Category Archives: Technology

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Online file sync – USB flash drive replacement software for teachers

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FreeFileSync File sync programs can replace the carrying of USB flash drives.  You simply install the software on your home and work computers, and then when you change a file on one computer the file is copied into the cloud and changed on the other computers that are in the sync relationship.  This saves carrying an unreliable and old fashioned USB flash drive that you have to remember to back up.

A while ago I blogged that I used Windows Live Mesh (beta) for syncing files between home and work.  I’d recently got fed up of the huge wait on boot up while live mesh indexed files on my hard drive and I decided to try some alternatives.  These are my thoughts on the software products I tried:

Microsoft Live Mesh Dropbox Jungledisk
Included storage 5Gb 2Gb 5Gb
(no free option)
Ability to expand storage for a monthly fee n/a 50Gb $9.99
100Gb $19.99		 $3 per month +
$0.15 per Gb (plus transfer fees for Amazon storage)
File conflict resolution yes yes basic (renames file with conflict)
Retain cloud backup of deleted files no 30 days 30 days
Online encryption (with own key) no no yes
Other software features remote desktop to control other PCs on same mesh account can also do cloud based backup of files (non-syncing)
Referral scheme to increase free space no yes no
USB version no yes yes
Access to files through a web interface yes yes Not for sync
Icon on windows explorer to show if file is synced no yes yes
Supported platforms Windows Windows, Mac, Linux Windows, Mac, Linux
History of synced files yes yes no
Website link link
(following this link gets you 250Mb bonus space)		 link

So which did I choose?  There was little difference in transfer speed and overall functionality between products.  Live Mesh took an age to start up (whether from boot or resuming from hibernation) but the other two pieces of software made little noticeable difference to start up times.

At the moment I’m using Jungledisk (I’m on an old plan and only pay the storage fees, not the monthly fee) and I feel safer knowing my documents are securely encrypted in the cloud.  The only catch is the lack of conflict resolution which has to be checked manually at regular intervals.

There are many cloud-based file sync products out there, and I’d be interested to hear from anyone who has tried one of the products above or one similar (e.g. sugarsync) for use by teachers.

Update:  I’ve moved to Dropbox because of the relaunch of Microsoft Live Mesh (with corresponding moving goal posts), and I kept getting file conflicts in Jungledisk.  I found Dropbox was extremely reliable and I’ve got my storage limit up to 6Gb with referrals.  Dropbox also links with other services like PixelPipe, providing alternative ways of getting content into your Dropbox.  Remember to follow my referral link to DropBox if you haven’t got an account already – you get extra storage space!

Streaming my music library over the internet to work

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At home I have a Buffalo Linkstation NAS (network attached storage) box which has a backup of my iTunes library on it.  It shares this music library locally using its built in media server (mt.daap) and it always shows up in iTunes on my laptops, and on my O2 Joggler.

I wondered if it would be possible to access this resource from anywhere on the internet (as the networked drive is always powered on).  The answer was yes, and this is how you do it over an encrypted ssh tunnel (it was quite simple once I had the right software).  It does rely on you having a device running openssh (you can add this to older versions of the Linkstation, or on a separate machine).  I haven’t exposed my network storage box directly to the internet because anyone could stream my music for free.

  • Make sure you know the ip address of the Buffalo linkstation on the local network (e.g. 192.168.1.3) and that streaming works fine from iTunes on your local network.
  • You need a copy of Putty (I won’t explain how to configure ssh and putty to work together).  There are some pointers on my blog post here.  Set up putty to forward port 3689 to your NAS box as shown below:

  • Download the daap plugin for Songbird (you will have to edit the install.rdf file to stop it saying that it can’t be run with the current version.  Simply rename the installation package to a zip file, open the file and edit max version to 1.5, then save and rename the plugin package back to an xpi file)
  • Start up Putty and then Songbird.  From the File menu on Songbird add a new daap source at 127.0.0.1
  • After downloading a list of songs available, your library should be ready for streaming over the internet

Please feel free to comment/contact me if you have any questions. Tutorials for setting up SSH to connect to your own network are available all over the internet – please don’t contact me about SSH if you haven’t read a tutorial first!

Software and websites I couldn’t do without

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prod0Following the posts I’ve read by Doug Belshaw and others, I had a think about which software/websites I use on a regular basis.  I try to match my software at home and work since it makes me more productive – but I’m sometimes limited by the fact we run clunky old Windows XP on our school laptops.

 

Firefox

I know Chrome is quicker but every time I use Chrome I end up moving back to Firefox.  I love the extensions/plugins available for Firefox and have a very similar set on both home and work computers.

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Firefox extensions I have on both PCs.

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Adblock Plus With the emergence of flash-advert malware and the intrusive adverts on some sites (The Register I mean you!) this became a must have.
Shareaholic Excellent for posting links to Twitter, Gmail, Facebook and Delicious.  Replaced a whole host of extensions.
Smart Toolmarks bar Allows me to have a bookmark bar with no text, just FavIcons
Weave Syncs my bookmarks, history and tabs with work.  Still not sure about this one – I’m still evaluating it.
Xmarks Sync bookmarks and passwords between my computers.  Might replace it with LastPass or remove it all together if Weave works out
Hide Menubar Gives extra screen estate by hiding the menu-bar (pressing ALT brings it back)
Master Password Timeout On my work PC only.  My passwords are protected by a Firefox Master password.  This extension adds a timeout to that feature so if I leave my laptop unattended it will lock out my passwords.

 

Live Mesh

I tried Dropbox but first I became annoyed when it kept syncing MS Office temporary files (because I work straight out of my drop box).  Then I exceeded the amount of space they offered for free – but I only needed around 4-5Gb storage and I’m not paying for 50Gb that I’m not going to use.

I moved to Live Mesh and it works flawlessly.  Files are synchronised between my work folders and home and school, and updates happen without any user intervention.   Add a net book to that mix and it becomes even more useful (also allowing you to remote control another PC on your ‘Mesh’).  You can also access your files from your Live Desktop should you find yourself working on a different PC.

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Office 2007 and 2010

The new ribbon interface.  You either love it or you hate it.  I love it – and now I’m used to using it I couldn’t go back to the old version of Office.  I am the only member of staff at my school running Office 2007 (and I use the beta of Office 2010 at home) and I hope to convert my colleagues at some point in the future! 

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GMail (Google Mail)

Feature rich, spam free and hosted in the cloud, Google Mail is useful because I can access my email from any computer (and also from my phone/iPod etc).  For those who don’t like web email it supports POP3, IMAP and SMTP so can be used with a desktop email client if you prefer.   Although I tag my emails, the search feature comes in useful for finding those emails where you only remember snippets of information.  I use Google Mail as a client for my work based Exchange mail, and prefer the interface to any of the desktop clients I have tried. (The to-do-list whilst basic is pretty handy too)

gmail-logoGoogle Reader

I started using Google Reader to keep track of blogs and news sites I like.  Google Reader pulls in RSS feeds and can then be accessed from anywhere.  Interesting articles can be emailed to friends, or shared with other users (and mine are even imported into Facebook!).   The addition of Google Buzz added a new layer of functionality to Reader and you now see articles/posts that your friends (who you follow) have shared.  Google Reader keeps me up to date with educational and news feeds.

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Windows Live Writer

Part of the Live Suite available free of charge from Microsoft.  This is a useful piece of software for writing blog posts offline (and publishing them to your website).

Other software/sites

Google Calendar (I’ve tried lesson planning again this year using Google calendar. I kept it up for a over half a term but still ended up going back to a paper diary).  The SMS reminders are useful for reminding me of appointments when I’m not near my email.

Twitter.  I have a PLN (personal learning network) on Twitter but I’m still not convinced that this is a must-have tool.  A significant majority of people I follow are broadcasters rather than being interested in a two-way conversation, and most don’t reply to tweets directed straight at them.

What software do you use every day?  What software couldn’t you do without?

Grabbing clips from DVD – its easier than you think!

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We have a camcorder at work that records straight to DVD.  Of course the price you pay for this convenience is a lack of flexibility.  I needed some clips off a handful of old DVDs to use in a presentation.  I needed clips off the DVDs in the easiest way possible and in a format I could re-edit easily (using Windows Live Movie Maker for simplicity).

VLC

I managed to grab several clips using VLC following these steps.  First of all enable advanced options

vlc1

Then play back your video/DVD.  Click on the red button to start and stop recording.  The recorded file is saved in your documents folder.  It is possible to change the output video format, however the defaults worked fine with movie maker. [Mac users – I believe you press Shift & Command & R instead]

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Unfortunately I had problems with one of the DVDs so I had to use a different method.

Handbrake and K-Lite pack.

I installed the K-Lite pack to give me codecs I would need later on.  (Without the codecs from this pack windows movie maker was not able to use the audio on captured files in AAC format).

Handbrake is simple to use, but the files it generates will probably need some editing/trimming unless you need the whole DVD.

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(You can also use handbrake to convert DVDs into a format suitable for an iPod/iPhone just by changing the preset at stage 2).

That’s all there is to it.  If you are grabbing clips from DVD make sure you own the copyright or else you could get into bother!