the remote computer by dragging and dropping copying and pasting them.

[Addendum 10/31: Although files can be transferred between the local and remote computers by copying and pasting them, Live Mesh does not currently support dragging and dropping them. Live Mesh Remote Desktop also apparently does not implement any support for printing at all, so you can work on your remote computer but you can't print something directly on your local printer. Those will be compelling reasons for some of you to use LogMeIn Pro instead of Live Mesh for remote access!]

Other updated features:

• Tips for new users.
• Better support for large monitors in remote sessions.
• Permission levels for shared folders - creator, owner, contributor, reader.
• Drag and drop files between your PC and Live Desktop.
• Multiple file upload to Live Desktop.

Microsoft showed only a couple of applications built on the Mesh framework at the PDC this week. The BBC demonstrated a Meshified version of its iPlayer, an extremely popular service in England for watching TV shows online. The Mesh version will remember what you've watched and spread that information to all your devices. If you watch part of a show on your computer, the episode will start where you left off when you tune in on your cell phone or on another computer.

But that's just a taste of what's coming. Under the hood, Live Mesh has been moved to the Windows Azure framework that Microsoft announced at the PDC underlying all of their upcoming web services, and it's powerful stuff indeed. You are watching and taking part in a transition that will affect you just as deeply as the initial shift to the Internet. I'll write more about that in the next few days!

Labels: Apple, file_sharing, Internet, Microsoft, mobile, remote, software, Vista, web_services, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 10/30/2008 12:51:00 PM | permalink

If you're using my favorite web service Live Mesh, watch for an update in the next few days. It will be required to continue using Live Mesh; file sharing and remote access will go dead until the update is installed. I'm going to do a backup of the files stored in Live Mesh folders, just in case of any problems during the upgrade. Live Mesh is about to be opened up to a wider audience as a "beta" release and the update goes along with moving the service onto servers that can handle a bigger load. Here's more information from the Live Mesh team.

That's not the only reason, though. Microsoft is hosting the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles over the next four days and new features added to Live Mesh will be the focus of some of the more interesting announcements at the show. The details are a closely held secret - I can guess that Live Mesh may begin to support Macs and Windows Mobile devices, perhaps, and there are likely to be new collaborative applications that leverage the Mesh platform's ability to securely communicate among several computers on widespread networks.

That won't be the only news out of PDC. Much of the development of personal computing over the next few years will be outlined at this conference! Many of the announcements will be directed at developers rather than consumers and there may not be many services that you can start using the day after the conference ends, but this is the one to watch if you want to know where things are going. The media will breathlessly cover announcements concerning "Windows 7," next year's successor to Vista, but that's a marketing distraction that you can safely ignore for another few months.

Instead, watch for announcements of new and upgraded online services and lots of talk about "cloud computing" - and ready or not, here it comes, that's the world we are moving into faster than you realize. The services that will change your life are the ones that move your programs and files online where you can be connected to them from any device - desktop computer or notebook or mobile device or game console. There are lots of issues to be addressed before we will be fully committed to that vision - the programs will have to look familiar and work in familiar ways and you'll have to be convinced that your data is secure and backed up and under your control. The announcements at PDC will give us a good look at some of the steps we will make toward those goals in the next few years.

I'll keep you posted!

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, mobile, web_services

posted by bruceb at 10/27/2008 12:44:00 AM | permalink

Access everywhere! Lots of interesting services are being set up to make it easy for you to have access to files, folders, photos, and computers from anywhere, whether it's working on an office computer from home or bringing up pictures from your home computer on a mobile phone.

The latest entry comes from Dell, strangely enough. Dell just introduced Dell Remote Access, a ten dollar per month service for a number of tasks loosely related to "remote access." It's designed to be extremely easy to use. You'll install some software on the computer to be controlled; the software will run continuously and periodically check in with Dell Server Central Command. Then when you go to my.dellremoteaccess.com and log in, you can control your computer remotely as if you're sitting in front of it. That's not all, though! You can stream music and photos to your remote device or upload files to the computer running the Dell software. Plus one more interesting feature that I haven't seen before - you can send a link to someone by email that gives them an encrypted connection to a folder on your computer, so they can look at pictures, say, with very little fuss.

Here are a couple of places where people say nice things about the new service. The people saying those nice things work for Dell. Haven't seen much feedback from the real world yet.

That's pretty cool stuff, and you might want to try it, but I'd offer two thoughts before you jump in.

This is an increasingly crowded field. You have alternatives to choose from at a range of prices, with simple or difficult interfaces, and with similar or different features. You can jump into whichever one gets your attention first - just be aware that's what you're doing. LogMeIn will let you run its software and connect remotely to a single computer for free; its paid subscription adds very easy file transfers and the ability to email a link to a single file on your computer. GoToMyPC is slightly more expensive and aimed more at business users. Windows Live Mesh is a free service from Microsoft that will let you connect remotely to a number of computers, along with file and folder sharing and syncing and more to come; it's a little complicated to get started but might be worth the learning curve for its extra capabilities. Windows Home Server sets up remote access and photo sharing along with its file storage and backup features. Businesses running Microsoft Small Business Server already have remote access to their office computers using Remote Web Workplace.

Which leads to a point that gets more important all the time. A new program or service requires a commitment! Do not install programs or sign up for services on a whim! Each program will require time to learn its features and its quirks; it will require periodic attention to keep it up to date when security issues inevitably appear; if it's a good choice, it will require time to figure out where it fits in your life or your business. You'll likely have another web page address to memorize and another login name and password to add to the notes you can never find when you need them.

There are exciting new services out there! Choose them wisely and stick with the ones you choose so you can make them work for you. If you flit from one new thing to another, installing programs and abandoning them quickly,  you'll wind up talking to me about why your computer is slow and programs are crashing. You'll be depressed when I click on your Start menu and nod my head sadly and give you an economics lesson in the cost of cleanup versus the cost of a new computer.

With that in mind, get connected remotely! You don't have to leave computers behind any more.

Labels: computers, Internet, Microsoft, mobile, phone, photos, remote, SBS, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 10/21/2008 01:36:00 AM | permalink

I routinely set up a Windows Live ID for my clients when they get a new computer. There are many programs and online services in the world; Microsoft's programs and services under the Windows Live name are well designed, free to explore, and reasonably simple - a good choice for people who want to do some new tricks without being overwhelmed.

Here are the steps to get started.

Windows Live ID is a single sign-on service from Microsoft that allows people to log into many websites and services with one account. A Windows Live ID is an email address and a password stored in Microsoft's servers. It's free. Follow the instructions here to log in with your Windows Live ID, or set one up if you don't have one already. If you're at your own computer, check all the boxes to sign in automatically and remember your password - the services will then work automatically.

Download and install Windows Live Photo Gallery, a free program for viewing and editing your photos. It's an upgrade for the version of Windows Photo Gallery included with Vista, and also runs on Windows XP. It includes an easy way to share photos online for free. Here's more information about Windows Live Photo Gallery.

• Be careful when you install Windows Live Photo Gallery! You'll have the option to install other Windows Live programs; only install the ones that you are genuinely interested in. Watch the checkboxes on the right - if you're not careful, your Internet Explorer home page will be changed and you'll get an unnecessary extra toolbar.

Explore Windows Live Skydrive, a free place to store and share files online. It is a genuinely useful service, completely free and very easy to use! You'll have access to the files stored in Skydrive from any computer, and you can set up easily that can be shared with someone else, or left open for anyone. Once you're familiar with it, it can be very handy! Here's more information about Windows Live Skydrive.

Windows Live Mesh is (a) a place to store files online, (b) a program that runs on your computer to keep folders in sync on multiple computers, and (c) a way to get remote access to your computer from anywhere - and in the future it will do more! It's a little more complex to get started with but it's already one of the most interesting services available. There's basic information about the service here, and notes about how to get started here. (If you get a message that the Mesh service is not available in your country, it's a glitch - the instructions to solve it are here.)

The world is already flooded with online services, and this is just the beginning of a very big transformation indeed. We're moving from complete dependence on our usual computer, to a much more amophous relationship with a number of computers and other devices that communicate with each other and a mix of locally installed software and services running up in the cloud. Stay sharp! Things are changing.

Labels: file_sharing, Internet, Microsoft, photos, remote, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 10/13/2008 12:49:00 AM | permalink

Adobe is taking orders for its annual upgrade to Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, the photo and video programs for consumers. Over the years I've found it hard to know what to suggest to people for working with photos. Photoshop Elements 7 might be a perfect fit for you but don't take it casually - if you're not prepared to enter into a significant long-term relationship, then it will go unused.

Photoshop Elements has an organizer for browsing through photos that works fairly naturally. If you are obsessive and tag the photos (assign keywords or categories to each photo - "Mom," "Our house," "vacation," "Obama"), then it's easy to display just the photos that match certain tags. It takes some discipline to get in the habit of tagging photos, so many people use the organizer to do nothing more than look through thumbnails.

When it's time to edit photos or use them in projects, Photoshop Elements is tremendously powerful but frankly, it's almost as unintuitive as its older sibling, the full version of Adobe Photoshop. There are several different ways in the program to begin photo editing that expose or conceal various editing tools - "Quick Fix" and "Guided" in addition to a full-blown set of complex tools, plus different panes to begin different kinds of projects and ways to share photos. I used Photoshop Elements 6 to put together a photo book this summer; the result was glorious but "learning curve" doesn't begin to express how long I spent figuring out dozens of unintuitive quirks of the program.

The new version, Photoshop Elements 7, apparently does not change the interface significantly. Instead it adds an additional layer of complexity built around an upgraded set of online services, Photoshop.com. The new program insistently presents advertising about the service until you pony up fifty bucks for a year's subscription, guaranteeing a flow of income to Acrobat even if you decide not to buy next year's upgrade. There is a free connection to a limited set of online services but you can bet that there will be an unending series of advertisements and popups and blinking headlines about the joy of upgrading to the paid service.

The online service includes online storage for photos, syncing with the collection on your computer, making photos accessible from anywhere, which is nice. Photoshop.com also backs up your photos and gives you many options to share them, including connections to Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, and Picasa. It does not reassure me that most of the online features are built around the "albums" that can be created in Photoshop Elements, since I've never used "albums" in the last five years of running the program consistently. Using an online service is similar to installing a new piece of software - it does nothing for you unless you understand it, learn its quirks, and use it regularly. The link to Photoshop.com might become a critical part of your relationship with your photos, but if you're not dedicated and diligent, it will be just one more bit of clutter in your technology landscape. If you're already feeling overloaded by the annoyances of computing in 2008, this won't help.

Photoshop Elements 6 has bugs (I've had to recover the "catalog" - the database that drives the program - from backups on numerous occasions after the program has crashed and the database has been corrupted), and its performance is glacially slow. So I'm disheartened by the online reports from people testing the beta releases of the new programs that performance is slow and the betas are unstable. Maybe they'll get better.

If you're just getting started with photo organizers and editors, install Microsoft's free program Windows Live Photo Gallery. The organizer for thumbnails is quite nice, there are simple tools for cropping and removing red eye and adjusting lighting, and you can easily upload a photo gallery for sharing online.

On the other hand, if you're a veteran or good with technology (i.e., young), Photoshop Elements 7 is still the leader and this is a lot of power for a hundred bucks. Put it to good use!

Labels: file_sharing, photos, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 9/10/2008 04:19:00 PM | permalink

Microsoft's Live Mesh service, now in beta testing, has the most promise of any of the online services. With an easy setup, you can make your files available on multiple computers, you can share files with other people, and you can access your computers remotely, all for free. At the moment it only works on Windows PCs but soon it will be possible to add Windows Mobile devices and Macs.

Let me take you through a simple setup to help you get started.

Your use of the Live Mesh service starts with your Windows Live ID, the free email address and password that Microsoft uses to set you up with its services. Here are the instructions to set up a Windows Live ID. Have your Windows Live ID in mind before you start, and make sure your Live ID account shows "United States," per my instructions.

Now go to the Live Mesh web site, www.mesh.com, and click on Sign In. Provide your Live ID credentials and accept the license agreement on the next screen.

You should be taken directly to the main Mesh screen, shown on the right.

Click on the "Add Device" button. You'll be adding the computer you're sitting at by installing a small piece of software. It will take 3-4 minutes to install the software. (It hasn't frozen. Wait for it.) When it's done, you'll have a distinctive new icon by the clock.

Now click on the "Live Desktop" icon on the main Mesh screen. You'll be looking at your "Live Desktop." It will have icons for files and folders but don't get confused - these folders are online, not on your computer.

Add a folder and give it a recognizable name - "My Synced Files," say. Now close the browser window! You're done with "Live Desktop" for now.

Minimize all your open programs so you can see your computer desktop. Within seconds, a shortcut named "My Synced Files" will appear on your desktop.

When you click on it, you'll be asked where that shortcut should lead. By default, Mesh offers to set up a new empty folder on your desktop with the same name. Take that choice for now. The folder on your desktop will quickly turn to a translucent blue. It's now part of the Mesh system.

It's just a folder. You can put any files you want into it. You can fill it with Word documents and open them and edit them just like any folder. It's just a folder.

But everything in it will be automatically copied to the online folder. Every change will be copied online. If you delete a file from My Synced Files on your desktop, it will be deleted from the online copy automatically. You don't have to do anything, it just happens.

So put some files and folders into "My Synced Files"! Don't go nuts. Put in 50 files, not 5,000. It works with 5,000 but you'll get impatient and think it's broken. Put in some folders full of files.

The reward comes when you sit down at a different computer.

If you have a second computer, go to the Mesh web site on the second computer and log in with the same Windows Live ID, then click "Add Device" to install the software. After it's installed, you should have the same shortcut on your desktop to set up "My Synced Files."

• If that shortcut doesn't show up automatically, then go back to the Mesh web site and click on Live Desktop. When you right-click on "My Synced Files" and click on "Change Sync Settings," you'll be able to change your second computer to sync "When files are added." You'll immediately have the same shortcut on your desktop to click on to establish that you want "My Synced Files" to appear on your second computer desktop. Within minutes, the "My Synced Files" folder on your second computer will be filled with all of the files that are on the first computer.

From now on, when you change a file in that folder on one computer, the changed file will be there on the other computer right away, automatically. The two computers will always be in sync.

Let's reiterate. Once this is set up, you will work with your files on your computer, in the folders on your desktop, just like before. You don't need to "upload" files to Live Desktop - just save them into "My Synced Files." In fact, normally you'll never visit Live Desktop from one of your own computers except to set up a new folder.

Try that to get started! It's only a taste but you'll be past the hard part. Here are just a few things to look into when you've gotten your bearings!

• You can add existing folders on your computer by right-clicking the folder name and clicking on "Add folder to your Live Mesh." I'm syncing my Internet Favorites folder on my desktop and laptop, for example.
• You can share a folder that's been made into a Mesh folder. It's easiest to do that from Live Desktop - open the folder in Live Desktop, then click on the bottom of the right hand column where it says "Members."
• The person you invite will get a nice email invitation. It will lead them through installing the software and giving them shared access to the Mesh folder. Remember, they need to have a Windows Live ID ready, and they need that email invitation to lead them to your folder.
• You can share a Mesh folder; you can't share subfolders inside the Mesh folder.
• You can log into www.mesh.com from another computer and see all the files in Live Desktop. You should be able to download them or open them at that new computer but I've seen some bugs in that process.
• More interesting - you can log into www.mesh.com from any computer, click on one of your computers, and click on "Connect." If the computer is turned on, you'll start a remote desktop session that allows you to control the remote computer as if you're sitting at it. This is very, very cool.

This is a beta service. Test it carefully, with backups of important data, but by all means test it! This is one of those times when you can gain new powers that you do not currently have. Enjoy!

Labels: file_sharing, Internet, Microsoft, remote, Vista, web_services, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 9/05/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

I've stopped using Office Live Workspace for now. It's a service with a lot of potential but a few areas that are rough around the edges. Although I encourage you to try OLW and the other new services, my sense is that most people won't be ready to change their traditional methods of saving and working on files until these services are seamless.

Office Live Workplace is Microsoft's free service for storing files online (primarily Office files - Word, Excel, Powerpoint - and Acrobat PDFs). There are two important reasons to use the service - the online files can be opened from any computer anywhere, and they can be shared easily. If you're collaborating on a document, everyone can work on a single copy of the file - no merging changes to files exchanged by email!On your primary computer, you can install a bit of software so the files can be opened directly from a toolbar or menu added to the Office programs. Here's more information about OLW.

I created a folder with fifty frequently-used Word files. When I browse to the folder online, each file can be previewed instantly or opened into Word with a click of a button. It's good stuff! I don't want to sound too discouraging.

But there's an annoyance. The files appear in a random order. It doesn't seem to be the order they were uploaded, or last modified, or anything else I can figure out, it's just a random shuffle. There are column headings for Name / Date modified / Size, so they can be sorted with a single click, but they're back in the same random order the next time I go back to the list.

That's more frustrating if you access the files directly from the Office programs. In Word 2007, a new option appears on the Quick Access menu in the upper left to "Open from Office Live." A flyout menu displays the folders stored online; clicking on a folder name opens a File Open window displaying the individual files. In that window, the files cannot be sorted - they appear in the same random order and the only way to locate one is to scroll down the list. It's just not practical for more than a handful of files.

There's a more significant problem, though. All too often I could not save a document back to OLW after I had edited it. If the Internet connection is broken while a document is open, OLW will throw up an error message about the file being "locked". The file has to be saved with a different name. It happened to me repeatedly, especially if my notebook went to sleep or into hibernation with an open document. I have multiple versions of the same document with slightly different names - exactly what OLW is supposed to avoid for evolving versions of documents. Here's an online forum where people are talking about that problem.

Those problems will likely be fixed. A more subtle problem is that files stored in OLW are not indexed and cannot be searched along with local files. (In fact, I don't see any way to search files in OLW at all.) I depend on Vista's search technology. I can imagine that it will be extended to the online files but I haven't seen any reference to that feature yet.

Live Mesh may absorb OLW, since it directly addresses some of those problems. I'll write some more about Live Mesh soon.

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, Office, search, web_services

posted by bruceb at 9/01/2008 12:18:00 PM | permalink

GrandCentral is a wonderful free service for handling phone calls. When you sign up, you pick a new phone number and do a few minutes of easy setup. Then when someone calls that number, all of your phones ring simultaneously and you can answer any of them.

I've relied on GrandCentral for more than a year. When you call me, my office phone and my cell phone ring. I can answer either one and transfer calls between them with a single push of a button. A web-based utility allows calls to be re-routed on the fly - you can literally make your phone calls ring at your parents' house when you arrive and turn off the forwarding when you leave. Call handling can be chosen based on time of day, or by groups, or by individual decisions for different names in your address book. Here's what I wrote about GrandCentral last year.

It's great - you should try it!

Except you can't sign up for it.

Google acquired GrandCentral in July 2007 and immediately stopped signing up new members. Existing members could invite new users for a few more months but no one has been added since the beginning of this year.

There is dead silence about what to expect. It's been months since there have been any meaningful changes on the web site or blog posts by anyone knowledgeable. Nobody from GrandCentral participates on the support forum. No one knows if a new version will be rolled out with even more wonderful features - or if the plug will be pulled on short notice.

It's not the only time this has happened to a company purchased by Google. This article about the "Google black hole" lists several more companies with promising technology that were acquired by Google only to disappear from sight, with the founders and employees gradually shifted away into other projects.

Google's image is starting to tarnish - its non-search products are always on the verge of greatness but never seem to become great. I hope GrandCentral doesn't die! If my phone number changes, it's a bad sign for some good technology.

Labels: business, Google, phone, web_services

posted by bruceb at 8/28/2008 12:39:00 AM | permalink

Windows Live ID is a single sign-on service from Microsoft that allows people to log into many websites and services with one account. A Windows Live ID is an email address and a password stored in Microsoft's servers. It's free.

Most people will have a single Windows Live ID. I'm setting them up routinely for each employee in my clients' offices.

More services are being added all the time. Almost all of them are free. They are increasingly tied together so that access to them is easy. This includes instant messaging (Windows Live Messenger), file syncing and sharing (Live Mesh), online file storage and sharing (Windows Live Skydrive), online photo sharing (Windows Live Photo Gallery), and more.

If you don't yet have a Windows Live ID, follow this process. I'm including a couple of extra steps that will save you time later.

Go to this site and click on Sign up on the left.

Use your regular email address.

Choose a safe password. Put it somewhere secure. Remember it.

• (If you're already got a Windows Live ID for the email address, you'll find that out when you leave the signup screen. If so, you'll have to figure out what the password is, or reset it.)

You'll get an email asking you to verify the email address. Follow the instructions - you'll click the link in the message, then go through a couple of very short screens online.

Go to http://account.live.com

Click on "Registered information"

Enter first and last name

Enter birth date (apparently required, but you don't have to tell the truth as long as you make yourself an adult)

Change home and work country to NONE

Change home and work country back to United States. Each one should now have extra lines for addresses. They can be left blank.

The page for "Registered Information" will look like this - on the left when you arrive, on the right when you're done.

Click SAVE

You should now see your name and Country/Region: United States on the front page.

You're done!

When you're prompted for your Windows Live ID and you're sitting at your primary computer, watch for the checkboxes to save your login name and password - the Windows Live services can almost always open automatically with no password prompt after the first time.

Read about the Windows Live services on my news page or online. There are links to many of the services here on my Favorites page. You may find something that you can use right away!

Labels: file_sharing, Internet, Microsoft, OneCare, photos, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 8/27/2008 12:56:00 AM | permalink

Tough week! Here are the kind of things that fill my days. And bear in mind, these are all stories about software and services that I love dearly - this is the good stuff, these are what I recommend because they're better than the rest!

Client with hosted Exchange mailbox at 1and1.com. Mailbox doesn't connect this morning, so no incoming or outgoing mail. Try it from a different computer, try Outlook Web Access - nothing works. Call tech support in India and get through without delay. "Very sorry! That server is down. The experts are working on it." Any idea when it will come back? "No, I'm sorry. But the experts are working on it." It's been down a day and a half now, still no word.

Putting Jungle Disk on a Windows Home Server for online backups. The process to sign up for Amazon's online storage system is not completely straightforward but I've done it before, I know about the "Access Key ID" and the "Secret Access Key," so I'm in business in short order, except the Jungle Disk software delivers an error message, error 403, "NotSignedUp." There are a few dozen lines of gibberish in the detailed error message but it's clear that Amazon doesn't think the service is set up correctly yet. Log in to the Amazon Web Services portal and there's a message about problems with payment for the account - payment that was set up on an Amazon credit card. Hmm. Spent half an hour wrestling with payment options, putting in one good credit card after another and getting more error messages about payment problems, and just about gave up - I was actually drafting the note to the client about the failure when Amazon showed the service was working just fine, thanks, even though I hadn't actually changed anything for a while. Jungle Disk started doing a backup. What was that about?

Setting up Live Mesh to transfer large files between people working in several locations. Installed it on the client's desktop and laptop, created a folder, it started syncing all over the place, everything was automatic and swell, great stuff! Set up Windows Live IDs for three employees, shared a Live Mesh folder with employee number 1, went to that employee's computer and clicked on the invitation to Live Mesh that appeared promptly in the mailbox. Web site pops up inviting me to "Connect," then "Sign In," then displays a message that Live Mesh is only available in the US and they're happy to put me on a waiting list when it's offered in my country. I looked around. It looked a lot like the US where I was standing. I poked around in the Live Mesh forums and found a suggestion that the Windows Live ID account information needed to be updated with the correct country information so I went over there and found it was completely hosed - no matter how many times I picked "United States" and clicked Apply, the front page would stubbornly complain that no country had been chosen. I could change it to the Virgin Islands - that worked fine! It was only the US that it ignored. I dropped it, wrote off the hour that had been spent fussing with it, went back a couple of hours later, and everything worked right away, Live Mesh installed immediately, no issues at all.

Client with a SonicWall firewall/router and a Small Business Server that hadn't been set up to use Remote Web Workplace or the other features that make SBS so lovable. There were a few odd networking settings on the SonicWall but nothing alarming. I set up port forwarding on the ports that make SBS do its tricks (80, 443, 4125) and bang! the network went down, all Internet traffic stopped, the workstations couldn't connect to the server, couldn't browse or ping anywhere. Spent an hour and a half backing out of anything that I might conceivably have touched, nearly gave a credit card number to SonicWall tech support, when it came back up. Two days later I set up port forwarding in what I swear was exactly the same way and it works like a charm. I still don't have any idea what that was about, but it scared the hell out of me.

Tried to buy licenses online for StorageCraft's remarkable backup program, ShadowProtect. Everything went perfectly, right up until the final "Finish" button when I was told that the billing address for the credit card didn't match the information on file at the bank. Just for fun, I tried three different credit cards at two different addresses - all of them plausible choices, not trying to pull anything. Same message each time. (Just for fun, I logged in to my bank's web site and confirmed that there were six or eight "pending" charges showing on the various cards. They went away eventually.) Couple of days later, went back and the transaction went through immediately. (And this story doesn't really count, because after I dropped them a note that night, the company immediately put me in touch with a reseller who would have sold me the licenses, then had one of the company's business manager follow up with a phone call to make sure the problem was resolved. Nice folks, great software, great support.)

Set up Netgear Rangemax USB wireless adapters on three workstations. Windows XP doesn't have any builtin drivers so the CD is required, and the CD doesn't have the drivers stored separately - the Netgear software has to be installed, which of course demands to take over control of the wireless settings from the perfectly adequate Windows XP wireless controls. The next morning, no one can get online, all the networking is mucked up, I have to travel onsite and get the stupid Netgear software to stop popping up with its incomprehensible dials and control panels and graphs. I couldn't find any way to get the Netgear software to hand control back to Windows - that required removing and reinstalling the software to get the startup dialog to appear again so I could check the box telling the Netgear software to get out of the way. Once I did that, the connections were immediately rock solid.

And so it goes. This is the good guys, the cream of the crop - I've also had battles with spyware and rootkits and the rest. Some weeks are more tiring than others. Back to the news soon, I promise!

Labels: backup, computers, file_sharing, hardware, Home_Server, mail, network, SBS, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 8/21/2008 01:15:00 AM | permalink

Microsoft Office Live Workspace is one of the more interesting ways to store documents online and share them easily. Access is obtained through your Windows Live ID, the password that is becoming increasingly important as Microsoft pulls the various Windows Live services together. Here's some background on Office Live Workspace.

An update was released this week:

"The Office Live Update 1.2 installs (1) performance updates to make using Office Live Workspace with Microsoft Office programs faster, (2) the latest Office Live Add-in for Microsoft Office that enables you to access your workspaces directly from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and (3) the Multiple Document Upload Tool and (4) the Firefox add-in to allow users of the Firefox browser to use Office Live Workspace with Microsoft Office."

Once the OLW software is installed, the files stored online can be opened from a web browser, or directly from Office programs - OLW is added to the menu in Office 2007, or on a new toolbar in Office 2003/XP.

Although I'd encourage you to try the service if you're interested, I've found there are still a couple of things missing. One is a little thing - the file list does not remain sorted the way I left it. If I sort the files alphabetically, I want it sorted alphabetically when I return. (For some reason, the file sorting cannot be changed from its random order when I open the list from inside an Office program, which is impractical for more than a fairly small number of files.) And there's no support for keeping previous versions of items that are edited, which can be enormously valuable when you're collaborating with people.

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, Office, web_services

posted by bruceb at 8/14/2008 12:16:00 AM | permalink

Take a look at Jungle Disk, a service for online backups with a good reputation. I'm testing it now and finding a lot of things to like.

The idea is simple - back up folders to a secure place online at regular intervals, and retrieve them any time but especially in the event of a computer crash.

Jungle Disk's backup software is extremely simple to use - pick the interval for backups and put checkmarks by the folders to be backed up. The software can be installed on Windows servers and desktops as well as supporting Linux and Macs.

After a disaster, you'd install the Jungle Disk software on the new computer, then run Restore. By default, Jungle Disk keeps multiple versions of files, so you can also use it to recover earlier versions of individual documents.

The interesting thing about Jungle Disk is that it has almost no investment in this process at all. All of the hard work is done by Amazon. Yup, Amazon.

You see, Amazon has built a simply unbelievable global array of servers, capable of providing nearly unlimited amounts of storage. A tiny fraction of that is used for Amazon's online stores.

Amazon is providing access to that online storage to anyone, at trivially cheap prices. When you install Jungle Disk, the first thing you'll do is set up your personal account with Amazon for storage space in Amazon's S3 service. The cost is fifteen cents per month per gigabyte, plus trivial charges for transferring files to and from the service, billed through your Amazon account. You can store as much or as little as you like - there is a size limit of 5Gb for an individual file but there are otherwise no limits whatsoever.

The Amazon storage space cannot be accessed directly, however. Developers are given the technical tools to build whatever they like for people to use with the service. Jungle Disk built a backup program. There are lots of other backup programs as well as web hosting companies, photo sharing services and many more services built around the Amazon S3 online storage.

The Jungle Disk software costs twenty bucks for a lifetime license. If the company went out of business, chances are somebody else would write software to recover data stored in Jungle Disk's proprietary format. But Jungle Disk was immediately profitable because it just wrote some simple software - it did not try to build a global network of secure serve