40% off at Thresher

Anyone interested?

See Hugh MacLeod's weblog for some background, thanks Hugh.

Or just go here.

Be quick, it expires 10th December.

Free offsite backups

For a few months now I've been using Mozy to backup my computer. It just sits in the background and backs up whatever you've specified to the Mozy servers; either anytime or when you're computer isn't busy; all traffic is encrypted, so you're data is safe.

I really like it and so far it works well, though I've only restored a couple of files. You get 2GB for free and 30GB for $5/month. I'm using the free version at the moment, and I'm backing up all data apart from my music.

My music collection is too big and not really critical, though it would be nice to backup off-site, a DVD every month or so is enough. What is really re-assuring is that I haven't got to remember to backup my important data (accounts/invoices etc), it just does it. Really simple and it just works.

At the moment they're only supporting Windows, but a Mac version will be out soon.

Why not take a look? If you do, please use the links here, as they'll give both of us an additional 256MB of free space ... check it out.

30b ... business model?

As I've said before, I love 30boxes. My problem until now has been where to keep my diary. I'm a consultant, who spends time at different companies using their computers, plus time using my computer. 30boxes transcends all these barriers.

Recently my wife has started using 30boxes, at the moment she's using my login (which is fine by me), but maybe we should get her an account and share items between us, I'm not sure of the benefit. Anyone like to comment?

The benefit to me has more that doubled with my wife using it. No longer do I get home on a Friday and ask my wife what we're doing over the weekend. The interesting thing is, my wife is putting all the family and friends birthdays into it (which works really well, automatically repeats every year). For years, at this time of year she has purchased a new calendar and transferred all the birthdays into the new one .... not any more ;->

I only have one worry ... how are 30boxes making money? I know they're a small company, with individuals who've made a lot of money in previous businesses, but are they financing all this with their own money? Surely this can't go on forever. Will ads start appearing? Will they sell the app to companies? Will they wait until I've got a lot of data invested in 30boxes and then start charging me? I don't know the folks at 30boxes, but I get the impression Narendra is a good guy with a good brain, so I certainly don't think it's the last option. Sell to companies? I doubt it when they are so many calendars that come bundled with email. Ads? Maybe, but the GUI is very clean and un-cluttered at the moment, so it would be difficult to see how they'd achieve this without affecting the simplicity.

So Narendra? If you're reading this, would you care to respond?

Do you del.icio.us ?

If you're using del.icio.us please add me to your network ... I'll probably do the same for you.

I don't think I've written about del.icio.us yet.

I love it.

I've been using it for some months now and it's changed the way I think about bookmarks.

I used to have problems with bookmarks on different computers, I'd bookmark at work, then want to use it at home and vice versa.

Another problem I used to have is categorising bookmarks. I had folders, but often bookmarks fit into several different categories, so where should they go? In all of them? Maybe, but that's time consuming.

del.icio.us allow's you do keep all your bookmarks online and you organise them by tagging them. A tag is just a word to help you find it again, and your del.icio.us bookmarks can have multiple tags, as many as you like.

To use a bookmark, you just visit http://del.icio.us/YOURNAMEHERE and look for a tag. Alternatively, you can search your own bookmarks ..... and also everyone's del.icio.us bookmarks.

There are extensions/pluggins available for browsers, so when on a page you can just hit 'Post to del.icio.us'

I can't recommend it enough. If you look through my del.icio.us bookmarks with the tag del.icio.us (visit http://del.icio.us/pwdmarshall/del.icio.us) then you'll see all sorts of tips and tricks for using del.icio.us