Dropbox: More than a File Sharing Application!

Have you ever wanted to send a friend a large file that was exceeding your email attachment limit? It has happened to me quite a few times, when I wanted to send photos or video clips I took at a kid's birthday party to the parents. If I got lucky and managed to attach it to my email, often enough it bounced back because the recipient's email service provider didn't accept such large attachments!

I came across this wonderful web application called Dropbox, where users can upload files and send a link to others to download. The person who receives the link does not have to have a Dropbox account to access the file. Each user gets up to 2 GB of free storage space (more space is available for a fee)!

After I decided to write a help file for this web application for one of my course projects, I discovered that Dropbox is more than a file sharing application. Upon downloading Dropbox software onto your computer, it generates a folder that you can use just like any other folder. But the wonderful thing is that whatever you keep in this folder is accessible through Dropbox website, your other computers, or mobile devices that have the Dropbox application installed. There is no need for you to carry your files in a flash memory anymore!

Also, Dropbox keeps track of changes you make to your files in the Dropbox folder. So basically, it works as a backup system. You can undelete or recover earlier versions of your files! Dropbox saves a history of your files for the last 30 days; you can pay to extend this period.

Dropbox is a good example of Internet-based shared resources--or cloud computing--but security is a concern. You may not want to use Dropbox to store sensitive information as you do not know who has access to your documents at the other end!

A new release or a new software?

It has been a while since I switched to OpenOffice.org for my everyday word processing needs. The reason behind it is very simple: my new laptop didn't come with Microsoft Office installed!
OpenOffice.org was a suitable alternative with many of MS Office capabilities and it was free. Besides, I had MS Office installed on my older laptop, in case I needed it.

I think MS Word 97 was the first word processing software that I ever used. And then there came Word 2000, and after that, 2003--which I kept on using for many years to come! When I think back, I do not remember having much difficulty transitioning from one version of MS Office suite to the next. Obviously, each new release had new features, but the main graphical user interface (GUI) stayed somewhat the same so the intermediate to advanced users could find their ways around it faster and with less effort.

Well, "there comes a time when we heed a certain call" (and by "we", I meant "I")! Obviously, it was not by choice that I had to start using MS Office 2007 at school! And did I wish I had a chance to familiarize myself with it prior to the class!?

This new release is by far the most changed version of MS Word I have ever seen. The GUI is completely new! They have changed the location of the menu items and toolbars dramatically! Even finding simple commands like "Save As" has become a chore! They call this new toolbar the "Ribbon"--an entangled one, I guess!

Obviously, just like any other Microsoft product, Word 2007 is not free of glitches either! For example, I was trying to change the font of one sentence and it changed the font of the entire document for me--and this happened three times in a row! I had also difficulties with inserting page breaks and numbered lists.

OK! Enough of sarcasm!
I must admit, I like the added color and the fluidity of the menu items! It has become more dynamic and visually appealing.
Maybe if I wasn't under pressure to learn this new release and produce a presentable document in one short hour, or if I didn't care for its more advanced features, I would have had better things to say about it.

Regardless, I believe there should be a limit on the amount change introduced in a new software release.

A Review: Say You're One of Them, by Uwem Akpan

Say You're One of Them is consisted of five relatively short stories about lives of children in war-torn African countries, such as, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria. Each story focuses on one of the social, religious, or cultural conflicts and portraits them through the eyes of children. 

The first story is about extreme poverty and child prostitution. The second story is about child trafficking. The third and forth stories focus on religious civil war and its effect on children. And the final one is a terrifying ethnic cleansing story based in Rwanda.

When you think about it, a whole continent has been led to ruins by severe natural resource exploitations, cultural and religious invasions, AIDS, wars, etc.; Not much infrastructure exists, and corruption--an inevitable consequence of extreme poverty--is evident in all levels of the society.
Reading this book, I often found myself wondering how these children could make sense of the madness that was happening around them! How they could isolate and protect themselves so that they did not follow the path of their parents! How these children could build a better future for themselves with all the violence, abuse, betrayal, poverty, ..., in their lives!

On a personal note, as horrifying and heart breaking as each story was, since they were told by children, I rarely found myself teary; nonetheless, I was deeply saddened by every one of them.
I didn't find the local dialects used throughout the book very intriguing. It broke the flow of the story for me. Also, I'd wished the book covered only one story, so that the author could have elaborated more on the characters and took the reader deeper into their lives.

As much as I don't like to say that "reading about other people's miseries makes us appreciate the things that we take for granted", it truly does! Things like, roof over our heads, food on our tables, clean water running in the pipes, safe streets, education for our children, etc., these are the dreams of millions of people over there!
I just wished everyone on our planet could enjoy our basic standard of living.

All in all, I found this book very eye-opening.

Don't back up, backup: A cell phone story!

Back in November, as I was trying to add a new contact to my cell phone, I temporarily lost my contact list! What happened exactly on that day that angered the Gods of cellular phones is still unknown to me!

I don't know about you, but I have stopped memorizing people's phone numbers long time ago, so retrieving these phone numbers could have been a major pain in the neck!

After searching the Internet for an answer on how to retrieve my data, asking from friends, and staying on the phone forever to talk to a customer support from my service provider, I finally listened to the advice of a friend and restarted my cell phone, and thankfully, my contact list reappeared!

That incident made me realize how vulnerable I am in this area and that I needed to somehow backup my data and transfer them to somewhere safe. So I decided to go to the manufacturer's website and figure out a way to download my cell phone contact list to my laptop.

After spending what looked like an eternity searching by keywords, going from one page to the next, and browsing FAQ lists, I finally found a few related topics. To my disappointment though, the answers were very ambiguous, there was not a clear starting point, and no pictures were included to help me get to the right answer faster!
For example on one page it said: “Click on Backup or Restore button depending on what you wish to do”. I couldn't recall seeing a Backup or Restore button on my cell phone! So I started searching vigorously every feature that my cell phone had, to no avail!
Somewhere else it said: “Click the Transfer my Phonebook to Another Phone button”! And I was thinking: “Where exactly is this button located?” .
On another page it said: “Please do not connect your mobile phone to your PC until instructed to do so by the initialization wizard”!
And I quietly asked: “What? Initialization wizard? Oh!”. That was when I figured a software existed somewhere! But, did it give me the name of that software? NO! That would have made my life too easy!

So, I went back to the box that my cell phone came in to see if there was a CD included, and the answer was another NO! I started guessing the software's name and resumed my search on their website! And finally, I found it under “Software and Drivers” and noticed that it was for SALE for 60 USD! Of course! What was I thinking?

Obviously, the next “logical” step was finding free alternatives on the Internet and running the risk of downloading all sorts of spywares and viruses to my computer with that free software!
Or, taking the time and manually entering each and every contact (which I hope to do one of these days).

But, I did learn a lesson on that day; That, "Backup" is the keyword for my peace of mind, electronically speaking!

A Review: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

After much hesitation, I finally decided to give it a read. It turned out to be a completely different book than I had imagined. From the buzz around it and the comments of those who had read it, I had the perception that Outliers is another one of those motivational "you-can-do-it-too" success-story books... but to my astonishment it was anything but!
This book is not about "cut a picture of a bike and imagine riding it, until your grandpa buys it for you!". In this book Malcolm does not glorify successful people nor does he implies that just about anyone could be as successful as self-made billionaires!

He explains through numerous examples, research, and hard data that success is dependant upon many important factors, from personality traits to cultural habits and beliefs to racial background to birth dates!

In part one, the book describes that in order to be successful at a professional level one has to put in about 10,000 hours. But is it that simple? The opportunity for accumulating 10,000 hours is not offered to everyone, some people are "luckier" than others in this regard... for example, if a child is into hokey and is living in Canada and is born in January, February, or March, that child has a better chance of realizing that dream than those born later in the year! Or if a youngster, born in the 50s in the U.S, is provided and seizes the opportunity to work with a computer for numerous "free" hours in the 70s, that teenager will become a Bill Gates or a Bill Joy (co-founder of Sun Mircosystems)! Of course there is no denial that the individual has to have the required talent, motivation, and will power to get there, but such opportunities are/were not present for just about anyone!
The book also emphasizes on the importance of parenting, pleasant social behaviour, and being "in the right place at the right time".

In part two, Malcolm looks at success through a wider lens. He examines the critical--and sometimes catastrophic--role that cultures play on individuals. In one case he explains how a cultural inappropriateness of challenging authority resulted in a deadly plane crash! A Colombian flight about to land in NYC was out of fuel, but the co-pilot could not bring himself to challenge the flight control centre for making them wait!
He goes on to explain how people from southern China are more hardworking than the rest due to cultural belief of "no pain, no gain"!

Malcolm wraps his book by telling the story of his mother, a Jamaican immigrant to Canada. He explains how his mother was lucky enough to be born at the right time, to have the right shade of color(!), parents, community, culture, and was willing to seize the opportunities and face the challenges...

Outliers is different than many of its counterparts--an outlier in itself!
This book can be depressing at times--with stories about those smart individuals who had to face harsh realities of life, like, wars, economical depressions, less caring families, etc. It can cause a "Oh woe is me" reaction at the end (so beware)!
On a positive note, it has nicely pointed out the main ingredients of success.
Overall, I liked it and would recommend it.

Book Reviews

I have decided to write short reviews on books I've read in the past little while.
Here they are in no particular order. Feel free to leave comments, as always.

1- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.
2- Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan
3- Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
4- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
5- Broken Open by Elizabeth Lesser
6- Unbowed by Wangari Maathai
7- Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner
8- The Septembers of Shiraz by
9- Reading Lolita in Tehran
10- The Help by
11- Enrique’s Journey by
12- The Glass Castle by
13- Five Quarters of the Orange by
14- The Luncheon of the Boating Party by
15- The Forgotten Garden by
16- Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
17- Love in the Time of Cholera
18- The Measure of a Man
19- The Power of Now
20- The End of Alphabet
21- The Forgotten Garden
22-...

A new wave: Google Wave!

About a week ago I received an email from a friend--a software architect--who was encouraging me to join Google's newest invention: Google Wave. He was very enthused about how it eases communication and collaboration among people in many levels and very persuasive that I should give it a try. I must admit that I was very hesitant and skeptical at the beginning , mostly because I didn't want to create another account and memorize yet another user name and password. Soon enough though, I discovered that I can use my already existing Gmail user name and password to log into Google Wave. So, I logged in and started playing with it immediately. Here, I am gonna share a few things that I have learned about it so far.

What gave life to Google Wave, according to Google team, was the fact that email, in its present form, was created some 40 years ago. So they thought: "What would it look like if it were invented today?". Basically, they combined many existing applications, such as, email, chat, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, and called it Google Wave!

A "wave" is like an email and creating it is just as easy. What make it interesting are its other powerful features. For example, after creating a new wave, users have the option of adding several gadgets to it--such as, maps, photo albums, polling tools, flowcharts--with a simple drag and drop action. Users can search the web by clicking on Google Search that is on wave's menu bar (there is no need to open another browser).

Apart from the standard text formatting tools (like, different fonts, text sizes, text colors), users can add hyperlinks to their text too. Users can also add their twitter or blogger accounts to their waves and read, tweet, leave comments, or reply without leaving wave.

Google Wave is a powerful tool for planning group projects and brainstorming. Participants in a wave can leave comments anywhere in the message or edit the content. Since wave is a real-time hosted communication, participants can view a comment as it is being typed in.

Its other powerful feature is playback. Users can simply click on the playback button and watch who created the wave or added each comment and at what time. This is very useful for following sequence of discussions when there are too many participants and comments in one wave.

There is an introductory video about Google Wave that gives a quick overview of some of its features and benefits. Google Wave is still in preview phase, so some of the features do not function properly yet. It is not readily accessible to the general public either. If interested, you can fill out an application and wait for Google to send you an invitation to join. After joining, you can also invite your friends--it is a collaborative environments after all! Note that it may take you a few days to get this privilege. Currently, one can only invite up to 8 people.

Just like any other newbie, I still need some time to familiarize myself with this tool. However, as a believer of Google and its innovative products, I am quite certain that Google Wave will become the next widespread communication tool of our time.

As Google team says: "Happy waving!".