Safe document writing using Dropbox
Lots of people who write articles or create content in any form, often find themselves generating lots of files. A writer will for instance probably have lots of article drafts laying around. Everyone have different solutions for revision control and backup, ranging from a simple manual file copy to using a full-fledged revision control system such as Subversion.
For everyone else, there is a simple solution for keeping backups of your work in progress, as well as being able to retrieve any previous revision. In addition to all this, it even lets you sync files between multiple computers and access your files online from any computer with internet access.
I guess you know by now that I am talking about Dropbox, a service available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It installs a small application on your computer which monitors a configurable directory for changes and uploads them automatically to the Dropbox servers.
The free version offers 2 GB of space, which should be enough for most people. For photographers and other people dealing with lots of large files, there also a premium option available which gives you 50 GB for $99 per year.
The web interface is beautiful and easy to use for navigating your Dropbox and downloading the files. This is also the place for viewing older revisions for your files and delete, copy, rename and delete them.
A very handy feature is the ability to share folders with other Dropbox users! If you are working together with other people in a project, just share a folder between you and everyone will instantly have access to all changes in the project folder – automatically.
There is even a way of sharing files with non Dropbox users. There is a special folder in the root of the Dropbox named “Public”. Putting files here makes it possible to right-click on the files and copy a public URL for it. To let other people download the file, it’s just a matter of sharing the link with them. They can’t of course make changes to it, nor view its revision history.
Another special folder in the Dropbox root is the Photos folder, which creates instant photo albums for viewing on the web by anyone. This is definitely the easiest way of getting a photo album up on the web, since you only need to copy or move the pictures to this special folder on your computer – Dropbox does the rest.
All iPhone users out there, and possible other phone owners, can access the iPhone web interface too for downloading files in the Dropbox. It is even possible to view the uploaded photo galleries.
There is a tour available on the website which explains all features more in-depth.
Upcoming features include:
- Timeline based undo
- Online visualization for any file type
- An iPhone application/interface that let us download files of interest (pdf, docs, pictures..)
- Watch any folder support (configurable per host)
- Better shared folder controls (permissions, etc.)
- Online edition for text files
- Add friends
- Improve Upload Speed
- Group accounts
If you decide to give Dropbox a go, consider using my referral link when you sign up. That way, both you and I get additional storage for free!
Disclaimer: From this article it may seem like I work for Dropbox, but I don’t. I just like their service a lot!
Notebook 3 – OneNote for Mac?
Since switching to a Mac, there has always been one application for which I haven’t been able to find an equivalent. Windows users will undoubtedly have heard of Microsoft OneNote, which is the de-facto note taking application. Linux users have had Basket which does the same thing, but perhaps not as feature rich as OneNote.
There are lots of good note-taking applications out there for the Mac. None of these do however have the intuitive and easy to use interface bundled with the annotation features of OneNote. Some of the applications I have tried and have been using:
I finally found the Circus Ponies website which have a product called Notebook 3. I watched the screencast which shows most features in the application, and it seemed like a very interesting application to try out – and I was right.
Notebook 3 has everything one needs to read, write, collect and manage large information chunks. It can be used by students, in meetings, project management or almost anything. For an in-depth review, have a look at the above mentioned screencast.
The following image shows off some of the features of the application. Click on it for the full version.
So what are you waiting for? Head over to the Circus Ponies website and download the application.
Do you know other applications for the Mac which have similar qualities as OneNote?
Google Knol — The new online source for knowledge
Google just released a new web application called Knol. It is used to make it easy to share knowledge through article and in-depth guides. The service puts a strong emphasis on authorship, and every piece of information has one or more names behind it. From the announcement:
Knols are authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects.
An article may look like the following, which is a guide on how to backpack.
How to Backpack
Much like Wikipedia, it is possible to make changes or at least propose them, since it is possible to modify the permissions for the written articles.
Collaboration permissions
Support for Adsense is also built-in, which makes it possible for authors to actually make money from the content they publish on the site. If any significant amount of money will be generated by this is another question.
It is very easy to begin writing a new Knol. The interface looks like the following and features a light-weight WYSIWYG editor.
Write a new Knol
Knol might become a competitor for Wikipedia in the future, but I see it not as a competitor, more an enhancement to the online knowledge base. Since there is a real person behind each article, the contents is consistent and could be very reliable if written by a person knswledgable in the particular field.
WordPress for iPhone released
WordPress for iPhone has been released, making it super easy to post to your WordPress blog on the go!
There have been reports on the iPhone crashing when using international characters such as åäö, but it will surely be fixed soon.
I will write a review when I have the opportunity to try it myself.
Micro blogging – Jaiku, Twitter, Plurk, Pownce, Identi.ca
Micro blogging seems to have exploded this last year. Most of it is probably thanks to Twitter, but there are lots of other services popping up, such as Jaiku and Plurk, which have identified the shortcoming of Twitter and extended the service to include the missing features as well as adding more innovative extensions.
If you are new to micro blogging, you should definitely have a look at Twitter in Plain English by CommonCraft. It explains the very concept and how it can be a part of your everyday life:
My favorite micro blogging platform is by far Jaiku. It has the possibility to add “chat rooms” where people can add common entries, much like a chat. It also has proper support for comments, while Twitter does not. The one thing Twitter does have is an extremely large user base, and it does as well have lots of third-party applications for easier entry of “tweets”.
Since I like using Jaiku for the innovative features, I still want to be able to be part of the large user base of Twitter. This leads to services such as Ping.FM, Socialthing and hellotxt. These services enables you to add these messages to different platforms at the same time, while only posting once!
You can add me on the following networks:
They all basically contain the same posts, except for responses and other platform specific features.
Full Circle Magazine issue 4 – not only new content
The Ubuntu-centric magazine Full Circle Magazine released their fourth issue earlier this week. Of course there is lots of new interesting content as usual, but this time there is another thing to take note of.
The format of the magazine has wandered away from the regular A4/letter format and uses a format perfect for on-screen reading. This is some serious thinking outside the box, and makes for some interesting design opportunities, and constraints.
Great work as always!
Edit: Ops, I accidentally wrote the wrong issue number.
Find time to read a book using DailyLit
I would like to take a few minutes to introduce you to DailyLit. It fixes that feeling you get when you really want to read a book, but just can’t seem to find the time to do so. You will of course not get that flipping-though-dusty-paper-pages feeling that a real book will give you, but it’s a bit more convenient if you spend much time in front of your computer.
The main idea is that you first go to their website and find a book you want to read. They have a fairly large library containing many classics such as Moby Dick, Crime and Punishment and The Count of Monte Cristo. You then enter your email address, a period and a time. Chunks of the book will then automatically be emailed to you at said time. These chunks are small enough to read within a few minutes, but large enough to not lose the story itself.
If you have a fairly modern phone or a PDA, you could of course fetch those emails right there and do something worth-while on your commute to work.
Experiences from a full time freelancer
Full time freelancer Cameron Moll has written an article about what to think about when doing the leap of going solo. It is an interesting read, and if you are seriously considering doing something like this, do have a look at the article and evaluate your options.
In his article he describes the top ten things to think about, and some of the headings are “Avoid Monday deadlines” and “Say ‘no’ as often as you say ‘yes’”. There is not much else to say except to read the article already!
The proper way to markup books
Most people think twice before jotting down notes and jots in their books, but maybe that is what creativity is all about?
Bert Webb of Open Loops has written a nice article about how one can take notes in books, and also some pointers on what to note.
“One of the most effective ways to get the most out of a book is to mark it up”
If you are like me, you don’t like the feeling of ruining books when writing in them, there is a cure for you too — Use post-its!
Have a way with words? Try 100 words!
For all of you out there who enjoy writing and would like a challenge, there is a place on the net called 100 words. The concept is simple:
WRITE ONE HUNDRED WORDS, NO MORE, NO LESS, EVERY DAY.
Well, every day for a month to be exact, but you get the picture I guess. I still have not entered, but hopefully I will have the time and energy to begin next month.