Browsing Category: "Software"
How to Automatically Favorite your Technorati Fans
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A good gesture in the blogosphere is to favorite your Technorati Fans. This allows you to search within your Fans’s blogs on Technorati search. Show your fans that you feel the love.
I came across a handy tool from internetducttape.com to do this automatically. It is called “Technorati Favorite Your Fans“. Below is a summary graphic of what it does.
Check out their site and download “Technorati Favorite Your Fans” here.
Mac Mozy is now available
The Mozy online backup service I talked about in another post is now available for Macs in public beta.
Try out Mac Mozy now.
Related Posts
Remote Backups Using Mozy
I recently was referred to an online backup service called Mozy. They offer upto 2gig free online remote backups, fully encrypted, with an easy to use interface.
I decided to give it a try since I firmly believe your data should be in “the cloud” that is the internet for the utmost reliability and accessability. I mean backups to tape or an external drive is great, but what happens when your whole house catches on fire and not just the room with your PC? It’s not a very palatable situation. This is where the remote backup solution comes to the rescue.
SETUP
Mozy software download takes about 5 minutes including install. You sign up as a free user [2 Gig] or you can upgrade to unlimited storage for $4.95/month. Either way it’s a great investment. $4.95 is a bargain if you have the need for more storage. The key here is mozy makes it easy and transparent to you. The biggest problem with backups is lack of performing them. Mozy creates a painless way to ensure backups of your important data.
Once you install the mozy client, you decide what types of files to backup. I chose spreadsheets only for my initial test. I wanted to backup and do a restore as a test of the service.
I then took my initial backup. The initial backup will take longer as all the files you chose must be backed up. Subsequent backups will only backup files that have changed with versioning and new files that were created.
RESTORE
One of the great features of mozy is the restore. With the client running all you have to do is right-click on the folder that contained the file you want to restore. With the windows explorer integration you’ll see an option to restore from mozy.
I deleted the files in a folder and right-clicked and restored my files. This is the most intuitive option to restore the files. Alternatively, you can also login to the mozy website and view your backups and restore them through the web. The Windows integration also gives you a 3rd option.
If you click on “My Computer” you will see a Mozy icon.
If you click it you can browse through your directories to the files you want to restore and restore them that way.
Mozy gives you plenty of options. Use what is intuitive and easiest for you.
FREE or INEXPENSIVE
If you don’t need the larger capacity, you can choose to use the free quota of 2gig or upgrade affordably to the unlimited plan for $4.95/month.
You can also earn extra storage quota of 256MB per referral. If you enjoyed this article and would like to try the Mozy service click here to sign up and you will get an additional 256MB of quota for a total of 2.25 Gigs. I will also be rewarded with 256MB of service as well. :o) I write this blog for free, but it’s nice to get some kickback every now and again even if it’s in freebies.
Try this service out. I am sure you will find it a useful tool. I tried the Xdrive service some time back and compared to Xdrive, this service rocks. It’s easier, less intensive on your system, and simple.
Top 10 Open-source software for Windows
We have heard about all the great open-source software out there like Apache, JBoss, etc. What about us Windows guys? You don’t have to feel left out anymore. I’ve put together a list of 10 open-source software packages for Windows.
1. Mozilla Firefox (Web browser)
My favorite web browser. Tabbed browsing, plenty of plug-ins, and well it doesn’t crash like the other browser. I have used Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari (Mac) and I still highly recommend Firefox.
2. Mozilla Thunderbird (Email client)
Firefox’s less famous companion is a great email client. It has excellent customizable message filters, adaptive junk mail filter and the ability to install useful add-ons.
3. Open Office (Office suite)
Open Office is a free alternative to MS Office for people just wanting to save their spreadsheet as an .xls. Incidentally Google Hosted Apps also offers some online spreadsheet ability for free if you are so inclined.
4. Gaim (Instant messenger)
Chat on any service you’d like - AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN, Jabber (Google’s Gtalk uses Jabber), ICQ - with this multi-platform, tabbed IM client.
5. ClamWin (Antivirus)
ClamWin is free anti-virus software with automatic updates and scheduled scans.
6. VLC Media Player (Audio/video player)
Got a video or audio file Windows Media Player can’t? VLC Media Player plays everything ever created (well I haven’t found anything I had that it couldn’t play).
7. KeePass (Password manager)
If you have a lot of passwords to track, this is the tool for you.
8. Cygwin (Unix command line emulator)
When DOS won’t cut it, you Unix guys will want to install this so you can port over all your shell scripts to the ugggh windows platform.
9. Eraser (Data deletion utility)
Eraser uses the same algorithm the government uses to wipe your hard drive clean. Don’t worry about your info showing up in a dumpster-diving data thief’s computer.
10. TrueCrypt (File encryption utility)
Encrypt a file, folder, or entire flashdrive with this handy utility.
If you have any open-source software you’d like to recommend please comment
VMware Converter - Convert your physical machine to a virtual machine for FREE!
“Convert Physical Machines to Virtual Machines – Free!
Use the intuitive wizard-driven interface of VMware Converter to convert your physical machines to virtual machines. VMware Converter quickly converts Microsoft Windows based physical machines and third party image formats to VMware virtual machines. It also converts virtual machines between VMware platforms. Automate and simplify physical to virtual machine conversions as well as conversions between virtual machine formats with VMware Converter.”
http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/
I’ve got to try this out. In conjunction with the other free VMware products, this is an interesting way to test out configurations and rapidly deploy standard configs.
http://www.vmware.com/products/free_virtualization.html
