Cynergise - Social Media Consultancy by Chandesh Parekh » Mobile Working

Handling Computer Accidents With Online Backup Tools

Sol Shah — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 03:00:21 +0000

Our client and good friend Kavit Haria had a very bemused look on his face earlier this week – the kind of look that you find when someone asks himself “How in the world did I manage to do that!?”

You see, it had only just gone noon on Monday afternoon, and he was sipping away on his honey and lemon hot drink while working away on the laptop. We’ll let Kavit tell you the rest of the story…

Today, at about 12.15, when working and drinking honey and lemon, I spilt it over my laptop by serious mistake. The laptop now doesn’t turn on. I called Dell quite a bit and they have arranged for someone to call me tomorrow to give me a quote for repair and then they’ll pick it up if I agree.

My literature review is the most important file on there – it has taken time to write and I’ve got a deadline to meet in 2 weeks time. However, I remembered that 3 weeks ago I signed up to www.mozy.com as an online backup service and now, luckily, all my files are backed up and the version from last week 6th Nov is saved online. I am now using another computer and have just downloaded my file here. I had only written 4 new paragraphs earlier today so I can rewrite that, rather than 8 pages of scientific stuff!

Anyway, I will wait for the repair quote tomorrow. If it is too high, I’ll just have to pay a bit extra and I’ll get a new laptop as I don’t need any other files as everything of mine is backed up online luckily.

I am now leaving the laptop to dry till later this evening and will try again to see if it works.

This email was just to inform you…

Kavit

P.S. Check out www.mozy.com for home or office!

I’ve just had news from Kavit – his laptop is still kaput, so looks like he’ll most likely be ditching this laptop and getting himself a mac this Christmas. What’s great is that all his files are backed up remotely and now retrievable.

So the message here folks is back up your files frequently. Simply mozy on over to www.mozy.com for all your online backup needs!

Share This

Is Google Phone On The Way?

Chandesh Parekh — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:40:45 +0000

I’m a big fan of Google and especially its attitude toward making its services accessible to all so I’m getting pretty excited about the rumour going around the Internet that the Google Phone is due out in the first quarter of 2008. Google has already made the web largely accessible to computer users and is now extending their ethos to mobile phones.

But, what is the Google Phone all about? From what I gather, Google will first release software that will be compatible with the hardware from phone vendors before actually releasing it’s own range of phones. This last bit is still a bit foggy but it seems the software release is imminent.

The software will bundle Google Mail, Google Maps, Search and YouTube for video-sharing. However, the best part of this software is that it will be ‘open’ so that developers can actually build additional phone features.

What does this mean for you and me? Just that we’ll get access to some of the best free web applications on our mobile phones.

Share This

Scheduling An Event Is A Doodle

Sol Shah — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 04:00:37 +0000

When you have two or more people who want to attend a meeting and are working out each other’s availability, sending emails across to everyone and getting schedules to align can get pretty taxing.

Not anymore! Doodle’s here – this simple cool free online application helps you plan a meeting time or location that suits everyone best, without the mess of sifting through emails to work out who’s available when.

So the next time you’re planning a meeting – tap into the power of www.doodle.ch.

Share This

No related posts.

Microsoft reveals Office Live Workspace (OLW)

Chandesh Parekh — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 13:05:34 +0000

Microsoft extended its web strategy by unveiling Office Live Workspace (beta), an online sharing repository for Office documents. Not what many thought would be Microsoft’s answer to Google Docs, this service actually extends Office to the online space.

To use OLW, you need to have a registered version of MS Office 2003 or 2007. The site provides 250MB of space to share documents with other users, though does not have the ability for the user to create or edit documents. Microsoft says OLW will play nice with other office suites too, though there probably will be some compatibility issues.

It’s a smart play by MS as users will still need to own a registered copy of Office as will any other users who they may want to share documents with.

Personally I think OpenOffice used together with Google Docs can do the same job with these added advantages over OLW:

Neither I nor the users I share docs with have to pay anything as both OpenOffice and Google Docs are free to use
Google Docs doesn’t have a cap on space as opposed to OLW’s 250MB which won’t be enough for serious users.

Which would you use and why: MS Office/OLW or OpenOffice/Google Docs for your business? Post your comments below…

Share This

How To Get More Life Out Of Your Laptop Battery

Sol Shah — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 04:00:19 +0000

Laptops are brilliant for portability, yet can be great betrayers. I’m out in Kenya for a month, and relying on my laptop battery more than ever – you just don’t know when you’ll next get reliable access to a mains supply for recharging the laptop!

As part of the natural ageing process or due to active use, batteries eventually get worn down – sometimes even when not in use. Do you use a laptop? Here’s how you can get more life out of your laptop battery:

Be Screen Smart: Lower the use of graphics by changing the screen resolution, shutting off fancy graphics drivers, and dimming your screen – this will all save battery juice.
Turn Off All Unused Devices: If you’re not using connected USB devices, WiFi, or Bluetooth, disconnect them or turn them off. Also, minimise CD/DVD use, because optical drives are one of the worst at consuming power – they spin, taking power, even when not actively being used.
Unplug When Charged: When the battery is fully charged, unplug it from the mains and let the laptop use it’s own battery, until all the juice runs out. The more you overcharge your battery, the smaller the amount of charge it will hold the next time.
Add More RAM: Having more RAM allows you to process more, whereas relying on virtual memory which means hard drive use – hard drives tend to use much more power than your RAM sticks.
Keep It Clean: Watch how your laptop operates more efficiently while it’s cooler! Your air vents can be cleaned out with a cloth or keyboard cleaner. Your battery’s metal contacts can be cleaned with a cloth moistened with alcohol – do this every few months and it’ll keep the transfer of power from your battery more efficient.
Focus On One Thing At A Time: All the programs that run on your computer concurrently will add to the central processing unit load, which cuts down battery life. Aim to do one thing at a time while you’re on battery, rather than working on a spreadsheet, listening to an online radio show and letting your email client run in the background. Adopt this for your work in general – you’ll quickly recognise the power of focus!
Defragment Regularly: Defragmenting takes all the various parts of a file on your computer and puts them next to each other, which means less work for your disk drive when locating files, and therefore less battery power used.
Go Into Hibernation: Rather than putting your computer in standby mode, hibernating a PC will actually save it’s state as it is, and complete shut itself down. When you want to continue working, simply turn your computer on, and you can continue working where you left off.

So there you go – the power of portability, blended with battery smarts!

Share This

Handling Computer Accidents With Online Backup Tools