drive posts

Looking for a convenient place to store 5GB of your documents and media files for free? Acrobat.com is a decent option, though getting files uploaded can be a bit of a hassle. Their web interface only allows you to send one file at a time and you can't send whole folders. That can make for a pretty lengthy upload process.

A more convenient way to do it is with CloudDrive, a small Windows application which provides drag-and-drop simplicity. It's similar to Gladinet and SkyDrive Explorer. Launch CloudDrive, drag in some folders and files, and let it handle the formerly tedious upload process for you!

Acrobat.com accepts just about any file type, so you should be able to drop in things like 7-zip archives, .mp3 files, or anything else you want to back up for free (like my Lego Digital Designer files). Just make sure you read the terms of service before you get started to make sure this is the right fit for you.

CloudDrive is a free download and works on Windows XP or newer.

Love your GMail account but want to do more with it? If you're a Windows user, there are plenty of great (and free) apps that take advantage of your massive inbox in the cloud!

GBridge sets up a Hamachi-like VPN and offers loads of cool features for your Windows desktop, including file sharing, backup and synchronization, and remote control via VNC. Since the developers added support for Google Apps domains, this has become a great way to keep your office team connected.

GMail Drive is an oldie but a goodie. I've got several of gigs available, and there's no chance I'm going to fill that up with actual email anytime soon. Plug GMail Drive into Windows, and you can drop files into your extra space just like any other folder on your system.

g2peer allows simple file sharing with your friends via your GMail account. Don't need the other features from GBridge? g2peer is a good option. Your pals at the other end don't even need to install the app to get files from you since it supports "command line" interaction via GMail - check the help page to see how it works.

Anyone who regularly plugs and unplugs external drives from their computer has at some point been frustrated by the operating system's refusal to eject a volume. Lately I've begun using more external drives, and this phenomenon is occurring more and more frequently. Apple has acknowledged this issue, and will be addressing it in the forthcoming Snow Leopard release of OS X, but that doesn't help us right now.

Fortunately, WhatsOpen does help us right now. The next time you run into the "disk is in use and could not be ejected" error message, fire up WhatsOpen to see what file is open from the volume you are trying to eject. It should be immediately obvious in most cases.

If you're not interested in hunting down the offending application, and you're not worried about potentially losing data if you haven't saved your work, there's a Force Eject button that will simply stop any process that has a file open on the drive, and eject the drive.

Hopefully in future all operating systems will build in a graceful way to handle ejecting external drives, but until then utilities like WhatsOpen are necessary in your tool belt.

[via Macworld]

Have you ever wanted to view or edit a file that wasn't sitting on your own hard drive? Sure you have.

It's either on your work machine, or on your mom's machine, or it's on your brother's Alienware gaming machine in the basement and you just don't want to get up to deal with it. You wish you had a network drive for all of these machines.

That's where ExpanDrive comes in (Mac only).

The great thing about external drives on the mac is that they show up on your desktop immediately. Like this little USB thumbdrives. We love how they JUST WORK.

Basically, ExpanDrive is a souped up SFTP client. You don't have to set up any configurations, you can log in to any machine with its current credentials to access files and edit them seamlessly.

Just like they were on your own drive.

If you get disconnected, no problem...you'll automatically reconnect when you're able to.

This basically lets you use any computer that you have access to as an external drive for storage. As long as that computer has an internet connection and is turned on...you're set!

Currently, the cost is $29, and that's an introductory price, so it could go up in the future.

The New York State Department of Transformation has their Google on. They've created an intuitive Google Maps mashup that makes traveling through the state a little easier.

A Real-time transportation status map plots live camera feeds, roadwork, critical incidents, road closures, weather or alerts, and traffic speeds. A legend on the left side of the map allows users to plot one topic at a time to get a birds eye view where their might be trouble. Clicking on the pinpoints gives the user a larger description of the problem, including times for construction or lane reductions.

It's a great site to bookmark and load up just before taking a trip through the coverage areas. Unfortunately, it's not that great while you are already driving along, but then again, you can always call up a buddy and have him or her check the site out for a report!

If you find yourself in a traffic bind while in NY, you can always check out some mobile applications such as the DOT Traffic Management Center's Advanced Travel Information System, that is accessible by mobile devices and shows real time traffic cameras. We've also covered the WCBS mobile application that covers over 400 roadside traffic cams in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut areas.

[via InformationWeek]

In my opinion, selling software on a USB drive is a fantastic idea, and Merriam-Webster has taken it and run with it with their USB Dictionary & Thesaurus. It's a 256MB flash drive that includes MW's dictionary and thesaurus software, plus phonetic spelling correction, a grammar guide, and a "Confusables" function for correcting mistakes like their vs. there vs. they're. It also includes something described as an "eBooks and eNews Manager." The rest of the space on the USB drive (the amount of which is unspecified) can be used to store whatever you want. Unfortunately few details on the software itself are available, so I'm not sure if the dictionary and thesaurus software are the same as the ones MW sells on CD-ROM, or whether it works on a Mac. The Merriam-Webster USB Dictionary & Thesaurus costs $49.95. Now, when can I get the OED in my pocket?

[Via Engadget]

Looking for a fast and free non-destructive, graphical disk partitioning tool? Yes, such a thing does exist: Its GParted, short for Gnome Partition Editor, an open-source tool for Linux. Okay, so most of you aren't Linux users--why should you care? Well, because GParted will resize your FAT32 and NTFS partitions (as well as about 10 other formats) and it comes in install-free LiveCD and USB drive versions. That means you can stick it in your CD-ROM or USB port, make your partition changes, reboot, and be done with it. The LiveCD and USB versions weigh less than 29MB, or if you're already running Linux, GParted by itself weighs in under 500kb.

While many have been satisfied with Portable Gaim for their take-it-with-you IM needs, some people are stuck on Trillian (and not without reason). What are those people to do if they want to be able to take a complete Trillian install with them on a USB drive? Trillian Anywhere poses a solution. It's not a portable version of Trillian you download, but rather an "online wizard" that will guide you through the steps of creating and modifying a Trillian install that will play nice on portable storage. There are separate wizards for each version of Trillian, but the process basically goes like this: Install Trillian in a temporary directory, install your skin, plugins, and copy over your profile, then edit its INI files so that Trillian behaves the way you want it. This seems like a good opportunity for a developer to automate the process, but there's only six steps involved and it's straightforward enough even for novices.

SftpDrive is a commercial app (free six-week trial, $39 to buy) that lets you map remote SSH/SFTP servers to network drives in Windows, meaning you can access your remote files just like local files from any Windows program securely. In addition to mapping network drives, SftpDrive will do SSH tunneling. I installed the trial (the download is less than 1.5MB) and found that the "zero configuration" claim on its web site is absolutely true. It took less than 30 seconds to get a network drive set up, most of which was spent trying to remember my username. Accessing remote files is fast—faster than my usual SSH client—and you can set up an unlimited number of drives. SftpDrive is slick and, as far as I can tell, performs as advertised in every respect.

[Via Joey Day]

We've seen a number of portable app round-ups, but the one I'm bookmarking is Wikipedia's List of portable applications article. As with everything on Wikipedia, it's user contributed and nicely comprehensive. The portable apps are broken down by category, from operating systems to office apps to FTP clients, and apps for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X are listed. The page also has a nice collection of links to other web sites and blogs that track portable apps.

Ever wanted to take a bootable OS with you in your pocket? AltHack.com has a cool guide on getting Linux running on a USB flash drive, and it looks remarkably simple. It uses the 50MB distribution Damn Small Linux and in about 10 steps you should be up and running.

[Via Lifehacker]