A re-look at document sharing, backing up services
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The latest on-line storage application, Livedrive, makes one’s digital life easier
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The latest storage service hit on the Net is Twidox. It allows anyone on the web to upload/share documents free.
This edition of NetSpeak begins with a discussion on the latest on-line tools meant for sharing and backing up documents.
NetSpeak has featured many on-line tools that enable us to backup files/folders and share them over the Net. Innovative tools such as Dropbox and Zapr have already been discussed in this column.
Despite the availability of a variety of tools in this genre, still new and better ones are emerging. Some of them are discussed here.
A class of storage solution popular among the netizens is the Web based storage, which enables us to store/share files on a remote server through the browser.
A variety of such solutions exist ( http://www.hindu.com/biz/2005/11/28/stories/2005112800171600).
The latest on-line storage application tried out by NetSpeak is the innovative service Livedrive ( http://www.livedrive.com/). Apart from offering unlimited storage, Livedrive offers a few features making one’s digital life easier.
One such feature worth a mention is the client software that lets you create a virtual drive on your machine.
The drive created thus functions like a normal storage drive in your machine. The advantage here is that you can simply drag and drop a file/folder on to this drive and it will automatically get transferred to the on-line storage.
Now, if you are on a public machine sans the Ldrive client, you can still access the service via its Web interface. In addition, this service can be used for open/restrictive sharing of files.
Perhaps you may not be that keen to use an alien server to store/share files.
Then the alternative is to keep them on separate PCs. If you prefer this solution, then a desktop-based file transfer application (like Dropbox) would be more appropriate. In this regard,
NetSpeak solicits your attention to the versatile free file-sharing program, FilePhile ( http://www.filephile.net).
Once installed and logged-in to the FilePhile service, you can transfer any number of files or folders to any machine on the Net.
There is no restriction on the size or on the number of files to be transferred.
The program operates almost like an IM client. To transfer a file or folder to a friend, first you need to add her as your buddy.
Of course, this requires her to have an account with the system and have this program installed.
When a buddy comes on-line FilePhile will indicate its presence (by turning the link indicator green).
You can send a file or folder by selecting the appropriate option from the program’s interface.
Even if your buddy is not on-line you can queue-up the file transfer job.
The transfer will take place automatically as and when both you and your buddy come on-line together.
A great advantage of this solution compared to other similar products is the resume facility, which allows you to continue an interrupted download task from where it stopped.
Twidox
Document sharing services that enable us to store/share documents on-line are also fast assuming significance. Services such as Scribid, Issuu and the like have become an important source for valuable research materials ( http://www.hindu.com/biz/2008/12/08/stories/2008120850051400). The latest storage service hit on the Net is Twidox ( http://www.twidox.com/). Twidox, the service that strives to be a repository for academic papers/articles/data, allows anyone on the Web to upload/share documents for free.
Free download manager
In the past, NetSpeak has featured several download managers that help us download Net resources efficiently and with ease (like Orbit, Dl-Expert and the like).
Recently this author tested yet another feature-packed, faster download manager, called ‘Free Download Manager’ ( http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/features.)
Apart from downloading resources from common Net sources (like web server and FTP server ), this generic download manager can download torrents and videos (from sources like youtube) too. Another advantage of this open-source product is the provision to download complete web sites.
Educational videos
The best way to learn a subject is to hear a lecture on it by a great teacher.
For instance, if you are student of Mathematics or somebody who is curious to understand the basic concepts of calculus, view this video lecture series on calculus available here: http://calculus.sfsu.edu/calculus/ assignments.php?n=-1.
As regular readers of this column would recognise, several such educational videos have already been profiled in NetSpeak.
On this count, NetSpeak wishes to point out yet another educational resource — the educational video directory, Academic Earth (http://academicearth.org/).
Within this fast growing directory, one can find several links to educational videos on diverse subjects such as Astronomy, Mathematics and Philosophy.
NoSquint
If you are on a web page with smaller fonts and wish to increase the font size, Firefox provides easier means.
Moving the mouse-wheel by holding the Ctrl-key down is one of the ways.
However, if you wish to keep a particular font size for all the pages (or specific sizes for selected sites), you need to look for alternative solutions.
NoSquint (http://urandom.ca/nosquint/), the Firefox extension that lets you adjust the font size in multiple ways, could come in handy here.
J. MURALI
He can be contacted at: jmurali@gmail.com
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