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September 16, 2009

Sharing and syncing information with Live Mesh

Trying to transfer and share documents across computers can be really troublesome at times. Although USB sticks are convenient, they have their limitations especially if you plan to share files with a group of friends. Emails work to a certain extent but can get pretty disorganized. It is not uncommon to end up with files of different versions residing all over the place.

Well I found a way to solve all these problems. Microsoft recently launched an online service called Live Mesh. It offers 5 gigabyte of storage space online for free. The first impression is that it is simply an online storage space for your files but I soon discovered that Live Mesh is a really nifty service.

Let me share with you how to setup this service as well as some of the interesting and useful features of Live Mesh.

The first thing you need to do is to visit www.mesh.com and sign in to the service using your Windows Live ID account. You can then connect to the Live Desktop which is your online desktop. Next you need to create a new folder.

Once you have this folder, you can upload files to this folder and access this online storage anywhere as long as you are connected to the Internet. This feature is pretty common and you can find other similar services on the Internet.

Now the next setup step is what make this service really nice to use.

You can click on the Add Device button and install a small application (around 1.4 MB). What this application does is that it creates a folder on your device (my computer in this case) that sync directly with the online folder.

You can open this folder and the service will automatically sync it with the online desktop.

Similarly, you can add new files to this folder just like how you do it with a normal folder and the service will also make sure that the online folder is in sync with it! How cool is that? Now you can add files to your folder on your PC easily and access it elsewhere via a web browser.

The folder also has a special sidebar that notifies you of the recent changes on the folder. You can grant your friends access to the online folder and easily track what are the files that your friends have added. Definitely a great feature to use for group projects.

You may ask, "What happen if I need to access a file but it is not in the sync folder?". No worries, Live Mesh even integrates remote desktop access in the service. Simply select the device that you have added and connect to it.

You can now access the device remotely right on your web browser. No more complicated setup or software required to perform remote access. Everything can be done via the web browser.

That basically wrapped up the introduction on the Live Mesh service. I think this is a really great service. Even though it is currently on beta, it is pretty impressive. Furthermore, I believe most of the services can be accessed on most browsers (for my case, I am using Chrome). 

However for the remote device access, you can use this feature only if you are using Internet Explorer as it requires a ActiveX control. The remote access appears to be slight buggy. It seems to slow down the Netbook that I was connected to even after the connection has been disconnected. I am not sure if this is because the service is still in beta or perhaps the hardware of the Netbook is not adequate in supporting remote access.

In general, everything seems to work well though the user interface and syncing can be slow at times. 

Overall, Live Mesh is a pretty amazing service that simplifes sharing of information. I hope you find this service useful as well.

Filed under  //   live mesh   online apps   technology  

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June 13, 2009

Impression on bing

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Microsoft recently launched their new search engine named bing. I must say that this is the most decent attempt by Microsoft at search. Previous search attempts by Microsoft are totally confusing and unimaginative. I can't remember if it is suppose to be msn search, windows search, Microsoft search or Live search. 

Bing definitely sound much better. It is simple, catchy and easy to remember. So how does it fare?

For a start, I like bing homepage. The interface is simple and the photographs used on the page background are a great visual treat.I am basically checking out bing everyday just to see the picture of the day. It would be great it would be possible to have a higher res for a desktop wallpaper.

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So other than looking pretty, how does the bing search engine fare? It is hard to test the bing engine based on search results. I been using bing for a few week and so far the experience has been pleasant. There are definitely some important features that are lacking but there are also some interesting features. It is definitely much more decent than the over hype Cuil .

One of the nice features is the related search sidebar. Every time you do a search, a list of related searches appear on the left side bar and some of the suggested search are pretty interesting and relevant. 

For example, searching for technocrunch list a few related search like valleywag, mashable, crunchgear, etc which are pretty good suggestions.

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When you move to the right of the search results, a box open up with more details. I think this feature is pretty redundant. I mean if the description on the search results can't get you to click on the link, why would more words make any difference? Furthermore, it is also easier to just click to surf to the page rather than to hover and wait for the extra details to appear. 

The search results in general are pretty satisfactory though it the lack of certain features makes it limited. For example, my wife favorite online shop Mayuki does not get listed in bing while it is the first spot on Google search. This could because bing isn't that well indexed in terms of non English sites.

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Not found on bing

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but on Google, the first result link to this page where Evelyn buys most of her stuff,

Bing also lacks the ability to suggest the right search term when you get your search text wrong. Instead of suggesting a search term that you want, it simply shows you a page indicating no search results were found. This makes Google easier to search if you do not know the exact spelling of the search term. Nevertheless, this should not be a very tough feature to implement and I believe bing will have this feature subsequently.

It is worthy to mention bing image search feature as well. Apart from searching for images based on your search text, you can also filter it further to pictures that are photograph or illustration, black and white photos and photos that have only faces. Though google has similar features for the image search, bing definitely have a nicer layout and much easier to use.

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In conclusion, I find bing a really interesting entry into the area of search engines and it is a very good effort by Microsoft. Bing has the potential to be a great new platform for Microsoft to start afresh and experiment with new ideas and products. It is currently disappointing to see that Bing has actually link back to Live for other services instead of keeping the branding distinctive.

I personally hope they would have a new email service (@bing.com). I think it would help attract the younger generation who like to get a new email service with a nice name instead of ending up with long and hard to remember name with overuse email services like gmail or hotmail.

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Bing currently seems to be off on a good start in terms of traffic ranking on Alexa and I think Microsoft would be able to give bing a wide reach and awareness based on their marketing power and the numerous channels that they have such as Internet Explorer, MSN, Windows Mobile, etc.

 However it would be interesting to see how they are able to actually convert people into using bing as their default mode of search. Even if bing is a good search engine which return good search results, it would still be an uphill task to change people habits and perceptions. 

With that said, after having Google as the default search engine for other ten years, it is refreshing to see something new in the search space. It is definitely worthwhile to give bing a try. Even if all else fail, just the different fabulous photographs on bing makes it a refreshing visit everyday.

So what are your thoughts on bing? Do you like it?

Filed under  //   bing   search   technology  

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December 20, 2008

Silverlight exposure at the evil empire

Thanks to some great folks I get to know in my Facebook module (yes NUS actually has a cool Facebook development module in case you are wondering), I got a chance to attend a week of workshops at Microsoft office. It was a nice break from the boring internship and an opportunity to infiltrate the "evil empire" to see what badness they are up to...

Indeed they are up to no good. Through the workshop I got exposed to a harmful radiation known as Silverlight and got mutated and learn how to do cool things that look like this Hard Rock Cafe site. In fact with prolong exposure to Silverlight, knowing how to create this wickedly awesome video site could be a reality!

Our trainer Apurva is really amazing. Can really sense his dedication in sharing his love of technology with us. Not only did he guide us, he took the time to bring in other folks to share with us some really amazing stuff that they are doing. If you are willing to taste the poison from the evil empire, here are some of the cool evil stuffs that I like to share with you.

DreamSpark: For those who love open source software just because it is free, you will be glad to know that the evil empire has free software too! If you are still studying in any of tertiary institute, you can download all the cool development software at absolutely no cost at the DreamSpark site. You are not looking at some half fuck release that cripple after 30 days usage or some crappy lite version that does not do anything useful. Instead what you are getting is a complete version of the software.

BizSpark: If you are aspiring to build next multimillion dollar Internet startup like Youtube or Facebook and need some development software, BizSpark is your poision. Drink it and you get all licensed software you need to create your startup for free. Of course that is not applicable once you are already making more than 1 million US$ in revenue. But if you are making that money, don't tell me you can't afford to pay for the tools that brought you the fortune?

With all the infrastructure in place for you at no cost, the only thing left is whether you have a great idea and the courage to pursue it. Do also check out the following links to get an idea on what other wicked stuffs they are working on.

Azure
Live Services
DeepZoom
Silverlight
Imagine Cup
Interop

It had been a hell lot of fun for the past week. It was really great exploring all these new exciting technologies and talking to folks who are so passionate about the things that they do. If all this is consider evil, hell, I would love to be on the dark side.

Filed under  //   silverlight   technology  

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