Tag Archives: cloud

by Michelle Lentz

Google has added a standalone contact manager for users who either don’t use Gmail or for those who want to access their contacts without dealing with their mail. For Outlook users who want to also manage their contacts in the cloud, this is a great option.

You can access this feature from http://www.google.com/contacts. There aren’t any new impressive features, but you can still import contacts from common email applications. (You need to use the free A to G app for Apple Mail.)  If you have a GMail account, your GMail contacts appear here. If you are a Google apps user, the Contacts Manager needs to be enabled by your administrator from the “Add more services” link at the Control Panel.

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by Michelle Lentz

I need your suggestions.

I keep a lot of my older data on two external drives: a Seagate 250 GB hard drive holds all my photos from 2002 forward, music, video, and other personal files. A 1 TB Western Digital holds all my business-related items.

Some of this stuff is scattered between my two laptops as well, but mostly not due to space considerations.

This has always worked well for me – until yesterday.

I plugged in my Seagate to grab my holiday playlists only to discover that there is no data on my Seagate. It’s telling me I need to reformat my drive – that it’s a blank disc. What? I’ve tried it on several different computers at this point, both PC and Mac. I’ve accepted that my data is somehow, magically gone.

Now, my music is backed up on my iPod and my photos since 2005 are on Flickr. But everything else? Not so much. This has convinced me, more than anything else, the benefits of also having an off-site backup. You know, in the Cloud.

I know there are a bunch of companies out there, such as Drop.io. I have around 200 GB of data, and that will only increase. What do you recommend for price, capacity, and ease of use? Leave your thoughts in the comments. I hope to have found something by next week, and believe me, I’ll take your suggestions to heart.

Thanks, and happy Thanksgiving!

Photo Credits:
- Lost Data
– King Cloud

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email at michelle[at]writetech.net, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.

by Brian Solis

Here’s a fun new online service for you enjoy for a bit…

Wordle is a “toy” (self described) for generating word clouds based on a manually created word list or the frequently used words from any URL, blog, or RSS feed. Wordle can also generate word clouds from any delicious user based on their tagging pattern.

Every cloud can be further customized by color, font, layout, design, and size. Depending on your vision or creative inspiration, some of these word clouds can be quite stunning and moving.

Here’s a word cloud that I manually created as a word-based representation of the Conversation Prism.

View the galleries of other Wordle creations here.

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by Michelle Lentz

I speak at a lot of events. Consequently, there is a pile of business cards on my desk. Literally a pile. I dig through it now and then because I remember a contact I made, but by the time I’m back home, I’m too behind to put a lot of effort into the cards I’ve collected. I even have a business card scanner I never use because I hate the software. So I’m intrigued by Cloud Contacts, a new startup from Allen Stern (of Centernetworks).

It’s a startup with a business model. Even in their current beta state, it costs money. That’s smart, right off the starting block. It also solves a problem that I have, and I’m obviously not the only one. Cloud Contacts takes that pile of business cards and converts them into useful information.

Here’s what happens:
You grab that pile of cards and send them into Cloud Contacts. You can pay for the shipping yourself, or have them send you a mailer for $2.50.  For $30, you can have up to 100 business cards converted into contacts and stored “in the cloud.” It gets better. You can access these new contacts from anywhere, and they are easily imported into most address books. Additionally, it appears that Cloud Contacts will find social networking information for your new contacs, which is something I never have time to do.

Cloud Contacts offers several packages based on the number of business cards you need converted, up through $500. I have a huge conference coming up in November, so I may give this service a shot. What are your thoughts on this? Would you rather use a card scanner? Do you have other methods for inputting and following up on business card contacts?

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology. You can also catch Michelle presenting on Twitter at the upcoming DevLearn ’08 in San Jose.

by Michelle Lentz

GoGrid has launched a viral campaign to inform and illustrate cloud computing. Now, I’m pretty sure I have my finger on the general concept of cloud computing, but really, how much do I need to know? Michael Sheehan, Technology Evangelist of GoGrid, explained it to me this way:

“The point about “the cloud” is that you shouldn’t have to worry about where the servers are (meaning where the provider of the cloud service is). You could have multiple data centers around the world, but to the buyer of the service, it is just that, a service. And to the end-user, it shouldn’t matter (much like you don’t really care where your Gmail account server is…you probably hit multiple data centers around the world depending on where you are accessing it).”

I found the GMail example really hit home. I think there are a lot of people out there who care a lot about where the data centers are located and such, but the average user? Not so much.  So, back to that viral campaign. GoGrid has several rather funny videos out there, accessible via the fun nohardware.com or via YouTube. I’m just going to post one, as video and I are often at odds, but here are links to the others:

Cloud Computing in Plain English (an homage of sorts to Common Craft), which made me laugh several times

NoHardware.com – video 1, with guns a blazing.

NoHardware.com – video 2, equally as fun and, yes, REAL. That one is posted below.

The point being, of course, is to stop worrying about whether your server is bulletproof and just get comfy in the Cloud.

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology. You can also catch Michelle presenting on Twitter at the upcoming DevLearn ’08 in San Jose.