Create easy polls to determine best time & locations for get-togethers [Web]: Doodle

Doodle

http://www.doodle.com

One of the frustrating things about setting up meetings with others is the fact that not everyone is on the same calendaring system you are. This being the case, you can’t quickly determine if a person is free during a time you want to schedule your meeting. Sure, you could create a shared Google calendar, but if your meeting attendees aren’t Google users (gasp!) then you need to find something that caters to the lowest common denominator.

I came across Doodle about a month back, and it is elegant in its simplicity. Basically, if you want to schedule a meeting, but don’t know when is the best time for your attendees, you can pick a number of dates/times and have your buddies pick which date would work best for them. No membership is required to use Doodle (either for the administrator/creator or the recipient).

You create the parameters for the poll/meeting schedule, then pick some options (limit one choice per user, for example), allow comments, etc. – and bam! You’re done. Send out the link to the poll provided to you by Doodle, and the site will do the rest.

When a recipient comments on or answers a poll, you will get a notification – very easy! Doodle also provides a quick summary of all poll results.

I can’t tell you how much schedule-wrangling I saved myself by using Doodle. Again, the idea is ridiculously simple, but Doodle executes perfectly. This is one service you need to check out.

Get the skinny on various freeware reviews [web]: Appnews.net

Coming at you from blogger Rarst (from Rarst.net) is a consolidated freeware review listing bringing you links from a few of the biggest freeware blogs out there like Freeware Genius, Rarst.net and Ghacks.net...

Great link summaries if you wanted to look at a single feed for all the good stuff!

Please check it out and support Rarst's efforts.

http://appnews.net/

Update: Spiceworks 4.0 coming in June

Spiceworks, a personal favorite freebie of mine is slated for a 4.0 release in June.



Some of the new non-heartburn inducing spiciness (as mentioned in the 4.0 forums):

• Network maps
• Bulk-editing of objects
• Removal of Glide support (not many people use it)
• IE6 support dropped for reports and admin interface (end user GUI will still be supported)
• Latest Ruby on Rails as a framework, resulting in faster operation
  
• New end-user portal layout
  

In the meantime, if you don't know what Spiceworks is or want to know more about what it does, review this slideshow/video:

Spiceworks Intro

View more presentations from ground047.

Online storage with a twist: DropBox Beta

DropBox Beta
http://www.getdropbox.com/

A few weeks ago, my friend Kevin at work turned me onto DropBox as a way to upload/backup files and share them with others.

The whole online storage thing has been pretty overplayed in my opinion, but this service is a little different so I thought I would talk about it. I've definitely heard of DropBox, mind you, but I've never actually spent the time and actually tried it out. After Kevin showed me how he used it, I decided to give it a try (also, I told him I wouldn't post before he did on his blog).

Now, DropBox isn't like every other online storage service - - or at least not like the Microsoft SkyDrive service which I do use...DropBox works like this:

• You sign up for service, install client utility on computer 'A'
• Client utility creates 'My DropBox' folder under 'My Documents'
• Client copies/synchronizes contents of My DropBox to your DropBox account
• You install client utility on computer 'B'
• Client brings all files down from your DropBox online account to your 'My DropBox' folder on this computer (B)
• You change a file on Computer B, files get uploaded and then synchronized to Computer A as soon as the client utility connects from that computer

The files and folders inside your DropBox directory get a handy little sync indicator showing if the file has been uploaded or if it is pending upload to the online service. Nice!

Share your DropBox files

The beauty of DropBox is that you have the ability to share an individual file or a whole folder to a user. Simply right-click a file or folder under the 'My DropBox' directory to see the option.

• You share a folder with another user (who has a DropBox account and client loaded)
• Your contents are dropped to their computer - any changes made by them or you is synchronized to/from all computers that are shared (I'm not sure how it handles conflicts as of yet).

When you share a file, you do so via your Public folder. You drop a file into your public folder, right-click it > DropBox > 'Copy public link' then email your recipient the link and thats it! Your recipient can click the link on their side and download the file.

FYI: When you share a folder, your recipient will get a local copy of your shared folder - so, it goes without saying to try and not share a folder with more contents than what your recipient has in free drive space!

Download your folders as a ZIP file

A cool feature that the web site provides is the ability to download a shared folder as a ZIP file. So, if you don't have DropBox installed on a PC, you could download your folders as needed.

Refer to DropBox, get more space

The only downside to DropBox is that the free account is limited to 2Gb - but there is a cool offer for those who send referrals to DropBox. When you refer other users to sign up for the service and they create an account and download the client, you and your friend automatically get an additional 250Mb of free space!

Referral-related free space is limited to 3Gb total, so if you exclusively use a free account, you are limited to 5Gb. You can sign up for a 50Gb plan for $99 a year, which really isn't bad, so if you have a lot of data to synchronize, this might do the trick for you!

Idea: Pyramid scheme!

I would like to see a bit more space for the free users - hey, how about a pyramid scheme type of system for referrals? User 'A' refers 'B', User 'A' gets 250Mb of space, User 'B' refers User 'C' - User A gets 125Mb, B gets 250Mb? Or, if a referral purchases a year's worth of space, the referring member gets a significant increase in space?

I still use SkyDrive, but DropBox is kind of like an Internet attached USB drive where I can keep all my stuff that I really need synchronized (and backed up if my system crashes!).

Image editing with no install: Sumo Paint 1.1/1.0

Sumo Paint 1.1/1.o (if you don't have Flash 10)
http://www.sumo.fi

I don't know about you, but I am a big fan of the Gimp and have been using it for years. It's a huge step up (leap, really) from Microsoft Paint, and it is a few small steps below Photoshop. Of course, the Gimp is free and it truly is hard to beat for the price.

In the last couple of years as 'cloud computing' has become the buzzphrase in the IT industry, we've seen a lot of different online applications become available for general use by the public.

In the genre of image editing, Piknik has been the biggest name, offering much of the same capabilities as Picasa, but again - this doesn't really let you create your own masterpieces. So, Sumo has found a niche that fits nicely with the other cloud apps.

Sumo features the following:

• Layers with blending modes
• Layer effects
• Shape tools
• Brush tool
• Ink tool
• Text tool
• Clone stamp tool
• Eraser tool
• Filters
• Gradient tool
• Gravity
• Custom shape tool
• Shape trails
• Symmetry Tool
• Transform tool
• Magic wand tool
• Lasso tool
• Smudge tool
• Blur tool
• Line tool

...all in Flash.

Operating Sumo is almost identical to running a locally installed application - you can open and save local files, copy & paste and much more.

Honestly, this is one of the coolest implementations of Flash I've ever seen.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Keep track of your friends: Latitude/Google Maps 3.0.1

Google Maps 3.0.1
http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html

Social networking is everywhere: from LinkedIn to Facebook to Twitter to just about everything else in between, you can't escape it. Now Google is joining the fray (again) with the new 'Latitude' service in their Maps product.

Install Google Maps on your phone, enable Latitude (you need a Google account to do this). Your phone will update its location on the map, and if configured, will send updates to your friends' Google Maps as well.

So, if you want to easily meet up with friends or are just plain curious where they are at any time of day (is this a good thing?), you can find out how close by they are - maybe you can get together for an impromptu cup of joe/pint!

From Google's web site:

With Google Latitude, you can:

• See where your friends are and what they are up to
• Quickly contact them with SMS, IM, or a phone call
• Control what your location is and who gets to see it

Enjoy Google Latitude on your phone, PC, or both.

Sharing your location with friends is easy - you can use your existing Google contacts or custom email address and you can also tweak what you share with them.

Additionally, you can set your location manually if you don't want to have your mobile track you

everywhere you go. It would be nice if Latitude allowed you to 'Publish your current location' if you had auto-updating turned off...but hey, maybe next version, eh?

One thing I did notice - I have a Verizon BlackBerry Storm and Google Maps is only using the cell-triangulated location services. As such, accuracy is around 1800-3800 meters. I'm not sure if this is Verizon still locking out a portion of the GPS hardware to BlackBerry maps and VZW Navigator, or if there is some additional coding that needs to be done - - either way, a more accurate GPS would be appreciated (My guess is Verizon). I suppose in cases like that, you could manually set your location if you are meeting up with friends.