Thinkworx

I think everyone has faced the issue of needing to share a large file with someone when the file is too big to be sent by email. Historically FTP sites have been the solution to this for the tech savvy or those with a web host.

I have never been a fan of using FTP sites for sharing individual files. Fortunately there some great Web 2.0 alternatives that I recommend the next time you run into this issue:

• drop.io - It doesn’t get any easier than this. You don’t even have to sign-up, just go to the site and drop your item. It even gets better, you don’t even have to go to the site, you can also add items by email, fax, phone or a widget from another site. This seems to be the easiest and best solution for files up to 100 MB, for larger files you are going to need to upgrade your account.
• File Dropper - Need to share larger files? Then head over to File Dropper where you can upload files up to 5 GB for FREE! You can even keep the files up there as long they continue to be downloaded.

What other solutions would you recommend?

Some other great Web 2.0 websites to check out are the finalists in the Utility and Security category of CNet’s Webware 100 Awards. What is so exciting about these and many of the other Web 2.0 websites is the amount of value that these apps offer, many of which are free of charge.

My picks for the Security and Utility category are:

OpenDNS - Not sure what what to enter in your DNS network settings? Here is a great solution! OpenDNS is a free DNS server service and much more. Additional you get the option for these features:

• Content Filtering
• Phishing Protection
• Domain Blocking
• Adult Site Blocking
• Web Proxy Blocking
• Domain Whitelisting
• Typo Correction
• Traffic statistics

I have been using it on all networks I manage and have loved having the added security at the DNS level rather just on the router.

Spiceworks - This software is too good to be true, but fortunately it is. This is a wonderful FREE tool to help IT manage a network. Spiceworks will automatically detect and categorize all network attached devices, giving you a powerful tool to not only manage your IT assets, but to also manage licensing, detect server outages or other alerts such as low printer toner or disk space, track recently installed hardware or software and much, much more. It also has a ticketing system to manage IT support requests and gives IT a ton of information about the computer or network to troubleshoot and remotely resolve the issue. There are many similar, less power solutions out there that cost a ton of money. I still can’t believe the power of this tool and yet it is FREE.

OpenID - Finally a potential authentication system that is getting widely adopted across the web to eliminate the need to create site specific user name and passwords. This not only is a wonderful solution for users, that struggle to remember the username and password combination for the hundreds of sites they are registered on, but also for developers who get tired of having to build in a unique authentication system in all of their web applications. There have been many attempts at finding a solution and this seems to be the one offering the most potential. I hope it succeeds.

What are your picks for this category?

Proof that you only see what you are looking for…

Wisdom from the past wasn’t enough to save us from today’s US economic crisis. The effects of which are being felt in LA and throughout the US.

Here is some interesting insight that has been recently posted on Chris Knudsen’s blog,which I recommend, about the US economic crisis and its effects.

Quote From Thomas Jefferson:

?I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.?

Tent cities springing up in LA as a result of the mortgage crisis.

Sad thing is that the worst is yet to come.

CNET is sponsoring the Webware 100 Awards where you can vote for the best Web 2.0 apps. The winners will be announced at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco on April 21st, 2008. Here is a look at my picks from the productivity category (you can vote up to 3 times), plus a few bonus thoughts.

In reviewing the list of finalists I can categorize most of the sites into one of the following: Calendaring apps, Task/Project Management, Finance Software, Office apps and Database or List Management. I currently see webware offering the most value in the first three categories (Calendaring, Task Management, Finance Management). Office applications definitely have a future on the web, but we are still in the early stages of their development. These webware tools are still lacking in features and have not bridged the offline dilemma, as a result they do not yet offer a true substitute to their software counterparts.

I have chosen one site from each of the 3 categories where I see the most value:

• Google Calendar - The web is the right place for your calendar and there are several sites offering great calendars. My vote goes for Google Calendar not only for its list of features and smooth interface, but also because I like to have one reference point for as much of my web activity as possible. I was disappointed in the lack of any obvious advantages to the other calendaring apps.
• Mint - I get excited when I find well built webware that can replace the traditional software that I have to load on each computer I use. Mint, a free personal finance software, is a perfect example of this. Extremely easy to use, rich with features and has a beautiful interface. Finally a hope to free myself from Quicken.
• I Want Sandy - This was a new site for me, but considering the site I would have picked for this category, tracks.tra.in, wasn’t a finalist I thought this was an innovative site with a lot of potential. I like the real life metaphor that this site applies of having a personal assistant to help you track tasks, reminders, appointments and to keep organized.

Reviewing the list of finalists is a great introduction to what is happening with webware. A couple sites that I was disappointed to not see as a finalist are:

• Plaxo - Great synchronization tool for all your online and offline sources
• tracks.tra.in - Task management site based on the GTD methodology
• Tripit.com - Helpful trip management site that builds all your travel plans into a single itinerary

What are your Webware 100 picks and what sites do you think are missing?

I haven’t been able to report about all that I have seen here at CeBIT nearly as much as anticipated. If you want to find a more complete list of all the new hot items go to Engadget.

Continuing my previous list of attention grabbers here at CeBIT, here is more of what caught my attention:

GPS with Lane Guidance

This will come in handy next time I am traveling around Paris. During my last trip I mistakenly stayed in the wrong lane causing me to lose a couple hours of travel.

Multiple Screens using USB

When working at my desk I love having multiple monitors, a great productivity enhancer that I previous wrote about. Unless your using a laptop, you may run into difficulties trying to do this on many desktop computers as often they don’t have either dual VGA monitor outputs or a DVI output. Fortunately ASUS saves the day with their VW223B USB connectible monitor! You can plug up to six of these monitors into your PC and run them at full resolution, and the VW223B even includes a few USB plugs to help with the daisy-chain.

Ultra Mobile PCs and Ultra Portable PCs

I was surprised to see the number of new models of UMPCs and also Ultra Portable Laptops. Despite their slow adoption, PC manufacturer’s must believe that their will be a strong market for these portable devices.

Super Small Bluetooth Headsets

When it comes to headsets, apparently small is better.

After 4 days here at the CeBIT trade fair I was finally able to break away from the stand to go see some other fair exhibits. Here is brief summary of what is being shown at the fair, reflecting some interesting trends in the IT industry.

Mobile Device & Communications

This section of the fair is clearly positioned on GPS; I found it everywhere and in everything. There doesn’t seem to be one manufacturer without their own GPS device, most of which seem to be exactly the same. I was disappointed to not find much innovation with GPS, some improvements in the maps (better 3D images with real-life road signs), but nothing really attention grabbing.

Mobile phones continue along the same path as previous years with improved integrated digital cameras (5 mega pixels seems to be the new standard), similar designs (as expected many iPhone look-a-likes) and of course integrated GPS.

Computers / Notebooks

Common focus here seems to be on gaming, overclocking, cooling systems, and rugged computing. There are some amazing systems mostly decked out with quad core processors and eye catching graphic cards, exceeding needs of the most die hard gamers.

I found a large variety of CPU cooling systems such as this hydro cooling solution. The use of advanced cooling systems are popular for the trend to enable PC over clocking.

Many notebook computers are proudly presenting turbo buttons. The use of which claim up to 20% more computing power.

Rugged computing is grabbing the attention of others besides just Panasonic. The fair offered a wide range of durable notebooks as tested and illustrated in this booth.

Extras

The fair has added some nice other extras this year to help grab the attention of the visitors and to promote certain technologies.

More to come in the next days…

This week I am attending the world’s largest IT trade fair, CeBIT, in Hannover, Germany. Each year the fair reflects trends in the IT industry and as such has determined this to be a big enough issue to focus CeBIT 2008 on green IT. This being the theme they have a Green IT Village to showcase initiatives by major companies in the IT industry with presentations on the topic and a published “Green IT Guide”.

While I still have some doubt about some companies motives driving their “green initiatives”, as I discussed in a previous post, this is definitely a positive trend with some potentially very positive outcomes. I will be excited to see what innovative solutions are showcased and will try to report back on anything of particular interest. To start-off see Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, discuss energy efficiency that has been built into Windows Server 2008.

To confirm this growing trend of focus on environmental issues within IT you can look to see where venture capitalists are focusing their attention. As summarized by Paul Allen, at the Venture Capital in the Rockies event there were 20 startups invited to present business plans to 200-300 venture capitalists
from 8 states in the US. Interesting to see that from the 20 invited startups, 30% of them had business plans focused on environmental issues. Its refreshing to see new innovative ideas being developed and launched towards this initiative.

Google announced the introduction of Google Sites as part of Google Apps. This is a nice addition to the free suite of Google Apps services. Here is a brief introduction to Google Sites:

It’s an online application that makes creating a team web site as easy as editing a document. You can quickly gather a variety of information in one place — including videos, calendars, presentations, attachments, and gadgets — and easily share it for viewing or editing with a small group, their entire organization, or the world.

Google Sites is very similar to an application that Microsoft began offering in its Office XP suite, SharePoint Team Services. An excellent tool for creating team websites and also company intranets. Microsoft offered two flavors of their SharePoint services, the SharePoint Portal and SharePoint Team Services. The Portal version aimed at large enterprises was a full document management system, much beyond the scope of Team Services. Since its original release the two versions have merged into the one current system, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Team websites are useful tools for different types of groups. They offer a portal website to share information and to collaborate on projects. The primary value of Microsoft’s SharePoint services has been its integration with their Office applications (Word, Excel and PowerPoint). For this reason it was initially released as a part of the Premium version of Office and now includes Office in its name. Microsoft has continued to extend the accessibility to SharePoint documents from directly within Office and better facilitating this in Windows Vista and Windows Mobile 6.

Google Sites helps round-off Google’s suite of office applications. It offers easy integration of Google Docs, Spreadsheets and Presentation files, together with your Picasa images and Google or YouTube videos. Its a nice offering for the price, FREE, but as with their other office applications they are very simple and limited versions to their rival equivalent from Microsoft.

I was very disappointed in the available themes and page layouts from Google Sites . The sample sites that Google gave look like they were designs taken from a 1998 website competition. Making them look at least more visually appealing, using modern Web 2.0 designs, could have made the service come across as a modern and fresh idea.

I rediscovered a very useful tool that I started using a couple of years ago, but have since stopped tracking their new developments. A tool that I would think that anybody using multiple tools and services such as Outlook, Gmail or other new Web 2.0 services would want to take advantage of. I’m talking about Plaxo which many began using to synchronize Outlook calendars and contacts between multiple computers. Now this tool goes much beyond by allowing you to also synchronize with Google, Hotmail/Windows Live, Windows Mobile, AOL, Mac OS X and others.

One of the benefits it offers for those using Outlook 2003 is the ability to add iCal calendars. New Web 2.0 services typically offer this format. Using Plaxo with Outlook 2003 I can add my TripIt.com calendar so that I don’t have to manually enter flight details and I can add my tasks with deadlines from my tracks.tra.in iCal into my Outlook calendar.

Plaxo has made it back to my radar as one of my recommended must have Web 2.0 services.