Microsoft’s Foldershare put to good use

I always sign up for the online storage applications…..but never put anything important there, which means I rarely use them. Perhaps one of these vendors (box.net, google, microsoft, etc, etc) will address the privacy concerns (or am I the only one worried that someone will get my important data stored on these services) one of these days. Maybe some good ole’ fashion hack contests!!

In the mean time Aaron Marten found a good use for the Foldershare application….for all you powershell users this is a neat trick! Simply share the folder containing your windows powershell profile amongst the machines you plan to use it on…. Relatively simple, yet a great idea!

The question for me though is what do I do with the non-net connected machines? Those in secured environments, labs, or networks that block access to foldershare. I need offline access! No I don’t mean Microsoft gears….I mean a sync between the USB apps and an online app.

It could work quite simply with a little scripting….

1. While on the net, my USB drive gets sync’d with the shared content in the online file share (e.g. foldershare)
2. When I walk away from the machine I take my USB drive
3. when I use a machine and don’t plug in my USB drive, foldershare can contact the internet for any updated data
4. when I use a machine that can’t get to foldershare and I plug in my USB, foldershare can scan the USB bus for a foldershare GUID on any of the drives and grab updates from there
5. when I don’t have either a net connection or a USB, foldershare lets me choose between a prompt for these items or no prompt at all
6. when a virus infects my folders on foldershare and gets to my USB and I bring it into the secured environment….well crap! I guess that’s why we need to see some freakin proof of security on these things!

Organizations need to be able to control how they interact with the desktop & server environments to ensure data leaks, virus outbreaks, and user mistakes aren’t an issue.

I’m not saying these aren’t great tools, after all Aaron’s example is clever and I am going to give it a shot my self. The problem for me though is that I hope my IT department is smart enough to block it on their network to prevent uncontrollable incoming/outgoing data flow.

Push email for Hotmail!

I just came across Mayurk’s post detailing a way to push hotmail email messages to a windows mobile 6 device…I am not sure what they are doing here to accomplish this…I’ve heard Windows Mobile 6 is not OMA compliant so is this an almost OMA-DS (SyncML) implementation or is it something a little more proprietary then that?

Either way it’s good news and really begins to move both Windows Live Mail (hotmail) and the Windows Mobile 6 platform into the mainstream…Hopefully it works better than WM5…

Gmail Mobile is Sexy

But it doesn’t work with T-MOBILE USA!!! It kind of reminds me of something Microsoft would do…. Brag about a new feature, get lots of coverage, tout the wonders, and then make it work for everyone. Now don’t get me wrong…My Google Mobile Maps application is cool even if the traffic is not updated properly. My Google Mobile Chat is cool (it follows me EVERYWHERE I go). I would love to have Google Mobile Gmail too….It’s a great way to control the synchronization from Google’s standpoint.

Of course if they would ditch the Microsoft like control and open up gmail to LEMONADE or OMA-DS things would be much better and easier to get device support on….then Google could work on porting Google Mobile maps to the Windows Mobile platform.

Seattle Mind Camp

Only a few tickets left for Seattle’s Mind Camp 3.0!! Better hurry if your planning on attending. Andru has assured me the audience will be top notch thinkers in the Seattle area along with those that wanted to know what a top notch thinker really was. I’m sure I fit somewhere between the two so am excited to attend this year. Everyone has great things to say about Mind Camps of the past…Blogging is welcome!!

Also if you are interested in sponsoring, there are some great opportunities for large and small organizations alike to sponsor the event.

Shoot me an email or post a comment if you want to discuss messaging and communities (wikis, portals, email, mobility, etc) at MindCamp 3.0. I am hoping to provide some more venues to discuss messaging, wikis, and collaboration in the seattle area. November 17 is the next Exchange User group (if you are interested in attending that let me know), I will of course do everything I can to use the Exchange user groups to discuss messaging at large (not just MS) so let me know what you want :-).

WiFi Live Center Beta 3 – details

alright…. finally checking this out….

I had to set up my donations to this important fund…..

It is ok, not a lot of new features, and as I thought the new “Live Look” is lame, I am getting sick of the live look and feel. I think it is a great marketing effort and certainly is valuable for people to understand what kind of application they are in and what they should expect from that application. The flip side of that thinking is that it is tiring and old and not customizable…which, well, ugh another blue border?

Driving directions are still coming soon :(

“Print this”, just sends to the default printer…….I want to choose which printer

The pop-out details screen is not movable…it pops out and stays in that same place on the screen (annoying)

I still think this is a great technology though!! very usefull! I was talking to someone just last week who was in need of a wifi connection, there was not one available where we were and they were ranting about not having a way to find one…. this is a great way to solve that problem (no internet connection is needed to get the information).