I thought it was time for a recap on last year’s April Fools so you won’t be caught out and become a laughing stock.
Comments (2)
A recap on last year’s April Fools
Desktop on Demand: A remote GNOME desktop
If you run a small home network like me, you will probably utilise some sort of remote desktop software (I use VNC) to remotely control computers. Desktop on Demand is based on the same principle, in a way at least, allowing you to connect to a remote virtual desktop where you can play games, listen to music, check email, browse the web, word process, etc.
Desktop on Demand is a service launched by the same people who launched remote file storage tool Ewedrive. It allows you to access a remote GNOME Linux desktop where you can do many functions you could do on a local PC, such as use office software or The GIMP, and even install libraries!
Desktop on Demand is lightning fast and it truly feels like I am controlling a PC over my LAN. Unlike my LAN, it utilises the NX protocol instead of VNC. The provided NX client is much more suitable than any VNC one as you don’t need to fiddle with IP addresses etc. If I’m not mistaken, NX sends X11 sessions down a SSH connection.
All you need to be able to run Desktop on Demand is the ability to run binaries (you don’t have to install them) on your Windows, Linux or Mac computer. I think a web-interface would be useful though, especially when running behind restrictive networks!
You can access the files on your Desktop on Demand account through several ways. Obviously, through the desktop itself but you can also access them through a web-base file manager or a WebDAV share.
The idea of a remote desktop on demand isn’t anything new. I reviewed CosmoPOD, who provide free KDE desktops, back in 2005 before the wave of Web OSes we have today (services like Desktop on Demand and CosmoPOD are more useful than a Web OS because at least it ‘feels’ like an actual desktop rather than a Flash app etc!).
Desktop on Demand is free but a reasonable package costs between £4 and £15 a month depending on which features you need and how much storage you require. £6 a month will land you essentials such as Firefox and 25GB of disk space!
Tags: desktop on demand, remote desktop, web os
FriendFeed: When Web 2.0 Bloggers Forget
One successful newly launched start-up is FriendFeed, a site which aggregates your activity on several social networks. Sounds cool? Fairly, but it has all been done before.
Duncan Riley of TechCrunch shares my shock that they have raised $5,000,000 and Michael Arrington believes they are ‘going through a twitter moment’. The thing is, in the TechCrunch article they list a list of vague competitors when half a dozen near-identical sites have come before it.
Before FriendFeed, we had SuprGlu (or at least I did, fantastic site!), then Profilactic and then Ziki!
Why is such an unoriginal idea loved so much? Sure, it has a nice design (well a simple one anyway) but to be honest, I just don’t get it. Please explain!
Tags: friendfeed
Win $1500 of backup software: Titan Backup Business
Titan Backup have kindly provided me with 10 copies, worth $1500 in total, of their ‘Titan Backup Business’ product to give away which includes:
- Titan Backup Business Server (a centralised web-based console)
- Titan Backup Business Workstation (to install on a computer which need data to be backed up)
As a home Mac OS X Leopard, I don’t need to worry about backing data up due to Time Machine but I’m sure Windows users and small businesses do! The multi-machine nature of Titan Backup would make it useful if you are running a network. Each licence I’m giving away is for 5 workstations.
Workstations can run Vista, 2000, NT or XP and servers can be run under Windows, OS X or Linux through Apache and lightSQL. You can back data up onto practically any medium (NAS, hard disks, FTP servers, USB drives etc) and choose what you want to back-up - albeit files, folders, registries or emails - through the application on each computer or XML templates. Data is transferred between the workstation and services encrypted with 256bit AES.
Titan Backup has a few other nifty features: you can use it to remotely control computers or to synchronise files between folders on different machines.
If you want a free licence, email me at computerjoe@gmail.com with ‘Titan Backup’ in the subject line and I will enter you into a prize draw. Download a free trial today!
Deadline for entries 5th April
Tags: backup, titan backup, security, giveaway
Diigo v3: A more social form of bookmarking and annotating
2 years ago, I reviewed a site called Diigo which was still in beta. Basically, it merged the ideas of social bookmarking, like del.icio.us, and social clipping, like Clipmarks. Diigo allowed users to highlight text on websites, to annotate it, bookmark the page and then tag them.
Diigo v3 places more emphasis on the social aspect of social bookmarking through merging ideas from several different sites together. For example, it takes annotating from Clipmarks, bookmarking from del.icio.us and a facility which suggests websites you may like based on your annotations from StumbleUpon.
Diigo v3 has some unique features which I like. When you are on websites, you can view what other users have highlighted and annotated which is useful for group projects where collaboration is necessary. You can also join groups and communities and send private messages to other users. Another interesting feature is WebSlides which lets you view your bookmarks as a slideshow which is useful if you can’t always remember the name of the site but you can remember the way it looks!
You can obviously tag pages and friend other users, like you can on most sites!
Diigo 3, much like it did 2 years ago, uses a toolbar in Firefox, Flock or IE or a bookmarklet in other browsers.
So, some key points about Diigo 3:
- Easy to share annotations on certain websites; useful for collaboration
- Improved social features
- WebSlide browse through websites based on screenshots.
- Clipmarks is like cutting something out of a paper; Diigo is highlighting something out of one and annotating it!
I believe Diigo is probably more useful as a research tool than as a social site but it is nice to merge the two together!
Tags: diigo, diigo 3, social bookmarking, web 2.0, clipmarks
