Small Business Tech

I finally had a short amount of time to look at SMEStorage. It appears that you pay a flat fee to SMEStorage and they in turn use Amazon S3 for storage much like other sites. The difference here is that you only pay SMEStorage. At least that is how it seems. They charge $5.00 per month per 10 gigabytes. There is unlimited uploads and downloads of data.

The problem that I have with this model is that I prefer to pay what I use. I actually use very little, so my monthly Amazon S3 bill is very minimal. This could serve someone well who likes the idea of the S3 storage robustness, but the possibility of a large bill scares them away from other products.

It is great that we have another option for online storage.

Labels: Amazon, Bucket Explorer, Jungle Disk, SMEStorage.com

I have not abandoned this blog. I actually been having a problem uploading posts to the server. The even larger problem was that I did not realize that posts were not posting the past couple of weeks.

It seems as though everything is running smoothly, again.

Labels: housekeeping

So you have just finished a PowerPoint presentation for a colleague on the other side of the world. He needs it now, and he could use the new product video demonstration. Overnight shipping is out of the question and the files are too large for email. This is where Drop.io comes to the rescue. Drop.io is an easy to use web site for sharing files.

• Go to the site in your browser
• Create a web site extension or take the drop.io recommendation
• Choose your files to upload
• Make decisions regarding access rights
• Send your custom web site address and password to your users
  

You can choose to have the site only available via password. As an administrator you can choose a separate password and if other users will be able to download only or also upload files. Understand that this interface is not intended for sensitive data. This would not be a place to store critical financial or other proprietary data.

Drop.io initially gives users 100 megabytes of storage space. You can purchase more space in 1 gigabyte blocks for one year at a time for just $10.00. The purchase process is quick and easy with a credit card.

Just like Bucket Explorer and Jungledisk, Drop.io is utilizing the flexible and powerful storage capabilities of Amazon S3. This large company connection will ensure your file availability.

There are various methods for users to track new file additions and changes to the site. The methods include Twitter, RSS, and email alerts. You can also create a gadget to install on your web site for users to upload files.

Labels: Amazon, Bucket Explorer, Cloud Computing, drop.io, Jungle Disk

Some may remember the Internet browser wars from the 90's between Netscape and Microsoft. Google fired a shot in the battle this afternoon with the release of Google Chrome. It is Google attempt to build a better browser. Google indicates that it each tab with in the browser will be a separate "sandbox" so that an application crash in one tab will not bring down the whole browser.

Some of speculated that Google wants to have more control with your access to their services. Control including cookie retention, tracking, etc.

You can learn more and download Chrome for Windows right now at http://www.google.com/chrome. Linux and Mac versions are promised later in the beta.

Labels: browser, Chrome, Google

As I have posted before, I am becoming more of a fan of Zoho and their suite of business applications.

Robert Scoble of Fast Company has an in-depth interview with Raju Vegesna who is referred to as a Zoho Evangelist. Robert Scoble, a former Microsoft employee, asks many questions comparing MS Office to the Zoho applications. They also broach the subject of storing your data on some unknown server with an relatively unknow company.

Labels: Microsoft, Office, Scoble, zoho