While it might seem a bit ironic that the safest way to store your personal data is sometimes to upload it to a website, the truth of the matter is you never know what's going to happen to all of that valuable information stored on your computer in the event of a disaster. If your house burned down, what would happen to your family photos, financial records, and license keys for software you've paid for?

While we've looked at a variety of ways to store files and documents offsite, KeyFiler does one thing and does it well: lets you store license keys an registration information for web sites and programs. You can create an account for free and start storing your data within moments. Your information is encrypted and stored on Keyfiler's servers. If you're really paranoid, you can choose the high security option when you signup, and if you lose or forget your password, KeyFiler will refuse to let you reset it.

Once you've entered your data, you can export it as a CSV file, or print a report showing all of your license information for software or websites fitting certain criteria.

The service is free to use, but has a clever advertising-based business model. As the About KeyFiler page points out, registered users are almost certainly people who have paid for software in the past. So odds are they'd be willing to pay for software in the future. That's a pretty compelling reason for advertisers to sign on.

[via Confessions of a freeware junkie]

One of the main complaints we're hearing from readers about IBM's new office suite is that you have to register in order to download it. IBM released Lotus Symphony yesterday. The suite includes a word processor, spreadsheet application and PowerPoint clone. It's built on OpenOffice.org, but it has a look and feel all its own. And it's free, but you have to give away a lot of personal information in order to download Lotus Symphony from IBM's site.

Fortunately, it turns out that there are a few ways to download the program without first signing up. No, we're not talking about downloading it from a gray market BitTorrent tracker, although we're pretty sure that's another possibility.

• Download the installer from Softpedia.
• Try the direct download link for the Windows version.

If anyone has a good direct download link for the Linux version, let us know in the comments.
[via Cybernet]

Google has just announced a partnership with GoDaddy and eNom, two leading domain name registrars, to allow new users of their Apps for Your Domain service to register a domain right from within Google's signup process. This is a killer idea that, in hindsight, sounds like a completely logical step to take, but I bet most didn't even see it coming. After you sign up for a Google Account or log in to their service signup page, you are how offered the ability to enter your existing domain to get the process started, or search for and purchase a domain if you don't already have one. As icing on the cake, Google is even including private registration (typically ~ $2-3/year/domain) if you buy your domain through this new feature.

I'm a big fan of services that help me keep spam out of my inbox, and I'm an even bigger fan of services that make it dead easy like 2 Prong. Like many, many other services 2 Prong gives you disposable email addresses that you can use when registering for web sites that require a valid email address and clicking on an emailed validation link. What makes 2 Prong special is that it reduces this to a two-step process that's just as easy than using your own email address. All you do is visit 2prong.com and it will give you an email address (it even copies it to your clipboard for you, which may be an annoyance for some users). Then you fill out the registration form on the site you want access to and, by the power of Grayskull Ajax, the activation email will pop up on the 2 Prong page as soon as it's received. You don't even have to register with 2 Prong or give it your real email address, unlike similar services. On top of that, 2 Prong intends to provide continually changing domain names so that sites can't get wise to their game. Very cool, very easy.

[Via Lifehacker]

Steven Frank, founder of Mac software company Panic Inc., certainly thinks so, and I agree. With the slew of new web apps that are being introduced almost on a daily basis, it's becoming a pain to create a registration for each one, verify, then jump back in to finally start playing. Not to mention this process completely breaks that initial 'ooh, a slick new [insert service here]!!' excitement.

I think it would be great if these hot new web 2.0 startups would offer a public, no-registration-required sandbox to further boost their convenience and cool factors, but what about you, DLS readers? Are we splitting hairs here, or might this be a good idea? Sound off.