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Data and vendor lock in is one of the few things that are holding back a lot of people from jumping the cloud bandwagon. When you are running a native enterprise app from behind your own firewall, there are so many ways to export or backup all your data. In fact, that is one of the major selling points of enterprise software behemoths who are running for covers since the cloud onslaught.
To a large extent, this is actually true. For any reason, if Google bumps me off my personal Gmail or Google Apps account, I’m done for good. Apps like Backupify are a ray of hope and now ShuttleCloud is a new tool that can help you keep your data safe by switching it to a new web app account. After the break, I’m going to take you through the steps to help facilitate a smooth migration of your data.
We don’t live on a single site or write on a single blogging platform any more. Instead, more and more of us are opting to use a range of social networks and services. We post photos to Flickr, blog in WordPress, update our status on Twitter and Facebook, bookmark with del.icio.us, share items in Google Reader, checkin with Gowalla, and more.
It can be a pain to update them all consistently, and even more frustrating to pull all of your online data together. In an effort to remedy this problem, many people spend their time putting together a site and embedding various widgets from each site, but that can take considerable amounts of time and can even be expensive depending on how you do it.
Pubwich is an open-source web application that does that job for you, bring together multiple services into one self-hosted webpage, much like the scenario I previously explained. Just a head’s up though – before we get into the review – that this is not a web application per se because it will require you to find a hosting solution yourself. Once you do, though, you’ll be up and running in no time.
If you are using the Internet, there is absolutely no chance you aren’t using cloud storage. Knowingly or unknowingly, your data is stored in a remote server waiting to be accessed from any device you choose to use. And if you are someone like me, you likely use a whole bunch of cloud services to do one thing or the other. From invoicing, email to getting things done and composing this very article, I depend on the cloud for a huge portion of my computing life.
It’s a conscious choice, and over the couple of years I have willfully reduced my dependency on local storage. Over the course of the day, I have to open and close a lot of apps to get work done. I’d would love to avoid that. Otixo is a web app that creates a centralized place to access all files stored in the cloud across all of your storage services, letting you move files seamlessly between, say, Google Docs and Dropbox. That sounds like an app that most of us could use today, with a growing number of files saved on dozens of apps across the web.
For most of us, a large chunk of emails received are usually automated and unimportant stuff like notifications, newsletters, bills, mailing lists, registrations, event invites and the like. Even when you set up multiple filters to move them into their respective folders skipping the inbox, you will still end up getting the same (and new) automated mailers. In fact, services employ people who specialize in making sure that emails land in your inbox rather than a spam folder.
It’s a good sign that a horde of startups are working to address the problem of email overload. A lot of new tricks are being tried out like converting emails to tasks, make reading emails a game and so on. While they offer a partial fix, a fool proof solution is yet to come to market. ZeroMail is a web app that strives to remove clutter from your inbox. It’s time to learn how to put the app to use.
The Khan Academy is a free to use educational platform which allows individuals to easily find and view lessons and lectures in a wide range of areas such as mathematics, history, finance and biology. The ultimate goal of this nonprofit organization, is to provide a freely and easily attainable education to anyone across the globe, through an open and social learning environment.
With over 2,600 educational videos in dozens of areas of interest, the Khan Academy is not only rapidly approaching this goal, but is also beginning to completely revolutionize the way people are approaching education in digital space. With continued support from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as Google’s Project 10^100, the Khan Academy has already begun to challenge traditional outlets for educational viewership on the web, and there is really no limit to the project’s potential.
This in depth look at the Khan Academy will cover everything you need to know to get started, and will additionally demonstrate how students of all ages are already benefiting from their time online with this system.
There are a lot of ways for getting files (music, video, software) from the Internet. Some of you might use a peer-to-peer network, such as BitTorrent, or a dedicated file hosting service, like RapidShare. These services are great, but Peer-to-Peer can be slow, and a dedicated file hosting service can be expensive. If you are looking for an alternative, with lightning fast download speed, secure connection, and cheaper pricing plans, you should perhaps try Usenet.
A Short History about Usenet
The history of Usenet dates back to the 1980s. It was originally designed as a global distributed discussion system, but its heyday as a discussion system has long ended. These days, we use mailing list, or online forums, but even these Usenet successors are beginning to feel dated. Since then, Usenet has evolved into a file sharing network.
Eventually, Usenet evolved as a media where people shared copyrighted material. People started using Usenet as a tool to share copyrighted material. RIAA filed a suit against Usenet, and they triumphed when U.S. District Judge Harold Baer of the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of RIAAA. We write this article because we feel that our readers will get some benefit from knowing how to use Usenet, and not because we support copyright infringement. There are a lot of useful, non-copyrighted material available in Usenet – such as free books, and open source software. Plus, it’s a trip though internet memory lane before web were even conceived for the most part.
Idealist.org, founded in 1995 by the nonprofit organization Action Without Borders, is an online community promoting the connection of people, organizations, opportunities, and resources to build a better world through community engagement. Now with over 6,000 job listings, 13,000+ volunteer opportunities, and over 320,000 registered users, there has never been a better time to look at what the community has to offer, especially for anyone looking to make a difference.
Need a job? Need more experience? Both of these opportunities could just be a few clicks away. If you have ever wanted an easy way to give back and get involved with your community, read on to see how you can leverage Idealist.org to get the opportunity or position that you have always wanted.
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Students and teachers have either the most simplistic or the most complex systems at their disposal when it comes learning online. Case in point: simplistic video conference solutions and elaborate Learning Management Systems. Given that the subject matter is already hard for many, trying and spending time to understanding a new tool that helps them learn is an extra burden.
They could use a solution that is somewhere in the middle. Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets. Like always, I’m gonna take it for a test drive, would you like to join me?
Can you imagine what a computer would be without any applications? It’s a bit like imagining a car without wheels. You’ve got the basic shell, but without the wheels you can’t really do anything. It’s a bit like that with a computer and its applications. Yes, you can use the computer, but you can’t really use it to its full potential.
No matter which operating system you run, there’s usually an app out there for everything. I know the feeling that once you’ve bought a new computer (or especially if you are migrating across to another operating system), you’ll want to get downloading as many applications as possible so you can get the best out of your computer. The question is, though, which ones do you download? Do you have to trawl through those endless “The Top 50…” lists to find a couple of applications you want to download?
How about a web app to help you find new apps for your favorite platform?
Webconferencing is one of the most vital, but less celebrated innovations of the broadband era. The technology in its full glory is mostly used in enterprises, and the mainstream population has become accustomed to basic video chat built into Skype, Gtalk, Google+, and even Facebook today. Yet, if you’re looking for an enterprise solution, there are so many solutions to choose from, ranging from companies like Cisco and Microsoft to no-name startups.
Even with big names backing up their product, there hardly is a web conference that doesn’t get interrupted. Either the bandwidth or the voice support fails its users, frustrating them to no end. Then there are issues with incompatible plugins and cluttered user interfaces. LiveMinutes claims to be a webconferencing app that isn’t boring, and works to streamline your meetings. Let’s go check it out.
