Cloud Folders Increase Productivity

Dropbox on Linux
Image by elecnix via Flickr

Being a web developer, I usually use several different computers on different operating systems across the lifetime of any project. Personally, I have 5 computers plus one server: Access to a Vista PC, a Windows 7 virtualized installation, my main Mandriva Linux desktop, a Eee 701 PC with Eeebuntu, a Mandriva Linux laptop, and a FreeBSD development server.

Moving files from one computer to the next used to be a time-consuming and ultimately prohibitive process. If I wanted to, say, take a break from working on my PC and work at the Red Brick Cafe for a few hours, I’d have to download my work files to a USB memory card then export the MySQL database and do the same transfer again to the USB memory card.

Or, I could burn a CD. Of course, how does one get the updated files back off the laptop and onto the PC when arriving back at home? This arduous process basically meant that freedom of choice in the work environment was severely hampered and was often more trouble than it was worth. But not any more.

Enter Dropbox.

Dropbox is a free service that is basically a shared folder in the cloud. It makes sharing files amongst any computer, whether it be Mac, Linux, or Windows, easy as drag and drop. And I really mean that. I love things that speed up my work processes because the less time I spend in administration mode the more time I can accomplish tasks in programming mode. Dropbox exemplifies this manifesto.

Any file you put in the Dropbox folder on a computer will instantly be available on any computer that install Dropbox on. Even better, revisions are kept so if you make a mistake with a file and don’t have backups, you can pull the file in question from the archives to restore it. What makes Dropbox different from any other revision or archiving setup is that this is all done without any administration by the user. Literally if you drag a file into the folder, all this stuff is done for you. No committing changes, no crazy hoops to jump through.

Oh, and the 2GB storage starter account is completely free. It’s the one I use daily. I don’t even think I’ve hit 25% capacity yet.

Take a look at Dropbox at http://www.dropbox.com/

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Google Chrome for Linux Now Available

Google Chrome Icon
Image via Wikipedia

The world’s fastest web browser, Google Chrome, has recently been released on the Linux platform. This is big news since it will greatly improve the web browsing performance of many of the world’s netbooks.

I’ve been a huge fan of Google Chrome since it appeared in the summer of last year, but haven’t used it heavily simply because of the lack of Linux support. It is installed on my Windows 7 virtualization, however.

Word on the street is that Google Chrome is also available for Macs, so if that’s your platform, take a look!

One thing that I think is important to note that I haven’t seen anyone pick up on is this line on the Official Google Blog post about Chrome being available for Linux and Mac:

“At Google, most engineers use Linux machines …”

Hmm.. No wonder they’re winning! ;)

Go for it -> Download Google Chrome for Linux

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Increase your website traffic with Jack of All Links – Social Search

If you’re looking for a good way to increase traffic to your website, increase your website’s search engine rankings, and increase your website’s Google PageRank then you need to take a look at Jack of All Links.

Jack of All Links is a social search engine developed earlier this year by me that allows webmasters and content producers to publicize their work and sites in a dynamic web directory (also known as a social search engine.) It’s very simple: You create your website, blog post, news article, or blog, copy the address URL and paste it in Jack of All Links. Then, your site will be listed immediately in our web directory, which is then searched and voted upon by our users.

The system has enjoyed success with almost zero marketing thus far and after some new features (messaging, bookmarking, among others) are launched this summer, it should really begin to pick up even more.

The idea originated while I was working on NetBoardz, which was a free forum hosting service I ran between December 2006 and January 2008. NetBoardz had a lot of users, but unless money waas going into advertising through programs like Yahoo Marketing and Google Adsense, the influx of new users would stop. Instead, I looked for free ways to create publicity for NetBoardz.

There were a number of options, but the one that stuck out was the Open Directory Project (dmoz.org). It seemed like such a good idea but done so poorly. With their service, you submit your site to a moderator, who is a member of the general public or may not even exist (as there are many more sites submitted and categories than people moderating) and who may actually be your competitor, and then hope that he or she adds your site to the listing.

Google and other search engines use dmoz.org extensively to create their search results, so it’s not entirely useless. But, at the time I was used to the instant feedback, Web 2.0 world. I wanted to know immediately if my site had been listed. After waiting more than 6 weeks, I finally found that my site had not been accepted.

“Why does this take so long?”, “Why can’t it be automatic and moderated by the community?”, “Why can’t I submit more than one page on my site to the service?” were questions I was asking. Finally I decided to begin developing the underlying architecture of my own web directory.

When you submit a site to Jack of All Links, it immediately appears in search results on the service as well as in the ever-changing Top 20 Links Leaderboard. In fact, Jack of All Links is aimed at not only becoming a large directory of sites put forth by the content creators or publishers, but in fact a full-fledged search engine that people will come to use daily, as all of the search results are rated and commented on by actual users. This is true, Web 2.0 user collaboration.

When you submit your site to Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, or the Open Directory Project, they ask that you only submit the original address URL, and not each page. Then, they scan your site for each of your pages and determine the search engine keywords automatically. With Jack of All Links, you can submit as many pages as you want (it is recommended to submit everything your site has to offer – more pages = more opportunity for showing up at the top of search results), you can write your own description and keywords for each page, and those pages are voted on by the community. Indeed, Jack of All Links puts the power of controlling the listings in our search engine back in your hands as the content producer.

An added benefit of all of this is that the Search Engine Optimization for Jack of All Links is very strong, so as we increase in popularity, so do you. All of our search results and top links are displayed and scanned by major search engines such as Google, MSN, Yahoo, and others. Your links on Jack of All Links will show up in the Google search results, which will also bring you more traffic!

If you’d like to sign up at Jack of All Links and increase your site’s traffic today, registration is completely free. Register now.

Crossover Games, PlayOnLinux, Wine, and Cedega

If I had a lot of money…

I’d buy PlayOnLinux and Cedega and Crossover Games (while maintaining a great working relationship with the good folks still at Crossover working on apps) and put together (with some hefty funds behind them) a crack team of DirectX hackers and previous Microsoft DirectX programmers to put together a fully-functional, working DirectX emulator for Mac and Linux. Then, port all those changes back into the Wine trunk while promoting an off-the-shelf Windows games player.

I truly believe that if games worked on Linux flawlessly there would be a greater adoption of Linux on desktops worldwide. I know locally it is a huge hurdle to jump. All of my friends are interested in Linux, two of them have the ISO sitting on their desktop. Why are they not making the switch? One: Games. The other: Sony Vegas. People want to use it but they want their games too!

Game development and publishing companies wouldn’t have to write games to be cross platform if the emulator worked perfectly. They would go on making Windows games while Linux continues to grow in installed user base.

Making games for Linux is not the answer, making Linux work for games is!