* The Last Byte *

[jstoddard]

Here's my first "blog" commentary. SharePoint Rocks.
Microsoft SharePoint Services are going to be a disruptive technology, and may be to Microsoft for the next decade what Windows and Office has been for the last... For $20/month (at 1and1.com - http://www1and1.com ) you can get 80% of the feature/functionality of $100,000+ content management/collaboration systems. If you have a Small Business 2003 server, you have it for free. Like so many Microsoft products, SharePoint has taken several iterations to get to where it is now... but believe me, it rocks. Read my recent JLC column about it, and then go and sign up for a free trial at the link below. You can check it out for 30 days for free (limited to 5 users and 10mb of storage or something, but enough to get a feel for what you can do)

http://www.apptix.net/default.aspx

You really need Office 2003 to take full advantage of SharePoint. If you have it, you can control your remote site right from within Word or Excel

[jstoddard]

MB SALES/Purchasing ADD-INS

MASTER BUILDER SALES ADD-INS
Last week I was tasked with looking at some add-ins for Master Builder. There are two that floated to the top.

SalesCloser http://www.salescloser.com and
OptionBuilder http://www.metabuilder.net

Both of these products/services add production builder automation that Master Builder does not have out of the box. What struck me is how different the approaches were.

SalesCloser reads the MB estimating module to create a model/option/selections database. It does nothing with purchasing. It's purely web-based.

OptionBuilder on the other hand ignores the MB estimating module, but then sends the sales sheet over to MB not as POs, but as subcontracts -- I guess so they can post to the WIP account not inventory accounts. OptionBUilder also has some interesting scheduling automation. But instead of being purely web-based, this one relies on Citrix. The developer told me it was because "a website didn't have the memory..." to run his app, whatever that means. As far as I could tell - it could have easily been architected as a three-tier web-based app, and avoid the whole Citrix licensing issue.

Niether one of thes has much of a track record, because it hasn't been that long since developers have had programming access to Master Builder. So I'm sure they'll both morph over time

JLS

[jstoddard]

Google Desktop

GOOGLE DESKTOP SEARCH IS HERE
Ok, there are privacy concerns, and etc etc... but I don't care. This is too stinking convenient to worry about a little privacy....

Google has released a desktop version of its search tool, and all I can say is, it's remarkable. Like X1, Copernic, and other desktop search tools, Google indexes your hard drive and then allows quick clear text searches. The difference is, there's no performance hit to your computer because it only indexes while you're idle, results are returned in milliseconds, it uses the familiar Google interface, and it's free (sort of... see below).

http://desktop.google.com

What I want to know... why isn't hasn't this kind of free-text search been available as part of Windows since day 1 ? Instead we're saddled with the horrible "Start-->Search" dialog, which doesn't always work and is always tortuously slow.... or the Outlook "Find" dialog which isn't much better.

I sort of trust the Google boys to do what they say they're going to... and they say they are not "currently" transmitting any personally identifiable info over the web. Of course, eventually, the price for this kind of search power is that your information will be compiled, sliced, and diced in order to gain marketing advantage. But as long as it's just to serve me the little Google classified ad, and not to bury me in pop-ups or worse, put my email on a spam list, I can live with it.

Check out their privacy statement, and if you agree with me - try this search tool. You'll wonder how you found anything without it.

Google is becoming the operating system. Microsoft is either going to have to buy them, or be prepared for the day when their OS is irrelevant because a file/folder hierarchy will be unnecesary

JLS

[jstoddard]

UDA Construction Office

Ok folks, we finally got a copy of UDA Construction Office this in-house... through a back door. NAHB sent it to me to review for possible inclusion in their bookstore. I'll be posting back thoughts. On first glance -nice interface, lotsa Word templates. What they've done with their Excel scheduler is also pretty nice - especially the abiltity to dump out to Project. What I'm not sure about yet is how automated it is with QuickBooks, or how consolidated the resultant docs are from a project standpoint. Will be interesting to do a "UDA vs. BuildWorks" article since they both deal with Office templates and QuickBooks.

My gut reaction on first look:
BuildWorks is much more financial management focused with most of the emphasis being on getting project and accounting info and reporting in and out of QuickBooks, and providing a way to accurately job cost. BW has a lot of Word templates, etc. too, but they're peripheral to the main focus and you can take them or leave them --- or add your own...

UDA seems to be the opposite - lots and lots of Word templates for subcontract agreements and so forth - and all have Merge capability with Outlook. But the financial management features seem much more free-standing and more of the the afterthought.

BuildWorks has also done a much better job laying out a workflow and "system" to project management. UDA's peripheral manual, etc.doesn't seem to give you much insight as to how the tools are supposed to be used.

The UDA Excel scheduler is nice as Excel schedulers go... however it's no easier to set up or use than just using MSProject (or some other database scheduler) in the first place, so I'm not sure of the point of it, except maybe cost ?? It does allow you to set up multiple jobs on the same schedule, something BuildWorks does not. But if you were going to do that, why wouldn't you just use Project to begin with? Excel is still Excel, and the reporting is the weak point when it comes to using it as a scheduler.

JLS

[jstoddard]

Nextel /avis Advisor

Back in 98 or so when Nextel was touting their first Java-equipped phone, I could not figure out why you'd want or need Java (a programming language +/-) running on a cell phone.

Now I know.

On my last few trips I've been adding the "Avis Advisor" to my rental car contract, which is a proprietary verison on Nextel's "TeleNav" service, essentially a Java-based application that works with GPS positioning to get you from point A to point B. The system (where it's available) works flawlessly, and I think makes a lot more sense than expensive built-in vehicle navigation systems.

It's simple. The Nextel phone that Avis supplies has a monochrome screen that does not try to display a map (so it wouldn't be any good for hiking in the wilderness, but rather just a big turn indicator, your direction, and the miles ticking down until your next turn. Instead of having to mess with DVD or CD maps, you simply call in your destination address and an operator adds it to your address book on the phone. If you're getting the service direct from Nextel, you can upload addresses from your PC before you head out.

It's portable. Since it runs on a Nextel phone you can take it from vehicle to vehicle.... or on a walk around town.

It's accurate. As you roll up to a turn you need to make, a voice blairs out TURN RIGHT ON XXXX..... and sure enough, there's XXXX right where it's supposed to be.

It's smart. if you're traveling at highway speeds, it'll warn you one mile, and then a quarter mile before your turn. If you're poking through town, you get notice .1 mile before your turn, and again at the intersection.

For vehicle use, or for hiking around the urban jungle, this really the most sensible GPS system I've seen to date. If I was trying to get salespeople or workmen to jobsites on time - I'd want one of these in every vehicle.

http://www.nextel.com/about/enterpri...navigate.shtml

JLS

[jstoddard]

Timberline Production Scheduling

Did a demo today on the new stand-alone version of Timberline Production Scheduling. Until now, this was only available as part of the Production Management suite, a production-oriented builder product. But now, it's available as a stand-alone, and I think it's probably the most builder-targeted scheduler I've seen to date. I'd urge anyone thinking about spending $600 on MSProject to put this $995 product on your short list as well, as it may be a much better fit for you out of the box, depending on the type of work you do of course.

One thing that struck me was how well-suited it was for multi-project analysis, and really designed to be used by the guy in the field.

Some features in what I saw today won't be in the product realistically until March 05.... they've added several things in direct response to client and consultant input. For instance - automatic resource leveling. You plug in how many crews the electrician has, and it'll not only tell you when you're over-allocated, but adjust schedules accordingly.

One simple at-a-glance feature. If your target completion date slips - a nice little green "light" turns red. So simple it's obvious, right? So why isn't anyone else doing it?

Anyway- shaping up to be a great product. Here's a link to what's available now.

http://www.timberline.com/industry/r...cheduling.aspx

Another interesting twist in the Production Management system, sometime next year Timberline will release a sales pricing model/option database that will no longer require Precision Estimating. For purely production builders who do not need to estimate non-standard options, this will significantly reduce the cost (and time) of implementing the system.

JLS

[jstoddard]

Scheduling? For What?

Ok gang, I spent this past weekend speaking at the Custom Builder Symposium in Palm Desert. BTW - next year every custom builder reading this should be at that Symposium - it's a fantastic conference, unlike anything else I've attended or participated in. Maggie Geoffroy (CDCI) and I did our "Evaluating Technology the Smart Way" talk on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we didn't get to everything we wanted to talk about so we hung out Saturday night and re-worked the whole thing. Sunday went a lot better I thought. We had maybe 40-50 people in our session on Sunday and (I thought at least) really got to the nuts and bolts of what the crowd wanted to learn about.

When we got to the part about scheduling, almost everyone in the room raised their hand that they used Project Scheduling of some kind. Most of them were using Microsoft Project..... I was encouraged.

But here's the kicker.... when I asked them how many actually DISTRIBUTE the schedule to subs and suppliers -- only THREE raised their hands.

Folks - if you don't convey your schedule and changes to the people you're working with who need to see them, YOU'RE NOT USING COMPUTERIZED PROJECT SCHEDULING. You might better stick with the whiteboard and have your trade partners come to your office to look at it once a week. Effective on-time completion requires that you tell everyone about the party you're having.... where it is, when it is, Keeping the schedule an internal secret that only you and your PMs know about not only does not make sense, it's a complete waste of time.

One guy asked "how do you do that" ? He had been using MSProject for several years. Now don't get me wrong.... I am not an MSProject power user by any means... in fact I fumble along in Project like everyone else, but I do know this... there are a million ways to slice and dice a schedule. Filter it by date, and then by resource. Print the result and fax it.... or better yet print it to a .PDF and email it to the project group you set up in ACT!. Or, upload it to the web and send everyone a link. There are lots of ways to get the job done. Even if you have to have someone stand at the paper fax machine a couple times a week, so what? It's a small price to pay for the benefit of keeping everyone on the same page.

Nothing against the company who wrote the long article about whiteboard scheduling in JLC last month... it was a good article. Reminded me of the articles I see about hand-carving beams, printing with lead type, or maintaining your collection of 78rpm records. All interesting reading, but all last-century.

And I couldn't help but think how much *better* it would have been for that company if, instead of making his subs come to the office and *maybe* look at the schedule on the wall, they could flip on their computer and be reminded of where they need to be and what they need to do -- every day if necessary. That's the power of electronic scheduling over a whiteboard system - the ability to easily share the information with the people who need to see it.

JLS

[jstoddard]

Domain Name Scam

Have any of you ever tried to register a domain name, only to find out it was taken by someone? But when you try to find it on the web, it's not there, and in fact it's just being "held" by some domain scalper outfit? In the early days of the Internet these outfits scooped up thousands of common domain names and held them hostage for big fees - for example coke.com .

But now, even esoteric domain names are unavailable. What's up with that? No way did domain squatters spend money registering oddball domain names.... or did they?

One thing that is happening is that if someone else (a squatter, a legitimate company, etc.) registered a domain in the past and then let it expire - the registrar - for example Network Solutions or GoDaddy - is actually re-registering the names themselves "on your behalf" the second they expire under one of their sister companies - thus keeping them off of the general market, and holding them hostage, allowing them to re-sell them back to you at confiscatory prices. In the case of Network Solutions, which charges $35/yr to register a domain name normally, it also protects them against you waiting for a domain to expire and then re-registering to a low-cost registrar like GoDaddy, which charges $9/yr for exactly the same thing, except with even better management controls.

here's the kind of language they include - this is from Network Solutions
---------------- start ---------
NOTE: FOR DOMAIN NAMES ONLY, UNLESS YOU RENEW IMMEDIATELY UPON RECEIPT OF THIS NOTIFICATION, THE DOMAIN NAME(S) LISTED ABOVE WILL BE DELETED FROM YOUR ACCOUNT AND WE MAY, IN ACCORDANCE WITH OUR SERVICE AGREEMENT, ATTEMPT TO RENEW AND TRANSFER THE DOMAIN NAME(S) LISTED ABOVE TO A THIRD PARTY ON YOUR BEHALF
--------------- finish ----------

This is akin to the plumbing supply house that competes with the plumber for business IMO. And, it looks like they're all doing it, even GoDaddy which I normally recommend because of low price and good service

So bottom line folks - if you have a domain name and expect to keep it, make sure you renew it before it's due to expire. And if you want to transfer it to someplace cheaper, be sure you do it well within the 10-30 day limitation most registrars impose. You can't count on it to come back on the open market so you can grab it again.

And BTW - don't waste your money on the "$18.95 backorder it now" services either. So long as companies are alllowed to transfer your domain to their sister companies like this, there is nothing to backorder because the name is never going to come back on the open market. It's just another rip-off profit center for the registrars. If the domain is registered with them, they're sending it off to their own company and then charging you $20 to "backorder". And, if it's registered somewhere else, there's a good chance they're promising you something they can not possibly deliver, because it's never going to come back on the open market. It's a scam.

JLS

[jstoddard]

More Spyware Information

Every time I visit a client, I find their network under siege from spyware. Since most of this crap comes in via e-mail and web surfing on common TCP ports, with users downloading and opening stuff that they shouldn't - firewalls won't stop it.

Last week, I encountered something even more hideous than CoolWebSearch - a re-director that hijacked the user's browser , installing a dozen or more hidden processes, and reinstalled itself over and over no matter what we did.

In researching this, I ran across that has instructions for manual removal of various spyware infections. I can't vouch for any of these, other than eBates removal, which did seem to work.

http://www.123renamer.com/spyware-re...re-removal.htm

Another common question I get is "how do I figure out what's running in the background. Short answer, it isn't easy. Here is a site I found that has a script that will help you diagnose everything loading at start-up. It's a little geeky, so be sure to read the entire site for proper usage and other instructions

http://www.silentrunners.org/

Of course, employees NEVER fess up to surfing unapproved sites or opening rogue email. According to them, this stuff just appears on their machines. That may be true, but it doesn't matter. The best defense is still a strong offense. Get a clean drive image of every computer, and use products like GoBack which will allow users to solve their own problems.

The alternative is lousy - hire tech people to fix your computers. Add up the hours, and it would probably be cheaper to put the infected computer in the dumpster than to fix it.In this particular case, the infected machine was a CAD workstation that would have taken days to re-format and re-build from scratch.... and with no alternative for a key employee to use while that was being done. As it was just to get it back to a limping state, he lost half a day of billable time, plus my time.

I hope those links are useful to someone. I'll keep an eye out and add other anti-spyware resources here as I find them.

[jstoddard]

The Best Laptop I have Ever Owned

Ok Folks....
As you know, I love ThinkPads. When it comes to laptops, IMO there's IBM, and there's everyone else. Nothing wrong with a nice Dell or HP mind you - but it's just not the same. I hope IBM did not nail the coffin closed selling the division to the Chinese, but who knows... maybe they'll get even better. But that is then, this is now, and I recently took delivery of a brand new shiny ThinkPad X40. It is without a doubt the best laptop I have ever owned, and I've had quite a few.

I weighs around 3 lbs and has a 12" screen. It's little, and light. It's an inch smaller in both directions than my X21, which was also small and light. But here's the kicker - it has a fullsize keyboard. Similar machines from Dell, etc. do not.

The smaller 4-cell battery is currently lasting 4 hrs, and I have an 8-cell on order. Did not make that my primary because it sticks out the back, making the laptop just a *little* too wide to make in the bulkhead magazine rack on airplanes.

The more i use it, the more little goodies I find - like Forward and Back keys tucked in to the arrow keys... and a Fn/Space function that zooms the screen for a minute.

It's not a barnburner, but with an Ultra-Low voltage PentiumM processor - it produces almost no heat... and NO NOISE.

It is also remarkably rugged. The day I got home from the IBS, it took not one, but TWO tumbles off of a 30" high end table - I tripped over the cord - twice - and yanked it on to the floor. No damage. The hard drive has a shock sensing deal that stops it in a microsecond if it's dropped or banged.

The only thing many of you will miss is a CD drive - you have to use the docking base if you want that. I install software over my network so it's no big deal. I did buy the Xbase but have not even put the computer on it. I'm a minimalist.

Anyway - been a while since I posted but wanted to share. If you want laptop envy - go get yourself an X40.


JLS

[jstoddard]

Disaster Recovery

Hurricane Katrina has completely wiped out hundreds if not thousands of businesses on the gulf coast, builders and remodelers no doubt among them. And many of them could have been saved, had they taken appropriate disaster recovery steps before disaster struck.

Computer back-ups are only part of a disaster recovery plan (but a very important part).

In coastal areas, as well as areas prone to earthquake, blizzard, tornado, or any other kind of natural disaster that can wipe out large geographies, physical preparedness for recovery is just as important.

"Offsite" doesn't just mean "take home the backup tapes" anymore. It means getting data to somewhere far away. secure, and easily recovered from anywhere else. People affected by Katrina can't even get their medical records, because they were all kept there locally. Ditto for insurance, property titles, etc etc. What a mess.

Obviously, online backups to a secure data center meet that requirement. And after seeing what happened in Katrina, I'd extend that recommendation to key paper business documents. Get a copy of them out of Dodge. Even if all you do is scan everything to .PDF and store them in a data center, that's a whole lot better than nothing.

I've worked with many builders along the coasts in hurricane areas, and I can count on one hand the ones who were even thinking about this... and none actually had any planning in place.

And what about re-establishing communications ? In New Orleans, the usual phone chain type plans were useless. Cell and radio towers were down. Land lines down. So now what? I'm not smart enough to have all the answers, but I'm certain there are some viable ones. It's the kind of thing you need to consider as a company. I have to believe there's a way to use the Internet for this as well.

We're in an industry where how well you maintain records not only impacts your own business, but also your buyers and trading partners. Forget the liability if you don't do it.... think how much better homeowners in New Orleans who wind up losing their homes would be just from an insurance standpoint if their builders could provide as-built records. Most, if not all of the production-oriented builders I've worked with consider the process over when the warranty expires. Custom guys are a little better - sometimes. But isn't it time to start thinking about these projects in terms of total lifecycle, and not just the little slice of time we spend building or remodeling the house ? Commercial contractors and building owners have understood this for decades -- whoever owns the information owns the process.

This reinforces what I've been saying for years - CRM (Customer Relations Management) is the first and most important computer application builders can put in place. If you absolutely had to you could do all your estimating/accounting/scheduling/job costing on a ledger pad. But it's almost impossible to duplicate the ability of a good CRM database to catalog and track information with paper systems. And even if you could, we're back to stuff sitting in a filing cabinet that gets blown away by the next storm. CRM is truly is an area where technology can make a huge difference. But it's also the one area nobody seems to want to spend any time or money on. I've encountered hundreds of builders selling tens of millions of $$ in new product annually who can not tell me much of anything about their leads, their buyers, or the performance of their subs and suppliers -- because they are not tracking any of it. Instead of doing a proper job evaluating the information they need to capture and building the infrastructure to manage it, they expect some simplistic approach to do the job, and balk if the process takes more than five minutes, costs more than $100, or requires even the slightest inconvenience or disruption to the daily comfort zone of any of their staff. These are some seriously misplaced priorities if you ask me.

If nothing else, I hope this hurricane raises the bar in the building industry for the necessity of good data management and disaster recovery planning.

JLS

[jstoddard]

Goodbye PalmOS ?

On 9/28, Palm announced that it will be putting Windows Mobile 5.0 on its next Treo smartphone - *not* the PalmOS. The webcast at the link below puts all kind of corporate spin on the relationship, but let's face it.... in this wireless and multi-media world the PalmOS is pretty much out of gas and Palm knows it. Since Palm doesn't really make the PalmOS anymore anyway... could this be the last nail in its coffin ? The other factor is Verizon's broadband EV-DO network, which we've discussed on the forum.

Here's a link. Be sure to check out the corporate-speak webcast. Looks like Microsoft wins again.

http://www.palm.com/us/company/?creativeID=RFB|windows_20050927

[jstoddard]

Pentax Optio60

Well, I lost my trusty (but falling apart) Canon Elph on my last trip, and needed a quick digital camera replacement. I use a digicam pretty much exactly how all of you do.... I photograph builders' and remodelers' jobsites, offices, projects, etc. I photograph documents and drawings too. Some pics get printed, the vast majority are emailed or stored on a SharePoint site. It's not the first expensive gadget I've lost while travelling, so to be honest, I was looking for cheap this time around.

So I stopped at Wal-Mart and found a Pentax Optio60 for well under $200. 6 megapixel, 3x optical zoom, short video clips, lots of manual and automatic features....kind of chintzy plastic body (compared to my Elph, which was a stainless steel marvel of engineering) . A little bulkier than the old Elph ( and a lot bulkier than the new ones) but still small enough to stick in my pocket... but here's the best part IMO.... it uses regular AA batteries. You don't realize what a nuisance rechargeable batteries are until you have to keep half a dozen of them charged up. Now I can grab a few extra batteries at the 7-11 while I'm out with a builder and never worry about it. It'll use rechargeable AAs too of course (recommended by Pentax). It also uses SD cards for extra storage (I picked up a 1GB model for $75 at Wal-Mart) This is good because my ThinkPad has an SD reader built in, and so does my office printer.

I've used the camera for a few days now and so far as I can tell, the photos it takes are every bit as good as any other digial camera I've used save for Prosumer SLRs... and the AA battery thing is great. My first Palm Pilot ran on disposible batteries too and I've missed that convenience. They last a surprisingly long time, even when using flash or taking movies. Low light performance is *much* better than the Elph was, and the flash throws farther if you need it. Red eye is no worse than other point and shoots I've used. The sloppy zoom lens and plastic body still worry me, but hey - this thing was half the price of similar featured cameras from Canon and Sony. If I lose it out of my bag or drop in the mud - it's not the end of the world.

Finally - a feature I just discovered, there are settings and drivers to turn the Optio60 into a web cam. That's a really nice perk as well - lots of times I'd like to set up an impromptu video conference and don't want to carry another camera.

Overall - I'm pleasantly surprised what $200 will get you in a camera today I'll post back how it holds up over time.
JLS

[jstoddard]

Web 2.0 - Desktop Killer?

I've said, ever since my first DOS Compuserve subscription (and 2400 baud modem that went with it) back in 1988 or so, that computers were going to be as much about communication and collaboration than number crunching. It's taken almost 20 years, but I think that is finally starting to come true.

Over the past 6-8 months there has been a phenom. brewing which is being called "Web 2.0" - basically a new rush of web-based applications which work and act a lot more like "real" software.

Before you think "dot.com bust" - this is totally different. For one thing, new technology - both broadband access for users - and new programming choices for developers - make these kinds of applications much more viable than ever before . For another - while some of the new offerings are venture-funded, they are coming to market with much less debt... or are totally free open-source efforts created with nothing more than elbow grease. Costs to end-users range from totally free (if you don't mind some Google ads and the like) to full-blown commercial (Web 2.0 apps are typically cheap or free right now -- but the price isn't the point)

The thing thing that distinguishes "Web 2.0" apps from installed/conventional software is the collaborative aspect they bring to the table.

The applications aren't just delivered on the web... your work is on the web too, which means you can share it with nobody, or with your co-workers, or with the entire globe at will. And not just "share" as in "they can download it" - but "share" as in "they can add to it, edit it, and possibly make it better". That concept changes everything. It scares most people my age to death. We were taught that "knowledge is power"... but the next generation of workforce won't know or understand any other way than to contribute to projects collaboratively. Today's ninth-graders probably can't remember life without the Internet... in a year or two they're your summer help, and not long after that they're in the market for jobs and houses.

Here are some examples of Web 2.0 applications you could be using right now... go check them out (most are free). And keep an open mind. Pretend a bomb blows up that software company in Redmond tomorrow... could you get along ? I think you could - just with what's available online right now.

- Google Desktop and all its related components such as their Google Spreadsheet, Calendar, Writely Word Processor and SketchUP image library. i don't know if this will be the "Office Killer" but I find myself using Google desktop as my starting point for just about everything already.

- Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) - an encyclopedia that is written and maintained by users (as are all "Wikis" - wee-kee, based on the hawaiian word for "Fast") . Articles are updated nearly in real time - if something happens today, someone will post a "stub" article that will be updated as new or better information becomes available.

- Zoho suite. (http://www.zoho.com/) A productivity suite and virtual office that could seriously challenge Microsoft... as could half a dozen other similar offerings. It's hard to imagine anyone wanting to spend $500/seat for MSOffice once some of these see the light of day. It might not be good enough for a 200 unit homebuilder to trade in BuilderMT yet... but if I were just getting started as a remodeler or pro handyman I could run my entire operation with tools like these with no problem.

- Drupal (Drupal.org) - a totally open source content management system you can use to build any kind of database-driven website you can think of. Drupal and its derivatives rival $100,000 content management systems. We used it to create www.hurricaneconstruction.net in just a few weeks - a project that would have taken months just a short time ago.

Of course, not all of these will survive, many will be gobbled up by bigger fish like Google, and still others will drown under their own weight or get busted for violating privacy policy or some other beware-of-the-dog concerns... but Web 2.0 isn't going away. No amount of advertising for "Office 12" is going to change the fact that if it comes on a CD and you buy it at Staples it's "old paradigm" and Web 2.0 applications are "new paradigm".

And one thing is for certain - anyone producing software today who isn't thinking about how to web-enable it is already irrelevant. And I don't mean running their old applications with terminal server/Citrix or getting files over a VPN - that's just prolonging a slow death. I'm talking about really web-*enabling* it so it's available from anywhere, anytime... and it has that collaborative element. If you're thinking about new software, you should be asking that question hard and often of the vendors you're considering. Ask them if they know what "AJAX" is or what "Ruby on Rails" is used for. If they don't - run the other way.

JLS

[jstoddard]

Free Online 'Dropbox'

It's been a long time since I posted anything here - my bad. I've actually been working on another blog that I'll post here sometime later this summer or fall - it'll be a little wider-reaching than our JLC forum and I hope you'll participate over there as well.

Anyway - we've been using a beta/startup product called "Dropbox" - the site is http://www.getdropbox.com/ . My team and I have been blown away by this technology - it's worthy of a permanent shout-out here, although I think a bigger fish will probably buy them before it's over and done, so check it out before that happens...

WHAT IS DROPBOX?
It's one of many new "hard drive in the sky" (or more accurately - in the 'cloud', meaning the Internet cloud...) . It's like many "share big files" services in that you, or anyone you designate, can use it to upload files that are too big to deal with via email, etc. And... it also works a lot like X-drive, (www.xdrive.com) in that you get a 'local' folder on your hard drive and also a web interface. The difference is the (you guessed it....) Web 2.0 nature of the service. We love the way it notifies other team members if a file has changed, if something new is there for you , etc. It is similar to other services that have been around a long time, but enough of an evolution in terms of ease-of-use, especially among teams, that it's going to leave many of them in the dust. And right now, the price is right (free).

I think a lot of builders/remodelers will find it useful as well as a place to store backups, to share work with customers/subs/suppliers, etc.

BACKING UP TO DROPBOX:
Because you get a local "My Dropbox" folder on your PC, it also works great to use as a landing zone for scheduled backups. I've been using Insofta's "Document Backup" program - actually one of the daily freebies at http://www.giveawayoftheday.com (another interesting site, BTW- often has decent free software and something new daily...). Any standard backup software with a scheduler would work... just set it up to save your files to your local "DropBox" folder.... and presto... automatic online backup without paying a dime for anything (at least at the moment...) . You have the choice whether or not your Dropbox files will be public, so as long as you believe their privacy/terms, your data is safe there. The Insofta program creates a .zip file which you can also 256-bit encrypt and password-protect, so at the very least it would be a gigantic hassle for somebody to crack it.

As of this writing, DropBox is in private beta, meaning you have to sign up and wait at the end of the line for the bouncer to let you into the club. I registered anonymously with a phony name and had the invite a day or two later, so hopefully you'll be able to check it out sooner than later. No doubt it'll progress to 'public beta' and eventually a for-pay service (or ad-supported with file size restrictions, etc.)

In case you missed it above - here's the URL http://www.getdropbox.com

JLS