To get things done today, you need the right information at your fingertips — no matter where you are. You will travel, relocate, switch jobs, use more computers, and generate larger quantities of data in your lifetime than any previous generation has. The capability (or inability) to access that information on the go can make the difference between success and failure in work and life.
Every day you create a digital trail that details your life. Your Sent mail folder describes your professional and personal relationships. Your digital photo and video archive documents family vacations, graduations, births, and the car accident you got into last year. You've got your college papers, your résumé, and professional documents created at your last three jobs stowed away on your hard drive.
Ten years ago, you may have been able to store all the data you needed on a 1.44MB floppy disk. Now, in the age of MP3 players, ubiquitous broadband, personal camcorders, and digital cameras, you create and collect dozens of gigabytes of data per year. There are three main ways to get to this data when you're not sitting at the computer it lives on:
Storing it "in the cloud" using web applications (webapps). Hack 69, "Manage Your Documents in a Web-Based Office Suite" and Hack 80, "Use Gmail as an Internet Hard Drive," cover ways to use web applications to store your data online, and even revise and collaborate on documents using only a browser.
Taking your software and files with you on a portable device. That iPod's good for more than just playing music and video, and with the right software installed on your USB drive, you may not need to take your laptop everywhere. Hack 78 covers how to use your iPod as an external hard drive, and Hacks 70 and 71 describe how to run Windows as well as your favorite portable applications directly from a flash drive.
Turning your home computer into a personal server and connecting to it from anywhere. If your home computer is your central digital nervous system and you've got always-on broadband Internet access at home, you can get to your home files from anywhere — across town or an ocean. Hack 73 details how to create a personal virtual private network to access your home computer from anywhere securely. Hacks 74 and 75 walk you through creating a home web server to browse and download files and to control your home computer's desktop remotely over the Internet.
Your data is your life. Secure, easy access to it — no matter where you are — is a must. Whether it's taking it with you on a keychain, storing it up in the cloud, or connecting to your home server from anywhere, this chapter's hacks cover several ways to get your data on the go.
Platform....Web
Cost........Free
A profound shift in modern computing is afoot: a move from desktop software to the Web. Mature web browsers, always-on broadband Internet connections, and an increase in mobile users has spurred a new breed of web sites that aren't just static pages — they're hosted software applications (web applications, or webapps) that you access from your browser.
Typing a memo, calculating charts in a spreadsheet, or designing a slideshow presentation used to require specialized and expensive software, such as WordPerfect or Microsoft PowerPoint, that you'd install on your computer. Today, a new crop of completely web-based office applications can create and manage those types of files, and you need only a web browser to use them. Several hacks in this book have encouraged you to move from desktop software to web applications — such as controlling your email with Gmail or managing your schedule in Google Calendar. You can do the same with your word processor documents, spreadsheets, and slideshows. This hack covers how (and why).
All you need to start using an online office suite is a computer with a web browser connected to the Internet and a free account at the service you choose (such as Google Docs at http://docs.google.com or Zoho at http://zoho.com). There are several advantages to abandoning your expensive desktop office suite in favor of web applications:
No special software is required to create, revise, open, and save a new spreadsheet or slideshow, which eliminates the need to purchase or install Microsoft Office.
You can access online office suites from any computer with a web browser and Internet connection, regardless of operating system or location.
The most recent revision of your document is always available in one place, eliminating the need to copy your documents to a disk to take them with you or to back them up.
You can easily collaborate on documents stored in a single place with several other people, whose edits will be saved in that one place. You don't need to send emails with document attachments for others to revise and risk having to deal with confusing multiple versions.
For example, as I wrote this book, I kept a spreadsheet detailing the revisions and additions I made to the first edition. At first I emailed a copy of this spreadsheet to my editor, but then a few hours later I made several changes. Finally, instead of emailing a copy every time I revised the sheet, I uploaded it to Zoho Sheet (http://sheet.zoho.com) and invited my editor to view it. That way, any revisions I made were immediately available to her, with no email or attachment required. Figure 8-1 shows the spreadsheet accessed via Zoho.
Figure 8-1. Viewing a spreadsheet in a web browser created and maintained with the web-based Zoho Sheet.
Working with web-based office applications probably sounds like a mobile, multicomputer user's nirvana, right? But there are some downsides; here's a look of some of them:
The full-featured version of Microsoft Word, for instance, has many more features than any online word processor does. (Most likely the majority of Word documents don't employ those features, but some documents might.) You'll be surprised at how many features online office suites do support: advanced formatting; spreadsheet formulas; What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) layouts. But you couldn't do a mail merge, for example, from a web-based word processor.
Working in a web browser has some interface limitations and differences from installed, rich, desktop applications. For example, you can't drag and drop toolbars or files inside a web application. I have a habit of pressing Ctrl+S to save my documents as I work, and that doesn't work in some web-based office suites. Journalist Michael Calore worked exclusively in web applications for a full month and missed particular actions that are possible on the desktop but not in the web browser. In April of 2007, he wrote,
"A web-based user interface isn't as snappy as a desktop app. Menu navigation is much different, and tool palettes can't be customized or dragged around [...]. The one aspect of the desktop environment that I began to miss the most was drag-and-drop functionality. It seems so simple, but after years of interacting with my software in a very specific manner, dragging files from the desktop into applications had become an integral part of my work flow."[46]
Your data is stored on someone else's server. The advantage is that it will still be there if your computer crashes, but some users might be concerned about privacy and security, especially if your documents contain confidential information.
You must be connected to the Internet to access your documents (for now, that is — see the sidebar for more information). If you're on a cross-country flight and want to edit a document stored online, unless you exported it to your local desktop first and have the right desktop software installed to open it, you can't access it.
You have several options for managing and storing your office documents online. Two major players — Google Docs and Zoho — offer suites of multiple applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation apps (the online answer to Microsoft PowerPoint). Other companies specialize in a single type of office applications. Here's a partial list of web applications you may use the next time you want to create a certain type of office document.
Note
Google Docs and Zoho offer very similar office suites with a subtle difference. Google Docs is aimed at consumers, whereas Zoho is intended for business users. Both are free for individual use. Although many users may opt for Google Docs because of familiarity with the Google brand and an existing Google account (no separate registration required), overall, Zoho's suite includes more features within its applications.[47]
Web-based document editors have several features that separate them from and complement desktop software. Most office webapps let you do the following:
Import and export files for use on the desktop. You use Zoho Writer but your co-worker uses Microsoft Word? Not a problem. You can draft your document in Writer and click the Export button to download a Word document (
.docfile), OpenOffice.org document (.SXWfile), PDF, text, HTML, or rich-text document that can be edited on the desktop as usual. Likewise, if you have an existing Word document, for example, you can import it into a web-based office app for viewing or editing. Figure 8-2 shows this chapter's Word document as it appears uploaded to Google Docs.Collaborate or share with specific people. For any given document, you can email co-workers, friends, or family members and give them view-only or edit rights to the document in progress, which allows you to easily collaborate without clunky email attachments. Several online apps (such as Zoho Writer and Google Presentations) let users chat in-document while editing and viewing it.
Publish your document. Make your document viewable by anyone who visits its URL, or embed documents you create onto your weblog or company intranet page. Rather than send emails around with a document attached, you simply include the link to the published document to share it with others, as shown in Figure 8-3.
Platform....Windows XP (with a USB drive, iPod, or external hard drive)
Cost........Free
You're headed to your in-laws' for the holiday week and you don't want to drag your laptop with you. Instead, take along a small hard drive that you can plug into their PC and get your own custom Windows desktop, applications, and files. Free software MojoPac (http://mojopac.com) creates a "PC on a stick" that borrows a host PC's hardware and runs Windows directly from a flash drive or iPod.
Plug your MojoPac-enabled portable drive into your mother-in-law's PC, launch Windows from it, and use any application or document directly from the drive, leaving no footprint behind on the host PC. Great for everyone who works on several PCs on a regular basis — or who just wants to separate certain apps and documents from a computer he uses — MojoPac is a convenient, portable Windows virtual machine.
You can do all sorts of things on the go with your MojoPac "PC on a stick," including the following:
Listen to your music library, watch videos, and download podcasts from any PC with iTunes installed on your MojoPac.
Watch downloaded video such as movies or TV shows with your media player of choice from any PC.
Play PC games such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, or Half-Life from any PC and take the game and its current state with you.
Use expensive PC software you have limited licenses for, such as Microsoft Office or Photoshop, from any computer.
Surf with your preferred browser, storing your passwords and other sensitive data separate from an untrusted host PC.
Back up working copies of your essential software so that if your computer crashes or hard drive fails, you can plug your MojoPac into another PC and have a working environment ready to go.
Sound good? Let's get it running.
To get MojoPac set up, you'll need:
Here's how to install MojoPac.
Prepare your portable drive. You can install MojoPac on any external drive, including iPods with disk use enabled and USB flash drives. Flash drives are smaller but run MojoPac more slowly, so opt for a hard drive instead of a flash drive. If you're installing MojoPac on a USB flash drive, clear off as much disk space from it as possible. Then, optimize it for fast reading and writing. In My Computer, go to the Properties panel of the portable drive. In the Hardware tab, choose the drive and click Properties. Then, on the Policies tab, select Optimize For Performance, as shown in Figure 8-4. You will need to restart your computer to save this setting.
If you're using an iPod, make sure the Manually Manage Music option is selected in iTunes, and that Enable Disk Use is also selected.
Download MojoPac from
http://mojopac.comand run the installer, which will ask which drive it should put the MojoPac on. Choose either your flash drive, iPod, or external hard drive from the drop-down list.Launch MojoPac for the first time. Either choose Launch MojoPac Now! at the end of the installation process or browse to the drive contents and click the
MojoPac Start.exefile. MojoPac will prompt you to log in, as shown in Figure 8-5.
The initial setup will ask you to name your MojoPac device and set a username and password to log in to it (in case it's lost or stolen). You also have to register for a free account at http://mojopac.com and enter your web username and password during the device's setup.
When the device setup it complete, click the Start Mojo button and enter the login information you set up (for the device, not on the web site). MojoPac's first boot takes a few extra minutes to get your portable Windows installation in order, so grab a drink while it gets everything set up.
Now you'll be sitting at your MojoPac Windows desktop, which resides entirely on your portable drive but "borrows" the CPU, video drivers, Internet connection, keyboard, and mouse from the host PC. Across the top of your desktop, you'll see a MojoPac toolbar that lets you switch back and forth between host PC and MojoPac. In MojoPac, the button reads Switch To Host, and on your host PC's desktop, it's Switch to Mojo, as shown in Figure 8-6.
Figure 8-6. Toggle between the host PC's desktop and MojoPac using the toolbar at the top of your desktop while MojoPac is running.
Inside MojoPac, browse to My Computer and notice that the portable drive you're running from is MojoPac's C: drive. In contrast to most virtual machines, you cannot access the host PC's disks while in MojoPac; however, while you're in the host PC, you can write to your MojoPac drive.
While you're in MojoPac, you can install any Windows application you want — not just portable apps. Photoshop, iTunes, VLC media player, any PC game, full-on Microsoft Office — you're limited only by how much space is available on your portable disk. MojoPac turns your portable disk not only into a data backup but also a working software application backup.
Speaking of data, MojoPac also provides a useful Data Copy utility that moves your documents onto your MojoPac. To get into it, quit MojoPac (while you're in MojoPac, right-click the system tray icon and choose Exit MojoPac) and then restart it. Instead of clicking the Start Mojo button, click the Data Copy button. Choose the folders on your host PC that you want to move into your MojoPac installation, as shown in Figure 8-7.
Overall MojoPac is an excellent plug-and-play solution for Windows users who don't want to lug their laptops everywhere. But there are a few things to know when travelling with a MojoPac drive:
MojoPac advertises itself as a solution for folks who are limited by IT restrictions on software — say, at the office or a café. However, you must be logged in to the host PC as an administrator to run MojoPac, something most users in IT lockdown are not.
MojoPac's speed depends entirely on how fast the computer can read and write to the disk. Even with a fast disk, this will be slower than working on the host PC itself.
Although major Windows software packages such as Microsoft Office do work with MojoPac, some software applications may not. See a comprehensive list of software known to work with MojoPac at
http://mojopac.com/portal/content/what/apps.jsp.As of this writing, MojoPac does not yet support Windows Vista, so you must be working on a Windows XP PC with MojoPac. Vista support is on its way.
For extra security, you can encrypt your MojoPac drive using True-Crypt's File Container option. See Hack 19, "Create a Password-Protected Disk on Your PC," for more on how to do this.
A clean installation of MojoPac is about 52MB, not including any applications or user data saved on the drive, so the bigger hard drive you use with MojoPac, the more software and documents you can take with you.
Portable operating systems aren't limited to just MojoPac and Windows. Other free, Linux-based options include Damn Small Linux (http://damnsmalllinux.org) and Puppy Linux (http://puppylinux.com).
Platform....Windows XP and Vista (with a flash drive)
Cost........Free
Portable hard drives such as USB flash drives and iPods get cheaper, smaller in size, and larger in capacity by the day. Instead of lugging around your laptop or emailing yourself files, store your favorite software applications and important data on a thumb (flash) drive about the size of a car key. Then plug it into any computer for quick and easy access on the go.
This hack covers popular portable applications and some practical uses for these small drives.
Here are a few scenarios in which a USB drive loaded with your favorite applications and important documents might come in handy:
You work on a set of files on several different computers (such as at the office and at home, on the laptop and the desktop) and you want easy access to them from one place.
Your IT department doesn't give you administrative rights to install your favorite software on your office computer.
You'd like to back up your files and store them offsite, such as home files at the office or work files at home. (You can store USB drives in a safety deposit box or mail one to Mom in Florida every few months, too.)
You don't want to download and install your favorite application at every computer you use.
You want to avoid using your in-laws' hijacked web browser to download virus scanners and spyware cleaners; instead, you want to take the tools you'll need to fix their computer along on your flash drive.
You want to bring the latest episode of Heroes with you on the airplane, or create a digital music mix to use when you're the DJ at a friend's party. (USB drives are more portable and durable than DVDs, CDs, or VCR tapes.)
Note
Later in this chapter, Hack 78, "Back Up Data to Your iPod," shows you how to use the iPod as an external hard drive from which you can also run portable applications and store your data.
When you install software on your computer, the setup program makes changes to the Windows registry and stores special files (called DLLs) throughout your PC's file system so that the program can run. Portable apps — software programs meant to run from a single hard drive — don't require any changes to the operating system. They are self-contained and stand alone on one drive. Portable applications meant for use on flash drives are often stripped down to the bare essentials to take up the least amount of disk space possible. However, program size becomes less of an issue for software makers as larger-capacity drives become cheaper and more available. (As of this writing, thumb drives up to 16GB in size are available on the market.)
When purchasing a flash drive, keep in mind that size does matter. The more space you have, the more programs and information you can store.
Some popular portable software applications include the following:
Web browser: Portable Firefox, 7.55MB installed. Includes all Fire-fox profile information such as bookmarks and extensions.
http://portableapps.com/apps/Internet/browsers/portable_firefox
Office suite: Portable OpenOffice.org, 90.6MB installed. Spreadsheet, word processor, and presentation software.
http://portableapps.com/apps/office/suites/portable_openoffice
Email: Portable Thunderbird, 21.7MB installed. Email, address book, and mail filters.
http://portableapps.com/apps/Internet/email/portable_thunderbird
Instant messenger: Trillian Anywhere, about 34MB installed, depending on the size of your Trillian profile. Multiprotocol instant-messaging client works with AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ, and IRC.
http://trilliananywhere.com
Virus scanner: Portable ClamWin, about 15MB installed (with definitions). Open source Windows virus scanner.
http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/antivirus/portable_clamwin
Remote login: TightVNC (viewer executable only), 159KB installed. Log in to your remote VNC (virtual network computing) server with the TightVNC viewer. (See Hack 75, "Remotely Control Your Home Computer," for more information on using the TightVNC viewer.)
http://tightvnc.com/download.html
What kind of space are we talking about? Those six portable programs total 327.85MB, or about 33 percent of a 1GB flash drive, which leaves plenty of space for work files.
For a constantly updated directory of software fit for toting around on a thumb drive, keep an eye on John Haller's web site, Portable Apps (http://portableapps.com).
The Portable Apps site also offers an entire suite of software packages for your flash drive in a single download. The suite includes a web browser, email client, web editor, office suite, word processor, calendar/scheduler, instant-messaging client, and FTP client, ready to save to your flash drive and use. Two flavors are available for download: Standard and Lite (smaller file size). Download it for free at http://portableapps.com/suite. The Standard version, unzipped and installed, takes up 256MB; the Lite, a mere 99 MB.
Several other software applications discussed in other hacks in this book are small enough to fit on a thumb drive or offer a portable version:
KeePass password manager: See Hack 15, "Securely Track Your Passwords," for more on using KeePass.
TrueCrypt data encryption utility: See Hack 19, "Create a Password-Protected Disk on Your PC," for more on making your files inaccessible in case your thumb drive is lost or stolen.
Texter text replacement: See Hack 48, "Reduce Repetitive Typing with Texter for Windows," for more details on creating custom abbreviation replacement and common misspelling correction programs with the free, portable-drive-friendly Windows program called Texter.
Tech-support warriors should add a thumb stick loaded with the prefab PC Repair Kit (available at http://www.dailycupoftech.com/usb-drive-systems/3/) to their toolbox. The PC Repair Kit offers a menu of 37 Windows diagnose-and-fix utilities for your (or your co-worker's) spyware-addled PC.
Software is worthless without data. Store your important files on your flash drive for access on any computer. That includes your
To-do list.
Address book.
Passwords: Be sure to encrypt this file for security! (See the following section, "Secure Your Drive," for more information.)
Multimedia: Photos, music, and video (depending on the size of your drive).
Office documents.
ReturnIfLost.txtfile with your contact information.Web site bookmarks.
Web browser configuration (see Hack 92, "Take Your Browser Configuration with You," for more information).
Flash drives are tiny and convenient, which means they're easily lost, damaged, stolen, and transported. More and more cases of stolen laptops and hard drives have spelled disaster for companies and individuals who handle sensitive customer data or private company documents.
Here are a few strategies for securing the data on your thumb drive.
Free software LockNote, available at http://locknote.steganos.com, is a standalone text-file encryption program. Save the LockNote.exe file to your thumb drive. Launch it and enter any textual information you'd like to secure — passwords, addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, and so on — and then close the document. LockNote prompts you for a password and scrambles the file so that anyone without the password can't open it.
The LockNote.exe file weighs in at about 296KB — about 0.29 MB — and is worth the space if you're dealing with sensitive, confidential material.
If you have different types of existing files, you can create a password-protected ZIP archive of them. Using free software 7-Zip, available at http://7zip.org, add the files you want to save on your flash drive to a new ZIP archive, and set a password to open them, as shown in Figure 8-8.
Make sure you change the Archive Format from 7z to Zip so that Windows can extract the file without 7-Zip. Finally, move the resulting archive (.zip file) to your thumb drive.
You can browse the file and folder names within a password-protected ZIP file, but the individual files cannot be extracted or the contents viewed without entering the password. A stronger, alternative encryption method employs the free software TrueCrypt (http://truecrypt.org/downloads.php). For detailed instructions on how to encrypt an entire thumb drive — or just a particular folder or set of files with True-Crypt — see Hack 19.
When your flash drive is loaded, plug it into any computer with a USB drive and access it the same as any other internal hard drive. All the usual Mac/PC compatibility issues apply (for example, an .exe file won't launch on a Mac), but Office documents, PDFs, and text files are crossplatform.
Warning
If you're not sure the computer you're using is free of spyware and viruses, assume that it is not. USB drives are the perfect way to spread computer nasties, so be extra cautious with a promiscuous thumb drive. For this very reason, network administrators sometimes disable the capability to mount a thumb drive on public computers (such as at libraries).
Platform....A mobile phone with text messaging
Cost........Dependent on your mobile phone plan
You're out and about town and you need movie times at theaters nearby, a reminder to feed the parking meter in 60 minutes, to quickly capture how much gas you just put in the tank, or to check the weather forecast. You don't need a laptop or even a tricked-out PDA to access the Web on the go: you can do it directly from any phone that can send text messages. More and more, modern web applications are offering access to their services via text message.
Here's how it works: You send a text message that contains a short code — such as w 90210 or m 11215, to check the weather or get movie times. Then, you receive a message response back on your mobile phone immediately (within a minute). Let's take a look at a few SMS-enabled web search engines and applications.
Note
For more on how to send a text message from your SMS-enabled phone, see Hack 50, "Text-Message Efficiently."
Major web search engines Google and Yahoo! — and a smaller, new company, 4INFO — offer SMS search results to your cell phone via text message on the spot. All you need to know is where to send your query. The following table provides a list of common tasks, the numbers to message, the queries to send, and example replies.
TASK | TO | MESSAGE | REPLY |
|---|---|---|---|
YAHOO (92466) 4INFO (44636) | wifi 11215 | Naidre Miller Incorporated 718-965-7585, 382 7th Ave, Brooklyn, NY | |
Find a local business | GOOGL (46645) YAHOO (92466) | taxi Marietta, OH pizza 11215 | Ohio Valley Cab Co 330 Franklin St # B Marietta, OH 740-374-2736 4 mi, SW |
Check flight status for American Airlines flight 810 | 4INFO (44636) GOOGL (46645) | AA 810 | American Airlines #810 Landed D:SAN A:ORD-115p |
Sports scores, stock prices, and horoscopes | GOOGL (46645) 4INFO (44636) 4INFO (44636) 4INFO (44636) | yankees mlb yhoo virgo | MLB *Minnesota*: 6 NY Yankees: 1 Final, Sep 2 Recent game: Sep 1 Minnesota: 1 *NY Yankees*: 8 |
Dictionary definitions | GOOGL (46645) YAHOO (92466) | d philomath | Glossary: * philomath: a lover of learning |
Drink recipes | 4INFO (44636) | Drink cosmo | Cosmo 2 oz. Vodka 1 oz. Triple Sec 1 oz. Cranberry Juice Juice 1 Lime Shake with ice and strain over ice into your favorite cocktail glass and serve. |
Weather | GOOGL (46645) 4INFO (44636) YAHOO (92466) | w asbury park, nj w seattle,wa w york, pa | Weather: Asbury Park, NJ 66F, OvercastWind: E 5mph Hum:73%Sa:63-66F, Rain Su:59-75F, Showers M:60-77F, Mostly Sunny Tu:63-76F, Showers |
Movie times | Specific movies: GOOGL (46645) Movies in a ZIP Code: 4INFO (44636) | pirates 92037 m 11228 | * Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's ... 2hr 31min,PG-13, Action/Adventure/Comedy, 3.4/5 AMC La Jolla 1211:50am 3:00pm 6:45 10:008657 Villa La Jolla Dr.La Jolla, CA858-558-2262 x087 |
Translations | GOOGL (46645) | translate beautiful in italian | Google Translation: 'beautiful' in English means 'bello' in Italian |
Comparison shopping | GOOGL (46645) | Price battlestar galactica season 1 dvd | Products. * Battlestar Galactica (2004): Season 2.0 [3 Discs] -, $44.99, Best Buy * Battlestar Galactica - Season 1 - DVD BOXSET *NEW, $31.96, |
Look up location of a ZIP or area code | GOOGL (46645) YAHOO (92466) | 718 | 718: area code for Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, New York |
Driving directions | GOOGL (46645) | San Francisco ca to Santa Cruz ca | (See text following table.) |
Currency conversion | GOOGL (46645) | 5 usd in euro | Currency Conversion: 5 U.S. dollars = 3.89650873 Euro |
Driving directions messages are long and may come in multiple message installments. Here's the reply to the example message:
(1/3)Directions: Distance: 72.5 mi (about 1 hour 9 mins) 9 steps. 1. Head SE from 11th St (0.3) 2. (L) at Folsom St (0.1) 3. (R) at 10th St (0.2) (2/3)4. Bear (L) into US-101 S entry ramp to San Jose (35) 5. Take CA-85 S ramp to Cupertino/Santa Cruz (13) 6. Take CA-17 ramp to San Jose/Santa Cruz (0.2) (3/3)7. Take CA-17 S ramp to Santa Cruz (23) 8. Bear (L) at Chestnut St (0.2) 9. (L) at Church St (0.1)
Tip
Add GOOGL, YAHOO, and 4INFO to your phone's address book for quicker message addressing.
No one expects you to remember all the search codes listed in the preceding table. Luckily, each service provides a help command that returns a listing of all the possible commands it supports. Text GOOGL, 4INFO, or YAHOO the word help to get a command reference texted back to you. Save the message to your phone so that you can refer to it any time you want to conduct an SMS search.
All three mobile search services offer web-based demonstrations of SMS search via phone. Test-drive a text message search at the following locations on the Web:
4INFO:
http://4info.net/howtoYahoo! SMS:
http://mobile.yahoo.com/search/smsdemoGoogle SMS:
http://google.com/sms
4INFO offers a particularly useful feature: prescheduled, automatic search results that come to your phone on a regular basis. For example, if you want to get a text message whenever the status of your FedEx package changes, you can set up alerts from 4INFO to do just that. Get fantasy sports team updates, your horoscope, stock prices, or scores texted to your phone automatically on a schedule. Visit http://4info.net/waysto/waystoalert.jsp to set it up.
In addition to regular web search, several personal-organizer web applications, such as calendars, budgeting, and reminder services, offer SMS access.
Not only can Google Calendar text-message you event notifications (as detailed in Hack 30, "Send Reminders to Your Future Self"), but you can also retrieve and add to your Google Calendar by text-messaging the short code GVENT. First register your phone number in Google Calendar. Then use the following text-message commands to see and add events to your calendar:
Send the word
nextto GVENT get a notification regarding your next scheduled event.Send
dayto get a notification containing all your scheduled events for the present day.Send
ndayto get a notification containing all your events for the following day.To add an event, send GVENT the details; for example,
Lunch at Josie's 2PM Saturday.
Get a full rundown of Google Calendar's text message support and setup at http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=45351&topic=8568.
Micro-blogging service Twitter (http://twitter.com) lets users post short status updates about their lives and send messages to other Twitter users via SMS (as well as via the Web and IM). What most Twitter users don't know is that you can also send messages to various "bots" that perform different tasks for you, such as send timed reminders or interact with your to-do list. To use any Twitter bot, you need to register for a free account at Twitter and enable your mobile phone number for direct messages from Twitter.
Schedule a "wake-up call"-like timed text message to remind yourself to feed the parking meter or put the laundry in the dryer. Add the Twitter user named timer to your Twitter friends list, and direct-message the Twitter timer user reminder details. A Twitter message that reads d timer 45 pay parking meter will trigger an SMS back to your cell phone in the specified number of minutes (in this case, 45) with your reminder message.
Additionally, the rtm Twitter bot acts as a middleman between Twitter and the Remember the Milk task manager (described in Hack 34). Add the rtm Twitter user to your friends, and direct-message it to add, update, and retrieve your Remember the Milk to-do list via SMS commands. Here are some examples:
Add to-do's to your list with task and optional time, such as
d rtm pick up the milk d rtm call jimmy at 5pm tomorrow d rtm return library books in 2 weeks
Get today's to-do list with
d rtm!today.Retrieve all tasks for a specific context with
d rtm !getlist shopping.
Get more details about Remember the Milk's full-featured Twitter bot at http://blog.rememberthemilk.com/2007/07/twitter-your-tasks.html.
The key to sticking to a budget is writing down exactly what you spent on what. If you use a web-based money manager, such as Buxfer (http://buxfer.com), you can email expenditure details to your account from your phone on the go so that you don't forget you just dropped 18 bucks on toiletries or that your roommate owes you a portion of the rent. Buxfer's email commands get pretty detailed; you can use them to add tags, amounts, and people who are in on a given transaction. For example,
toilettries 18.00 tags: household acct:wamu
adds an $18 expenditure from the account named WaMu tagged household. If your phone doesn't have email but does have SMS, you can use Buxfer's Twitter bot, named bux. Add bux to your Twitter friends and direct-message it like this:
d bux starbucks 12.00 tags:coffee
to add a 12-buck coffee purchase at Starbucks. More details on SMS interaction with Buxfer are available at http://www.buxfer.com/faqs.php?cat=sms.
Another useful personal tracking tool with SMS support is webapp My Mile Marker (http://mymilemarker.com/), a gas purchase/mileage tracker that calculates your vehicle's MPG. My Mile Marker's SMS interface is also available via the mymm Twitter bot. To record your gas and mileage info via text message from the pump, your message should be in the format d mymm [miles] [gallons] [price]. For example, after you've filled your tank with gas, from the station you could send this text message to the mymm Twitter bot:
d mymm 15476 15.34 3.129
which means the odometer read 15476 when you filled up with 15.34 gallons at $3.129/gallon. Back at the My Mile Marker web site, you can generate charts and reports of gas prices and mileage and calculate your fuel economy over time and distance traveled.
Level.......Advanced
Platform....All
Cost........Free
You can do things between computers on your local network that you can't from out on the Internet, such as listen to a shared iTunes library or access files in shared folders. But using the free, virtual private network application Hamachi (http://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/vpn.asp), you can access your computer from anywhere on the Internet as if you were home on your local network.
This hack uses Hamachi to create a virtual private network between a PC and a Mac and listen to a shared iTunes library over the Internet.
The free Hamachi desktop application gives you a secure, zeroconfiguration LAN over the Internet. Any application that works over a local network can be used with Hamachi over the Internet, such as Windows file sharing, iTunes, Remote Desktop, FTP, VNC, and gaming. All Hamachi's connections are secure, encrypted, authenticated, and peer-to-peer. Although Hamachi acts as a mediator between your computers and creates the tunnel for their communication, Hamachi's servers don't listen in on or log your activity.
You might use Hamachi in the following situations:
You're on the road with your laptop and want secure access to your PC's files.
Your office or dorm-room computer is behind a restrictive firewall that doesn't let you reach it from the Internet.
You want to add encryption to insecure network protocols such as VNC.
You want to set up a shared folder of files for friends and family to access.
Sound useful? Read on to get started.
The following sections lead you through downloading and installing Hamachi's VPN as well as setting up your Hamachi network.
Download the right version of Hamachi for your operating system from http://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/list.asp. (Although Hamachi is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, this hack addresses the Windows setup specifically.) For the most part, the Windows installation is a regular wizard — just click Next to step through it. When asked, opt to use the Hamachi Basic service, which is free for individual use.
During installation, Hamachi will attempt to install a virtual network adapter, which Windows may say is not supported. Just click the Continue Anyway button at that point. If you have Windows Firewall enabled (or any firewall, for that matter), the firewall program will ask whether you want to allow traffic to and from the Hamachi client. You do. Click the Unblock button to allow Hamachi traffic through your firewall.
For Mac users, the Hamachi version offered for download is command-line only. For a graphical interface to Hamachi, download and install HamachiX, available at http://hamachix.spaceants.net. (As of this writing, HamachiX is not compatible with Leopard, but from the looks of things, upgrades are on their way.)
When Hamachi is installed, it will walk you through a quick tutorial to get you started. Read it — it's worth it. Then, click the Network button (bottom-right corner, second button to the left) and choose Create New Network from the menu. Give your network a name (mine was gtrap-home) and a password (if you'd like), as shown in Figure 8-9. Click the Create button.
Figure 8-9. Set your new virtual private network's name and the password. Any computers that join your network must enter these.
Now your computer will be a member of the new network and get its own Hamachi IP address (in addition to its regular IP address). It will also have a nickname that will identify it on your network. Mine was dell-pc.
Right away, you can tell your friends or co-workers your Hamachi network's name and password so that they, too, can join it with the Hamachi client installed on their computers. Alternatively, you can join your own network from another computer (such as your PC at the office). Using HamachiX, I connected my Mac (nicknamed nyx) to the gtrap-home network, and the Hamachi client on my PC displayed the Mac online, as shown in Figure 8-10.
Figure 8-10. Like an instant-messenger window, the Hamachi client displays what computers in your network are online.
You can also administer your Hamachi network from its web interface when you're not running the Hamachi client itself. Log into the Hamachi web site (at http://my.hamachi.cc) and click the Networks tab to view a list of networks you own (see Figure 8-11). Click a network name to see all the computers on that network; you can even evict computers to which you want to deny access.
Figure 8-11. View the list of computers connected to your Hamachi network from the control panel at my.hamachi.cc.
Now you're ready to put your private network to good use.
Anything you can do over a local network — your home wireless network, for example — you can do over the Internet between two computers on a Hamachi VPN. Share files and printers, or stream your iTunes library from your home Mac to your office PC. Browse shared Windows folders, FTP into a home media server, remotely control your computer over VNC, or access a private home web server over Hamachi VPN, which adds an extra layer of security and privacy. See Hacks 74 and 75 in this chapter for how to set up a home web server and remotely control your computer, and couple those techniques with Hamachi to encrypt and restrict access to your home computer.
Level.......Advanced
Platform....Windows XP and Vista
Cost........Free
A web server is software that continuously runs on a computer and allows other computers to download documents from it. Any web page you view has traveled over a network connection from the site's hosting web server to the browser on your computer. Web servers are usually loud, scary, headless machines in cold, windowless rooms, but you can run one under your desk at home.
Why would you want to run a home web server? Maybe you want to download files — perhaps some of your digital music collection — on your home computer from anywhere. Maybe you want your friends and family to have access to your music or photo collection from anywhere, too.
In this hack, you set up a home web server that enables anyone (with the right password) to connect to your computer and download your MP3 files from it. It gives you an easy way to share your music collection with friends, or play a song from your home machine for co-workers at the office.
There are tons of uses for your personal web server beyond a password-protected jukebox: You can publish your weblog at home, host a personal wiki, and share video files and photos. Basically, any file you want to publish as read-only is a good candidate. A home web server has the advantage over special server/client software because it requires only a web browser to connect to it.
Warning
Running a server on your home computer is a risky undertaking. Before you start, ensure that your computer has all the latest patches and security updates (visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com to make sure) and that you've done a thorough spyware and virus scan. This hack is for advanced users who feel comfortable editing textual configuration files and exposing port 80 on their home computers to the Internet. You should be running a strong firewall with explicit user-set rules.
Here's what you need to get started:
A Windows PC
An always-on broadband (DSL or cable) Internet connection
Disable and stop any firewall or server software you may have running, including Windows Firewall, Skype, Trillian, or any other instant-messaging applications. This is extremely important, and if you don't do it, you can cause the server installation and startup to fail miserably. These programs and services can be started and used again as usual when you're done setting up the web server.
Download the Apache HTTP server, available at http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi. Use the link under Best Available Version next to Win32 Binary (MSI Installer). If the Windows binary is not available on the home page, click the Other Files link and go to the binaries folder, and from the win32 folder, download the most recent .msi file. As of this writing, that file is apache_2.2.3-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi.
Click the downloaded file to start the installation wizard. Accept the license agreement and use the default location for the Apache files, which is C:Program FilesApache Software FoundationApache 2.x. When you reach the screen prompting for server information, enter your own email address and homeip.net as the domain information, as shown in Figure 8-12.
It doesn't matter what domain you put here. I chose homeip.net because it's descriptive is and one of the DynDNS home domains. (See Hack 76, "Give Your Home Computer a Web Address," for more information on DynDNS.)
Complete the installation wizard using the Typical Installation setting. Set the server to run on port 80 for all users. If Windows Firewall (or any other firewall you may be running) asks what it should do about the server running on port 80, choose to unblock or allow Apache to run on it.
When the installation is complete, open your web browser and go to http://localhost/. If the page you see reads something along the lines of "If you can see this, it means that the installation of the Apache web server software on this system was successful" — or, more simply, a page that declares "It works!" — you're golden.
A common installation error with Apache reads, "Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:80 no listening sockets available, shutting down. Unable to open logs." This means that some other server program (such as Skype) is interfering with Apache. To figure out what program it is, open a command prompt and type
netstat -a -o
Find the PID (Process ID) of the program running on your local machine on port 80 (or http). Then open the Windows Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete). Choose View
To make your music collection available via your new web server, browse to the folder that contains Apache's configuration files, located at C:Program FilesApache Software FoundationApache 2.xconf. Make a copy of the main configuration file, httpd.conf, before you make any changes — just in case. Save the copy as httpd.backup.conf in that same directory.
Then, using a plain-text editor such as Notepad, open the C:Program FilesApache Software FoundationApache 2.xconfhttpd.conf file. The contents of this file look long and scary, but most of the defaults will work just fine. You just have to change a few things.
First, comment out the line that starts with DocumentRoot by adding a # at the beginning of the line and add another with your directory, like this:
#DocumentRoot "C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/htdocs" DocumentRoot "C:/Documents and Settings/penelope/My Documents/My Music"
where C:/Documents and Settings/penelope/My Documents/My Music corresponds to the location of your music files.
Note
While Windows directory structure normally uses backslashes, Apache's default httpd.conf uses forward slashes, so that's what I use in this hack.
Then, comment out the line that starts with <Directory "C:/Program and add another line with your directory, like this:
#<Directory "C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/htdocs"> <Directory "C:/Documents and Settings/penelope/My Documents/My Music">
Last, about 20 lines later, there's a line that reads
AllowOverride None
Change it to
AllowOverride All
When you're done, save httpd.conf. Then click the Apache icon in your taskbar and choose Restart. If Apache restarts successfully, you edited your the file correctly. Visit http://localhost/ in your web browser. This time, you should see a listing of your music files.
You don't want just anyone to be able to download your music. Your bandwidth and files are private and precious, so you want to secure things a bit. You can use a VPN (virtual private network) to restrict access to your home web server; see Hack 73 for more information on how to do that. If you don't want to make everyone who accesses your web server have to run special VPN software, you can create a simple browser password prompt instead. Here's how:
Open a command prompt (choose Start
cd "C:Program FilesApache Software FoundationApache 2.xin"
where
Apache 2.xmatches the version you installed (Apache 2.2, for example).Create a password file by typing
htpasswd -c "C:Documents and SettingspenelopeMy Documents;
web-server-pass-file" penny
Replace the path with wherever your password file should be located (which can be any folder except the web server's document root that you set up previously). Replace
pennywith your preferred username.When prompted, enter the password you want to set up. After you've done that, a password file will be created.
Now, follow these steps to apply that login to your music directory:
Open a new file in a plain-text editor such as Notepad. Enter the following text into it:
AuthType Basic AuthName "This is a private area, please log in" AuthUserFile "C:Documents and SettingspenelopeMy Documents;
web-server-pass-file" AuthGroupFile /dev/null <Limit GET POST PUT> require valid-user </Limit>Make sure you replace
C:Documents and SettingspenelopeMy Documentsweb-server-pass-filein the text with the path to the password file you created.Name the file
.htaccessand save this new file in the web server's document root you set earlier (in this example,C:/Documents and Settings/penelope/My Documents/My Music). Don't forget the dot in the beginning, beforehtaccess. In other words, you are saving the file asC:Documents and SettingspenelopeMy DocumentsMy Music.htaccess.Note
If you're using Notepad to create your
.htaccessfile, put quotation marks around the filename —".htaccess"— when you save the file so that Notepad doesn't automatically put a.txtextension on the file. (If the file has a.txtfile extension, your password won't work!) Alternatively, choose All Files from the Save As Type drop-down list before you save the file.Point your web browser to
http://localhost/. You are prompted to log in as shown in Figure 8-13.Enter the username and password you set up in your password file, and you're in.
Congratulations! You've got a home web server running.
If you are not behind a firewall, you can access your web server from other computers by typing your computer's IP address into a web browser's address bar. (If you're not sure what your IP is, visit WhatIsMyIP at http://whatismyip.com to find out.) If your IP is 12.34.567.890, type http://12.34.567.890 into a browser's address bar.
Note
Depending on your Internet service provider, your computer's IP address may change, but there's an easy way to set up a memorable name that doesn't change. See Hack 76, "Give Your Home Computer a Web Address," for more information.
If you are behind a firewall (such as through a wireless router), you'll need to open port 80 on the firewall and forward it to your computer. Consult your router's manual, or for more information on port forwarding, go to http://lifehackerbook.com/links/portforward.
In the meantime, enjoy accessing the files on your home computer from anywhere via your home web server!
Platform....Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS X 10.4 and later
Cost........Free
Ever been at a friend's house and wanted to show off a photo you left saved on your home computer? Want to check from the office that your daughter's doing homework and not instant messaging with friends at home? Need to grab a file on your home hard drive when you're miles away? With a relatively old protocol called VNC and some free software, you can remotely control your home computer from anywhere.
In this hack, you set up a VNC server on your home computer, which will enable you to connect to your desktop and drive it from any Internet-connected computer.
Warning
As mentioned earlier, running a server and opening a port on your home computer to the Internet is a risky undertaking. Make sure your computer has all the latest security patches, has been checked for spyware and viruses, and that you're using strong passwords. The VNC protocol is not inherently secure. This hack assumes that you're comfortable with basic networking concepts. In case this fine print has scared you off, LogMeIn (http://logmein.com) is a web-based application that also provides remote desktop control, which may be a better option for some folks. VNC is preferable because it's free, it doesn't require third-party intervention, and it works across operating systems.
The VNC protocol remotely controls another computer over a network. Think of it as a window into your home computer's desktop from any other computer (see Figure 8-14).
Your key presses and mouse clicks travel over the network and happen on the remote computer — your home computer — in real time, and anyone at the remote computer can watch the action as it happens.
A few things you can do with a VNC server running at home:
Start downloading a large file, such as a movie, in the morning so that it's there when you get home in the evening
Search your home computer's IM logs, address book, or file system for important information from the office.
Help Mom figure out why Microsoft Word doesn't start without having to go to her house (even though Mom would like to see you more often).
Control a headless (monitor-less) machine such as a media center or file server in another room in the house from the laptop on the couch.
VNC requires two components for a successful connection: the server on your home computer and the viewer on the remote computer. Ready to set them up?
There are several free VNC servers for Windows and Mac, so pick the section that you need.
TightVNC (http://tightvnc.com) is a free Windows VNC server and client software package. TightVNC is a nice choice because it also allows for file transfers and high compression levels for slow connections. Download TightVNC from http://tightvnc.com/download.html and run the installation on your home computer. Start the server and set a password for incoming connections.
If you're running a firewall, it may prompt you about whether to allow the VNC server to run; allow it.
TightVNC can be set to run as a Windows service, which means your Windows usernames and passwords can be used to authenticate on the VNC server connection. If you choose this option, be sure all your Windows passwords are set and strong, and that any password-less guest accounts are disabled.
Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) users have a VNC server built into their computer already, but Apple calls it Screen Sharing. To turn on the server in Leopard, in System Preferences, go to the Sharing pane and select Screen Sharing, as shown in Figure 8-15. You can also limit which users can remotely control your Mac and set a screen-sharing password by clicking the Computer Settings button.
Note
If you plan to remotely control your Mac running Leopard from a Windows VNC client, be sure to click the Computer Settings button and set a password for VNC viewers. Otherwise, you will run into a security error on non-Leopard viewers.
Mac users may also try the free Vine Server (http://www.redstonesoftware.com/products/vine/server/vineosx/). Download, install, set up a password, and start the server.
If your VNC server is connected directly to the Internet, it is now listening for Internet requests on port 5900, VNC's default port (which is also configurable). Visit WhatIsMyIP (http://whatismyip.com) from your home computer to determine its IP address, and write it down.
If your home computer is behind a home network router with a firewall, remote computers cannot connect. You must open a port on your router's firewall and forward requests to your computer. Consult your router's manual for more information on how to do that, or check out the article "How to access a home server behind a router/firewall" at http://lifehacker-book.com/links/portforward.
On the remote Windows computer, also download and install TightVNC (http://tightvnc.com), but this time, start the viewer instead of the server. If you're on a Mac, download the free Chicken of the VNC (http://sourceforge.net/projects/cotvnc) Mac viewer to connect to your home PC. Enter your home computer's IP address and password to connect.
Note
Alternatively, you can enter your home computer's domain name. Then, when connecting using the VNC viewer, you can enter a URL like pennyscomputer.dyndns.org instead of an IP address.
When connected, you're virtually sitting at your home desktop from anywhere in the world.
A few extra VNC tips to consider:
VNC is not a secure protocol — connection information is sent over the network "in the clear," which means someone listening on the network can see your transmissions. Also, you may not be able to make the connection if the server computer is behind a firewall you don't control (such as at the office). If you set up VNC to work across a virtual private network, however, the connection will be encrypted and can bypass any restrictive firewalls. See Hack 73 for how to set up Hamachi, or refer to
http://lifehackerbook.com/links/vncvpnfor detailed instructions on pairing Hamachi and VNC.For slower network connections, set the compression to Best. The window image quality will be lower, but the connection response will be snappier.
Bring a VNC viewer with you on a USB memory stick so that you don't have to download and install it on every computer you want to use to connect to your server.
Avoid having to install a server on Mom's computer; email her the 166K self-extracting SingleClick UltraVNC server, available at
http://www.uvnc.com/addons/singleclick.html, for your next tech-support phone session.
Platform....All
Cost........Free
Accessing your home computer from the Internet is a lot easier if a memorable, permanent web address such as yourname.com points to it.
Depending on how your Internet service provider works, your home computer's IP address may change over time, which means you need to keep track of the current one to reach your home computer. To avoid that, you can get a permanent web address that is made up of words (not numbers, as the IP address is) and automatically resolves to a dynamic IP. This way, addressing your home computer is much simpler.
Why would you want to assign a domain name to your home web server? Maybe you want to start a blog that you're going to host at home instead of buying a web-hosting plan and you want the URL to be unforgettable. Maybe you want to set up a personal home page at yourname.com for business purposes or so that folks can easily find your web site. Or maybe your home computer's IP address changes and you don't want to have to worry about keeping track to access your server.
Note
This tutorial assumes that you already have a web or VNC server running at home. If you don't, check out the preceding two hacks for getting one set up.
A dynamic DNS service, such as DynDNS (http://dyndns.com), is a constantly updated database of IP addresses and domain names. For free, you can get one of the available DynDNS domain names plus a custom subdomain (such as lifehacker.getmyip.net); or, for a small fee, you can register your own domain (such as joesmith.com) and set it to resolve to your home-computer web server with DynDNS.
Warning
Some corporate and university networks and ISPs don't allow computers that are outside the network to access computers with internal IP addresses. To test whether your home computer's IP address is accessible from the outside, visit Network Tools (http://network-tools.com) from your home computer and choose the Ping option. If the ping is successful (meaning it doesn't time out), your computer is accessible from the outside.
Let's get started.
From your home computer, register for a free account at DynDNS (http://dyndns.com). Agree to the site's terms and use a legitimate email address to complete registration. (Once in a while, DynDNS will send an email asking you to confirm that you want to continue maintaining your computer's IP record, so to continue your service, make sure you use an address you check regularly.)
Log into your new account. Go to the My Services area and under My Hosts, click Add Host Services. There, click Add Dynamic DNS Host. DynDNS will autofill your current IP address. Enter a custom subdomain (such as your name) and choose from a list of domains. The result can be anything from lifehacker.dyndns.org or john.is-a-geek.com to gtrapani.homeip.net. In Figure 8-16, I've typed in the custom subdomain "gtrapani" and chosen homeip.net from the drop-down list.
Now that your computer is registered with DynDNS, each time its IP address changes, it will let DynDNS know. You can have this updating done either with free updater client software or through your router.
If your computer is connected directly to the Internet, download the DynDNS updater client for Mac or Windows, available at http://dyndns.com/support/clients. Install and enter your DynDNS information so that your computer can send its current IP address to the DynDNS database when it changes.
If you are behind a router, you're in luck: most modern routers support dynamic DNS services. Consult your router's manual to find out how to set the dynamic DNS service provider (in this case, DynDNS.com), the host name (whatever you chose at DynDNS.com), and your DynDNS.com username and password.
Enter your new, full domain name (in this example, mine is http://gtrapani.homeip.net) in your web browser's address bar, and your home web server's home page should appear. From here you can publicize or bookmark your server's new domain name no matter how often your IP address changes.
DynDNS has a couple of options to consider.
Enable wildcard: Allows you to set up sub-subdomains. For example,
blog.johnsmith.mine.nucan resolve to a weblog, whereasjukebox.johnsmith.mine.nucan resolve to a music directory. Virtual hosts must be configured for your Apache web server to display the right site when addressed by different subdomains. Get more information on setting up virtual hosts athttp://lifehackerbook.com/ch7/.Custom domain name: Upgrade your account to use a custom domain name like
yourname.com. Assign a domain name you've purchased to your home server for about 25 bucks a year (Dyn-DNS's fee) plus the cost of the domain registration. See more info on Custom DNS athttp://dyndns.com/services/dns/custom.
Platforms...All
Cost........Free
You just got a shiny new laptop to use on your commute to the office, on business trips and vacations, and at the coffee shop down the street. You'll be a productivity powerhouse! Just hold your horses for a minute there, bucko.
More folks than ever are hitting the pavement with a notebook computer under one arm, but any road warrior can tell you that life with a lappie isn't always easy. This hack provides some hints and tips for extending the life of your laptop and easing the pain of the never-ending outlet and hotspot hunt.
Laptop productivity on the cold, cruel, and often electrical outlet-less road depends entirely on how much juice your battery's got left. Here are a few ways to increase the life of your laptop battery when there's no outlet in sight:
Dim the display. The screen draws the most power from your laptop's battery. Dim it to the lowest setting you can stand to preserve battery life.
Turn off unnecessary processes. If you don't need them, disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth detection, spyware and virus scanning, and desktop search file indexing (such as Google Desktop) while you're on battery power. Eject any CD, DVD, or other unneeded disk to prevent your computer from spinning or scanning it for no reason.
Enable the power-saver profile. Use the Microsoft Windows Max Battery Power Option (in Control Panel) and Mac OS X Energy Saver (in System Preferences), which set your computer to use resources as sparingly as possible when battery life is most important.
Recalibrate your battery's fuel gauge. Do a deliberate full discharge of your laptop's lithium-ion battery every 30 charges or so, then recharge to calibrate the battery-life gauge. If it isn't recalibrated, the gauge can read inaccurately and cut off your laptop's operation prematurely because it thinks the battery is depleted when it's not.
There are crumbs at the coffee shop, sand at the beach house, and right now your fingers are covered in Doritos dust. Use a protective cover on your keyboard to prevent stray crumbs from getting into the cracks. It will do double duty by also protecting your laptop's screen from scratches caused by the keys when the top is closed. The iSkin (http://iskin.com) is a thin, rubbery cover that fits Apple laptops (iBooks and MacBooks) and stays on while you type.
Alternatively, you can cut a piece of rubberized shelf liner to fit inside your laptop when you close — sort of like the bologna in a sandwich. Some people also use a thin piece of cloth cut to fit the keyboard.
If your laptop keyboard is already a hideout for crumbs and pet hair, purchase a can of compressed air to blow out any debris stuck between the keys.
After an hour or so of usage, a laptop computer can burn one's unprotected thighs and wrists. In fact, the Apple User Guide for the new Mac-Book Pro model states, "Do not leave the bottom of your MacBook Pro in contact with your lap or any surface of your body for extended periods. Prolonged contact with your body could cause discomfort and potentially a burn."
If laptop heat is a problem, get material that doesn't conduct heat well between your skin and your lappie, such as a lap desk or your laptop sleeve. Long-sleeved shirts with big cuffs help on wrists when the top of your keyboard gets hot to the touch, too.
Additionally, overheating is one of the most common reasons for lap-top hardware failure. Be aware of how hot your machine gets.
You have 10 hours to kill on that transatlantic flight without Internet access. Or your favorite coffee shop's wireless network is down. It's not always easy to get online with your laptop, so be prepared to work offline as much as possible.
For example, don't depend entirely on web-based email on your laptop. The Mozilla Thunderbird email client (http://mozilla.org/products/thunderbird) is must-have software that enables you to download your email locally and work with it offline. Thunderbird 2 also has excellent SMTP server management, so you can quickly switch which server you send your mail through when you do get online. Using a NetZero dial-up account that requires you use smtp.netzero.net? Need to use the secure SMTP server at the office for work mail? No problem. You can set up multiple SMTP servers and associate them with different email accounts with Thunderbird.
While you're out and about and on open wireless networks, make sure you've got a secure firewall installed on your laptop and that its settings are extremely restrictive. (See Hack 102, "Firewall Your PC," for more on running a software firewall.)
Also, turn off folder sharing and any local servers you have running (such as a web, FTP, or VNC server) to keep others from peeking in on your data. Make sure your laptop's logins have strong passwords assigned.
Lastly, consider encrypting the data on your disk in case of theft; you can use a utility such as Mac OS X's FileVault to do so.
Your laptop spends a lot of time swinging over your shoulder, banging around on your back, bumping into the guy next to you on the subway, and sliding around on your car's back seat. Wrapping it up in that spare Linux T-shirt and shoving it into your messenger bag full of gadgets probably isn't a good idea, either. Make sure your laptop is snug as a bug in a rug. Invest in a padded sleeve or bag made to carry laptops that'll protect it if your bag falls over or is accidentally kicked.
Portable computers deal with a lot more wear and tear than desktops, which increases the risk of hard-drive failure. Make sure you back up the data on your laptop regularly — and often. Create a lappie docking station at home where you can plug in to recharge the battery and hook up an external drive to back up your data.
If you have a CD-R or DVD-R drive in your lappie, keep a few spare blanks or a USB drive for easy backup on the road. A two-prong-to-three-prong electrical-plug adaptor, an extra battery (charged), an Ethernet cable or phone cord, and an extra mouse might all be helpful additions to your portable arsenal.
A few web sites and desktop software applications can help you find wireless hotspots while you're online and off, including the following:
JiWire (
http://jiwire.com/search-hotspot-locations.htm). Results include pay-for and free hotspots all over the country. JiWire also offers a downloadable Wi-Fi directory that's accessible when you're offline and looking for a hotspot, available for Windows and Mac OS X athttp://jiwire.com/hotspot-locator-frontdoor.htm.ILoveFreeWifi (
http://ilovefreewifi.com). Includes only free wireless hotspots for a select number of cities.NetStumbler (Windows only, available as a free download at
http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/). View all the wireless networks within range of your computer and find out whether they require a password and how strong the signal is. The main advantage to using NetStumbler instead of the Windows built-in wireless network listing is that NetStumbler displays wireless signals that do not broadcast their name (these signals are not included in the Windows default list).iStumbler (Mac only, available as a free download at
http://istumbler.net/). As does NetStumbler for Windows, iStumbler lists all the wireless networks in range (broadcasting their SSID or not), as well as Bluetooth devices and Bonjour networks.
Platforms...Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS X (with Apple's iPod music player)
Cost........Free
Your iPod isn't just a music player — it's a giant external hard drive that can store any kind of digital data in addition to music. That makes it a convenient place to back up and store your important files. You can carry around your documents along with several dozen CDs' worth of music on that little white music player by enabling what's called disk mode.
To access your iPod as you do any other external drive connected to your computer, you have to use iTunes. Here's how:
Connect your iPod to your computer and open iTunes.
At the bottom of iTunes Preferences pane's iPod tab, select Enable Disk Use (see Figure 8-17).
If you're an iPod Shuffle owner, you can use a storage allocation slider to set the amount of space you want to use for music and for other files.
Your iPod will appear in Windows Explorer or Mac Finder, as shown in Figure 8-18.
Now you can save and read files to your iPod as if it were any other disk drive. When you're finished, be sure to eject the iPod disk before disconnecting it from your computer. (To do so, right-click it in My Computer and choose Eject from the menu; Mac users can simply drag the iPod icon on the Desktop over to the Trash Bin and drop it there.) Then, you can connect the iPod to any other computer with disk mode enabled to access the files on it there, too.
iPods are a hot commodity that get smaller and more easily lost — and more easily stolen — with each new model. You don't want your data to drive off in that cab without you or make it into the hands of a mugger, so do encrypt the data you store on it.
Using OS X's built-in Disk Utility, make an encrypted, password-protected disk image of your home directory and then drag and drop it onto your iPod. If it has enough space on it, the iPod can preclude a need to back up to an external hard drive — because it is one. Be sure to exclude your music collection from the disk image; iTunes put that on your iPod once already.
See Hack 19 for how to password-protect sensitive files you want to store on your iPod.
Not only can you back up your data and take important documents with you on the iPod; you can also run software from it. Hack 71 points out several portable software applications that you can also copy and run from an iPod mounted as an external disk drive.
Level.......Medium
Platform....Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS X (with mobile phone)
Cost........Dependent on your mobile phone plan
You're stuck with the laptop in the land of no Internet, but you have unlimited minutes or a great data plan on your cell phone. What to do? Plug that phone into your laptop, of course, and get surfing!
In this hack, you transform your cell phone into a modem that gets you online even when there's not a Wi-Fi hotspot, landline, or Ethernet jack in sight.
You will need the following items for this hack:
A PC or Mac.
A mobile phone with built-in modem. Most newer mobile phones can be used as Internet modems; check your model's user guide for more information.
A cell phone plan that includes data transfer.
(Optional) A phone-to-computer data cable (if your phone and computer don't both support Bluetooth).
Here's how to get online with your mobile phone:
Connect the phone to your laptop using a USB cord or through Bluetooth.
If your phone didn't come with a cord, check Google Product Search (
http://google.com/products) or Cellular Factory (http://cellularfactory.com/data_cable.jsp) for the right cable, which most likely will set you back between $10 and $40. If your phone is Bluetooth-enabled but your laptop is not, you can purchase a USB Bluetooth adapter for about $15.If necessary, install the phone's modem driver.
When the phone is connected, Windows knows you just plugged in something new and wants to know what it is, so the Add New Hardware wizard appears, eager to get the question settled. If you're lucky, your phone came with a handy CD that contains your drivers. Alternatively, you can download them from your phone manufacturer's web site. Point the Add New Hardware wizard to the location of the drivers. When the drivers are installed, your cell phone modem will appear in the modems list in Control Panel.
Note
When I tried this with a Samsung A920 and a Nokia 6682, Mac OS X recognized the phone as a modem right away, without needing additional drivers.
Connect to your ISP through the modem.
You'll need connection software provided by your carrier. Again, this might be on that CD that came with your phone, or you can download it from your plan's web site (such as Sprint PCS Connection Manager or Nokia PC Suite). When the software is installed, it's probably a matter of pressing the Go or Connect button and you'll be online using your provider's data network.
If you don't have connection software or you're on a Mac (and the software isn't available for you), simply enter the phone number for your mobile phone's network in the modem's dial-up properties. The Sprint data network can be reached by dialing #777 from a Sprint phone. Check with your provider for your details if you have a data plan. Alternatively, you can dial into an AOL, NetZero, or Earthlink account for regular old 56K dial-up speeds.
If software isn't available, you can set up your connection manually. Here's how:
When the mobile is installed as a modem on Windows, choose Start
Click the Create A New Connection link in the left panel.
In the New Connection wizard, do the following:
Select Connect To The Internet and click Next.
Select Set Up My Connection Manually and click Next.
Select Connect Using A Dial-Up Modem and click Next.
Select your newly installed cell phone modem (see Figure 8-19).
Click Next. Then enter your ISP's access number, username, and password. Consult with your cellular provider to obtain these details.
Click Finish.
Some data plans provide connections that don't come near broadband speeds but beat out classic 56K dialup any day — such as the Sprint Power Vision network, which reaches speeds of about 230K.
Warning
Check your mobile plan to avoid insane charges for downloading data. If you are paying per megabyte of data transferred, the cost can quickly become exorbitant. Some wireless service providers quote in terms of cents per kilobyte of data, but remember, a seemingly low 2¢ per kilobytes equates to a hefty $20 per megabyte. Spend any amount of time surfing the Internet or downloading large emails with attachments, and in no time you'll have to pay for multiple megabytes of data.
Before you disconnect your home broadband connection in favor of using your cell phone modem all the time, be warned: cell connection speeds will vary based on your location, and will slow you down when sending large attachments or downloading bigger files. For casual surfing and email checking on the road, however, your cell phone can provide all the connectivity you need. (See more ways to optimize your cell connection in Hack 54, "Speed Up Web Pages on a Slow Internet Connection.")
Platform....Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS X (with Gmail)
Cost........Free
Google's web-based email service, Gmail (http://gmail.google.com), offers more free storage space for messages and attachments than any other service does (4.6GB as of this writing — and rising). An easy way to make files available from any Internet-connected computer is to simply email them to yourself (at Gmail or any other web-based email service). But a free software application makes keeping your files up in the Gmail "cloud" and accessible from any web browser even easier.
The GMail Drive shell extension accesses your Gmail web-based email account as if it were another hard drive on your computer.
Download the GMail Drive shell extension, available at http://viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm. Extract the files and run setup.exe. The shell extension will add a disk called GMail Drive to your computer (see Figure 8-20).
To access files on the GMail Drive, double-click it. You will get a prompt for your Gmail username and password, as shown in Figure 8-21.
After you've logged on to your Gmail account, you can create folders and drag and drop files to the GMail Drive as if it were any other hard drive. The files are whisked away to your Gmail account and appear as attachments to new email messages from yourself in your inbox, as shown in Figure 8-22.
Figure 8-22. GMail Drive shell extension files appear in your Gmail inbox as new messages with attachments.
The GMail Drive extension (and Gmail itself) doesn't support message attachments 10MB in size or greater, so this works well only for photos, Microsoft Office documents, and other small- to medium-sized files. In an attempt to stop email viruses, Gmail also does not allow attachments with a .exe extension, so if you save an executable file to your GMail Drive — say, setup.exe — it appears in your Gmail account as setup.exe_renamed. To use an executable file that's been renamed as such for storage in Gmail, download it and change the name back to its original (by removing the _renamed from the file extension).
Tip
Configure a Gmail filter that archives and labels incoming GMail Drive files. To do so, set the search criteria to any messages with GMAILFS: / in the subject line. See Hack 6, "Master Message Search," for more information.
Mac users can find similar functionality in the free software gDisk, available for download at http://gdisk.sourceforge.net. Create folders inside the gDisk interface that map to Gmail labels. For example, if you create a photos label in gDisk, the files stored there automatically appear in the photos.gDisk label in your Gmail inbox. As is the GMail Drive extension, gDisk is slower to copy files, but unlike how the shell extension is accessed in Windows Explorer, it is not integrated into Finder.
For more on using email as data backup, check out Hack 67, "Automatically Email Yourself File Backups."
[46] Michael Calore, "Livin' la Vida Google: A Month-Long Dive Into Web-Based Apps," Wired News (http://www.wired.com/software/softwarereviews/news/2007/04/lavidagoogle).
[47] "Lifehacker Faceoff: Zoho Suite vs Google Docs," http://lifehacker.com/software/lifehacker-faceoff/zoho-suite-vs-google-docs-315256.php.