Tag Archives: filesharing

del.icio.us – Social Bookmarks

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del.icio.us Early in 2005 I read an InfoWorld article about Social Bookmarking that caught my attention. Having not heard of this computer term prior, it interested me. As it turns out Social Bookmarking allows anyone to share Internet Bookmarks with a keyword tagging mechanism that allows easy searching amongst systems. Sure you could use Yahoo, Google, and/or other Search Engines but del.icio.us is different. If I had to categorize it I’d say it’s sort-of a Peer-to-Peer Bookmark manager allowing you to customize your links to your personal liking. One advantage is access from any computer with Internet access. del.icio.us (acquired by Yahoo) is a social bookmarks manager Web site. There are many out there I’ve recently learned and this comparison document may help you identify the differences and features. I will primarily be writing from the del.icio.us mindset, although many aspects are similar. Del.icio.us allows you to easily discover links or to post links to your personal collection of links, categorize those link resources with keywords/tags, share your collection not only between your own browsers and machines, but also with others. You may even tag certain links semi-private, for only you to view or find these. To start I recommend looking over the help pages, you can learn quickly from this information.

There are several ways you can search del.icio.us resources and many available browser tools specialized for it’s use and assist in a plethora of del.icio.us tasks (as well as other Social Bookmark servers.) I’ll discuss Plug-ins later after we introduce the remaining basics (who, where, what, when, & why).

What: is del.icio.us or Social Bookmarking? Well if you didn’t get it from my explanation above here’s the Help pages ‘about del.icio.us‘. I think I’ve covered ‘who’ already… (Hello – it’s for YOU, me, anyone with Internet access).

‘Where’: Hold on Hoss! Before running off without the rest of the basics you can learn a lot from why you’d want to use del.icio.us. Why would you want to use del.icio.us, you ask? Well first off, I can only lead you to it, I can’t make you use it, but you may find it useful to share your favorite Web sites/resources and use this as a tool to discover new resources. Example let’s dive in and take a look at my del.icio.us member account, at ( http://del.icio.us/macdillon). You’ll learn my interests, and see my tagged keywords. I’m interested in Accessible Web development, Web standards, Casscading Style Sheets (CSS) technology, Macintosh computers, Motorcycles, guitar, and fun, amongst other tags. These tags help me to recall resources I chose to save and share. If any of these Tags interest you, feel free to explore.

ok, now let’s cover Where… The http://del.icio.us home page allows you to register for your own sub-account and begin creating, sharing, and categorizing your favorite tags and bookmarks. I recommend you surf a while to learn more and explore this new territory. The links below should be a helpful nudge into discovering the world of Delicious Social Bookmarks:
Popular: Popular Tags are the current popular Tag from all users in the del.icio.us server systems. Trendalicious a near real-time view of Web site popularity trends. Also check out the Delicious tip of the day, Graph Del.icio.us: A map to others linking to users, Absolutely Del.icio.us – A Complete Tool Collection, and Delicious Help pages

How do you search? You can search for any keyword tag from the official delicious search form available at: del.icio.us/search/.

Last but certainly not least, I encourage the use of the free FireFox browser and Thunderbird E-mail software over all others for there advanced open standards compliance and features. If you use either of these there are plenty of Plug-in’s to assist with easier Tagging and Bookmarking. I suggest reviewing the Absolutely Del.icio.us – Complete Tool Collection to learn more about Delicious and available Plug-In’s for many various applications besides FireFox and Thunderbird.

I hope this gets you socializing…

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Dropload.com File Sharing

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FIle Sharing Lesson

Many of you may or may not be familiar with File Sharing over the Internet. This little segment should help those not so familiar with file sharing techniques. The first file sharing technique everyone should know is attachments with-in an e-mail message. As you may have discovered this has it’s limitations. E-mail servers usually limit messages to 4mb or under. Many people believe if the attachment file size is over the limit (set by your provider), then you’re just out of luck. Well this isn’t true, you have many options. First is File Transfer Protocol (FTP) but you’ll have to learn and understanding FTP technology. Too much for the normal everyday non-geek user, (I agree.) FTP requires special software and knowledge to send/receive files, it’s not too difficult, perhaps more study time required than you care to undertake. If you want learn more about FTP then I’d recommend starting with “FTP” and the vast available search engines.

I’m heading this tactical informational lesson to a slightly easier method, available free and right from your web browser.

Dropload to the rescue! If you have a larger file than what e-mail allows you to send you can utilize this handy free utility to send and retrieve files.

Perhaps I should explain a bit more… Dropload is a place for you to drop your files off and have them picked up by someone else at a later time. Recipients you specify are sent an email with instructions on how to download the file. Files are removed from the system after 7 days, regardless if they have been picked up or not. You can upload any type of file, mp3, movies, docs, pdfs, up to 100MB each! Recipients can be anyone with an email address. However… of course confidentiality is at risk unless you securely encrypted or password protect your files. You can usually add minimum password security to zipped, and/or pdf files prior to using such free public utilities if this is a concern.

Ok, so now there are no excuses for not sharing your files, photos, etc… But remember as ALWAYS scan any and all files for virus’s prior to opening with the most current virus software and definitions. I hope you learned from this little lesson and share it with others.