Webeye

January 15 2009 – Dropbox

In Software on December 15, 2008 at 10:30 am

Backing up your files is a problem that computer users find anything, but easy to overcome. Now some new software called Dropbox may help you.

It uses Amazon’s S3 cloud based, file system to store data. “Cloud” means that the data is stored “somewhere out there on the Internet”. Once downloaded and installed, Dropbox puts a little icon in the system tray, and creates a new folder called Dropbox. To backup files just put them in the Dropbox folder. They will then be automatically encoded and copied into your own personal storage space in the cloud.

The files have to be in the Dropbox folder to be recognised. To some people this will be a non-problem, they will just put everything into the Dropbox folder. Others may see this as a nightmare solution. As the files are not in the correct folders it will be tempting to copy, rather than move, them into the Dropbox folder. Having two copies of a file is a sure fire way to get confused about which is the most up to date. Luckily there is a solution to this problem. Simply create a “symlink” in the Dropbox folder to the file you want Dropbox to backup. Windows users will have to use the Mlink command for this. Now there is only one copy of the file, stored in the folder you want, but Dropbox knows about it because the symlink makes it look like the file is in the Dropbox folder.

Dropbox is more than a backup system. It also provides revision history, this neat feature saves a history of updates to the files stored in the Dropbox folder. If you happen to accidentally save a file after making some disastrous change, by using the revision history feature, it is easy to recover the version of the file you want.

Because you are able to install Dropbox on more than one computer it is also possible to synchronise your files across your multiple computer systems, even across different operating systems. This is handy for those with a laptop and a desktop. It can also be used to transfer files between your work, and home PC.

Contained within the Dropbox folder are two folders, “Public”, and “Photos”. These two folders allow the sharing of files with other Dropbox users, or via the web, with a URL that Dropbox generates. Remember putting a file into these folders doesn’t make them accessible to others until it is specifically allowed.

Using the Photos folder is an easy way to share your photos with others. Create a folder in the Photos folder, and fill it with photos. Then use the “Copy public gallery link” option, and email the generated URL to anyone with whom you want to share your handy work.

There is also a way to share files without using the Public or Photos folders. Simply create a folder in the Dropbox folder and put the files to be shared into it. Then all that is needed is to click on the folder and select “Share”. Combining this feature with the revision history is a simple way of allowing more than one person to work on a document at once. People that you “Share” folders with need to install Dropbox on their PC, but if that is a problem store them in the Public folder, and share them by URL, over the worldwide web.

Dropbox is available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux systems, and can be downloaded for free. The first 2GB of storage is also free.

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November 20 2008 – Adeona

In Software on November 5, 2008 at 2:41 pm

More and more of us are carrying around laptops and notebooks. Their growing popularity means that our personal information and precious files, like photographs and mp3s, are at greater risk of loss. According to one report there are 12000 laptops lost in US airports every week, and 70% of them are never recovered. That’s a lot of laptops! And with the devices getting smaller, it only makes them easier to filch.

There are things that can be done to secure your laptop, and, hopefully, safeguard your Kodak moments. Locks are available, somewhat like those used to chain bicycles to power-poles, and products are available to ensure the identiy of the person, using the laptop, is valid. There is also software available to locate a lost laptop.

Until recently that software has been based on proprietary code, and used a third-party central service for tracking the whereabouts of the device. These offerings have also had questionable privacy, in that it was possible that others could track the laptop, as it travels around, and therefore track the owner.

Adeona, new software from the University of Washington, USA, claims to be “privacy-preserving”. Meaning that only the owner can use their system to track the laptop. But wait there’s more! It is free. Free in both senses of the word. Free at no cost, and free, as in open-source. Adeona was the Roman Goddess of safe return. The software is available for Windows, MAC OS X, and Linux operating systems.

Once downloaded, installed, and activated, Adeona goes to work. At intervals that average 30 minutes it will send information to a distributed storage system. This information includes IP addresses, nearby routers, the wireless hot spot, and, if you have a MAC, a photo of the current user. All this information is encrypted. An IP address is an identification number given to each computer connected to the Internet, for example 192.159.1.56. Think of it as your computer’s phone number. Routers are equipment that connects bits of the Internet together, and a wireless hot spot is where connections can be made to the Internet, via a laptop, without using cables.

If your laptop goes astray it is a simple matter of finding another computer on which you can install Adeona. Once installed you run “retrieval mode”, and this information is downloaded. The writers of the software claim that by giving this information to the police, they, with the help of ISPs, who can identify where the computer was used, will be able to locate the missing computer, and hopefully return it to its rightful owner. You should also take note of your laptop’s make, model and serial number, thus helping police to identify it, when recovered.

Adeona need not be restricted to laptops. It can also be installed on desktops, and servers. The university is also hoping to release a version for devices like the iPhone.

There is one major problem. The unscrupulous person that takes possession of your computer may have enough knowledge to wipe your hard drive, reinstall the operating system, or just remove Adeona before it can issue a report. In saying this, there is always the chance that expert thieves are going to get around any steps taken to prevent theft. In the majority of instances, the felon will be an opportunist with no knowledge of Adeona, thus allowing the software to report the laptops new location.

It is always better to be safe than sorry.

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October 23 2008 – Google Chrome

In Internet, Software on September 19, 2008 at 12:37 pm

September marks Google’s tenth birthday. They celebrated by announcing just what the world needs, another web browser. They call theirs, Chrome. Why would Google go to all the trouble of creating a new web browser, when there is a perfectly good one available? It’s called Firefox, and most people don’t even know that it exists!

Google has some perfectly good answers to that question. Since 1998 the way, web pages present their contents, has changed. Back in the nineties there was no video, and the use of sound was minimal. Web applications were a rarity. Now videos are everywhere, and applications on the web have become so sophisticated that it is possible to use web-based, word processors, spreadsheets, and other office type applications.

All this functionality requires, according to Google, speed, stability, and security. They have addressed this by a fundamental change in browser design. In Chrome each tab in the browser window has its own environment, separate from others. This allows greater stability, because if one tab should fail due to a bug, only that tab crashes, not the whole browser. Security is enhanced, because there is no cross communication between the tabs. To address the issue of speed, Chrome has a new “engine”, they call “V8″, which speeds up the running of web applications. The code, that displays the web page, is also of a completely new design, allowing pages to appear much faster.

Google required this new approach as they are committed to computing in the cloud. That is, allowing people to use applications that do not run on their own PCs, but on Google’s servers, somewhere out there in the Internet. While this can be done with current browsers, it can be a little bit slow. By redesigning the browser, Google have openly declared that they are in direct competition with Microsoft for the future of computing. Cloud computing, sometimes called Software As A Service (SaaS), is effectively positioned to replace Microsoft Office, and make the Windows operating system almost redundant.

But TANSTAAFL (as Simon Jester scrawls on the walls of the lunar colony in “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress” by Robert A. Heinlein). There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. The browser may be free to download but Google will want to recover the development costs, somehow. Google has, arguably, the largest database of individuals’ search details. By supplying these individuals with a browser, Google is now able to keep track of every page visited, as well. A much needed bonus, allowing those Google ads to be even more specific, and targeted to the individual, than they are now.

Chrome, at the time of writing, is only available for Windows. It has been released as a beta version, this means that there are bound to be some problems. Some have already been reported, and there are warnings that it may not be as secure as Google thinks.

Interestingly, one of the main developers of Chrome is ex-Aucklander Ben Goodger, who worked extensively on Firefox, concentrating on the extensions facility. Goodger joined Google in 2006, and immediately started work on Chrome. Unfortunately there is no extensions facility in Chrome. Extensions are one of the major features in Firefox, and Google have announced that extensions will be coming to Chrome.

For Chrome to succeed, Google has to battle against inertia. People are unlikely to change from Internet Explorer on a whim. Firefox, and the lesser known Opera browser have found this out. Sometimes, just being better, doesn’t mean that you get the largest market share.

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