Dropbox: Shared Folders vs. Links

Collaborating with Dropbox: Shared Folders vs. Links

Posted by Sheila Vashee

We love hearing from people about how sharing folders and links helps them collaborate more effectively with their team members. Since there are different advantages to sharing a folder versus sending a link, below are a few tips that will help you choose the best way to share.

When to share a folder:

Let’s say your group has a big client meeting next week and everyone is working together to prepare. Several team members are making edits to the presentation, working on different spreadsheets, and saving large video files. Rather than managing multiple versions of your files and emailing attachments back and forth—share a folder!

When you share a folder with your colleagues, it feels like you’re sharing a computer. All of your project files will be in one central place and any member of the folder can save changes directly to the shared copy in an instant.

When to send a link:

It’s the night before the big meeting and you’re ready to send the client a preview of the work you’ve done. The files are very large, so rather than try to zip and send as an email attachment—send a read-only link!

With a Dropbox link, your clients can view or download the latest version in seconds, even if they don’t have a Dropbox account. And you don’t need to worry about re-sending the file if you notice a typo. Just update your file and the latest version is available at the original link, automatically.

Whether you want to share folders to collaborate or send links to show your stuff to others, Dropbox has you covered at work, from start to finish!

Dropbox for Teams Blog » Blog Archive » Collaborating with Dropbox: Shared Folders vs. Links

Goodbrews – Pandora for Beer

Lifehacker: Goodbrews Keeps Track of The Beer You Like, Suggests Brews You’d Love

Alan Henry

If you're a beer fan, you know there's a wide world of craft brews that span styles, flavors, and brands. While most of us have one or two go-to brews we enjoy whenever they're available, if you want to expand your horizons, Goodbrews is a service that makes it easy to tick off the beers you already like, and get recommendations and ratings for ones you might like.

If you're looking for beer reviews, there are plenty of great sites to turn to, but one of the nice things about Goodbrews is that the entire recommendation engine is based on crowd sentiment. Sign up for the service and start filling up your profile with beers you've already tried. Rate them with a thumbs up or a thumbs down so you'll never forget, and then let Goodbrews do its work. The next time you come back to the site, you'll have some recommendations in your profile for brews that you might enjoy, based on the ones you've already rated.

The site even lists the top 10 beers by all users on a tab so you can be adventurous, and you can add beers to your "fridge" if you have them already or just want to remember a specific beer so you can grab it the next time it's available. The site is free, simple, and easy to use. It's new though, so keep that in mind when signing up.

Goodbrews

Clean Up Your Messy Windows Context Menu with CCleaner

How to Clean Up Your Messy Windows Context Menu with CCleaner

Lets face it, one of the messy sides of Windows is its right-click context menu system which seems to get more cluttered every time you install a new program. Here’s how to fix that, the easy way.

Cleaning Your Context Menu With CCleaner

Head over to the Piriform website and download the free version of CCleaner.

Once downloaded, you will need to run through the install wizard which is a next, next, finish process.

When you first fire up CCleaner you will see a Tools section on the left hand side, that’s where we will be heading.

On the right hand side, you will need to head into the Startup section and then click on the Context Menu.

You will now see all of the shell extensions that are registered on your system, after selecting one you have the option of either deleting it for good, or just disabling it incase you wish to re-enable it at a later stage.

That’s all there is to it.

How to Clean Up Your Messy Windows Context Menu with CCleaner - How-To Geek

How to Track and Recover Your Stolen Laptop with Prey

How to Track and (Potentially) Recover Your Stolen Laptop or Android with Prey

Laptops are lighter and more powerful than ever; they're also easier to steal. Luckily, a genuinely versatile and powerful track-and-recover application is also free. Here's how Prey works, and how it could save you a month's rent in new laptop cost.

Why Prey?

There are obvious reasons to like Prey. Chief among them, it's free to use for up to three devices of any kind, from computers running Windows, Mac, or Linux to Android devices. But that wouldn't mean anything if the tracking Prey provided wasn't really solid. It's not fool-proof, especially if the thief wants to entirely wipe your computer or phone, but if that's not the case, it gives you a fighting chance.

We'll tell you why in readable text, being a blog and all, but we think our video walkthrough, embedded above, tells the tale even better—with old-timey music, too, courtesy of Incompetech.

On a laptop with a webcam, a Wi-Fi chip, and Prey installed, it's a good bet you'll have a photo of your thief and an approximate location on them just as soon as they have your computer running for a few minutes. You don't have to actively search, either—devices with Prey installed in the background "phone home" to your web-based account every 20 minutes by default (you can decrease this interval), spilling their guts about everything they're doing.

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Webcam snaps, desktop screenshots, lists of modified files and running programs, network data galore, and much more are provided to those who want to quietly track their, uh, prey. If you'd prefer to think that maybe someone just found your device, you can set read-aloud alerts, fire off alarms, change the system wallpaper, lock it with a password, and remotely wipe out your browser data—all from any browser you can get to.

The basics of installing and using Prey are covered in the video, but here's a brief run-through:

Step One: Set It and Forget It

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Head to Prey's download section, grab the package for your system (again, Prey supports Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android), then install it as normal, creating an account as you do so. The only major issue to address is how you want to control your system and track it if it goes missing. Most people will want to stick with the default, web-based standard method, but those who would prefer an email-based, server-controlled tracking setup can explore an "Advanced" option. I'm focusing on the default Prey + Control Panel setup.

Because it's tracking software that doesn't want to be seen, Prey is almost invisible when it's running on your system, without any configuration or executable files to be seen. In fact, once you've deleted the installer, you shouldn't be able to find Prey at all in your system, because that's the idea. It quietly and quickly checks in with Prey's servers in the background, at an interval you decide, to see if the owner has logged in and marked it as stolen. That's all it does—until you flip the switch on Prey's servers to note that it is, in fact, stolen, or ask for an update on the hardware profile.

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After you've installed Prey and set your defaults, log into Prey's web center, and peek at the basic configuration tools. You can give each of your devices a unique name, clarify its details, and change the frequency of its reporting time. You can set the frequency to a reasonable 20 or 30 minutes now, but don't worry—you can update it as soon as your device is swiped, so you won't be wasting those precious early minutes wondering what's up.

Step Two: Set Your Modules

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The Modules menu on Prey's site determines what happens when your device checks in and notices that it's stolen (if only computers could recognize their strange meta-existence). There are two types of modules: the quiet, informative "Report" modules, and the more aggressive "Action" modules that secure your data, and likely let the thief or finder know that you know your stuff is missing—and that you've got a way to track it.

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Report Modules: In general, you'll want to switch all these on. You never know what might come in handy, and it's not too much more effort for Prey to grab any one item more than the others. You can set limits on how much raw modified data and running program information is thrown your way, but the defaults are fine, if voluminous. The most important module to turn on is Geo, which uses Google's Wi-FI location API to try and triangulate a laptop's location—or the GPS chip in an Android for very accurate positioning.

The main exception would be the "Webcam" option. If your laptop has a webcam that must activate a very distinct light or LED before snapping a picture, it could be an obvious give-away and tip your hand. MacBooks, for example, turn on a green LED when grabbing images from the webcam. If you wanted to go stealth and not let the unlawful owner know you had them, you could shut this off—but you'd likely be better off trying to grab at least one picture of the thief unawares. (He or she may not be perceptive or paranoid enough to catch what's going on.)

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Alarm modules: When subtle won't work, Alarm Modules provide you with your next best chance of alerting the thief, the person who bought stolen goods from the thief, and potentially anyone near them, that your laptop is your laptop. Failing that, some alarm modules can at least wipe out any potentially revealing information about you.

Alarm, Alert, Change Wallpaper, and the password-protected Lock are pretty self-explanatory. Our volunteer "thief" Whitson reported that the alarm is, in fact, quite loud and attention-getting, and that the pop-up alert comes up over anything else you may be doing.

The "Secure" module is where you make your big security decisions. You can set Prey to wipe out your entire password keychain, delete data from Firefox, Safari, or Chrome (sorry, Opera users), or wipe down Outlook or Thunderbird. A total account wipe-out would be a nice option, of course, but there's likely a compromise between making Prey still active and having data deletion access.

Android SIM Protection

Android phones set up with Prey actually have fewer reporting and alarm modules than laptops, but they do have one unique feature: SIM card protection. If a thief attempts to swap out the SIM card in your phone, the new SIM number is captured and text-messaged to a contact you set up in the Prey options. With that kind of data and a police contact, you're pretty close to tracking down your phone.

Step Three: Using Your Reports

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So you've registered Prey on your laptops and Androids, and if it gets stolen, you'll get an email announcing a new report is drawn up every X minutes. Now what?

First things first, report your laptop or device stolen to the police. The cynical may assume they don't care or don't have the know-how to track your gear, but the cynical often aren't shielded members of a law enforcement agency. Give the police everything you have on your device, including serial numbers, identifying stickers or characteristics, and the last place you knew you had it. It never hurts. When using the similar "Find my iPhone" feature of the MobileMe service, police in Madison, Wisc. were able to track down two iPhones stolen from a store. Your mileage will vary, but it's best to head through official channels first.

If you're on your own, you can hope that the thief or other person toting your laptop makes a regular run of certain Wi-Fi spots. You'll have the IP address they're connecting outward from, the name and details of the Wi-Fi spot they're connecting to, and a list of the programs they're running, connections they're making, and other details. Your best hope is that geo-location through available Wi-Fi can point you somewhere unique in an uncrowded neighborhood, or that the Wi-Fi they connect to is unique and identifiable—"JoesCoffee", "246JonesSt", or something similar would be ideal. If your webcam can grab a clear snap of the thief, all the better. If you've got nothing quite so unique and helpful, a visit to the traceroute and other tools at network-tools.com (or nearly any site resulting from a "traceroute" Google search) can potentially get you closer to your missing goods.

In any case, contact your local police rather than try and pin the phone down yourself. One blogger snatched back an iPhone with some help from friends, but he suggests your journey might not have such a funny ending.

How to Track and (Potentially) Recover Your Stolen Laptop or Android with Prey

Best Websites for Downloading, Renting, and Purchasing Audiobooks

The Best Websites for Downloading, Renting, and Purchasing Audiobooks

We recently published a list of websites where you can download free eBooks, or purchase, borrow, or rent eBooks. However, if you would rather listen to your favorite books, here are some websites offering audiobooks you can download, rent, or purchase, some free, some not.

Free Audiobooks

There a lot of free audiobooks available on various sites, some in the public domain and some from independent authors.

LibriVox.org

LibriVox is a non-commercial, non-profit, and ad-free project that posts audiobooks recorded from books in the public domain, recorded by volunteers, and made available as MP3 downloads or podcasts. The goal of LibriVox is to make all books in the public domain available as free audiobooks on the web.

In addition to downloading audiobooks, you can also volunteer to be a reader. The only qualification is that you have an audible voice.

BooksShouldBeFree.com

Books Should Be Free provides audiobooks from the public domain available for free that you can listen to on your iPhone, Android, Kindle, or MP3 player. It’s similar to LibriVox and uses LibriVox and Gutenberg.org as sources for the free audiobooks. However, Books Should Be Free provides a more visually entertaining experience and easier way to browse through audiobooks, which are divided into many different genres for your browsing enjoyment.

NewFiction.com

If you like soap operas, NewFiction offers audiobooks in episode format, performed by multiple, trained, dramatic actors, called iSoaps. They’re considered modern-day radio dramas. Simply sign up and you’ll get a daily installment delivered to your computer, iPod, iPad, or smartphone. You can also listen to the episodes online or download them directly to your computer or portable device.

PodioBooks.com

PodioBooks.com is similar to NewFiction. They offer about 434 free audiobooks in episodes as podcasts, available in 30 categories. You can receive them as RSS feeds or download the episodes directly.

Librophile

Librophile offers thousands of free and pay audiobooks and free eBooks. You can subscribe to each free audiobook in iTunes as episodes or download the whole audiobook directly. There are also links allowing you to directly access the eBook versions of the audiobooks on the Project Gutenberg website. The free audiobooks are mostly obtained from the public domain from LibriVox and the pay audiobooks through the Audible affiliate program (see later in this article for more information about Audible). Children’s audiobooks are mostly sourced from Storynory (also see later in this article for more information). Free eBooks are available in multiple formats.

Move your mouse over each thumbnail on the main page to read a summary (it may only be a partial summary) of the audiobook or eBook.

AudioBooksForFree.com

AudioBooksForFree.com offers classic books recorded as audiobooks for download as MP3 files. There are many categories to help you find what you want, and you can even record and sell your own eBooks on their site, as long as you are the copyright owner.

Project Gutenberg – The Audio Books Project

The Audio Books Project by Project Gutenberg offers audiobooks created from the classic literature eBooks on their site. They have human-read audiobooks read by volunteers (through sites such as AudioBooksForFree.com and LibriVox), as well as computer-generated audiobooks.

They are working on ways to automatically create computer-generated eBooks on demand.

FreeClassicAudioBooks.com

FreeClassicAudioBooks.com offers free, downloadable, classic audiobooks in MP3 format and M4B format for iTunes and iPod. You can also support the site by buying collections of audiobooks, audio short stories, and audio language courses on DVD.

AudioBookTreasury.com

AudioBookTreasury.com offers an ever-growing collection of free audiobooks you can download as MP3 files. They’ve improved upon the free audiobooks by removing advertisements and cleaning up the audio files. You can also find recommendations on their site for the best current audiobooks available for purchase. There are even quizzes about classic books for you to take while waiting for downloads.

Ambling Audio Books

Ambling Audio Books offers thousands of free audiobooks, most of which come from LibriVox. They provide an easy-to-use interface for browsing and downloading the audiobooks. You can play sample clips, check narrator ratings, and read reviews posted by Ambling listeners. Ambling Audio Books has their own player available for Android phones and tablets, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Windows, Mac, or Linux. Their player was designed specifically for audiobooks and contains many useful features, such as bookmarks, file management, and the ability to control the player from Bluetooth headphones.

You can also add your own ratings and reviews for the benefit of other Ambling listeners, and even publish your own audiobook.

NOTE: Ambling Audio Books also offers audiobooks for purchase.

ThoughtAudio.com

ThoughtAudio offers a collection of classical audiobooks that you can listen to online or download in segments. Some of the audiobooks are available as written text in PDF format for download.

LearnOutLoud.com

LearnOutLoud.com offers over 5000 free audio and video titles from all over the web that can be downloaded in MP3 format (most audio titles) or streamed online (most video titles). These include free audiobooks, lectures, speeches, sermons, interviews, and more.

Lit2Go

Lit2Go is a website run by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology in the College of Education at the University of South Florida. They offer a free collections of stories and poems in MP3 format. These stories and poems are meant for use in classrooms, but anyone can download them. Each story or poem has an abstract, citation, playing time, and word count, and many items also have a related reading strategy for use in a classroom setting. Each item also has a PDF file you can download and use in the classroom for reading along or as supplemental reading material.

Open Culture

Open Culture has an article that contains links to 450 free audiobooks, mostly classics, and some non-fiction and poetry. Some titles are available in MP3 format, some in iTunes, and some in both. When a free eBook is available for the title, there is a link to their 325 free eBooks article containing the eBook link.

Free-Audio-Books.co.uk

Free-Audio-Books.co.uk is another site offering free audiobooks, mostly classic and old titles, organized into categories. You can choose to download them in MP3 format or listen to them online.

Storynory

Storynory is a website that offers children’s stories drawn from unusual stories from around the world and from fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson. They also offer original stories. Each audiobook comes with the full text of the book in English which can be translated into other languages. A new audio story is published every week.

Wowbrary

Wowbrary is a website that regularly informs you about your local public library’s newest books, movies, and music (if your library is covered by the site). Register for free on their site to choose your local library and receive updates about their offerings by email and/or RSS. You can also browse through the latest additions and put a hold on a title you want to check out.

Non-Free Audiobooks

If you want current bestsellers in audiobook form, there are several good websites for purchasing or renting them.

Audible

Audible is one of the most popular websites for purchasing audiobooks and they’ve partnered with Amazon. In addition to audiobooks, Audible also offers radio shows, podcasts, stand-up comedy, and speeches from well known people.

You can listen to audiobooks from Audible on a large selection of mobile phones, such as Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry, MP3 players, such as iPod, Creative ZEN, and SanDisk Sansa, and Windows and Mac computers. You can also use a Kindle Fire.

Audible offers subscription plans (two monthly and two annual) that allow you to “buy” audiobooks using credits and to save 30% off audiobooks purchased without credits. You can get one or two credits a month (monthly plans) or 12 or 24 credits all at once (yearly plans). With you subscription, you also get a free daily audio subscription to either the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal.

Simply Audiobooks

Simply Audiobooks offers three ways to get new releases, bestsellers, classics, and down-to-business titles in audiobooks, available in MP3 or M4B format.

One method is to join their Download Club, which is a subscription plan that gives you credits you can redeem for more than 9,000 audiobooks on their site. You pay a flat subscription rate and you can download most audiobooks for one credit each. A small number of titles require two credits to download.

You can also choose their Rental Program, which allows you to listen to as many audiobooks on CDs as you can each month. Add titles to your shelf, and when you finish one and return it, the next title on your shelf is shipped to you. You can choose rental plans that allow you to have from one to four books at a time for a flat monthly fee. Shipping is free both ways. Depending on how fast you go through audiobooks, you can pay a lot less per audiobook than the cost of buying it.

If you don’t want to commit to a monthly fee, you can purchase audiobooks on CD or to download instantly without signing up for the club or rental program. You can save 10% on all physical audiobooks.

NOTE: Not all books are available for all three options. For each audiobook listed in their catalog, they indicate whether it is available for Rent, through the Club, or to Buy.

AudioGO (BBC Audiobooks America)

AudioGO (formerly known as BBC Audiobooks America) offers complete and unabridged audiobooks, both single-voiced (one person reading the book) and full-cast dramatized (a cast of readers acting out the story), and radio dramas. They are the exclusive North American distributor for BBC Audiobooks. Audiobooks purchased on AudioGO are sent on CD or MP3 CD, as well as available for download.

NOTE: AudioGO is a good source for Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Sarah Jane Adventures audiobooks, for fans of those TV shows.

Audio Book Store

The Audio Book Store offers a large collection of audiobooks, available in downloadable, streaming, and CD formats.

Their service for downloading audiobooks is provided by Audible, mentioned earlier.

If you want audiobooks to be shipped to you on CD, you can choose their rental program, which is similar to the Rental Program at Simply Audiobooks.

The streaming service is a monthly plan that allows you unlimited access to the entire audiobook library and you can stream an unlimited number of audiobooks per month to your phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer. One advantage to the streaming service is that you can listen to your audiobooks across multiple devices. For example, you can start listening to a book on your phone, continue listening to it on your laptop, and then go back to listening to it on your phone again.

Just Audiobooks

Just Audiobooks offers over 100,000 bestselling audiobooks from the most popular authors, and is very similar to the Audio Book Store. Just Audiobooks has also partnered with Audible to provide their download service.

If you want to rent audiobooks on CD, choose their Audio Book CD Rental Service, which is provided by Simply Audiobooks. If you prefer to buy audiobooks on CD to have permanently, you can purchase audiobooks on CD.

The Great Courses

The Great Courses has found the top 100 teaching professors in the country from Ivy League universities, Stanford, Georgetown, and other leading colleges and universities, and worked with them to create over 390 great courses you can purchase in video format on DVD or audio format on CD, download video or audio, or stream to your computer or mobile device.

All of these resources for audiobooks should provide you with many hours of entertainment and enlightenment.

The Best Websites for Downloading, Renting, and Purchasing Audiobooks - How-To Geek