There are some applications that I use all the time and has made my life easier. Dropbox is one of those applications that I mostly use to sync files between my main desktop and my laptop so I always have the latest version of the files I am working on. It is also great to sync my latest favorite album so I can listen to it on the laptop as well. I was looking forward to the Android application coming out so I could use Dropbox to always have the most important files I need available on my phone. After installing the app from the Android market here is what I like and don’t like so far.

The Good

• Allows me to easily upload files from my Motorola Milestone to Dropbox.
• Can stream music to my phone, which is handy on a wifi connection.

Things I wish it could do

• Sync – I am amazed the I cannot sync at least some specific folders to my phone. This is one of the things Dropbox does best and it is missing in the Android app.
• Download a whole folder – I can download individual files, but it is not possible to download a whole folder at a time.

Dropbox on my laptop and desktop are great, but I have to admit I am a little disappointed in the Dropbox Android app. It seems like they just missed ignore what makes Dropbox great. Sure streaming music to your phone is cool, but I want to be able to wirelessly sync data, music and video to my Android phone so I have it when I am not connected.

I was reminded recently that I am human. I made a mistake and when I make a mistake it tends to be a big one. Now I am pretty paranoid about backing up data so when I discovered what I did I knew I would be able to restore pretty much everything from the backup I had, but there was a few pages of new content that I did not have a backup for.

As I started fixing my error I kept wondering how I was going to restore that new information that the client had placed on their website between the last backup and my screw up. Then it dawned on me, I had read the pages that the client added to the site on both Firefox on my desktop and Firefox on my laptop. A quick about:cache?device=disk and sure enough they information was cached. The only problem is that Firefox does not give you a very user friendly view of the cached files. I needed an easy way to save the information so I could add it back into the website.

This is where I discovered the Firefox CacheViewer Addon. It allows you to sort the items in the Firefox cache by key, size, type and date. Using the Firefox CacheViewer I was quickly able to find the couple items I needed, save them as HTML files and copy the information out that I was missing.

If you every need to go looking though your Firefox cache for some information that you might have lost, or just want to browse the cache and see what Firefox has saved take a look at the Firefox CacheViewer Addon. It sure helped me when I made my mistake.

Your IP Address Is: 38.107.191.82

 
It seems like I need this information at least once a day lately from one client or another so I thought I would make it easy for me to find.

If you need to find your IP address often you might want to signup for a service like DynDNS that will assign a domain name to your DHCP IP Address. I use it for my office IP Address and it makes it easy to connect to my office network.

It has been almost two years since I started using Mozy online backup and in that time Mozy has saved me twice from failed hard drives, I became a reseller of MozyPro and installed it on several of my clients computers, and I routinely tell people who ask me about backups that they should sign up for Mozy. It has been one service that I have been very happy with.

Since I started using Mozy I have regularly offered readers here the lasted Mozy promotional codes so they can signup with Mozy and save some money on their subscription. If you have been reading here for any time at all you know I like to save money. I suspect some of you got tired of seeing my constant mentioning of Mozy so from this point on I will not be posting the latest Mozy promotional codes here, instead I have created a new website, appropriately called, Mozy Promotional Code, where I list the latest Mozy promotional codes and specials. I will still continue to promote Mozy here with a link on my sidebar and if you want to save some money on Mozy check out Mozy promotional code.

If you came here looking to save money on Mozy with a Mozy promotional code then I can offer you 15% off by using this exclusive code. Just click here to save 15% when you sign up.

If you are still not backing up your data online using Mozy online backup, or iDrive, Carbonite, Elephant Drive or a similar service what are you waiting for? They will help keep all of your data safe.

There are a number of tools that I use regularly and tend to take for granted, one of those tools is Dropbox. I have a desktop computer that I do the majority of my work on, but there are times when I meet with clients and I take my laptop. While I take transfer the files that I need from my desktop to my laptop there are occasions when I do forget a file or I create some new documents and I want to make sure that they are stored back on my desktop just in case something happens to my laptop.

I used to carry a USB flash drive around but there have been occasions when I forget to take it with me. There is nothing worse than being at a clients and realizing I forgot an important file or folder on my desktop that I wanted to show them. This is where I will usually use a VNC remote desktop to connect to my desktop computer copy the folders and files I need into my Dropbox and in a couple of seconds (or minutes depending on how large the files are) and the files are there for me to use on my Dropbox on my laptop and accessible through the web interface.

Dropbox has also come in very useful when I have created new documents on my laptop and want to make sure I have a copy of them when I am back at home just in case something happens to my laptop before I get home. I have Mozy installed on my desktop at home and it automatically backs up my files there, my laptop does not have Mozy so I backup the files using Dropbox to my desktop which will automatically backup the files. Dropbox makes it very easy for me to make sure those files are safe and where I need them. That way I don’t have to worry about losing my USB flash drive.

There are lots of other things you can do with Dropbox. I am sure I have only touched the surface of what can be done but it works well for what I need it to do. Dropbox gives you 2gb for free so you can use it without it costing a cent and it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. If you need more space you can purchase a larger account. The next account size up from free is $9.99/month or $99.00/year for 50gb. They also have a referral program that will get you more space for every person that you refer. If you need to sync files between two or more computers or want to have instant web access then take a look at Dropbox it might be just what you are looking for, I know it has helped me numerous times since I installed it.

Want to know what other websites someone else owns or works on? Thanks to SpyOnWeb you can get a pretty good idea of what other websites someone owns or is involved with. Just enter the URL of the website you want to know about and SpyOnWeb will return the other website names that are associated with that address. SpyOnWeb does more than just look up the sites that are on the same IP address though, it will look for sites that have the same AdSense publisher id and the same Google Analytics ID. This gives you a much better idea of what other sites a person is involved in.

This service is similar to another one I talked about at one time called You Get Signal. You Get Signal only returns the other websites that are on the same IP address though. If the persons website is on shared web hosting then there is no guarantee that the other websites are theirs or belong to someone else. The fact that SpyOnWeb checks not just for IP addresses but also Google AdSense and Analytics ID’s give it a better percentage that the sites it returns will be have something to do with the same person.

There is a lot of information you can find with a tool like this and while it can be fun to see what other websites people have, it may not be totally accurate as well. For example, some of the sites that it returns for me are not my personal websites, but my clients websites. Yes I do have something to do with the site, but it is not my website. There were also some websites returned that are no longer mine or on my server. Overall it can be a useful tool, especially if you are wondering what else your competition might be up too. Remember to play nice though. Like Search Engine Journal says:

I don’t advise though to use this tool for any malicious purposes.

I read about this service thanks to a post over at Search Engine Journal.

Latest Mozy Online Backup Posts

• Mozy Promotional Code - August 8th, 2009
• Mozy May Promotion Code - May 1st, 2009

I have been so busy I have not had the time to write about my favourite online backup service yet this month. I know you are all probably really disappointed. Mozy is getting more popular everyday it seems, and they are leveraging Twitter more in their promotion. For example, Mozy offers a free account Friday, where people can follow the Mozy Twitter account, make a tweet and be entered into a contest for a free account. If people don’t win that week they can enter the next one. Mozy is also giving people a 20% off promotional code for one and two year subscriptions of MozyHome. They just need to enter FAF20 in the promotional code box when they sign up.

If you miss using the 20% off free account Friday promotional code, it still looks like the Mozy promotional code to welcome former HP Upline customers is still working.

UPLINE.
Click here to use this promotional code!

If the Upline promotional code and free account Friday promotional codes have both stopped working, don’t give up hope, there is still the June promotional code for 10% savings on both MozyHome and MozyPro.
JUNE.
Click here to use this promotional code!

And because I read my promotional code email you can save not just 10%, but 15% by using the promotional code:
JUNE15.
Click here to use this promotional code!

eBay users can still take advantage of the 15% off by using this special promo code. It works for MozyHome and MozyPro registration as well.
Click Here to Save 15% on Mozy

Just type the promotional code into the promo code box when you sign up and you will get 10% off the total price. If you find these codes useful it would be great if you clicked through to sign up with Mozy from here. Thanks.

Not sure which Mozy you should use?

• Mozy Free – is perfect for home users that have some photos, documents and email you want to keep safe. You get 2GB of space free to keep your precious photos and documents safe.
• MozyHome Unlimited – If you have more than 2GB of data you need backed up then this is the account you need. Backup all your photos, documents and important information for only $4.95.
• MozyPro – If you are a home or small business you need to use MozyPro. MozyPro offers some great benefits over MozyHome. MozyPro server edition includes the ability to backup network drives.

Sign up and give Mozy a try. You will love the peace of mind it gives you knowing your data is safe.

Sharing information is what the Internet is about. The problem is that not all information is easily made into HTML pages so it can be easily shared. The creation of easy to use content management systems has made it easier for anyone to become a web publisher, but there are still times when it is not easy to put the information you want to share with the world online. Often the problem is because the format the information is in is not easily converted to HTML. Fortunately there are now easier ways to share documents that do not require you to export documents to HTML. Here are some of the easiest ways I have found to share documents on the web.

Google Docs

Google Docs allows people to upload many different formats of documents which you can then share. Speadsheets and Presentations can be embedded into web pages, and word processing documents can be saved as web pages. For example here is a quick document I made just to share with all of you.

Scribd

Scribd is my favourite way to embed PDF and Word documents online. They support a wide range of document types including:

Microsoft Office: Microsoft Word Files doc, docx Microsoft Powerpoint Files ppt, pptx, pps Microsoft Excel Files xls, xlsx

PDF: PDF pdf, ps

Open Office: Open Office Documents odt, odp, sxw, sxi, etc.

Text: Text Documents txt, rtf

Once the documents are uploaded you can copy and paste the embed code and add the document as a flash reader to your website or blog. Makes it great for people to read that PDF instead of downloading it.

Docstoc

Docstoc is similar to Scribd in many ways. You can upload documents and embed them in your website. Docstoc recently just came out of beta and has also started an AdSense revenue sharing program. This gives people the opportunity to share in the money that is made from their documents that they upload to Docstoc. Check out the video below if you would like to know more.

edocr

I just recently came across edocr, and have not much of a chance to try it yet. It looks similar to Scribd as well, but the site appears to cater more to business than to individuals. If anyone has more experience with them leave a comment and let us know your thoughts.

SlideShare

SlideShare is my favourite way to embed presentations in a website. Simply upload the presentation and you can then easily copy and paste the embed code to add the presentation to your website to let people click through the slides.

SlideBoom

Similar to SlideShare but with more of a focus on business presentations and sharing with other business colleagues.

Empressr

Is not just a presentation sharing website. They allow you to create your own presentaions online and then embed them into your website using a flash embed.

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Those are some of the web services I have found and use to easily embed documents into websites and blogs. As I mentioned I have my favourites, what are yours?

I tweeted recently that I was doing my invoicing and that I needed to find another way of doing it. Two suggestions I got from people were FreshBooks and Cashboard. I checked out both and signed up for the free trials.

Feature wise both FreshBooks and Cashboard offer similar things. Invoicing, recurring invoicing, time tracking, estimates and reports. A couple features that FreshBooks offers is the ability to enter expenses and snail mail an invoice to clients that do not have email. Cashboard has expense tracking on their being developed feature list so I image that will be added soon.

Recurring invoicing is one of the tasks I tend to get behind on and it was the main reason for me to look at finding a new method to do my invoicing. Both FreshBooks and Cashboard offer a recurring invoicing system and from what I can see they both work fairly similar. Invoices are created automatically and clients can then login and either download and print the invoice and depending on your payment options pay you online. This feature alone will save me several hours a month and my clients will no longer have to wait for me to get the invoice out to them. It also gives me a great overview of how much regular money I have coming in every month.

The tracking project time is another nice feature and again I could not see a great deal of difference between FreshBooks and Cashboard. Both offer time tracking based on projects and tasks. Cashboard does allow you to create an invoice from your tracked time, I was not certain if Freshbooks is able to do that. I still track much of my time using a spreadsheet on Google Docs because I often have GMail and Google Docs open while I work.

Invoicing in both systems is similar, but I did notice that Cashboard allows you to attach a PDF to the email when you are sending an invoice by email. This is a nice feature that means the client does not have to go and download the invoice from the Internet. It would be nice if the recurring invoices allowed that as well on Cashboard. FreshBooks does not appear to attach a PDF file to the email when invoices are emailed out. FreshBooks does however allow you to send a snail mail invoice so that could be a real plus for those people that have clients that do not have email (is that possible anymore?).

I have to say I am impressed by the features of both FreshBooks and Cashboard. At this point I am leaning towards signing up for Cashboard mainly because of Cashboard being slightly less expensive for the features I need. Hopefully soon I will be on my way to invoicing heaven.

What do you use to do your invoicing and why?

Latest Mozy Online Backup Posts

• Mozy Promotional Code - August 8th, 2009
• Mozy June Promotion Code - June 9th, 2009

May has been a busy month here for me. Not only has work been busy, but my family and I took a nice two week vacation out to Vancouver Island. I will talk more about the trip on my personal blog in case you are wondering where we went and what we did. Being on vacation meant that I took lots of photos, and I am thankful that all of those new photos of our trip are safely backed up using MozyHome. Make sure that you take care of your photos and back them up. If your hard drive dies there is no way to get them back. If you are not a fan of Mozy take a look at this list of other online backup companies and give one of them a try. I like Mozy but there are some other very good options.

The Mozy promotional code to welcome former HP Upline customers was still working when I wrote this so you might want to try that promotional code first if you are interested in MozyHome. It should give you 20% off. That is an excellent discount for Mozy.
UPLINE.
Click here to use this promotional code!

The May Mozy promotional code is available as well, so if the 20% promotional code above no longer works you will still be able to use the monthly promotional code for 10% savings on both MozyHome and MozyPro.
MAY.
Click here to use this promotional code!

eBay users can still take advantage of the 15% off by using this special promo code. It works for MozyHome and MozyPro registration as well.

Click Here to Save 15% on Mozy

Just type the promotional code into the promo code box when you sign up and you will get 10% off the total price. If you find these codes useful it would be great if you clicked through to sign up with Mozy from here. Thanks.

Not sure which Mozy you should use?

• Mozy Free – is perfect for home users that have some photos, documents and email you want to keep safe. You get 2GB of space free to keep your precious photos and documents safe.
• MozyHome Unlimited – If you have more than 2GB of data you need backed up then this is the account you need. Backup all your photos, documents and important information for only $4.95.
• MozyPro – If you are a home or small business you need to use MozyPro. MozyPro offers some great benefits over MozyHome. MozyPro server edition includes the ability to backup network drives.

Sign up and give Mozy a try. You will love the peace of mind it gives you knowing your data is safe.