The Digital Landscape

I have been working with the new Microsoft releases lately, trying to decipher what I like and what I don't. Skydrive is awesome, what's not to like about 25 GB of free cloud storage? Unfortunately, there's lots more where that came from.

The most widely known of Microsoft's new exploits is Windows 8, which I have been working with, more on that another time. But in the process of looking into the way Windows 8 has been rearranged, it is very clear that Microsoft is trying hard to integrate cloud use with computer and phone use and wrap it all up in a nice little four colored ball with a Windows logo on it. Skydrive has always been accessible over the web, but Microsoft only made an access app for iPhone/iPad, and for Windows phones, and left out the Android world, Well, there's always more than one answer to a puzzle, and a third party developer produced a Skydrive Browser for Android, making those documents available pretty much anywhere with just a couple clicks.

Now Microsoft wants to provide that same experience. They have hit the phone market, light years behind Apple iOS and Google's Android.  Microsoft's desire to catch up has led them to come up with another way to streamline and integrate our online needs with our computing experience, and has now integrated Hotmail/Live username as the logon for Windows 8. Then there are "tiles" giving direct access to various areas of online existence, among those Skydrive and Mail. While they are squaring away the last mods on Windows 8, they are working on launching yet another revamp of Hotmail/Live Mail/MSN that is now called Outlook.com which is up for preview right now. The interface is very streamlined, much similar to Windows 8 look and feel. Labels and folders help the organization process, and there is even an automated cleanup option.

That is, if you can ever get into it. I signed up for a preview, and got into the account after typing in three different captchas, then changed some settings, logged out and went about other items. Went back, and after numerous captchas, a text message verification, and an email verification, it still apologized for having me prove I was human. Two more captchas and I got back in, feeling quite relieved that I didn't have anything pressing in that account. Revolutionary, whether we need it or not.

Cloud Based Storage

With life going along madly, needs have a tendency to change, as mine have recently done which has put me in the market for some cloud storage accessible to all the different devices and operating systems I use. The fact that I use Gmail automatically put Google Docs out of the running, I am hoarding my space there and don't want to use it for the docs I have in mind.

So what's left? I knew of some and went to research others. There's the ubiquitous DropBox, but with only 2 GB of free storage, I knew I could find better for the money. And for my purposes, free is the currency I seek. So on to other providers. Now I am not talking online backup, I need usable documents through any web browser, so storage is the keyword. I noticed that Amazon is offering 5 GB free storage, and thought it might suit. But what else? So I took to Google. While not being the provider for me, it could still help me find my quarry. I located and read several articles written by people who had detailed and compared the available options. While their needs differed from mine, I still found the information useful and it saved me hours poring over the options and possibly finding much later that the seemingly correct choice would not work for some key reason. I strongly considered SugarSync, again a 5 GB account free. It would surely work, but being the data hoarder that I am, I kept reading.

And where do you think the storage winner came from? Haha, surprised me, Microsoft!! And as time goes forward I see some evidence that this particular option, SkyDrive, will become even easier to use. It is being worked into Windows 8 and is already connectible through Office 2010, and therefore through Windows 7 making it accessible through Windows Explorer. How easy can it get? Well, this doesn't hold true through Mac OSX or in Android or iOS, but even there it can be accessed through a web brower, Firefox, Safari, Dolphin, take your pick. And while there isn't a clear winner across the board, I do like this option.

And then today, what do I read in my feed but that yet another even larger option exists, albeit temporarily. Box, a provider with an Android app, is offering a whopping 50 GB free for life for all who sign up before March 23. Now if you want some sort of sync capacity, this isn't your best option, but for simple cloud storage, count me in! Now I can already hear those of you who think like I do, "What about security?" Cloud services have excellent security, and for the basic information I seek to store, there is no risk to me even in the unlikely event that the files are compromised. Naturally, I don't wish it, but there's nothing personal in any of this data. I doubt seriously that I even scratch the surface of these capacities, but knowing that keeps me from scrimping. Save it, by all means!!

Free Software Picks

Top 10 lists are sooo subjective, but still, I read them just to see what other people are interested in, and I recently read one from InfoWorld that is so terribly lame I can't imagine the dude that wrote it. Well, that's not quite true, I can, and there's the rub. His list is supposed to be about 10 top free windows apps, and it's a joke. I mean come on, ClamWin? Sure, if there's a problem it might serve in a pinch but only till you can get something else. If you want free and useful, grab AVG and put it to work for you. People ask me if it's any good, and my answer is that I have used it to clean systems infected while running both Norton and McAfee, so what's not to like? The only time I have ever seen anything that should have been caught get past was a zero-day attack that came through Weather Bug. That was a particularly nasty little infection and the folks at Weather Bug were quite responsive, and sure enough next day it was on the news. But ALL security programs are vulnerable to zero-day issues, that's just the nature of the beast. And by zero-day, that's the day it first strikes the first victim. Like the first case of plague. Yuck. http://free.avg.com/us-en/free-antivirus-download

So that's number one. Number two, and this is an amazing little utility that I use in addition to Acrobat Pro because it renders tables better, is PrimoPDF. It's a piece of software that installs as a printer. When you have something you want to keep like web receipts or documents for email, click print and select PrimoPDF as the printer. Bam, you've got a free little PDF file. http://www.primopdf.com/

Number three, and this isn't even something you have to install, but it's the best group of productivity utilities out there. Google. Simple. But more than just search, I'm talking Gmail, documents, calendar, contacts, the whole nine. It's tailor made for groups to collaborate or for people to keep things running no matter where they are. You can give other people access to your accounts, or you can simply all share the same login when managing group accounts. It doesn't require an Exchange server, and works like a charm with any phone. And yes, I mean any email capable phone. I was accessing gmail from my ancient clamshell phone, just slowly. http://www.google.com

So you don't want to edit documents online? Here I have two answers. If all you really want to do is write an occasional letter, then AbiWord is it. It is available both as a full install and also as a USB portable application, which will let you run it on any computer where you can hook up the drive and it doesn't leave trails behind it. http://www.abisource.com If you want the whole enchilada, time for OpenOffice. Looks and acts like its namesake, but way cheaper! http://www.openoffice.org/

Graphics, and by this I mean like photo manipulation, there's the old standby from way back when out of the Linux world, and that's Gimp. What a name, right? But the Gimp is the bomb! http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ Unfortunately it's a little nerdy, so there's some folks out there that tweaked it to make it act more like PhotoShop, which means you can look up a tutorial on Google using Photoshop and with not a lot of alteration come up with the means of making Gimpshop do the job. http://www.gimpshop.com/, http://download.cnet.com/GIMPshop/3000-2192_4-1065 0582.html

Okay, so that's the top 5. Productivity focused, the bare bones you can use to get yourself up and running with nothing more than a computer and an internet connection. But all work and no play, right? So here's the top toys, for the whopping price of, NOTHING?

Music is first on most people's list and for free listening there's more than one way to go. Pandora is my favorite. It is based on musical preferences, and you can set up channels that play particular types of music. For instance, I have a bluesy channel that I tweak that plays Clapton, Skynyrd, Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray, and others that I hear for the first time by groups I don't know. But Pandora finds those and pops them in for me so I don't need to know. Bonus! Then once you're set up, you can stream it with your phone using their app. http://www.pandora.com/

Another music option when you want to choose your own music is Rdio. They recently launched a free version, restrictions but no ads, that will get you going. There are paid plans, too, depending on what you want. http://www.rdio.com/

I usually listen to books, though, when I listen to anything. Keeps the brain focused, sometimes it wanders off into some strange places when left unattended. And books for free! Count me in! Through the library, there are several sources to download and listen to audiobooks, both MP3 and WMA format. My favorite is EbscoHost, used to be NetLibrary. There's a mobile app or I can load it onto my MP3 player. Download and go! http://www.poudrelibraries.org/catalog/download.html

Some folks would rather read than listen, and you don't need a Kindle to do that! Get the apps for the computer and the phone, and access loads of free classic titles through Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docI%20d=1000426311&tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=7893047648&ref =pd_sl_3ies3d4yuc_b

So for number 10, playing around or not, gotta be Firefox. And this is not number 10 on the priority list, I saved the best for last. For everything that you just read about, the best way to access it and use it is Firefox, hands down. It's been out there doing its thing the longest, and has extensions and add-ons galore to tweak it to work however suits you best. There is never a one size fits all, ever, and this application allows for people anywhere to build add-ons that create the functionality that they want. Then those folks share those tidbits with the rest of us and we, too, can customize our browsers till they are molded to our forms. And again, like the majority of these, it comes portable, too! http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

Buried Virtually

I know someone who absolutely, positively, unwaveringly refuses to own or condone a smart phone. And I get the point. To a degree. The argument goes that the smart phone is just another way for already overburdened and harried individuals to be forced to carry more workload and stress themselves out even further. I mean, how can you go on vacation when your email follows you everywhere and you can research any project at any time and edit that Google doc that the team needs and schedule a meeting and attend a web conference and EVERYBODY KNOWS IT?

So, okay, I get that part. And the temptation is always truly there to take care of these things in the middle of the night, and sometimes I secretly do just that. But other times, especially when the mountain is just getting so tall, I remember Nancy Reagan and I just say NO! As in Not Online. Not going online, not acknowledging online just keep me away from it and it from me. And you know what, it works. The alerts turned off, the phone silenced, nothing coming through (unless I am really online but *GASP* not working??).

The temptation is still there just to peek at the email, keep the pile from piling, the stacks from stacking, and the docs from docking, but why? Somebody else is just gonna come along and pile and stack and doc me again, so really, what IS done? Clue: It's the yeti's cousin who lives up in the mountains and howls elusively down at us as we struggle to emerge from our smart phoned world and taunts us that we are down here buried and he's running around free. Nobody has ever seen him and lived to tell, the only ones that can accurately identify him are those that have been "done in" and they don't tell tales. Or "done for" but they really haven't seen him yet, they just think he's on the way.

In other words, the phone is a tool like everything else. But now, I can if I choose get some things done while I am out doing fun stuff that otherwise I wouldn't be getting to do because I really should be in front of the computer monitor but I don't wanna right now. Like those Colorado commercials for the bank where they say they get us? Call in to work because of 6 inches of snow and drive through 12 to ski? Yeah, you know who you are. So smart phones are more like that, the office we don't really have to sit in. For the rest of you, one word. Really?

Speech Recognition

Okay, I admit it, I'm weird. I watch documentaries over dramas, prefer history over fiction, and would just generally like to learn something whenever I can. Don't know when or how that started, but I can remember as a kid being taken to historical sites and being fascinated, trying to think what it would have been like to be there when history was being made. (Although one of the biggest things I remember about Gettysburg was the dead copperhead in the bottom of the trash barrel.) I have always liked figuring out how things happen, how they work, and how they connect. So maybe it was just inescapable that I was a Trekkie before the term existed. Lots of other folks were, too, and the futuristic technology from the show inevitably made its way into our reality. Even the speech control.

Windows 7 supports it natively, which has camps sprouting up on the side of the old standby Dragon, and in the opposite corner with Windows. I have worked with both, and overall there are pros and cons with each. As with lots of computer changes, it is generally most comfortable to stay with what you know, but if price trends and stability reports are any indication, Dragon may be on its way out. So heads up to any of you hard core Dragon users, be prepared to have to consider some further changes down the road. Who knows? Maybe they can work out the bugs that plague it with Windows 7 installs, maybe not. Heck, it took Microsoft a couple years to work out the Vista kinks and release 7, maybe Dragon is just in the same situation. Either way, there will be options, it just isn't going to be like Scottie issuing engineering commands on the Enterprise for a long time still.