A Drive in the Clouds

The editing on my husband’s latest book began a week or so ago, as some of you know.  I do a little bit here and there to help out with proofreading and whatnot, when he asks.  The biggest fear though is losing the work in a computer crash.  If you’ve known us any length of time, you know this has happened to us more than once.  Yeah, yeah, back up, we know!  And we try!  But sometimes crap happens, like when we lost both our computers in 2009-10. 

I happened to come across a couple of articles recently while reading the news and I thought they had some great information – good enough to share.  Apparently Google and Microsoft are competing in a veritable Drive Derby with each other and the storage service DropBox, and are offering some pretty nice packages for users to save stuff in the Cloud.  For free!

Seriously sweet. 

Of course, being Google and Microsoft, they are more than willing to sell you extra space if you need more, too.  But their prices are pretty reasonable, so that’s a good thing. 

For anyone who’s ever lost stuff in a computer crash (and who hasn’t, really?) then the Cloud is for you.  It’s just a matter of choosing which service you want to go with.  Me being the greedy girl I am, I’ll use both, on all my email accounts!  Having lost a few years worth of pictures in the past, I’m going to grab as much Cloud storage as I can get. 

Now my husband has options too.  No more losing 75% of a book’s edits to a drive crash.  (Gosh that one hurt!)

So here are the links to the articles so you can check it out yourself.  I’ll see you in the Cloud!

Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive — What does moving to the cloud mean? | Fox News

You get 5GB of storage for free on Google Drive, which is a pretty good deal, and when you log into Google Documents you’ll notice that all your documents, photos, and attachments have become a part of Google Drive.

The first 2GB of space is free on DropBox.

5 Reasons Microsoft SkyDrive is Better Than Google Drive | PCWorld

SkyDrive offers 7GB of free storage to its users

Also, if you were a SkyDrive user before the recent switch to 7GB of free storage, you can reclaim your free 25GB of storage by visiting SkyDrive’s Manage Storage page.

Plugged In

Well I did it!  I downloaded the latest Firefox V5.  So far it’s okay, and I tweaked it to look much like the V3.6 I was using, so that’s nice.  I’m a little bummed that some of my add-ons won’t work now, specifically the Blog it from Windows Live Writer add-on.   I used that one all the time. 

Such is the price of upgrading.  Not everything works!  But it does seem a bit faster – before I upgraded Darc and I had a little race.  He’d click on a site in his V5, and I’d click on the same one in my V3.6 and we’d see who loaded first.  He always won. 

So while there are a few things I’ll have to get used to, overall it’s pretty good so far.  Hopefully the add-ons I like will catch up.  After all, Firefox isn’t standing still.  They already have V8 in the works and later versions in the pipeline.  Get ready!  The Internet waits for no one!

Socializing

Infographic: Google+ vs. Facebook | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

Soooo, Google+ is a social network?  That’s what that little +1 graphic thingy is about?  Interesting.  The linked article above has a nice graphic showing the differences between Google+ and Facebook. 

I guess this means the marriage between Google and Facebook is off? 

I have come to realize that I don’t want to get in on the ground floor of anything anymore.  I can’t even decide if I want to upgrade my beloved Firefox to the new V5.  Version 4 was really buggy and hinky so I didn’t assimilate, and now 5 is out and I’m thinking I just got 3.6 how I like it, I don’t want to go through the hassle of relearning everything.  Yet.  I’ll wait to make sure the bugs are worked out.  Heh, by that time V6 will probably be out!  I love technology but man, sometimes companies seem in such a rush to get things out that they don’t make sure everything works properly first.  Frankly, I don’t want to be an unpaid beta tester just because some place is in a rush.  One tech giant comes to mind – who shall remain nameless – seems to do this on a rather frequent basis.  It’s annoying, but I think they might have learned a very valuable lesson last time they did that.  The backlash was almost fun to watch.    And in the end, we got a better product for it.  That’s what the free market is all about.  Score!

Have you seen the new Google search thing? 

It’s pretty cool – brings up search results in a magazine format.  Click it and see!  Type in something you love!   

Will you be joining Google+?  Have you already?  Thoughts?

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Buy J Dane Tyler’s Fiction now!

Multiples

I’m a bit of a geek.  Not much, but a little.  My husband had to set up some things on his computer and I volunteered for the task.  Figured out why his Firefox install wouldn’t open the new tab to the page he wanted it to, too.  Now it works like he wants, his computer is set up like he wants, and my guy is a happy computer camper.  In all the years I’ve known him, I don’t think he’s been as pleased with his computer set-up as he is now.

For that matter, that goes for me too. 

My little tablet came in a few days early – joy jumps galore!  I got the Kindle App on there right away and now I don’t have to read on my little 2” phone screen, and I don’t need my reading light.  Now I have a big (by comparison!) 7” tablet screen.  I think I downloaded close to 30 books that night – all free, so the tablet has already paid for itself, and I’ve only gone through the first couple hundred items of Google’s free section.  There are over 15,000 items in there!  It will take me months to go through it too, so I won’t suffer from any reading shortage for probably years.  Hallelujah!  I felt like a junkie getting multiple fixes all at once.  Oooh, that one looks good!  Click!  Hey, I’ve always wanted to read that one!  Click!  And like magic they show up on my tablet, ready for me to dig in.  The thing I love about my tablet is that it does everything my smartphone does, except the phone part, only bigger.  So I can web surf, download apps, take pictures, and have a kick-ass eReader too.  All for less than the cost of a Kindle.  Technology is so awesome.    And I am so grateful.  A mere 6 mos ago the thought of actually owning anything like this seemed like some kind of impossible dream.  God is good. 

My house is a disaster though!  I spent so much time setting up computers and running around and yes, being lazy too, that I didn’t get a wisp of housework done.  It shows!  It’s the kind of day to throw a roast in the oven so I don’t have to worry about dinner while I get my butt in gear and get some stuff done.  Monday has its advantages!  Often it’s nice to get back in the groove, back in the routine of things.  It gives me a sense of accomplishment in a way, and a sense of accomplishment is a wonderful thing. 

So how was your weekend?

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Buy J Dane Tyler’s Fiction now!

Woo

My loving husband sent me an article a few days ago, “Why Internet Explorer will survive and Firefox won’t.”  He knows of my love for Firefox, the one he turned me on to in the first place, to get me away from the pop-up and hacker-friendly  Internet Explorer.  I was kind of sad when I read the article.  If you’ve known me for any length of time, you know how passionate I am about FireFox and being able to use my beloved add-ons.  Oh my gosh I love add-ons!  Once I found them, I barely gave IE a wave goodbye. 

That was in 2005.  Seems like so long ago, and I guess in tech-years, that’s like centuries or something.  I’ve been locked in embrace with FireFox ever since and haven’t regretted it in the least.

Oh, I looked at Chrome.  With a bit of trepidation.  Seems like Google was using it to gather lots of private information. 

Not interested in Opera very much.  There’s nothing wrong with it or anything, it just wasn’t my speed.  Although, they’re coming out with a new version soon. 

This month has been a big month in the “browser wars.”  War?  Really?  Why not battles?  I like the alliterative qualities of that better.  Browser battles.    All three of the biggies made major upgrades this month.  All showing off for our attention, wooing us with their features. 

I read the article my husband sent me.  Looked like FF was on the outs, and IE9 and Chrome were neck and neck for the lead.  IE9 has some bang-up new features, so they say, and Chrome backed off on the privacy issues and also had some cool beans features, and the kids in the know say both have awesome add-ons.

Add-ons?  One of my drugs of choice. 

I went to check it out and frankly, while they’re making great strides, they can’t compete with my beloved FireFox. 

Then I came across these articles: Firefox 4 downloads eclipse Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4 usage share is twice Internet Explorer 9 in half the time.

So it looks like FireFox just might be around longer than the writer of the first article thinks.  Heh.    I sure am happy about that!

But I’m playing with IE9 and Chrome anyway.  I guess it’s good for a girl to know a bit about the other prospects in the neighborhood. 

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Tuesday Tootsies

Technology and shoes, what could be better?  Actually, lots, but that’s not the point of Tuesday Tootsies.  These are some interesting things I found when I did a search for technology+shoes. 

This first set is kind of cool.  They’re designed to change colors as you exercise.  Kind of a nifty motivation, right?  If you’re watching your feel while you work out, that is. 

This pair is for those who are always jammin’ on the go.  Talk about step to the beat!  Mp3 players in your shoes.  Keen. 

Here we go.  For those who simply must have their Gameboy with them at all times.  I’m not sure how one plays with their toes, though. 

 

Here’s my favorite.  GPS shoes for streetwalkers.  Because serial killers never, ever, take the shoes off their victims. 

That’s my take on Tootsies this week.  I love technology and I love shoes, but now I’m thinking they might not always go so great together. 

As always, click the pics for links.