I use Dropbox religiously. I own a laptop, two personal desktops, and an internet cafe full of computers, not to mention I’m constantly on the go with my phone. Since you can’t selectively sync folders on your computer with Dropbox, I’ve moved my entire My Documents folder to the Dropbox. Continue reading →
Interesting
5
Oct 09
How to Dropbox your Firefox/Thunderbird Profiles
23
Jan 09
Dropbox is Amazing
I’m almost floating in the cloud. I wrote earlier about ditching my laptop and I just found another awesome app that does the file syncing I’ve been longing for.
It’s called Dropbox, and it’s amazing. Essentially Dropbox allows one to create a special folder on their hard drive which will sync anything in there with whatever computers you have your Dropbox account on. If you run a Mac, Windows and a Linux box you can have speedy up to date sharing of files. All of your files are also kept remotely on Dropbox’s servers where you can access them anywhere.
Your Dropbox web interface allows you to share folders and files with friends or even with the public. They also handle images really well with auto creation of galleries just by dropping photos, or folders with photos into the Photos folder in your Dropbox.
I used to play around with trying to sync my USB keys with my laptop but things kept screwing up. Dropbox is another slick example of how you can ditch your laptop.
I use the following services which I can essentially operate from anything with a web browser and an Internet connection:
- For my homepage I use Netvibes. It’s really awesome and displays my RSS feeds, Digg, email, and bookmarks in a great way.
- My main email address is hosted with Google Apps for your Domain. It’s basically a free and private GMail install that directly uses my ericwarnke.com domain instead of a gmail.com account. I would even pay for this if I had to.
- Along with Google Apps several of my friends and I use Google Docs to take notes together in class as well as collaborate on all the group assignments we need to do. Working on the same document at the same time kicks ass. We tried Microsoft Office Live for a bit as well but the versioning ended up sending us back to Docs.
- All my bookmarks are kept on Delicious. I’ve used this for a few years and their Firefox plugin is a life saver. I’ll never use any browser based bookmarks again.
- Now I use Dropbox
So my email, bookmarks, homepage, and now my files are all going to be available basically whenever I need them!
7
Jun 08
New Open-Mesh Routers
A few days ago my shipment of Open-Mesh routers arrived! They’re super small and really cool.
Here are a bunch of pictures of me opening them.
The setup was really simple, just like the Meraki routers. Basically you need to plug in on of the repeaters to an internet and power connection for 5 minutes so it updates and then the WLAN lights will start flashing, this means it’s ready to rock. Then you just log in to Open-Mesh.com and add the router’s MAC or IP address to the network and BOOM, it’s broadcasting.
To expand the network you just add more routers and place them around. A repeater doesn’t have an internet cable connection, it just picks up the closest wireless signal from the same network and rebroadcasts it. A gateway has an internet connection and therefore a stronger signal.
Right now I have one router sitting in the window at my cafe. I’ll make another post soon to explain why 
19
May 08
Free Hugs Campaign
I’m sitting in my internet cafe with my good friend, Rob Davy. We’re working on a new website project to do with equestrian classified ads.
For the last few hours we’ve watched a group of people across the street in front of Starbucks holding up “free hugs” posters. I’ve seen this before around town and at university. From official home page for the Free Hugs Campaign:
Free hugs is a real life controversial story of Juan Mann, A man whos sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives.
In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal.
I’ve always liked the idea of the FHC, it’s something I think that brings everyone involved closer together, mentally and physically. I personally wouldn’t go and stand on a street corner because I have other priorities, but I have hugged a person or two in the past.
11
May 08
Joomla! is Cool
Update: Joomla sucks balls.
I’m reading up on Joomla! It’s a seriously kick-ass open-source application. I’m a bit miffed that I haven’t taken a closer look at it until now.
The reason I’m reading up on Joomla is because I accepted the IT Director’s position for the Alberta School of Business Students Association (BSA). It’s not a “real” IT Director’s position where I implement new grandiose technologies and run a huge department or anything. This is basically a service position for the students where I help maintain their website, publish updates, work with the Students Union to do our BSA elections, and help students get personalized business cards if they want. The great thing is I can do this while I’m in Germany.
Rob, one of my best friends and my employer for the summer, and I are going to try and rework his old site Equine Edmonton, I’m going to suggest we use Joomla! to streamline any problems we’ll run into.
Does anyone see a problem with doing contract web design and then implementing prefabbed infrastructure like WordPress of Joomla!?