Cloud Computing… revisited

When I first looked at the Dell Mini 9 several months ago, I also looked into cloud computing for file synchronization and storage. Netbooks and cloud computing sort of go hand-in-hand, since we’re talking about using a very portable computer as a secondary machine which can easily be connected to the Internet. Since it’s been about 7 months since I last looked at the cloud computing offerings, I quickly reviewed the current status of three file syncing/storage utilities: (1) DropBox, (2) SkyDrive, and (3) LiveMesh.

DropBox appears to have not changed, still allowing only 2 GB of file storage for their free service. SkyDrive also remained unchanged with 25 GB of storage, but you still can’t upload folders of files or large single files. My favorite of these three is LiveMesh by Microsoft. I’ve been using it since I began my first evaluation and it continues to work very well. I really like the seemless integration with my Windows Vista desktop PC, where any files in a designated “LiveMesh” folder automatically get synced between the machines I’ve specified. I can also access these same files on the Internet via any web browser, as they are stored on Microsoft’s file servers as well.

Although LiveMesh has a limit of 5 GB of online file storage, there is no limit for file syncing between your “ring” of machines. So you can sync 50 GB of files between your various PCs and laptops using LiveMesh, but you can only store 5 GB of data on Microsoft Servers in the cloud.

So for me, it seems that LiveMesh is the winner for file syncing between my machines. Unfortunately, I often forget I have it running on my systems (since it is so silent and unobtrusive) so I don’t make a lot of use of it. But maybe that will change when I get my Dell 11z.

Microsoft SkyDrive Online File Storage Has Limitations

In a previous posting, I mentioned the use of the Microsoft Live SkyDrive service for uploading and storing files (25 GB free space), however, I’ve run into some limitations. Here’s two biggies:

1. You can’t upload folder or sub folder, just individual files.
2. Each file you upload must be under 50 MB in size.

This puts a damper on my plans to offload some big project files to the online file server (which have been organized in separate folders) and to offload some video files (200+ MB). I understand that this service is free so I have no room to complain, but it’s a bummer that it has these limitations. I’m sure other online free services have similar limitations, so I guess the online file storage will only work on small, individual files. In the meantime, I’ll have to get a big 2nd drive for my Desktop PC to backup my files.

Lessons Learned…

So what have I learned from my brief experience with the Dell Mini 9 Netbook?

I’ve learned that keyboard size and key placement should be a big consideration for touch typists who are looking for a Netbook system. A 10″ system might be the threshold for such users, but you’ll need to test out the Netbook to see first hand.

Also, the screen resolution is a factor for effectively viewing web pages. The current standard of 600 pixels for vertical screen height is too small for viewing modern day web pages. A pixel size of 800 would probably be the minimum (however, most Netbooks don’t go above the 600 pixel threshold).

The Intel Atom CPU seems to do a good job for running applications in Windows XP and Windows 7 Beta OSes. Having 1 GB of RAM seemed sufficient, but 2 GB would be better when running multiple applications simultaneously.

The use of a Solid State Disk (SSD) Drive was a rather pleasant experience, since it allowed for a silent running system. The access speed of a SSD was perfectly acceptable, and having only 16 GB for the OS and files wasn’t a big issue since files could be stored on a SDHC card.

Having the Dell Mini 9 also allowed me to investigate using Windows 7 Beta as a future Operating System. I was pleasantly surprised to find Win7 runs quite well on a Netbook computer, with no issues regarding hardware drivers, etc. It worked out so well, I just might install Win7 on my Latitude D610 laptop just for grins. So, it seems that Win7 can run effectively on low-powered processor with just 1 GB of memory and slower storage drives.

Aside from the Netbook aspects, I also learned a lot about the world of online file syncing and storage which was quite valuable. Microsoft Live Mesh is a wonderful file syncing application with remote desktop connection capability. Other online services such as SkyDrive and Zoho are also useful for online file storage and document management. With these utilities, files can be synced and accessed from multiple PCs and hopefully smartphone devices in the near future.

So I can’t say that the time I’ve invested in learning about Netbooks and waiting for my Dell Mini 9 to arrive was wasted, as I’ve gained knowledge that I can use for my everyday activities.

It might be that later this year or next year that the 10″ or 11″ Netbook models will have everything I need to jump back into the Netbook scene again… but until then good luck to those enjoying their Dell Mini 9s!

When My Mini 9 Arrives, I Plan to…

In anticipation of my Dell Mini 9 arriving sometime next week, I’m making my plans to replace the WinXP OS with Windows 7. Here’s what I have so far:

1. Make sure the Mini 9 BIOS is the latest (A04). If it is not, download the update from the Dell support site and install it.
2. Install the 2 GB RAM module in the Mini 9.
3. Make a backup image of the original WinXP installation using Clonezilla.
   • Boot up the Mini 9 using a USB Flash Drive that is bootable with the Clonezilla software
   • Save the disk image file from Clonezilla to a 2nd USB Flash Drive (8 GB of free space)
4. Re-boot the Mini 9 using a 4 GB Fash Drive that has the Windows 7 Install files, and install the Win7 OS.
5. Install the Win7 Drivers as described in the DellMini Forum posting.
6. Apply all the tweaks I’ve been reading about to speed up the system performance.

I’m doing this because I want to test out Windows 7, since I’ve read that it runs pretty good on the Dell Mini 9. If I have too many issues with it, my plan is to install a nLite version of WinXP back on the system.

I’ve also got a 16 GB SDHC card ordered from Newegg.com and on the way, so that should give me more storage for applications and files.

Live Mesh and SkyDrive – More Cloud Computing Services

In my evaluation of the various “Cloud Computing” Services (where files and data are stored or shared on Internet file servers) I’ve come across several different viable options. In a previous posting, I mentioned the Zoho Online service (for online document management) as well as DropBox (syncing files between PCs and Internet file server). Although I’m testing both of these services currently, I did come across two offerings from Microsoft called Live Mesh and SkyDrive that appear promising.

Live Mesh is Microsoft’s answer to syncing files between different PCs and to the “Cloud” (Internet file servers), and thus competes with the DropBox service. The image below shows the Live Mesh “ring”, where you add different machines and devices for syncing of files. In this example, there are three computers in the “mesh ring”, (One Desktop PC and two Laptops), as well as “Live Desktop” which is the Cloud Computer (Internet file storage):

You can then specify on each machine in mesh ring, specific folders which you want the file contents to be synced with the other machines. What’s nice, is that you don’t need to sync your folders with the Live Desktop, as you can just sync between PCs you have in your mesh ring. Thus, you don’t need to sync sensitive files to the Cloud.

When you install Live Mesh, a small service utility runs in the background on your PC and a icon appears in the task bar. Folders can be made part of the live mesh by right-clicking on them and selecting “Add folder to live mesh…” from the popup context menu. That’s it! So on every machine that you want to add to the mesh ring, you simply visit the www.mesh.com web site, click the “Install Software” icon (big orange “plus” symbol), and install the Live Mesh software on your PC. Very easy to install and configure.

Sync Files Between Computers Using DropBox

In my last posting I mentioned a online service called Dropbox, which is a way to sync files between your different PCs and store them on a online server. I just installed their software and tested it for a bit, and I have to say I really like it. It’s very simple to setup and use, and the syncing process is automatic. You basically have one folder called “My Dropbox” that is setup on your PC system, and all files in that folder are uploaded and synced to Dropbox’s online server. Now, if you install the DropBox software on a 2nd computer system, you can sync all the files in your “My Dropbox” folder to it, and vice versa. The syncing is done automatically by a service running in background on your PCs via the Internet. Aside from syncing, your files are also stored (and thus backed up) online, so they are safe in case your hard drive crashes, house burns down, etc. In addition, you can access these files from any PC using a standard web browser connected to the Internet.

This auto-syncing feature is very similar to the online backup services offered by Carbonite and Mozy. The only difference, is that those services are strictly for backing up files, not syncing across multiple PCs.

So far as security, the Dropbox web site states the following:

“We take utmost care to ensure Dropbox is secure. All transport of file data and file metadata occurs over SSL. All files are encrypted with AES-256 before being stored on our backend.”

So from this, it appears that files stored on Dropbox’s online servers are encrypted.

The Dropbox service is free  for up to 2 GB, and if you need more space you can pay a monthly fee. For myself, I think I can get by with the 2 GB limit. What I plan to do, is carefully think what files I really need to share across my computer systems, and just sync those files. Of course, this may add a level of confusion for me, as I may forget what files I have synced and not, but I guess I can stretch my brain a bit for progress.

Cloning Your Disk Drive

If you read through the different Dell Mini forums, you undoubtedly have come across a few posts that talk about “Cloning” or “Imaging” a disk drive. So, what exactly is cloning and imaging, you might ask? And, why would you want to do such an operation?

Disk drive “cloning” (or “imaging”) is exactly what it sound like… you make an exact copy of the contents of a specified disk drive and save it to an image file. This is usually done if you want to mirror all the files on one system onto a different system. For example, let’s say you have 12 computers in a training room that are identical (same hardware, monitor, video card, etc) and you have the job of loading WinXP SP3 on each of them. One method, is to manually load WinXP on all 12 machines one-at-a-time. This would be very time consuming, and you’re bound to make a mistake here and there. Instead, you can load WinXP on ONE machine, clone the disk drive (which copies the entire contents to an image file), and then re-image the remaining 11 computers with that image file. When you’re done, all 12 computers will have the exact same operating system files as we as any applications you decided to load on the original computer before you imaged it. Make sense?

In our case, we don’t have 12 identical computers to re-image, but rather we want to clone the Mini system disk to save it to an image file. Why, you might ask? Because this image file can serve as a complete backup of our system and files. Since we have a pristine backup, we can then mess around with our Mini by installing a “slimmed” down version of WinXP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Ubuntu Linux, etc. and when we’re all done we can re-image back to our original WinXP system. So as you can see, having a cloned image file of our virgin system can be pretty handy.