Big Google Week: Docs, Draw, Drag ‘n Drop

  April 15, 2010 - 5:00 pm |
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The folks at the Googleplex have definitely been busy this week. All sorts of cool announcements going on!

Google Draw

Google Draw is no longer just for adding drawings to Google documents. It is now a full-fledged member of the Google Documents suite. When you first enter Google Docs, you might see an announcement:

Drawing Announcement Drawing Shapes

The Learn More link just takes you to the help article which describes some of the features. Among the features are collaboration, real-timesharing, a big pile of shapes along with the ability to add your own images. Pretty cool stuff. The announcement post offers more examples and a video.

I look forward to experimenting with it soon. I can’t help but wonder how it will compare to Gliffy (a web-based diagramming app). [past Gliffy mentions]

Updated Google Docs

The preview edition of the newer, faster Google document and spreadsheet editors was announced at the beginning of the week. Real time collaboration features are a big deal, along with better document formatting and such. But you know what new feature really makes me happy?

We’ve also added a host of often requested features, like a formula bar for cell editing, auto-complete, drag and drop columns, and simpler navigation between sheets

A formula bar! Finally! Man, I’ve hated the in-cell editing of long formulas. so this is a big deal. And I’ll tell you what, the spreadsheet is definitely faster.

image

The new versions won’t show up by default, but you’ll easily spot the New Version toggle link once you’re in the document or spreadsheet editor. Try ‘em out.

Gmail Drag and Drop Attachments

Saving the best for last :-)

Announced earlier today, Google Mail users – using Firefox 3.6 or Chrome browsers – can now drag and drop attachments to email messages. Yeah, this isn’t for everyone or every browser, but if you use one of those two you can save a ton of time.

Start a new mail, then drag a file from an open folder/file browser (or the desktop) and you’ll see a drop target show up. Drop the file on it and bob’s your uncle.

Drag and drop Gmail

I love the feature, really I do. But I do wish it would also work for adding images to the body of an email as well… perhaps that will come in the future?

Updating ProLiants Firmware and Software

  April 13, 2010 - 12:00 pm |
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A few months ago I wrote about “The Easy Way to Update ProLiant Firmware” as I had just discovered HP‘s all-in-one firmware updater CD. Great stuff and if you haven’t found that yet, be sure to check that article.

There’s a wrinkle with that CD though: It isn’t always the most current. In fact, it appears to get updated about once every 6 months. I noticed this yesterday as I was resurrecting an older machine to put it back into service. The firmware versions I got were all a bit down-level from what’s on the HP site.

There is a very easy resolution for this on a Windows machine though. Just boot up Windows (needs to have internet connection) and pop in the HP updater CD. Start the Firmware updater (HP Smart Update Manager) and when prompted for update locations, be sure to check the box for ftp.hp.com:

At the bottom of that screen you can also choose between Firmware updates, software updates or both. If you take both (I believe it is the default) it will also look for updates for all the HP software on the machine. Slick!

For the server I was working on yesterday it found updated firmware for every item that I had already flashed from the CD — that gives you an idea of how often HP releases updates.

I might make running this on all my HP servers a quarterly event just to keep ‘em current.

Gmail Labs: Message Sneak Peak and Nested Labels

  April 8, 2010 - 10:12 pm |
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Google Gmail LogoThe Gmail Blog announced two new Labs Features today: Message Sneak Peak and Nested Labels.

Nested labels isn’t all that interesting to me, but I know a lot of people who are going to very excited about this one (as for me, Gmail search works just fine…). As you will see from the announcement, the key is using slashes to simulate a hierarchy. Clever – and didn’t the “better gmail” Firefox add-ins use this method?

Label Example You’ll then need to name your label with slashes (/) to make it the child of another. For example, let’s say you wanted to create a simple hierarchy with a “Home” label, and inside it a “Family” and a “Vacation” label. Just create three labels with the following names:

Home
Home/Family
Home/Vacation

The second lab added is Message Sneak Peak and I think this one is pretty cool. Sometimes, seeing some of the first line (the default way things work) just isn’t enough. With Message Sneak Peak you can right-click on a message and you’ll get a little preview popup. Again, from the announcement:

After you turn it on, right-clicking on a line in your inbox shows a preview pane with the message in it.

You can also use keyboard shortcuts for a faster sneak-peeking flow (enable keyboard shortcuts in Settings first if you haven’t done so): hit ‘h’ to open a sneak peek card, then navigate with ‘j’ and ‘k,’ and dismiss the current card by pressing “Escape.” Messages you peak at will stay unread (or it wouldn’t really be a sneak peek, would it?).

At first glance, you might think this saves you any time. I mean, click or right-click, you still see the message. But if you right-click you can just hit escape to close the popup and you’re still in your inbox. A very quick way to glance at the latest messages. I anticipate using this for “email triage” first thing in the morning.

Anyone else interested in either of these? Am I missing the boat on not being very excited about nested labels? Ya know? One advantage to nesting is being able to collapse and save screen space… that alone might make it useful for folks with tons of labels.

Quick Fix for URL file-access is disabled Issues

  April 7, 2010 - 10:00 pm |
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While working with a 1and1.com hosted WordPress blog I hit a PHP error:

URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration

This error arises when allow_url_fopen is set to “OFF” in the server’s php.ini file – which is the default value for (I believe) PHP 5. That setting controls your script’s access to the include and require statements and access to remote files. As such, there are certainly security concerns, so don’t follow my suggestion below until you understand if you really need it, why you need it, and that your script is safe and sanitizing data.

Just like my last Quick Tip for 1and1.com this is another quick fix, just a little different. If you manage your own server, just locate and edit the php.ini file. However, for folks using shared hosting (I suspect the majority) that’s not going to be an option.

However, you may be able to create your own “local” php.ini file. Add the following line:

allow_url_fopen = ON

Save the php.ini and upload it to the main directory of your site and test. For my 1and1 hosted app this worked instantly and solved my issues.

I’ve seen similar solutions that involve adding the following to the .htaccess file:

php_flag allow_url_fopen on

With 1and1, though, this only generates HTTP 500 errors and a busted app. However, it is definitely worth a shot on other hosting company servers.

Switching Home Backups to CrashPlan

  April 1, 2010 - 10:35 pm |
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For our home backups I’ve primarily been using the free version of Mozy for three and half years now (first look). It works great for us and the few times I’ve needed to recover files there have been no issues. In fact, the only issue I’ve had is not having enough backup space with the free version. (that’s a link straight to the free version – it is a little bit more hidden than it used to be…)

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not whining about not having enough free stuff. That would be shamefully crass. I’m just mumbling about it a little… *grin* But long story short, we finally outgrew our space, even with my affiliate link bonuses.

CrashPlan Logo Enter CrashPlan. While CrashPlan has Pro/Business option I’m using their Home and Office flavor. There’s a pay option to backup to their servers for under $4 a month (free for the first 30 days) but there are additional destination options that are free. You can backup to local drives, USB drives, your other computers running CrashPlan, or friends’ computers running CrashPlan. Or combinations of the above.

Now, most of the computers I and family members own tend to have way more hard drive space than we need, so now we’re all hosting each other’s backups.

Here’s what I’ve got setup so far:

  • My laptop backs up to my home machine. The backups are fast when both are on at home on the local network. Normally I wouldn’t want backups to be so close to where the machine is at night, but the “key” data on the laptop is also in DropBox so this is acceptable for now (until my little web of backups grows).
  • My Home machine backs up to my mother’s machine – 700 miles away.
  • Mother backs up to my home machine.
  • Father backs up to my home machine.
  • Wife is still on Mozy.

As I work on other family member machines I’ll be adding them to the “mesh” as well and continue to aim for geographically diverse options.

Some things I’ve learned after a couple weeks:

CrashPlan Destinations The first backup can take a really long time over the ‘net. If you have a big USB drive, backup to that first. Transport the drive to where the destination PC is, copy the backup directory to that one and then tell CrashPlan on that PC about the backup. This is how I got my home PC backups to my Mom’s PC the first time. Probably saved a week of data transfer…

For flexibility, you can setup your machine to backup to multiple destinations (other PCs, local drives, USB drives, etc.). However, a key thing to be aware of is that they all get the same backup set. In other words, you can’t backup the MP3 directory to one machine and the docs to another. You’ll have to backup MP3’s and docs to both machines. Not a deal-breaker, but it would’ve been nice to have a bit more flexibility.

I’ve had the setup described above running for a couple weeks so far and have had no issues. The backups are chugging away every evening when the right machines are online. I’m pleased and confident that this is a solid solution.

If you’re looking for a free (or inexpensive cloud) backup option I definitely think CrashPlan is worth a look. Supports Windows, Linux and Mac and even Open Solaris. Good stuff.

Anyone else used it – or other/similar options?