My Uninstalled Life

At last! Google Drive is here! Just go to http://drive.google.com/start and you can enable it.

If you’re running Google Apps for your domain you might in the header see:
“Google Drive is not yet enabled for the yourdomain.com domain”

Well, your admin for your domain has to enable it like this:

1. Go to https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/yourdomain.com
2. Click Domain Settings tab
3. Click General tab
    
4. In New User Features, select Rapid Release, otherwise you will have to wait a littble bit longer before it’s released.
5. In New Services, select Automatic to automatically enable new services.
   
6. Click Save

I selected to be notified:

Success – now I just have to wait:

Until I get an e-mail confirming it has been enabled I will see the following in the header:

How long will it take? Well, it depends…

Update: It took about 2 days before I received:

 

Have you ever ran out of disk space in Windows or wondered what’s taking up all the space on your harddrive and think right-clicking, choosing Properties is way to limited? Here are three alternatives that are free and portable:

• TreeSize Free
• WinDirStat Portable
• VisDir

Options that are quite useful is to visualize the result, but also get the size of a dir. Another good feature is to be able to “go” to the dir in question so you can check what files are taking up the space and possibly delete them. It’s also important it’s fast to scan.

Treesize visualize it quite nicely where you can choose to show you size/number of files/& and also KB/MB/GB. WinDirStat also offers you to visualize in different views. WinDirStat also offers you “treemap” and “filetype” which shows you what kind of files is taking up all the space. This can be useful when you scan a huge fileserver so you can see how much space all those media files take up (mp3, avi etc). TreeSize offers you a professional version ($49.95) that offers even more features which might be useful if you use it on a daily basis.

VisDir doesn’t allow you to see the actual size directly in the interface – it only visualize it for you as pie chart or horizontal/vertical bar, which makes it pretty limited.

My choice: I would choose WinDirStat since it offers some additional views. It’s not as fast as TreeSize but fast enough.

TreeSize Free screenshot:

WinDirStat Portable screenshot:

VisDir screenshots:

Imagine being able to sit down at any ordinary computer in an Internet cafe or public library, start up the resident web browser and access your personal desktop – along with your applications, messages, and information – with a click of your mouse button. Then, when you’re done, you simply close the web browser to have all of the documents you’ve just worked on safely stored on your remote server, leaving nothing on the computer you’ve just been working on. This is the goal of the mobile desktop and operating system called eyeOS.

eyeOS is an Open Source Web Desktop Environment. You either install on your computer and access it through a webbrowser at http://yourip:85 or you can use the public eyeOS server.

I really like this idea! Why install an OS on your desktop PC when you simply can have it online? Once you login you get to the desktop. You have a taskbar with a bunch of icons representing the applications installed. You have a kind of file browser where you can create folders and upload files. You have a word editor which looks like TinyMCE which is a WYSIWYG editor. You have a simple calendar, contacts, calculator and send messages to other eyeOS users.

For Internet connectivity you have a very simple RSS reader and a webbrowser. I’m impressed about the webbrowser’s speed – it’s almost as fast as my local one! It evens play YouTube and Google videos without a problem!

What first impresses me is the speed. You can move windows around and applications start without delay when you click the icon. You have several themes to choose between and you can change the wallpaper and more look’s’n feel can be downloaded.

Since it’s a specific OS, it needs specific eyeOS applications. At their public server, 20 additional applications are available. But if this project becomes successful I’m sure this will grow!

Below is a demo:

Too many times, friends have called med and said “Hey, my external USB-disk i used for backup crashed – can you get my data back?” Well, my first question is always “But it’s a backup right? So you have all the original data somwhere else?” Sometimes they don’t. Either they moved/saved everything to the USB-disk only or they haven’t copied the data for months.

This post will exaplin how fast and easy to make backup (copy that is) from your internal C: drive to your external USB-disk. Do it before it’s too late!

So for this example, you have all your important files on your internal harddrive C:\Files\. What you will do is to make sure everything in that folder is backed up (copied) to Z:\FilesBackup\ which is on your externdal harddrive. After this, you will continue to save everything to C:\Files\ and on a regular basis you will make sure this folder will be copied to Z:\FilesBackup\ – simply by clicking an icon.

First you need a small application to help you do this – and I will use the portable app Toucan.

1. Download Toucan to C:\Files.
2. Doubleclick the downloaded file and choose to install it to C:\Files\Toucan. After installation you can delete the .exe file you downloaded.
3. Doubleclick the application C:\Files\Toucan\Toucan.exe and it will start:
   
4. Click the + sign to add a job. Name your job to for example “Backup”.
5. In Function, choose Update. This is how the files are copied to the external harddrive. If you want to know more about the differences, read the Help.
6. In the Source, click … and choose the source directory – in this case C:\Files
7. In the Destination, click … and choose the destination directory – in this case Z:\FilesBackup on your external harddrive.
8. Press the disk to save the job settings.
9. Then you can click Preview. This will show how the result will look but not actually do anything.
10. Once everything looks OK – press OK and the job will start. During the copy you will get a progress window.
11. Finished!

Now you can simply start Toucan and select the job and choose OK and it will update your backup with all new and changed files.

You don’t trust it? Simply right-click both C:\Files and Z:\FilesBackup and choose Properties. This will show you the size and number of files in each folder – do they match? Then it’s very likely it worked!

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You don’t trust yourself that you will run this often enough? One simple way is to autostart the application at startup – but that could be irritating.

Another way is to create a “script” that runs the job you created above automatically:

1. Start -> Notepad
2. Write the following line in Notepad:
   C:\Files\Toucan\Toucan.exe Backup
3. Choose Save As and browse to C:\Files\Toucan. Save the files as Backup.bat.
4. Now you can doubleclick that Backup.bat and it will automatically run the job for you.
5. If you from Explorer drag this file holding down the RIGHT mousebutton and drop it on the desktop you will have the possibility to create a shortcut to it on your desktop. This might remind you more often to simply doubleclick it and make a backup.
6. Finished!

But maybe you still don’t trust yourself? Maybe you want to schedule a backup at certain times so it runs automatically? Now it starts to get a little bit more complicated.

1. Start -> Task Scheduler. Press Continue if Vista asks you a question regarding Access.
2. Rightclick the root called Task Scheduler (Local) and choose Create a Basic Task…
3. Name it whatever you want, for example Backup and then Next>
   
4. Then you can choose how often you want the backup to run. When you logon can be a good option but then you might get a slow cmoputer every time you start if a lot of files has been changed. Daily could be a good option but maybe your computer is not always on at a certain time? It’s up to you! I choose When I log on. Then click Next>
5. Choose Start a program and Next>
6. Choose Browse and choose the C:\Files\Toucan\Backup.bat you created above and click Next>
7. Choose Finish. Now try your job by logging of and logging on again. If there are not much changes to C:\Files you might even notice the window opening.

But please – make sure that the backups work! Add a bunch of files to C:\Files and test that it gets copied to Z:\FilesBackup on a regular basis.

Next time your disk crashes – be happy you spent this time configuring the above and don’t have to spend thousands of € to send the harddrive to a repair shop.

A few days ago I posted a online collaboration comparison and someone sent me an suggestion to check out Jive Software. They offer three online web applications:

Depending on the size, some of them are free and some of them cost money. There are many videos available showing the product so you can check them out before signing up. Here’s a few for clearspace for example.

So you’re travelling much or simply tired of opening your personal snail mail at home? Just forward it to Online Postal Mail. They instantly scan the mail and present it to you online.

They scan the outside of each envelope so you can see what it is, and then you make choices about each piece. You can have it opened and the contents scanned so you can read it right away, or recycle it at the touch of a button. You can also choose to shred private information, or even archive important documents. You can still get the original item if you want it either to your home address or forward the original or a copy to someone else.

What about pricing? Well, if you’re receive less than 35 mails a month, the smallest plan would be enough and that would cost you $9.95/month.

Online PDF Converter convert MS Office, Images, Web Pages, Vector Graphic Formats, CHM and HLP files to PDF. They also have tools for PDF -> Word/Excel.

Since we’re working on the Mini File Server at the momeny, we decided to have some kind of online collaboration tool out there that would enable us to do project plans etc.

Then I found this excellent comparison by Derek Punsalan. It gives you and overview of BaseCamp, ActiveCollab and Goplan.

His conclusion? For individuals looking to manage projects without spending a small amount on monthly subscription costs, the less polished activeCollab application does provides the basics for managing and interacting with clients.

On the flip-side, anyone who is willing to part with a small amount through a monthly subscription recouped in an hour or less of work, definitely give Basecamp or Goplan a try. With Goplan’s recent public launch with features sure to give Basecamp a solid run, users now have more options. Which service will work for you? Give each of them a solid run-through and decide for yourself. Will you side with the proverbial favorite from 37signals – Basecamp? Or, will your business be better served by Webreakstuff’s Goplan?

Oh and I also found a more detailed comparison between Basecamp and activeCollab.

Do you have any other suggested online collaboration services?

If you haven’t watched Al Gores movie yet – make sure to watch it! And while you’re at it – do something. Like switch your light bulbs to low energy ones. It doesn’t only save the environment but money too.

Yahoo has a pretty cool web application showing you the top states in the US for selling energy saving lightbulbs. Check it out.

Dabble DB is maybe something you want to consider if you want to build cusotmizable database applications. It’s very easy to use and completely on the web so you can share it easily. I’ts not a spreadsheet application – you can view the data from hundreds of angles all with point and click simplicity.

Best way is to watch the 7 minute introduction and if you want to see it in more action, check this screencast out which is regarding charts and maps.

Pixenate is an online photo editor. It has a bunch of features as you can see below. Simply upload your photo, edit it, and either save to disk or upload to Flickr. No need to register, just upload an run!

Time To Meet is another service to find a time for a meeting without wasting time – no more sendning e-mails back and forth.

It does timezones very well and also synchronizes with your personal calendar (Outlook, iCal, Google etc) – but then you have to go Pro for about $1/month.

Renkoo is a service that lets you arrange when and where to do fun things with friends. You can use their website, instant messaging, text messaging, or email to plan things together.

I used to use a simple spreadsheet e-mailing it around. Then I moved to EditGrid, but it’s still very manual work… maybe this is a better alternative?

Simply invite some friends and let the planning begin!

* You can start with some friends and invite more as you go.
* You don’t need to start off knowing exactly when and where the event will occur.
* You and your friends can work out the details by chatting.

Renkoo helps you decide when and where to get together. Chat with your friends using Renkoo to figure it out. Renkoo lets you communicate using email, text, IM, or all three to decide a time and place.

Mediamaster has an interesting service to save your music online.

1. Sign-up and upload all your music. It’s stored and backed up
2. Listen to your music collection anywhere on any computer using just your webbrowser
3. Using the MediaMaster widget you can post your collection, playlists and radio stations to your blog

So far, there’s no limit, it’s free and totally legal.

Here’s a screencast of it:

Roll your own “_____-aholic.com” with EditGrid’s dynamic images feature

If you recall Alexaholic (now Statsaholic) you’ll know how mashing-up
images can work like a charm. It provided several input boxes for
submitting domain names, and then load the traffic ranking comparison
charts from Alexa.

With EditGrid’s dynamic image feature, we support users to do something
similar, see the following demo spreadsheets:

* Stockaholic (http://www.editgrid.com/tnc/vincent/Stockaholic.new) –
mashup charts from Yahoo! Finance..
* Weatherholic (http://www.editgrid.com/tnc/vincent/Weatherholic.new) –
mashup satellite images from BBC Weather and t7online.

See the “instructions” tab of the above spreadsheets to know how to do it.
Rolling your own “-aholic.com” is dead simple, but the result works great.

The dynamic image feature is sponsored by LIM (http://www.lim.com/)