Mister Nifty

This is an obligatory post for Google Drive which is a direct knockoff of Dropbox. This week Google Drive went live to the public. If you know about Dropbox, you know everything there is to know about Google Drive. Other than wonky space sharing with their other services (Gmail, Picasa, etc…), Google Drive is an almost feature-for-feature knockoff.

I was a bit perplexed a few weeks back when Dropbox upped my storage limit to 16GB for past referrals, and I’ve never paid them a penny. They now give 500MB for each referral. I also noticed their new file sharing feature went live in the past two weeks for any file outside of the Public folder. It makes quite a bit of sense now. With Google offering a snazzy 5GB of space for storage, they had to up the ante a bit. Certainly Dropbox got the drop on Google to maintain customer loyalty. I wonder if there were elements of cloak and dagger with corporate spies – probably so.

Regardless of who beat who to the punch, I am not going to be using Google Drive. Google has enough of my info and now they want my personal files. Google, by default is a library. They index stuff, and they do it really well. They are notorious for using said personal data (emails, browsing history, etc…) for selling ad spots to advertisers. If you don’t believe me, watch the ads that appear in your Gmail. They are oddly similar to the content in your emails.

The more data we feed the Google machine, the happier it becomes. Google technically knows more about your personal likes/dislikes, habits/behavior, food choices, etc… than the FBI, CIA, and any other government agency combined. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, this is just the facts. The more services we subscribe to, the more information they have access to.

Google has a network device for sale that will index all files on your server for easy searching. They can extract pretty much anything from popular file formats. This is also what they do on the web every second of the day. Don’t think for a second that those same indexing technologies aren’t going to be used on your precious personal files. Google Drive is a gold mine for personal data to the which no company has ever seen before. If the conversion rate is even nominal, the amount of new data is astronomical.

The bottom line here is, think before diving in head first and putting all of your files on Google Drive. This isn’t some neat service they dreamed up to make life easier for everyone, it’s a genius idea for all of us to give them access to data they never could reach before. Privacy agreements quickly become antiquated. What you sign today will most certainly not be the same in a year or five years.

Google Drive is a close cousin to Android. We all know Android was a direct knockoff of Apple IOS, and now Google Drive is quite the same. I’ve included a couple screenshots to compare both menus. They are logically identical with a few semantic differences.

Let me know what you think. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I stumbled on this great password concept. It’s called PasswordCard.   Basically, the site generates a grid of characters and numbers. The headings are wingdings and the rows are numbered.

To create a password, do the following:

1. Choose the length your passwords will be. Eight characters is a pretty safe bet since you are not using dictionary words.
2. Select either a row number or a symbol.
3. Select the direction of your password: up down right left diagonal-left diagonal-right

You can use different symbols/row colors for different categories of services. There are literally thousands of combinations you can choose making it virtually impossible for a hacker to figure out your password.  Plus, most services have a maximum number of attempts you can try login credentials.

Each of these cards are based on a key seen at the bottom of the card. There is an Android and iPhone app that lets you type in your key phrase to access your PasswordCard on your mobile device so you have your card at all times.

Get Your Own PasswordCard

(Tip: Right click on the image and click View Image, then save the image or print it right from the browser.)

If you’ve been drooling over the awesome drag-and-drop file sharing app Droplr and can’t partake because you’re on a PC, today is a day to rejoice. WinDroplr is a Windows application hooked into the Droplr API. It works exactly the same as Droplr on Mac.  Droplr allows you to take screenshots, drag-and-drop files onto your system tray, share text, markdown and code snippets with the greatest of ease. Once you send Droplr your content it outputs a short URL to share with your friends. The best part is Droplr is free.

Download WinDroplr First

Next, Manage Your Files at Droplr

More info about WinDroplr

Email, email, email….how I loathe you and love you all in one. – Author Known -> Me speaking to my inbox at 5:30 this morning.

Most people have a backup strategy for their file systems, yet, many do not backup their communications. To some, email is a necessary evil and would rather user carrier pigeons of old to communicate, while others see email as the lifeblood of their operations. If you are the latter, you need to backup your emails.

This is not a difficult task. In fact, taking 15 minutes of investment now can save you hours of nightmare later. Here’s a simple plan on how to backup your email.

1. If you do not use Gmail already create a primary Gmail account. Gmail offers 7 gigabytes of free storage for your email conversations.
2. Create a secondary Gmail account as a backup email address. Set the user name to your primary account plus the word “backup” (i.e. myemailbackup@gmail.com)
3. Create a Yahoo email account which provides free unlimited storage.
4. Log into your primary Gmail account and click the Settings button.
   • Locate the “Accounts and Import” tab and add any external email addresses you want Gmail to check by adding it to “Check mail using POP3.” You can also forward or CC this primary Gmail account if you use another email provider. Either way, you need all of your external emails to come into Gmail.
   • Click the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab and click “Add a Forwarding Address”. Enter your secondary Gmail account address.
   • Log out of Gmail
5. Log into your secondary Gmail account and click the Settings button.
   • Open the email that was sent to you by Gmail verifying that you own this address and click the link to verify.
   • Click the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab and click “Add a Forwarding Address”. Enter your Yahoo account address.
   • Log out of Gmail
6. Log into your Yahoo account,  open the email sent to you by Gmail to verify address ownership and click the verification link.
7. That’s it! You’re done.

Here is the system we just set up:

We simply set up a triple contingency plan. If you can’t access your desktop or mobile email client, log into your primary Gmail account online. If your primary Gmail server is down (this has happened to me a few times over 5 years), log into your secondary Gmail account. The chances that your secondary account is on a different server is very good. Gmail outages tend to be targeted to specific servers and not the entire application. If for some reason, you can’t log into your secondary account, go to Yahoo! and get your archived emails there.

IMPORTANT! Don’t Delete – Archive Your Email

If you use Gmail as your primary email client, it’s important that you never delete an email to remove it from the inbox unless it’s junk mail. Simply hit the “Archive” button to make them disappear. You can retrieve archived emails through search or by clicking the “All Mail” link. With the space allocation, there is no reason to delete potentially important communications.

Of all the latest file-sharing technology on the web, I’m most excited about Dropbox.   Released at Tech Crunch 50 this year, Dropbox has changed the way people share files.    Here’s how it works.  A simple install will place a dropbox app in your system tray.  It will point to a directory on your computer which becomes your “Dropbox”.   You can specify where you want your dropbox to be located.  I placed it under My Documents > Dropbox.   All you have to do now is create folders and place files in this directory and it will automatically back them up to the dropbox website.  If that isn’t cool enough, you can install dropbox on another computer and it will automatically sync your directories.  When you save a file to one computer, it saves a local copy on the second computer within seconds (depending on file size).   This is a great way to sync frequently used files from an office computer to a home computer.

The most exciting feature about dropbox is that you can create shared folders with other dropbox users.  With shared folders, you can collaborate with other church leaders on events or projects.  An alert message pops up anytime your dropbox changes which allows you to stay up-to-date with what your shared users are saving/creating.  Here’s some practical applications for churches. 1. A pastor works on his sermon at home, saves to his dropbox, prints it at the office with no effort to transfer the file.  2.  A volunteer creative team can easily submit files from home when working on a project. 3. Install dropbox on all church computers linked to the same account.  This is a quick way to create a shared file system instead of purchasing a network drive.

If for some reason you lose your files or if you’re away from your computer, just download them from the web.  I use dropbox to sync our bulletin files with a volunteer who doesn’t have access to our color printer.   When they are finished, I simply open it on my computer and print the job.  Dropbox gives you 2 GB of free storage. If you want more, they have paid plans.  Check it out!!

I am very impressed with this tool that allows anyone to build a form and integrate it on their website.  Form Logix lets you code your forms (advanced users) or simply store your data on their server.  This is a good solution for churches who don’t know how to create forms or databases.  Simply drag-and-drop, name a few components, and publish your form.  Viola!! Your a forms expert.  It’s free for the taking.  Have fun!

If you get stuck, they have great tutorials to help you navigate this wonderful tool!