Working in the "cloud": My three favorite gadgets
Summer is a great time for exploration, including finding new ways to get my job done. This is part of my way of finding joy at work. Gradually, I am moving more and more of my work to the “cloud,” by doing things on the Internet while treating my computers simply as terminals.
Here are three “gadgets” of my favorite recently:
❑ Dropbox
I store all my recent working files in my “Dropbox Folder,” which is constantly synchronized to the Internet space. Thus I can work on my updated files everywhere, from whichever computer, Windows or Mac, and easily share some of them with colleagues or collaborators. What’s more, the Dropbox Website automatically keeps all versions of my file, even those that have been deleted.
A free Dropbox account gives you 2G space to start with. Creating a new account through referral, however, will give you 250MB bonus space. So if you click here to join Dropbox, your new space will be 2.25G instead. And I will get 250MB bonus space too, thank you!
(An update on Oct. 18: Dropbox is now offering double referral credit to .EDU emails. Follow the link to claim your additional space!)
❑ Mendeley
Mendeley is my new favorite app in managing academic references (and all my PDFs!). It seems to combine the benefits of EndNote and RefWorks. It is a free, open source app that runs on both Windows or Mac. When you pull in a PDF file, not only does the Mendeley app stores the file, it may also automatically extracts reference information for you -- sometimes including all references to the referenced article! The bibliography information is constantly synchronized through the Internet; so I can access them anywhere and easily share some of them with friends.
❑ LaTeXLab through Google
If you are into LaTeX -- see my previous post about how to use it in Mac -- LaTeXLab through Google will be a big, happy surprise. It is an open source implementation of a web-based LaTeX editor fully integrated with Google Docs. Now I can create my TeX files and compile PDF outputs directly from the Internet, and manage them with Google Docs!
Comments
Which business model do you think will work? Those that offer free access or those that offer free to premium (freemiums)?
Microsoft should be getting worried about Google’s free stuff:
http://bit.ly/bc6FBW
Posted by: Ryan | August 23, 2010 4:42 PM
I think both models work, but it is a matter of which one works better. For a company like Google, the free works best. They already are established and have a solid revenue model, which does not charge the consumer. For a more specialized company that is starting up like LinkedIn, the free with options to upgrade to premium seems to work better. That way, the company can have a useful tool and not scare away potential users with a price tag. Once the user sees the value, then they are more likely to upgrade.
Thought provoking post! Thanks.
Posted by: Debt Collection Guy | August 26, 2010 8:19 PM
By far my fave cloud tool is Evernote. Unbelievably useful. Even if it is a little slow and the Word processor has bugs.
Posted by: Liam | September 2, 2010 7:37 AM
There are only two ways of telling the complete truth--anonymously and posthumously.
Posted by: Ideas For Th Birthday Celebration | December 8, 2010 3:31 AM
Most people, when they criticize, whether they like it or hate it, they're talking about product. That's not art, that's the result of art. Art, to whatever degree we can get a handle on (I'm not sure that we really can) is a process. It begins in the heart and the mind with the eyes and hands.
Posted by: deccccorative | November 8, 2011 2:48 AM
Nice work.As I've remarked on prior voenirss of this Mendeley and Zotero use the exact same citation styles and thus have the exact same number of citation styles available which is actually about 300 different styles covering around 2000 different publications it makes no sense having different entries for the two in that box.The format references box is a bit confusing, too both Zotero and Mendeley have CWYW plugins for word and open office any other regular text editor, including google docs or html is mainly supported via copy&paste of bibliographies or individual citations Zotero has, in additin, an rtf-scan features that will recognize citations in { } and format them automatically, but that feature isn't working very well atm (don't know if Mendeley has anything in this direction) it's worth making a distinction between these types of integration.Why you label Mendeley's web scraping excellent, while Zotero's is merely good for html I don't understand Zotero has a much larger set of translators retrieving quality data not just from academic sources, but also a broad range of newspapers, blogs, and magazines. Where no translator is present the two programs do the same thing.Finally, there is a standalone version of Zotero, currently in alpha, so it's not limited to Firefox. Moreover, even if you're not using the standalone, you can use the plugins for chrome and safari to create items in your (FF-based) Zotero database.
Posted by: Valeria | May 30, 2012 12:03 AM
Fantastic write-up, Jonathan. I see you've received some pretty acrid comments. Those are from those that usually do not recognize or understand the authority of God, and His Word. I believe in the literal boundaries with the Promised Land and will often support Israel as God's Chosen People. I pray the PCUSA (of which I am not a element of) will open their eyes towards the Word of God and His promises. That's the bottom line!
Posted by: Tyler Souter | June 1, 2012 4:35 PM
You put your mates information for shipping address.
Posted by: Kraig Paugsch | September 19, 2012 3:38 AM
I'm Ben very ... I wondered where I still left my notebook!!!
Posted by: Damon Samit | October 20, 2012 10:39 PM
Had several close calls but discovered a method to discourage these crooks.
Posted by: Danille Sylvestre | January 4, 2013 7:43 PM
Nobody claimed for sure what gear he or she was using . Not but anyways.
Posted by: Alex Caillouet | January 4, 2013 9:42 PM
Thanks for sharing these are 3 useful cloud utilities. Have you tried Mozy? It's a well thought of cloud-based service for making sure that your data is securely backed up....Worth a look.
Posted by: Emily | January 27, 2013 8:30 AM