Cloud computing 101: A starter's tool kit

It was back in 2007 when I played with a Web application called bubbl.us. This app is an online mind mapping program which allows you to share your work. Really a cool concept, I thought, until I kept searching the hard drive for evidence of my mind mapping. Wasn't there, and I practically tore that drive apart looking for it. Then I realized -- my work was being stored online.

That was my first foray into what is now called "the cloud."

Like it or not, cloud computing is the buzzword for those who live and die at the keyboard and monitor these days. Whole computers and operating systems are built with the cloud in mind, and some of the old-style methods of running a computer may soon become a memory.

Cloud computing goes beyond backing up your work. Now, you can store your business documents online, your music and pictures, and banking information. I'm talking about using some nebulous online space as your actual drive. Working with your head in the cloud, as it were.

Here's the beauty of cloud computing: You can conceivably get by without a hard drive at all. Shoot, all you really need for cloud computing is an operating system, Web connection and browser, and perhaps a USB thumb drive for local storage. If you want to do it like a real geek, put your operating system and Web browser on the thumb drive and boot off that. Hard drive? What's a hard drive?

It also doesn't matter which computer you're using, as long as the three main things -- operating system, connection, and browser -- are there. Nobody would know or care whether you're using Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD, DOS 5, UNIX, or Plan 9 as your operating system; they all look the same in the cloud. 

I'm not completely sold on cloud computing myself, but I find the whole thing intriguing and have been playing with it a lot lately.

I'm using this mostly to back up my work files, but there's a lot more to Dropbox than that. Your computer will recognize Dropbox as, not a separate drive, but an actual folder. Save your stuff there, go to another computer, and access it from there. The Dropbox folder lives on your hard drive and syncs itself with the online storage, so you can work offline too. Doesn't matter where you are, you can go to work from any computer. To truly maximize Dropbox you'll need to install it on your computer, but you get the idea.

For the free version you get two gigabytes of storage space, but you can upgrade it for a price or get some extra space by referring other people to Dropbox. What's really interesting is that you can save a document as private or share it, either via the Public subdirectory or by creating a link to the file and sending that.

Of the Dropbox alternatives, the best is probably SugarSync. It's also free, and you get more storage (five gigabytes) for that great price. I don't use it much, though, because there is no SugarSync interface that works in Linux. I understand that's coming, though it's been promised for a couple of years.

What with the Dropbox infrastructure, it's up to you how you use it. And I've heard some real good suggestions:

• Store your ebooks online so you can read them from anywhere.
• Store your music online, same reason.
• Keep applications in your Dropbox. I haven't played with that yet, but I did copy my favorite text editor (gVim for Windows) onto the virtual drive. Your computer should be able to read your Dropbox like a folder, enabling you to run your programs from there.

This is one of those services I'd recently discovered and wonder how I ever functioned without it. I'm a huge notetaker, and the whole idea of going paperless while jotting down my mindless meanderings really catches my fancy.

I have a free (what else?) account with Evernote, but if I ever find myself maxing out that usage I'd gladly pay for extra storage. I like it that much.

I can type out a fast note on my cell phone and email it into Evernote. Take a picture with my camera phone and upload that. Save Web links and clips for access later. Organize my thoughts. Access my notes via any computer or phone-based Web browser. Even send a voice message.

Although I'm a real pen-and-paper type when taking notes, I still find a lot of use for Evernote. I'll jot something down on my household white board or even an index card, take a picture of it with my phone, upload it into Evernote, and erase the white board. I can't edit the notes once they're uploaded because they're in .jpg format, so I lose some flexibility there.

Development for an offline Evernote application for Linux was a little slow, but I found one in a program called Nevernote. It's pretty good, but more bloated than I like. Nevernote is QT-based, so it's gonna be kludgy. Synchronization is pretty good most of the time, but sometimes you've gotta work it.

Evernote is sometimes a little buggy when saving Web clips -- it doesn't always buy them -- but if that process geeks out I can always lighten things up by just saving a link. Or even copy/paste a document right into Evernote, that will also work.

I did find an alternative to Evernote, called SpringPad. It's a little more automatic, but doesn't handle pictures nearly as well. It's also nearly impossible to access from my phone Web browser. SpringPad is ad-supported (like the free version of Evernote), and it seems it will suggest links that tie in with the note you're saving. I'm sorry, but that leaves me a little cold. It still creeps me out to see Gmail ads that are so closely associated to the subject matter of an email, and it's the same thing with SpringPad. I think the only reason I tolerate this with Gmail is that it's a superior email service; SpringPad falls short on that count. Still, there's a lot to like about SpringPad.

Say what you like about Google (are they really into world domination?) but this is one product that I am using more and more.

With my freelance writing Google Docs may well become the infrastructure that allows me to work remotely with clients. I've used Docs to share documents with my customers, allowing them to read, comment, or make changes. It's as good as working on site -- better, in fact, because I don't have to travel to a work site. I don't mind doing remote work all day long, but if I have to put in face time I'd have to set different rates and really gut the client.

I've also used Google Docs to share song lyrics and chords with my band, as I can choose anyone to view and/or edit what I upload. When sharing a song, I'll upload the .mp3 into Dropbox, put it in my public folder, get the link, and paste that into the Google doc. When you click the link, a media player pops up and plays the song. Very cool.

Google is also playing with online storage, and recently released a price list for space. For $4,096 a year, you can get 16 terabytes, a truly enormous piece of real estate but you can get smaller storage spaces for less. If your needs are modest, try $5 a year for 20 gigabytes.

Call me old school. While most folks half my age seem to have no problem with keeping their financial records online, I do get nervous about that. Online security isn't as lock-tight as people want to think, and even if it is I still need to be convinced. I do some banking online, though.

That said, I've played with Mint a little bit. It's OK, but I find it a little too buggy for my taste. You really need a fast, sure Internet connection for this puppy to work. On a poky connection you may have trouble hand-entering transactions -- for example, those cash-based ones that are not linked to a financial institution.

Other than that, though, Mint is OK. It is free and ad-supported, so ignore all the crap and so-called financial advice you always seem to get with it. It works smoothly with my bank accounts, scans for transactions fairly regularly, and has some good budget tools. One drawback is that Mint doesn't always play so well with anything pitched around Fidelity (such as my 401k), so it often loses contact.

A caveat if you're working with Mint (or any other online banking), though: Don't do this on a public wifi connection at your local Mickey D's or Starbucks. You're on the same network with all the other users, and a savvy code kiddy may be able to find his way into your cookie jar without you knowing it. But you already knew that.

I mentioned totally bypassing the hard drive and going straight to the cloud. Here's how I do it:

• Install a small Linux distribution to your thumb drive. Some of the better options include Puppy Linux (at about 100 megabytes and blurry fast, this is my favorite) or TinyCore Linux. Use Unetbootin to install it to the thumb drive. You can get by with a 1-gigabyte thumb drive and have all sorts of extra room with either of these. TinyCore, weighing in at 20 megabytes, needs the fixins for wireless Internet and a Web browser to work. Use Unetbootin to install the system to the blank thumb drive, following the prompts. It's pretty self-explanatory.
• Plug the thumb drive into the computer and boot it up. If you did this right, you will soon see a boot loader. Select the default Linux version and run it. If your computer is relatively new, it should automatically launch the boot loader; otherwise you will need to play with your BIOS settings.
• Start the wireless connection if it's not automatically set yet, then open your Web browser.

Got it? Good ...

What cloud apps/services do you like to use? Or does the whole idea of storing your documents online frighten you? What other cool cloud tricks do you have up your sleeve? Leave a comment ...