A New Found Respect For Yahoo!

As I explained in my first post, I am a Google fan boy. But really I've only seen it from a user's point of view. If there's one thing I've learned in the five days as the webmaster of this site it's that making websites discoverable by search engine's web crawlers is a pain in the butt. There's the META tags, and the site-maps, and the registering of the accounts on the major search players. It can be one of the most frustrating parts of building a website.

Each of the three major search providers (Google, Bing and Yahoo!) offer a webmaster toolkit to help webmasters get their site shown higher up when a user searches for certain key words. After fiddling with each of the sites, submitting site-maps, adding html meta tags to verify the accounts, etc. and trying to get everything the way I wanted, I realized Yahoo was absolutely incredible with their webmaster support. Their setup process is quick and painless. All I had to do was verify my ownership, upload my site map and boom within an hour I was on top of a Yahoo! search for "FaradTech" and "Farad Tech". Now, I may have just gotten lucky and that was just when the crawler was heading to my site, but hey, I was still impressed.

Google's setup wasn't quite as easy. There were a few more clicks involved and some debugging I had to do. Once I finally got everything in order it took a day or two of pleading, begging and crying to even get Google to show my site even in a search for my domain. But alas, when it finally happened and I saw my website on the top of that search list, there was all but tears of joy streaming from my face.

That brings me to Bing. I don't really have much to say other than that its still not seeing my site 5 days later. Their tools, while they may seem useful at first, really don't offer enough feedback to troubleshoot any problems that may have come about or even why the wannabe search engine's crawler hasn't even touched my site....IN 5 DAYS!!!! I guess that's why Microsoft has resorted to monkey labor to get their search algorithm better.

All in all in this section of the search wars I give Yahoo! two thumbs up for their web master support, Google one thumb up and Bing a wrinkled certificate for participating.

How To: Move Your Data to the Cloud

One of the hottest topics in computing these days is the "cloud". The cloud refers to off-site applications and data that may be accessed from anywhere you get an internet connection. Today, I'm going to show you how to move all of your basic personal data onto the cloud for worry free, stress free backup and recovery.

Step 1: Get your data to a computer


This is very easy if you are using a smartphone such as an iPhone, Windows Phone, Android Phone, Blackberry, Nokia, Palm OS phone, or WebOS phone. The software and cables needed to move your data into a program like Microsoft Outlook usually comes with your phone. However, if you are not using a smartphone, you may need to pick up an additional cable and some software. Most manufacturer's will offer the cable on their website and some even offer some proprietary software. PC Studio seems to be the most popular but you're going to have to do some research. Once all of your data is pulled into a program like Outlook, Windows Mail, Address Book, or some other equivalent we can work on moving it to the cloud.


Step 2: Pick A Cloud Service

There are a host of different online backup options. I'll discuss a few of the most popular do give you a better idea of which solutions meets your needs. The first option is for users of Windows Mobile. Microsoft will be launching its MyPhone service around the same time as the release of WIndows Phone 6.5. This service backs up everything, from pictures to text messages to phone numbers. The downside is that this information is only available either on your Windows Mobile device, or through a special web portal. This service is accessed through the web browser on your Windows Mobile device.

The second popular service is going to be Blackberry Enterprise Server. This is a service that only works with Blackberries and comes with a few downsides. The biggest downside is that all of this information will only be available through your Blackberry device or through your company's computers. Some companies won't allow you to move any of this data over to a new server or take it with you when you end employment with them. BES may be powered by either Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes. In most cases, your comapny's IT department will help you set this up.

The third popular option is Microsoft Exchange. Microsoft Exchange is an all encompassing service that pushes email, contact information, calendar events, and tasks across any device you have connected to it within seconds of changes being made. Most companies will offer Exchange services however it may also be provided by some schools. You may also purchase your own private exchange server for around $7 a month. The benefit of this is that there is no desktop syncing required. Most smartphones offer support for Exchange with a few simple set up options. If you don't have a smartphone, but you've moved all of your data to Outlook or Entourage, you can set up exchange with the desktop clients. Emails are automatically pushed to your phone within seconds of the email being sent. Other members on the same exchange server may push calendar event invitations to you to accept or deny. Once accepted, the event is automatically pushed to your calendar across all devices and computers. This is my favorite option, and I depend on Exchange on a daily basis.

Since most of the options I've discusssed are business or corporate based, I want to talk about one really great option for everyone else called Google Sync. Google Sync is a free service provided by Google that is based on Microsoft Exchange. Best of all, it's free to all GMail users. Now, you don't get some of the benefits of a full blown Exchange server. Google Sync only syncs your Calendar and Contacts, but at least it's free. Set up is very easy. For smartphones, just set up Google sync as you would an Exchange account. If you need help, Google offers some step by step guides on the Sync website. For non-smartphones, sync all of your data to a program like Outlook or Entourage and then follow Google's instructions for setting up the Google exchange server using your desktop client. Once changes are made, either through the phone, desktop client, or Google's web portal, all three points of entry are updated instantly.

Step 3: Sync, and Sync Often


Obviously cloud backups are only really useful if they are current. So remember to follow all the steps and sync at least once a week or more. In the case of Exchange and Google Sync, the backup is done literally the second data changes which is why they are the optimum solution.

I've been a little vague in this how-to but only because there are so many different options. Try and do a little research on your particular situation. I highly recommend either Exchange or Google Sync as these are the easiest for those of us not in the corporate world. Do some searching and see what other users of your device are doing for backup. There are some third party applications that will save all PIM data to a file and you can upload that file onto and off-site backup service. This isn't true cloud backup, but it's better than losing 200 contacts over Memorial Day weekend when you drop your phone in the lake.

10 Things You Should Know About Me - Eric's Turn

1. Background: I'm a 5th year electrical engineering student from the University of Tennessee.
2. I love gadgets. Currently on my night stand there are 5 different smart phones that I interchange on a random basis. I love the fact that I never have to have a full fledged computer around to keep up on news and communicate with my friends
3. I'm very opinionated. I will rant, constantly. It WILL piss you off at least once. Deal with it.
4. I hate Blackberries
5. I HATE Blackberries
6. I don't drink the Google Kool-Aid. I don't like the fact that one company knows who my friends are, what sites I visit, can read my email, has access to my call history, controls access to my documents, can see my calendar, and knows where I live. I separate my information across several providers.
7. I DO drink the Microsoft Kool-Aid. I like Bing. Windows Mobile is tops. Xbox 360 is amazing. I use Hotmail. I love using Office and Outlook. Windows 7 cured me of Mac Envy. I haven't tried a Zune but only because the Zune store has not integrated itself with Windows Mobile or Xbox Live. Seriously, Microsoft, if you could blend all of your services together across multiple platforms, you could kill Apple. I should be able to see who's on Xbox Live from my Windows Mobile phone and play tracks from my Zune over Wifi on my Xbox 360.
8. I drive fast. If you're going slower than 80 in the left hand lane, I will ride your tail. I will cut you off, I will flip you the bird. Get out of my way, seriously.
9. I enjoy the finer things. I like a good scotch, expensive cigarettes, expensive phones, expensive hotels. Yet there's always a soft spot in my heart for bargain brand beer.
10. I will do anything for a good time. I self medicate but only because my ADD is so bad, I have to do something to keep my mind from racing at 120 MPH.

Look forward to some of my future posts as I will be doing some recurring mini-columns. Each week I will post at least one if not many mobile tech posts titled This Week in Mobile. Once a week I will also try to do an editorial piece about something that's pissing me off in Technology. I also hope to do some app and software reviews for both mobile platforms, and desktop platforms dealing with mobile technologies.

Google to Standardize Web Video

If you're one of those few who gets a funny feeling about web pages that use proprietary standards or you just dislike flash, then we've got some good news for you.

Google, who's recently been pushing HTML 5, their open 3d platform for web pages o3d, and basically anything that opens up the web, has just spent a rather large $106.5 million to come to some neutral ground between browser makers on replacing flash with a standardized video codec by buying a little known company On2. Speculation is that they'll turn around and open source the VP8 video codec with a license that will hopefully calm some worries between Apple and Mozilla. If their codec is as good as it's shown here, I'm excited to see this go through. Now let's cross our fingers and hope the ever quiet, standards defying, IE supports this in the future.

10 Things Tech You Should Know About Me

Just to get to know me a bit, here are 10 things you should know about me and where I stand on pertinent tech issues.

1. Background: I am 4th year Electrical Engineering student at the University of Tennessee, so I generally look at hardware from a nuts and bolts standpoint. I guess you can take that for what its worth.
   
2. I am not a mac, I am not a PC, I am not a Linux, I am a Yes. (Though technically everyone is a PC).
   
3. I am not overly fond of the Apple organization for how they treat developers and how little they trust their consumers with understanding technical knowledge. However, I do think OSX is a good idea and think their mobile devices are quite revolutionary if not over priced.
4. I like Microsoft for what they are good at. Operating Systems (debatable) and Office Suites (also debatable). I do not however like when Microsoft attempts to go out of their comfort zone in mobile devices, internet search and of course internet life. WinMo, Bing, and live deserve a big red stamp with the letters F-A-I-L put across it. A word of advice to the guys in Redmond...leave that stuff to Google, Apple, Palm, Blackberry, Yahoo...you get the idea. To end on a positive note for MSFT, I give a hearty two thumbs up to Windows 7, It's the best OS they've made in a long while.
5. I am a bit of a fanboy when it comes to Linux. I've run several distros including Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, gOS, and Fedora, with Ubuntu being my favorite. If there weren't so many software compatibility issues I would use it full time. However, there are, so I continue to dual boot.
6. In Google I trust. My life is highly embedded in the Google-sphere, I don't think there is a web app of theirs I haven't touched and at times I find myself on a mission to convert all and bring them to the Church of Google. On Google tech: I love the "cloud" and nearly everything in it, meh on Android (it's nice but doesn't make me scream "HOLY FREAKING SH*T!!!"), and I am extremely excited about seeing what they do with Chrome OS.
7. I don't use an iPod. It's not that they're bad devices, in fact as I stated before, they have become drivers of the mobile tech industry. Its just that for what you get, competitors like Creative consistently put out better products for much much less cash.
   
8. Speaking of Creative...if you haven't heard about Zii, I suggest you take a look. In short its a processor that can adapt to the task at hand. Its much smaller and uses less power than an x86, yet [allegedly] competes with it when it comes to FLOPS. Needless to say, it kicks the crap out of ARM and is perfectly suited for the mobile device market.
   
9. I'm a fan of green living, but don't always practice what I preach... sometimes there just isn't a recycling bin within 50 ft and it's unfortunate, but that baby seal will just have to deal with choking on my plastic Coke bottle.
10. One thing that always "grinds my gears" is the phrase "10 years away." Every so often a really revolutionary piece of technology will come out and someone will label it as "10 years away" and that's when I know that piece of tech has an optimistic 50/50 shot at getting into main stream use. [see superecapacitors and memristors]

I hope this gives you an incite into how I look at the technology industry. I'm sure many of you will disagree with me on some issues and that's why I chose blogger to make this site, so that you can comment and argue your points. Starting tomorrow I should start posting and commenting on the top topics of the day. If that's too far away, feel free follow me on Twitter.