Category Archives: Software

Discussion/announcement of software I like/dislike.

Moving To The Cloud

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In an effort to consolidate as much information as I can, I’ve decided to move everything over to Google. I’ve been using GMail ever since you needed an invite to open an account. Because of the experience I’ve had using GMail, I’ve decided to do more “stuff” in the “cloud”. All of my contacts have been imported into Google Contacts. All appointments and dates are now kept on Google Calendar, even though I have a few issues/complaints. Even though Google creates a separate calendar for my contacts’ birthdays and anniversariesevents, there is no way to view this calendar on my iPhone. I can only view my default calendar. Even though the calendar is named “Contacts’ Birthdays and Anniversaries”“Contacts’ Birthdays and Events”, it only displays birthdays.
I’ve even begun storing some spreadsheets on Google Docs. As I get more accustomed to it, I’ll store non-sensitive documents there also.
I’ve stored some photos on Picasa but still prefer Flickr instead. If Google allowed me to use some of the 7GB of storage they currently give me with GMail to store photos instead of allocating a separate 1GB for photos. For $25/yr, I get unlimited uploads and storage on Flickr. For $20/yr, I only get 80GB of storage on Picasa and I’m not even sure if I can upload videos to Picasa or if they only allow photos.
Once I get all this figured out, I plan on using Mozilla Thunderbird and Lightning to synchronize my email, appointments, etc to/from my home PC.

 

FreeNAS

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Tonight, I turned my old MythTV box into a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device. Originally, I was going to go and buy a Linksys NAS200 but then figured there had to be a way I could reuse the MythTV box. I stopped using the MythTV box when Cablevision started removing more and more channels that didn’t require a set-top box. I would prefer to have something with a hardware RAID built-in (either RAID1 or RAID5/6), but for now I’m just testing it out. I googled for ‘free NAS’ and found I had three options: FreeNAS, OpenFiler, and Ubuntu Server Edition.
I chose FreeNAS because it was a smaller download, and seemed to be the NAS software of choice. It supports a software RAID (0, 1, or 5), which is OK but I’d rather have a hardware RAID, so I’d have to install a RAID card into the computer if I wanted to use a free software option. I like that it can monitor the hard drives and email me if it detects an issue. It’s based on a different operating system that I’m not too familiar with but it is close enough to Linux that I don’t have too much to learn.
If I wind up running into any issues, I’ll probably skip OpenFiler and just install Ubuntu Server Edition.

 

Windows 7

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For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been running Windows 7 on my home PC. I tested out a beta copy of Vista, for work, when it was available and despised it. I didn’t like getting bothered every time I wanted to do something and get asked if I really wanted to do that something. I was hoping Windows 7 would fix that, and it has for the most part. I still get asked when I want to install programs I’ve download off of the web. Hopefully, when Windows 7 is the majority version of Windows used, there will be a way to verify that the program you downloaded and are trying to install is legit and it’ll only warn you if it’s not sure (similar to drivers are digitally signed).
I like Windows 7 compared to Vista and am slowing getting used to it. I figure it’ll take me a few months of using it before I’m as proficient as I am with Windows XP. I do like how they’ve reduced the buttons in the taskbar to just the icon and it changes to a stacked icon if you have more than one instance of that program running. I also like how I can minimize a video, while it’s running, and watch it by just mousing over the icon in the taskbar. I still don’t care for all my programs being listed in the start menu. I prefer the way it is in XP where it cascades into columns. Because of this, I’ve begun pinning some of the apps I use frequently in the task bar. I even pinned the command prompt so I don’t even have to do ‘Windows+r –> cmd’ in order to check or renew my IP address. Another neat “feature” is the 3D version of Alt-Tab called “Flip 3D”. It’s the same thing as Alt-Tab, except you see each window from an angle and they shuffle like playing cards.
I don’t see myself running back to XP anytime soon and Windows 7 seems to follow the “every other version” belief I have. Ever since I’ve been using a Windows machine (back when 3.11 was out), Microsoft has gotten every other version of their OS right. In my opinion, 95 was horrible (mostly because it was completely different than what I was used to. A transition to a start button and taskbar would’ve been better); 98 (especially 98SE) was good; Me never should’ve been sold, XP has been great; Vista could almost be considered as bad as Me was, if not worse.

 

Web-based File Storage Services

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Lately, there has been a lot of talk about cloud computing, where most of the work is done on the Internet. One of the first uses of cloud computing has been web-based file storage services like Dropbox and FilesAnywhere. There are three main choices, that I know about right now, when it comes to online file storage (if you don’t count typical FTP/SFTP file servers, etc) – Box.net, Dropbox and FilesAnywhere.
Box.net offers 1GB of storage for free with a 25MB file size limit. For $10/month, you can upgrade to 5GB of storage, and a 1GB file size limit. You also have the ability to view the previous five versions of a file, with the paid membership. Right now, unfortunately, Box.net doesn’t have a utility to upload/sync files to their storage from a Windows, Mac or Linux computer, but they do have an iPhone app.
Dropbox offers 2GB of storage for free. Files uploaded to Dropbox via the desktop application have no file size limit. There is, however, a 300MB cap on files transferred via the website. For $10/month, you can upgrade to 50GB of storage; or for $20/month, you can upgrade to 100GB of storage. Dropbox keeps snapshots of every saved change in your Dropbox folder over the last 30 days. If you upgrade to one of their paid versions, they offer a service called Pack-Rat, which keeps an unlimited amount of previous versions and deleted files. Dropbox also offers an iPhone app.
FilesAnywhere offers 1GB of storage for free, and doesn’t appear to have a file size limit for uploading, but free accounts have download limits of 10MB per-file and 25 downloads/day.
I have an account with all three services, but if I had to choose only one, I would choose Dropbox. They even offer a way to get up to 3GB8GB of storage for free by getting other people to sign up. They add an extra 250MB of storage to both my account and the person who signed up, when they use a referral link.

 

Jailbreak

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I bit the bullet today and jailbroke my iPhone 3G using QuickPwn. I’ve been thinking about it for a while so I could record video and stream video to the Internet using Qik. Qik is supposed to have an approved app for the iPhone but Apple as yet to approve it. Some other neat things I am now able to include:

  • Themes
  • Five icons in the dock
  • Five columns in the springboard
  • Tethering – so I can surf the Internet on a regular computer using the connection on my iPhone

If Apple ever does finally release a firmware for the iPhone that includes video recording and/or approves the Qik app, I might switch back to an unjailbroken iPhone.

 

TwitterFon

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About three months ago, I was using Twitterific as my default Twitter client on my iPhone. I liked it except it didn’t separate incoming tweets from @replies and direct messages. TwitterFon has separate areas for each of these and it also shows the latest tweets since the last time you ran the program. When Twitterific updates their program, I may give it another chance even though the free version is ad supported.

 

Windows 7 Beta

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I downloaded the Windows 7 Beta on Monday after Microsoft fixed the bandwidth issues they were having when they originally attempted to release it on the 9th. When Microsoft released the Windows Vista Beta a couple of years ago, we downloaded it at work and installed it on one of machines to see how different it was than XP. Personally, I didn’t care for Vista when it came out. It looked nice but I didn’t care for having the ‘Programs’ menu from XP fill up the Start menu area in Vista. I also got a little tired of being asked if I wanted to allow something every time I went to try and do anything. I also had trouble finding all of common techy areas I knew how to get to in every other version of Windows since 95 (i.e. Show Hidden Files and Folders).
When I installed Win7, I was a little hesitant to using it. Supposedly, it boots faster than Vista but I don’t have any computers running Vista to compare it to. Microsoft fixed the UAC (User Access Control), which was the annoying little pop-up that would ask if you wanted to allow things to be done, in Vista SP1 but so it was nice to see it not show up every 5 seconds.
There was one change that I’ve noticed already in Windows 7 that I do like. Currently running programs, which in previous Windows would show up as buttons with both the program’s icon and some text, now show up as only the program’s associated icon. This neatens up the taskbar considerably. When you mouse over one of the buttons, it gives a preview of what is currently running in that program. One example would be Word. If you have MS Word running and minimized, you will see a preview of all of the Word documents currently open.
Windows 7 comes with Internet Explorer 8 Beta. This looks and acts just like IE7, except when you open links from one tab in a new tab. IE8 color codes that tab the same color so the user knows they’re connected. I haven’t poked around enough with it yet to see if this functionality can be turned off.
This beta is currently good through August of this year, so I have the next 7 months to play around with it and decide if I’ll give it a chance when it’s released or if I dump Windows all together and go to either Mac or Linux.

 

Twitterific

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In September of 2007, I signed up for Twitter but I hardly used it. In March of this year, I installed a plugin called Twitter Updater, in order to increase the number of tweets I made. This still didn’t get me into Twitter that much. I even signed up for a service called HelloTxt, which allowed me to update my status on multiple social networking sites at once. I hardly used this service too. After I got my iPhone, I installed an app called Twitterific which allows me to tweet using my iPhone and read tweets from the people I’m following. It wasn’t until about two weeks ago that I really got into Twitter. I used to block random people that were following me. Now, I’ll let anyone follow me, and if they seem to post interesting stuff, I’ll follow them in return.

 

Limbo, Loopt & Whrrl

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Since I got my iPhone last week, I have signed up for 3 new social networking services. Limbo, Loopt, and Whrrl are mobile social networking services that use your current location to show you where your friends are.
Limbo describes their services as:

Limbo amplifies your social life – giving you quick and easy access to more activities, people and places.

Loopt goes a little more in depth when explained their service.

Loopt shows users where friends are located and what they are doing via detailed, interactive maps on their mobile phones. Loopt helps friends connect on the fly and navigate their social lives by orienting them to people, places and events. Users can also share location updates, geo-tagged photos and comments with friends in their mobile address book or on online social networks, communities and blogs.

Whrrl’s description is similar to Loopt’s.

Whrrl is a location-based social utility that helps you answer questions like, “Where should we go for dinner tonight?” or, “What fun stuff can I do around here?”, whether you are in your home town or traveling. Whrrl organizes everything you and your friends know about people, places, and events and puts that information at your fingertips. You can use Whrrl on a Web browser, via SMS, or as an application on your mobile phone.

I’m still figuring out if I’ll use all three or if one of them does everything I would need.