LANcom Technology Blog

Live Mesh Beta is a free service created by Microsoft that combines a number of great services. It kind of connects all the computers you use together to make life easier and also makes collaboration with others easier too. With Live Mesh you can:

1. Sync your files across different computers

   Say you have a desktop at work, a desktop at home, and a laptop as well. There may be some files you need to work on from all three. With Live Mesh you can select folders to sync with your other computers. This means that if you make a change to a file within that folder on one computer, that file will be automatically updated on your other computers as well. You can even Sync folders between Macs and PCs.

2. Access your synced files from wherever you may be
   All of your synced files can also be accessed from your Live Desktop. To see your Live Desktop all you need to do is go to the website and log in, so you have access to your synced files even if you are not at one of your computers.
3. Gain remote access to any of your other computers
   The Live Mesh Remote Desktop feature allows you to take remote control of another computer that is part of your ‘mesh’. So if you are working on one of your computers and realise you need to use something that is on another, you can access that other computer and work on it  as though you were sitting in front of it.
   Note: the remote computer must be turned on and connected to the internet.
   
4. Share and sync folders with others
   If you have a folder within your mesh that you would like to share with other Live Mesh users, then you can. Once a folder is shared, when one person makes a change to a file in that folder that file will be automatically updated on everyone else’s computer as well. This makes Live Mesh a great way to collaborate on files, because everyone always has the most up to date version. You can also keep track of what changes have been made and by whom from your News feed.

To use Live Mesh you have to sign up online and download and install the Live Mesh software. You must have Windows Vista or XP SP2 or higher, or Mac OS X version 10.5 or later.

This service is still in Beta so it could still have a few problems to be worked out before the final version will be released. To learn more about Live Mesh Beta click here.

On the 2^nd of September Google released the beta version of their first internet browser, Google Chrome. Google Chrome was designed with the purpose of creating a browser from scratch, since the internet of today is so vastly different from what it was when the first internet browsers where produced. With this browser Google aims to increase the speed, stability, and security of surfing the net and has taken a minimalist approach with the browser itself.

So what’s different about Google Chrome?

1. Speed – Google Chrome has an improved Java script engine, which means it runs Java script (a scripting language used in websites) much faster.
2. Stability and security – Google Chrome runs each tab as a separate process so if a single site is causing a problem it won’t crash the entire browser.
3. The Address bar does everything – In Google Chrome the box at the top of the screen is more than just an address bar, it also can be used to search Google and your history. As you type in what you are looking for it will suggest popular sites, searches, and pages you have already visited that contain your search terms.

   
   

4. The new tab page – When you open a new tab, Google Chrome displays pictures of your most visited sites, a list of your recent bookmarks, and a list of recently closed tabs. This makes getting to the sites you visit regularly really easy.
   

Google Chrome is still in beta, so it still has a few problems to be worked out and so far it’s only available for Windows Vista and XP SP2. If you would like to learn more about Google Chromes features Click here. To download Google Chrome and try it out for yourself click here.

Those of you who are familiar with Wikipedia will know just how helpful it can be when you are trying to quickly find out about a particular topic, but did you know there may be an even better way to find what you are looking for on Wikipedia than the search box that appears on the site?

There are in fact a number of search engines dedicated to helping you better search Wikipedia. One site you might find useful is Powerset.

With Powerset you can search for keywords and short phrases or you can simply type in a questions and where possible Powerset will answer it using text from Wikipedia. When you search for a person, place, or thing Powerset will bring up a short description of what you have searched as well as a list of facts from Wikipedia about your search term. If you want to know more information than this you can click on ‘Read enhanced Wikipedia Article’ and Powerset will display the Wikipedia article with a number of features that make finding what you need much easier.

These features include:

1. An Article Outline box- This box displays the headings and subheadings of the article, which you can click on to skip to. This is similar to the content box seen on the Wikipedia site, but what’s different is that as you scroll down the article the outline box moves with you down the left-hand side of the page, so you always have easy access to it. The Article Outline box also has a handy search feature which allows you to easily search for a term within the article.
2. The Show Factz feature – At the bottom of the Article Outline box there is a ‘Show Factz’ button. With this feature the outline box will display not only the outline but also the main facts within each section. This is a great way to quickly scan through all the information on the page.
3. A Factz word cloud – By clicking the Factz button at the top of the page Powerset will display a word cloud of what the main facts within the article are about. You can then simply scan this word cloud and click on words that you are looking for to find the relevant information.

Here is what the word cloud for the Wikipedia entry on Auckland looks like.

To watch a video demonstration of how Powerset works click here or to visit the Powerset site click here.

If you would like to learn more about Wikipedia itself click here.

Back in July we posted about Photosynth a new Microsoft technology that can analyse a large number of photos of a single place or object and then display them in a reconstructed three dimensional space (Click here to see July post). Well Photosynth is now available for you to try out with your own photos and the best part is it’s free.

What’s great about Photosynth is it allows you to move through a scene, going where you want to go, and seeing photo’s from each view point as if you where actually there. It also has smooth digital rendering and zoom capabilities, which makes you feel like you’re really there and just moving closer to the object.

Once you have uploaded your photos and created a ’synth’ you can share it with others by sending them the link to it, or by embedding the synth in your own website. Those that want to view synths have to download a browser plug in before it will work.

The Photosynth site is still new and so it still has a few limitations. All synths you create will be public so any one on the net will be able to see them and they will only run well on XP or Vista PC’s.

If you would like to see a synth we created of our reception area click here (note you will have to download the Photosynth browser plug in to see it).

If you would like to learn more about Photosynth and maybe create a synth of you own click here.

Need to research and gather notes on a particular topic from all over the web? Google Notebook is a free tool which can help you do it. Google Notebook allows you to save and organise clips of information including text, images and links that you find while browsing the web without you having to leave the page you’re on.

Once you have downloaded the Google Notebook browser extension or Google toolbar you can simply highlight content on the web, right click and select Note this (Google Notebook). Then you can organised the clips of information you have saved from either the mini Google Notebook that appears at the bottom right of your screen, or you can go to your Notebook page.

So how does Google Notebook make organising clips easy?

1. First of all, you can have more than one notebook so you can store information on different topics in different places.
2. Secondly, you can create sections within your notebooks. You can call these sections whatever you like and simply drag and drop individual notes into the section you want them to go. Each note and section is collapsible by clicking on a minus sign in the top left corner so rearranging your notebook is easy.
3. Thirdly, you can add labels to individual notes. Adding labels to notes makes finding the notes you want, when you want them, really easy. When I was using Google Notebook to research for this post I labelled notes on all the good things I found out about it as Advantages, then I could just type ‘advantages’ into the Notebooks search box and it would bring up all the notes that I had labelled with that.
4. You can also add thoughts or comments to any of your notes with the Add a comment feature and even create a new blank note and type up a note or cut and paste notes from another document.
5. Finally, every note you add while surfing the web includes a hyperlink to the webpage you originally copied it from, so you’ll never lose track of where you got your information.

What else is great about Google Notebook?

1. You can access Google Notebook from any computer online, so you’ll always have access to your notes.
2. You can share an individual notebooks with others by sending them email invites or you can make a notebook public so that everyone on the web can view it (notebooks are private by default).
3. You can use Google Notebook to keep track of bookmarks too. If you right click on a webpage and select Note this (Google Notebook) without selecting any text then it will just save the link. You can then add labels and comments to the link the same way you would a note.

The only obvious downside to Google Notebook is that the Notebook browser extension can only be used in Internet Explorer 6 and Firefox. If you are using IE7 then when you will need to download and install the whole Google toolbar to be able to use Google Notebook. When you first login to Google notebook, if you see a message near the top of the screen asking you to download the browser extension, click on this and you will be prompted thought the right process.

To learn more about Google Notebook click here to see a video demonstration, or here to see the frequently asked question page.

To start using Google Notebook click here to visit the homepage.

Want a free online tool to help you brainstorm? Bubbl.us is a simple online tool which allows you to create mind-maps, and some basic diagrams, really easily.

With Bubbl.us you can create as many boxes as you want, move them to wherever you want them to go, select your colours, and export your mind-maps in a number of different formats.

You don’t even have to register to use the tool, although registering does have its advantages. When you register you can save mind-maps and finish them at a later date or invite others by email to add to your mind-maps.

Here is an example of a mind-map created with Bubbl.us.

Perhaps the best thing about Bubbl.us is its simplicity because it won’t take you long to figure out how to use it, but if would like a free mind-mapping tool with more functionality you might want to take a look at Mindomo. Mindomo will take a bit longer to learn how to use, and you have to register, but you can do a lot more with it.

To visit the Bubbl.us website click here
To visit the Mindomo website click here

If you would like to learn more about other online mind mapping tools here is a great article from MakeUseOf.com

The Awesome Highlighter is an interesting site that allows you to highlight the important text on a website, so you can look back on it later or share it with others.

Here is how it works:

1. You go to The Awesome Highlighter homepage and enter the website that you would like to highlight (no registration required)
2. The Awesome Highlighter shows you to your selected webpage and allows you to highlight text on the page with a range of colours. You can even add post-it type notes to the page.
3. When you are finished you click the Done button and are taken to a page that gives you a hyperlink to your highlighted page. If you want anyone else to see your highlighted page you can simply send them this link. From the Done page you can also click: email and send someone just the text that you highlighted, or copy to clipboard and copy all the text that you highlighted to your clipboard.
4. The Awesome Highlighter site will also keep track of all the pages that you highlight. If you click your lighted pages on the homepage it will show you a list of all the pages you have highlights on. You can then view, remove, or edit any of these pages.

To see our example of a highlighted page click here

To try out The Awesome Highlighter for yourself click here

Note: You can use this site in both Internet Explorer and Firefox, but it seems to work best in Firefox. The add a note feature does not seem to work in Internet Explorer 7.

SlideShare in an interesting new website that allows you to share your slideshow presentations in a number of ways:

1. You can upload you slideshows to the site where everyone can see them.
2. You can upload your presentations to the site and then choose who you want to be able to view them by sending email invites.
3. You can upload your presentations privately so that only you can view them. With this option you will receive a secret URL to your presentation, which means that no one browsing the SlideShare site or the internet will find your presentation accidentally but you can still give this URL to other people. You could for example link to a presentation from your company’s internal website, and then only people who had access to the internal website would be able to find the presentation.
4. You can easy embed presentations you have stored on SlideShare into your website or blog. If you select the option ‘Allow embedding outside SlideShare’ SlideShare will provide you with a line of code. Then all you need to do is cut and paste this line of code into your website or blog and the presentation will appear (see below for an example).
5. You can add audio too. With slidecasting you can play any slidedeck synchronized with an audio file.

SlideShare will accept PowerPoint, OpenOffice, and PDF presentations with a maximum file size of 30MB. It does not yet accept PowerPoint 2007 files so if you’re using 2007 when you save your presentation you will have to go to ‘Save As’ and select 97-2003 Presentation.

To learn more about SlideShare click here.

| View | Upload your own

Microsoft and the University of Washington are currently working on a interesting new technology called Photosynth.

Photosynth can take a large number of photos of a single place or object, analyse them, and then display them in a reconstructed three dimensional space. What this means is you can move through a scene, going where you want to go, and seeing photo’s from each view point as if you where actually there.

So how does this work? Each photo is processed to extract hundreds of distinctive features; photos that share features are linked together, and then when the same feature is found in multiply images then its 3D position can be calculated.

Another cool feature of Photosynth is its smooth digital rendering and zoom capabilities, which makes you feel like you’re really there and just moving closer to the object.

There are currently seven Photosynth collections you can view on the Photosynth Tech preview site including: the space shuttle Endeavour, the Ely Cathedral, and Piazza San Marco in Venice.

According to the Photosynth site in a future version you’ll be able to display your own photographs in a 3D space and even combine the photos you’ve taken with others who have taken photos of the same thing creating an even better 3D space.

To learn more about Photosynth or to experience one of the Photosyth collections click here.

Note: To use Photosynth you must have Windows XP SP2 or later, or Vista RC1 or later and be using Internet Explorer 6 or 7, or Firefox 1.5 or 2.

MozyHome is a service that will automatically backup up to 2GB of files online for free. All you have to do to use this service is:

1. Sign up for your free account, you only have to provide an email address and a password to get one.
2. Download and install the Mozy software.
3. Select the files you would like it to back up.
4. Schedule Mozy to regularly backup those files either daily, weekly, or whenever your computer is not in use.

Mozy will then automatically back up the files that are important to you in a secure way, using 128-bit SSL encryption. Mozy will only backup what has changed since the last backup so after the initial backup subsequent backups will take very little time.

To learn more about MozyHome click here.