I wish all my students and their family’s a restful Summer break. You need it and so do I.
Be safe and return to me rejuvenated in September.
Mr. V
Archives
All posts for the month June, 2010
Like a house, a PC’s desktop should be uncluttered most of the time, not just when you expect company to visit.Fences, by Stardock, helps you do this. See the capture below.
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| You can customize the fences to your liking. A transparent ‘green’ on a ‘black’ desktop wallpaper looks cool though. |
Visit Stardock & try Fences for yourself. If your not satisfied, you’ll be refunded $0, because its FREE!
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In anticipation of a full 10-month trial of this software in a classroom environment, I’m seeing how a map appears when embedded. More commentary to follow. So stay tuned.
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Earlier this month Microsoft introduced its cloud computing version of Microsoft Office- Microsoft Office Live. Following the June 15th release of MS Office 2010, Microsoft hopes to integrate its online apps with its desktop powerhouse to present a digital one-two punch combination. Those punches are aimed squarely at Google Docs, Google’s cloud computing offering.
I’ve been using Google Docs for some time now, but I admit that most of my document creation, editing, and management have been executed with Zoho. Zoho offers a suite of applications that cover all the computing needs of regular working stiffs, like myself- a teacher with no discretionary funds to spend on productivity suites. That’s right, Zoho’s numerous, feature-rich apps are essentially free- like Google’s. But, they offer apps that Google doesn’t. Today, for example, Zoho announced a significant upgrade in their wiki app- Zoho Wiki v2.0. This and other apps are great for the small business with equally small budgets. They don’t ask for fees unless you wish to expand storage capacity, feature set, etc. For many, you will not need the added features. Zoho is fantastic and I appreciate the breadth and scope of their product offerings. Over the past 15 months, Zoho and Google Docs have merged login credentials and other features to create a mega cloud productivity suite.
I’m seriously making an effort to put the new MS Office Live offering to the test. The killer app, which may drive me away from Zoho, is Skydrive. That app, when combined with an app called SDExplorer, gives you desktop convenience with the omnipresence of the cloud. I’ll jump through a hoop to exploit the features of Skydrive.
In an earlier post, I stated that MS Office documents stored within Skydrive will open in its respective MS Office Live web application (for now: Word, Excel, Powerpoint & OneNote only). No desktop application, no fees, no flash drives, and on, and on, … Google Docs is hard pressed to beat that kind of synergy. However, Google Docs has strengths of its own, not the least of which is the experience gap that exists between Google and Microsoft regarding cloud computing. The recent addition of a drawing feature and document privacy controls just adds to the intensity of this techno brawl.
I love this and so should you. The big boys duke it out while you and I benefit from it.
Tech Tip: Abandon the Flash Drive for ‘Cloud’ Computing
June 2010
Many of us carry flash drives to ferry files between our home and work computers. There was a time when this was considered a major step toward convenience. Now, I’m happy to say, there are other breakthroughs we can exploit.
The ‘Cons’ in using flash drives to ferry files are:
- The drive can be lost.
- Contents of the flash drive are easily accessible to anyone if there are no security features activated (Password, Encryption).
- The drive can be damaged physically or electronically (device crushed, data corrupted).
- You have to pay for the drive in most cases.
- If you wish to keep files of differing categories separate (physically or electronically), you have to have more than one drive.
The deficiencies enumerated above, among others, are addressed by a service available to everyone. ‘Skydrive’ is one of several interconnected web applications offered as a suite by Microsoft. The suite is called ‘Microsoft Live’. Perhaps I’ll have an opportunity to reveal more about the other applications in this suite in the near future. For now, this is the info for Skydrive.
Requirement:
- You need a *.hotmail.com/ *.live.com email account.
- The SDExplorer application described below is for Win PC only.
Pros:
- No longer are you tied to a specific computer when you want to work on your files. Your files are accessible from any computer with Internet connectivity.
- 25 GB (Giga Bytes) of ‘Cloud’ storage. Your files are stored on Microsoft controlled servers accessible via the Internet.
- You can work (upload/ download) files as large as 25 MBs.
- Password protected
- You can have a 25 GB Skydrive for each *.hotmail.com/ *.live.com email account you have.
- A program exists to make your Skydrive storage accessible as a ‘virtual’ hard drive. More about this below.
- It’s FREE. All the applications in the ‘Live’ suite are FREE.
You can access and work on the files in multiple ways:
- You can access the files by downloading them to your computer. Once you’ve edited the file, you can upload it again.
- You can access, edit, and (collaborate) share documents if you use Microsoft Live Workspaces (part of the ‘Live’ suite of applications). Currently, creating or editing documents in Workspaces requires access to an installed version of MS Office. Beginning on June 15th, MS Workspaces (via a seamless linkage to your Skydrive account) will allow you to use a web version of MS Excel, Word, and PowerPoint (no need to have these applications installed on your computer). I don’t know if everyone will have access to this feature immediately, but that’s the plan. This launch coincides with the availability of (Desktop version) MS Office 2010. This new Office version is designed to integrate with the online services.
Cons:
- Web applications generally run slower than those running from your hard drive.
SDExplorer
A program that comes in a ‘Free’ and ‘Pro’ version. It provides the following features with respect to the files stored in Skydrive:
- Acts as a ‘virtual’ drive on any Windows PC.
- Opening the file also opens the program that created it, if the program is installed on the computer you are using (ex: MS Word, Excel, etc.).
- No need to use a browser to access your files (one less program to run). You can access them ‘as if’ the files were stored on your computer.
- Only works on Windows PC.
- The ‘Pro’ version expands the feature list for increased user convenience. The ‘Pro’ version costs $13.75 and the license permits installing onto 3 computers and you get lifetime updates when an improved version of the application is available. Most of you will not need the ‘Pro’ version. I’ve used the ‘Basic’ (free) version for a year, though I’m using the ‘Pro’ version now.
Update (10 June ’10): On the 8th, SDExplorer was unable to access my files in the manner described above. When I checked the main website of the vendor, it indicated that Skydrive, a Microsoft product, had undergone a change in its User Interface. That change altered how the files could be accessed by SDExplorer. Therefore, any attempt to see your files on your desktop resulted in a blank screen. What did I learn and wish to pass on to you? Let me count the ways…
- As Microsoft upgrades the features of its online applications (as its scheduled to), any application accessing those services will have to adjust to avoid service interruptions.
- If SDExplorer should suffer another service interruption, rest assured that you can still access your files by logging in to your Skydrive account (also accessible from your hotmail/ Live accounts).
- Accessing your files via the Skydrive website is less than pleasant, to say the least. The Internet connection at my job is slow on a good day. This is why SDExplorer is a wonderful accompaniment application. The speed is refreshing.
- When I contacted Tech Support (via the SDExplorer website) to report the problem I was having accessing my files, I begged for a ‘work around’. They immediately sent me an email message stating that they will contact me with a response in less than 3 days. I said to myself @#%$*. In less than 24 hours I received a response and a link to the updated program. I said to myself HURRAYYYYYYYYYY! I installed the program and all is now well with my soul. My beautiful files were displayed on my desktop. Download the new program file from their website.
- The vendor of SDExplorer was responsive and informative. I appreciate their software more now than before, after trying to access my files via the Skydrive website. I feel confident that should anything arise in the future, this vendor will be right on top of the matter.
Update to the Update (10 June ’10): After correcting the problem of accessing the files, I began working with them and noticed that some files could not be dragged from the SDExplorer window onto my desktop. I kept getting an error message. It turns out that only *.doc files were affected. All other files worked as expected. I submitted another tech support request via the vendor’s website. This time, a solution was presented to me in less than 3 hours. Download this latest updated program from the vendor’s website.
Get more info on Skydrive at http://skydrive.live.com/
Get more info on SDExplorer at http://www.cloudstorageexplorer.com/products.php
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My EMail (Tony Valentin): mr.v@tech4classrooms.org
