Digital Cheat Sheet

When you get on the computer the last thing that you often think of is backing up for data. If you use your computer for more than Facebook or Twitter then your data is probably really important to you whether it be homework, photos, music, financial documents, etc. Most worry about their computer getting infected by viruses so why do they not seem to care about backup? The simply answer is that if you are like me, backing up your files is the least thrilling thing you could do on your computer and since it often requires you to do it by hand this task is often pushed to the side. Mozy is an online backup solution that does a good job of automating this task for you. Mozy Home is $5 a month or $55 for the entire year and gives you unlimited online backup. Since the nature of the beast is online you will need at least a DSL connection to properly use Mozy or any online backup service for that matter.  

The backup service Mozy has a free introductory account that allows you to try out their service. The service is called “Mozy Home” and gives you 2GB of data that you can backup. While 2GB is not a terribly large amount of data, it should be plenty for the homework or financial information that you need backed up. After you sign up for your Mozy account you simply download the Mozy application and install in on your computer. Upon opening the application you will be asked to log into your Mozy account and then the backup wizard will scan your computer. Mozy comes with preset backup sets for stuff like Outlook email, Microsoft Office documents, pictures, videos, etc, but if you want to you can set Mozy to back up any file located on your computer’s hard drive. Depending on your internet speed Mozy may take up to month to completely backup (It took me an afternoon to back up 2GB), but after that whenever you edit or create a new file it will be automatically backed up. Online. Mozy does a good job encrypting your data so that whenever you do back up online nobody, including Mozy, will be able to see your data either when you are backing up or restoring.  

The Mozy Home service is really nice and well worth the $55 a year if you do want to back up the rest of your computer. Mozy is both Mac and PC compatible and the Mozy software does not slow down your computer any more than an open Microsoft Word document. But if you are interested in free online backup to protect your most important school work or personal data I suggest giving Mozy a try.  

Mozy’s Website: www.mozy.com 

-Hunt Henning

Friday, March 5, 2010

Xmarks is a wonderfully simplistic cross-platform, cross-browser (OS support depends on broswer) bookmark syncing tool. The plugin/software is great for backing up your bookmarks from one of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari (icon shown at left), throwing it up into the cloud, and mirroring it to any of the other 3 browsers.

Since your data is thrown into the cloud, you can also access your bookmarks virtually anywhere without installing the plugin. With the plugins installed, Xmarks can add to the bookmarks currently in the browser, overwrite all the bookmarks in the browser (if you've previously synced or you want to start fresh), or do a "dumb" merge where ALL bookmarks will be merged with disregard for duplicates. But you can manually manage your bookmark database using the same web interface as mentioned above or edit them in one browser, force the current catalog of bookmarks to the cloud, and tell all the other browsers to replace their bookmarks with your new, perfectly organized set of bookmarks.

It's a convenient tool for people with multiple computers, or any scenario where sharing bookmarks could be considered a time saver. It's reliable, features encrypted transmission of syncing data, and offers stored password backup (how well this feature works is unknown, though). It's a very worthwhile service to try out if you want to just keep your local bookmarks up-to-date, and it is free in its current "beta" iteration (though nothing about the service feels beta at all).

The service formerly known as Foxmarks may be found at www.xmarks.com. Specific OS & browser support can be found on the downloads page at the same site.

-Albert Wallace

Have you have ever been working on a strange computer and thought "I really wish I could chat it up with my friends"? Meebo solves this as a free online IM service. Meebo begins with you creating a Meebo account, while this is slightly annoying this does come in handy later. After creating and signing into an account you can then sign into any number of Meebo's 40 supported chat services. Of some the more well known services you will most likely recognize services like AIM, Yahoo, Facebook, MSN, and ICQ. The nice thing about Meebo is that you can sign into all of these services at one time and have one unified buddy list for all of your services. Meebo chat allows you to chat with multiple people at one time, play IM games, transfer files, and even video chat via flash. 

What really makes the service handy is on any computer with an internet connection you simply log into Meebo.com and sign into your Meebo ID. After that all of the IM services that you have signed into will automatically log in and you can chat away. Since the service is free there is a variety of downloads for it including a Firefox extension, an iPhone application, and widgets for your website. Meebo chat also allows you to pop out the buddy list and the chat windows so that you do not have to be stuck within a web browser. 

You can check Meebo chat out at: www.meebo.com 

-Hunt Henning

February 19, 2010

Every computer needs virus protection. The Mac platform generally sidesteps this by having a smaller market share than Windows does. Whether Mac or Linux users want to admit it or not Windows is still the market leader for better or worse. I get questions about what kind of virus protection all the time and I generally recommend Kaspersky's Internet Security. The only problem with Kaspersky is that it will run you $70 for a three-PC copy. While you could spilt this between three people or computers, the fact remains that most college students are on a budget. When talking about what free antivirus that I recommend I have started more and more to steer them towards Microsoft's Security Essentials. 

The antivirus is provided by Microsoft for anybody with a genuine copy of Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7. Security Essentials is nice because for a free antivirus it does a pretty good job of protecting you. While it is not quite as good as Kaspersky, if you avoid the sketchy parts of the internet it works just fine. I would not be downloading from Limewire, using adult websites, or internet gambling with Security Essentials, but I do not recommend that anybody participate in these activities for moral and legal reasons. For what is it worth Microsoft Security Essential is also very lightweight and does not have any of the annoying pop-ups of its previous incarnation: Windows Live OneCare. All of that being said I recommend this antivirus to anyone looking for the best free solution for their Windows-based computer. It does what an antivirus should do, it protects you and gets out of your way. In many respects it feels like just another part of Windows.

You can check Security Essentials out at: http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/ 

-Hunt Henning

2/11/2010

Wakoopa is pretty cool application/website that keeps track of your computer usage throughout the week. It monitors what applications you use, how much you use them, and gives you recommendations on other applications to use. The service runs via a tiny application that you download via their website: www.wakoopa.com and it can be installed on PC, Mac, or Linux. The application does keep track of web activity too, but you can easily disable that in the settings. What makes this service so useful is that it gives you great statistics and does a good job of recommending useful software. On the website you can also follow others and see what software they use on a regular basis as well as view alternatives to the software that you are already using. For instances, when I use Microsoft Word on Mac I can click and see that iWork’s Pages is a good alternative. The service is free so it does not hurt to try it, maybe you will discover something interesting about yourself.