stuffiti

If you have ever been the “designated photographer” at a family event or party with friends, then you know the frustration of having everyone ask you to “send me the pics”…

The Old Way

Sure, you can upload them all to flickr, but if you have family like mine, then it isn’t quite that easy. They all seem to want the photos in their original format (ie, at 10mp, thats hundreds of megabytes or even gigabytes of data).

My old solution was to burn everyone a CD or zip everything up and try to upload it somewhere for them to grab. This soon becomes very tedious and I stopped brining my camera out just to avoid this!

A Better Way

My friends over at Remobo have given me a much better solution to this problem… and once it’s set up, all you do is offload the photos to your computer as usual and they are automatically “shared” with all your friends and family. Much easier for sharing bulk, raw image files.

Step 1 - Create a Folder to Share Your Photos

Pick any location on your PC, and create a new folder (or use an existing one). Name it something descriptive like “Shared Photos”. Now anytime you want to share photos with your friends or family, just drop them into this folder (they can be in sub-folders too). I choose to keep this separate from the folder where I actually store all my digital photos, since I do not want to share ALL of them

Step 2 - Share This Folder

The next step is to “share” this folder. Just right-click the folder and select “Sharing and Security…”, then choose “Share this folder on the network”. You can give it a different name here if you like, but I just keep it the same. Also remember to only allow “read” access if you don’t want anyone deleting or modifying your files by accident.

The folder is now shared on your local network, but unless all your friends and family live with you, they still cannot access your files. So its on to the mext step…

Step 3 - Download and Install Remobo

Remobo is a small app that creates an Instant Private Network between your computer and any other computers that you add to your buddy list. You can get it here. It effectively extends your LAN over the Internet and will enable your friends and family to view your shared photos folder over the Internet. Incidentally, this program is also very useful for remote controlling your PC, playing LAN games over the Internet, and general VPN functionality…

Anyone who wants access to your folder will also need to get Remobo. Just tell them its a small price to pay to get instant access to your digital camera pictures after an event

Step 4 - Use Remobo to View Shared Files

Once you have dumped your newly-taken photos into your shared folder, add some buddies to your Remobo buddy list. As you add buddies, remember to only add people you would feel comfortable with accessing your shared folder.

Now when your buddies see you online, they can simply click on your computer name, select “Browse Shared Files”, and instantly be able to browse and copy over any photos and files that they see, as if it were a local folder. You can also browse any files that they are sharing as well, so next time just tell them your camera is broken and have them be the photographer.. this Remobo method works both ways

For advanced users, you can also mount their shared folder as a drive. For the computer name, just use:

[remobo_username].remobo.com

So, if I shared my photos and my Remobo username is bob, you can access or mount my shared drive in Windows using:

\\bob.remobo.com

Do you blog, write code for your new web app, send personal e-mail, or just surf the web while at work?

While we aren’t condoning spending all day at work doing this… we also know that most of us do it at least a couple times during the long work day. We asked around, and here are some tools that our friends use to make sure the network admins don’t catch on, or even worse, steal your next hot Web 2.0 idea.

Keep Your Data Secure

The first thing you need is some encryption to hide any traffic you are creating on your company network. For that, we’ve found a small app called Remobo. This free app will instantly create a private network (think VPN, but much much easier to use) between your computer and any computers in your buddy list.

Private Network

You can then use this to quickly create a private (all data is encrypted) connection from your work computer to your home computer. This lets you remotely control your home coputer from work, transfer files and data to and from home, and bypass almost any firewall or router configuration your company can throw at you. You don’t need any networking expertise to use it, and remember ANY network traffic that you send through Remobo is encrypted so not even your network admins can see what you are doing.

Remote Desktop Control

Quite often, just installing this is enough… since you can now remotely login using VNC or Remote Desktop and just do everything on your home computer. However, now that you have established a secure connection from your work computer to your home computer or other computers outside your office, here are some tips on how to use it effectively.

Personal E-mail

The first thing you can do is leave all your personal e-mail running on your home computer. You can use your standard desktop e-mail client or just leave Gmail running in a browser at home. Just remotely login a few times a day when you want to check your personal e-mail. This is a good tactic even if you are just paranoid about network admins reading your personal e-mail.

Text Editors

Next, if you are editing source code or writing blogs during your free time at work, you should always use an inconspicuous editor such as UltraEdit, VI or better yet… whatever editor you normally use at work. This will help prevent those awkward moments when a fellow co-worker walks in, only to find a brightly colored web-based blog editor on your screen. Once you are done, you can always copy and paste the text quickly to upload it, or simply send the source code file back to your home computer securely.

Web Proxy

If you do a lot of web browsing or need to access files and data via a web interface… then you should consider setting up a simple web proxy at home or some other computer outside of your company. If you use this tactic along with the instant private network (Remobo) tactic above, you will have a secure web connection that no one can peek at. All your web traffic is encrypted via Remobo, sent to the web proxy running at home and then goes out to the Internet from there.

Text Based Web Browser

Also, you should consider using a text based web browser such as eLinks for routine browsing of web forums or informational sites where you already know where all the links are and how to navigate the site. You can avoid those embarassing moments when your boss walks in only to find you posting a message on a web forum filled with images.

Be a Good Employee

We know that many of you are great employees and doing a few personal things here and there is just part of the long work day… so hopefully these tips will help you avoid awkward situations and keep your personal data and private life separate from your work life. Also, good employees always get much more room from the boss to do what they want at work than the mediocre ones… so it pays to build up some credit by getting those projects done ahead of time!

Many of us use VNC or the Windows XP Remote Desktop feature to gain easy access to our home PCs. But opening up a port on your firewall or a connection to an administrator account on your system is very dangerous.

After opening a well-known port in your firewall, you are bound to receive lots of forced logon attempts, sometimes within days. Also, lots of free tools exist that help hackers eavesdrop on your VNC connections or break into Windows Remote Desktop sessions. The paid version of RealVNC does have some encryption and enhanced security built-in now, but here is a quick way to protect yourself for free:

Download and Install Remobo

Remobo is a free network application that creates an instant private network between any computers. You can get it here. It’s extremely easy to use, with no configuration of any kind necessary, and the interface resembles a simple buddy list as you would find in your favorite chat program.

Launch the Remobo App on Both Computers

Now, just login using the same username on both ends, and the two computers will be securely connected via a virtual connection, similar to a VPN. The coolest thing about this is that you can login from any number of computers and even add your co-workers and friends to your buddy list for instant secure connectivity.

Connect VNC or Remote Desktop Using Your Virtual IP or Remobo Username

Here is where this solution really shines. Now, instead of trying to remember your home computer’s IP address, you can simply use the virtual IP shown on the Remobo app’s interface to connect to the remote computer or even use your Remobo username, ie remobo_username.remobo.com - It’s like having a built-in dynamic DNS service so you never have to know the remote computer’s IP.

Everything is Now Secure

Any traffic sent over this Remobo connection is now securely encrypted and you didn’t even have to open any firewall ports.

Additional Features

In addition to securing your VNC or Remote Desktop connection for free, you also get a simple built-in secure chat client, secure file transfer client and also secure file-sharing via the Windows folder sharing interface. This gives you easy access to the files on your home computer. I personally use this file sharing feature to share bulk photos and media with my friends and family, so they will stop nagging me to upload my digital camera pictures to flickr

I don’t think this post needs a lot of text. Everyone needs memory in some form or another. Laptops, printers, cameras, PDA’s, etc all use them, the more the better. Now you can get your hands on an impressive 2GB for a huge discount, so head on over to the checkout and order a bunch.

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A while back, we had a post about the Logitech Harmony 550, which is quite a cool piece of remote control fun, but take a look at the Logitech Harmony 1000. First of all, it has a 3.5″ color touch screen, by far the biggest I’ve ever seen on something like this. Is that you PDA? No, it’s just my intelligent, touch screen universal remote. Well excuse me. You can control multiple devices (at once), control your DVD, HDTV screen ratio, CD player, etc, etc. All in such a cool device, that should go well in any living room, what a great centerpiece eh?

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It doesn’t really matter how big my hard drive is, I will always run out of space. After a while you can’t build in more drives and for lap top users like me, adding more is not an option. The best way to get around this is to buy an external hard drive. This particular one is a good 160 GB, should be enough for quite a bit, weather you just put your music on it, or use it to transport data from your office to your home PC. As an added bonus it’s as good looking as anything, a great addition to a stylish work environment.

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I started trading stocks a lot more recently, and this widescreen 20 inch LCD by Samsung would really come in handy while keeping an eye on those charts. It has a 16:10 aspect ratio, 1680×1050 resolution and a fast 2ms response time. But in the end, I really digg the sleek black frame and rounded corners. At this great price, I may even get one just to watch DVDs at my desk

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If you’re lucky enough to receive a new computer over the holidays… then check out this nifty piece of software. Supposedly, Intellimover makes it very easy to transfer data and programs from your old PC to your new one, without all the hassle of manually copying stuff over one-by-one. Besides the software, it also comes with a cable to connect your two computers, so you don’t have to deal with messy networking or file sharing settings. Seems pretty useful if you ask me…

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Never know what to do with all those receipts that pile up each day?  Instead of collecting them in a shoe box like I used to do… this nifty device allows you to scan them into your computer and then toss them in the trash.  Not only that, the OCR software will also try to read the numbers from your receipts so you can import them into your accounting or financial software!  Great for small business owners and those of us that like to stay organized

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If you spend long days in front of a computer like I do, then check out this gadget.  I often have to take breaks from typing and using the mouse because my wrists start to hurt… definitely not a good sign.  But if I had one of these massagers on my desk, I could rest my arm in there for a few minutes to relieve the tension.  Of course, this thing is kind of big to leave on the desk, but its still pretty cool, I think

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If you are into games, check out this true gamer’s mouse… It was designed by Creative Labs and Johnathan Fatal1ty Wendel, the world’s top first person shooter pro-gamer. If you don’t know, he’s won multiple gaming titles and makes a living playing games, so if this mouse doesn’t give you an edge, I don’t know what will. Some of the cool features include: a modular weight system, very high resolution optical components, quick fire mouse buttons, and teflon gaming mouse feet. Everything you need to “pwn” the competition

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I often use my laptop in bed while my wife is sleeping, to get in a few hours of work… but as you all know, its pretty hard to fall asleep with the lights on. My solution is a tiny flexible light that plugs into my USB port, but it certainly does not provide adequate lighting. This wider light really caught my eye, since it can probably illuminate the whole keyboard instead of just one spot Of course, its also great for all you business types who travel on airplanes all the time.

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