- Security - gives you a copy of the file on your hard disk and in the cloud
- Ease of access - keep multiple machines up to date with the same versions of files
- Share access to work on files with a group
- Even access from your smart phone
- Safer and more reliable than memory sticks (unless your phone is insecure)
Michael Veale's blog. Varied posts with special interest in business technology and economics
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Dropbox - an easy way to share files without emailing
For anyone operating without Dropbox, I strongly suggest reading this short review. I have been using it myself for a couple of years and it is great for the following:
Friday, March 11, 2011
Finding the interesting news using news aggregators
What does it do?
A news aggregator is software that allows you to collect sources of changing information (such as the BBC and FT) and sort the articles into an order that is useful to you. The paper equivalent would be having an assistant prereading the newspapers that you specify and arranging the articles in the order that you would find most interesting.
What's so good about that?
You probably don't have time to read a newspaper from cover to cover or to read every article from every source that you would like to. By sorting them in order, you can concentrate on reading the most interesting or important articles first and read others only if you have time. Better than that, many readers monitor what articles you actually read so they can continually update their model for what you will find interesting in future.
Is it free?
It certainly can be. I use Google Reader which is free.
How can I use it?
Google Reader has its own instructions but in a nutshell, when you find yourself reading an interesting article on any website, look for an RSS logo like this:
If it has one, cut and paste the URL into Reader (using 'add a feed') and that will be added as a news source. Easy.
Will it work on my Smartphone?
Yes. I use an Android phone and can access my news in 3 ways:
A news aggregator is software that allows you to collect sources of changing information (such as the BBC and FT) and sort the articles into an order that is useful to you. The paper equivalent would be having an assistant prereading the newspapers that you specify and arranging the articles in the order that you would find most interesting.
What's so good about that?
You probably don't have time to read a newspaper from cover to cover or to read every article from every source that you would like to. By sorting them in order, you can concentrate on reading the most interesting or important articles first and read others only if you have time. Better than that, many readers monitor what articles you actually read so they can continually update their model for what you will find interesting in future.
Is it free?
It certainly can be. I use Google Reader which is free.
How can I use it?
Google Reader has its own instructions but in a nutshell, when you find yourself reading an interesting article on any website, look for an RSS logo like this:
If it has one, cut and paste the URL into Reader (using 'add a feed') and that will be added as a news source. Easy.
Will it work on my Smartphone?
Yes. I use an Android phone and can access my news in 3 ways:
- Use the web browser to go to Google Reader
- Use the Google Reader App
- Use the My6sense App
My preference is the My6sense App which will can import all the feeds from Google but also picks up Twitter and Facebook and ranks the whole lot in interest order - and continues to learn about what you find interesting. It just gets better and better.
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