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Three-in-one file protection

This three-in-one program offers file encryption and decryption, and even throws in a file shredder. All three features worked as promised.

Kemo Data Encryption's user interface is about as straightforward as it gets, with three large buttons that quickly take you to the primary features--Encrypt, Decypt, and Shredder. Between the tutorials and extensive guidance on offer, we never had to worry about getting off on the wrong foot. The program comes with three AES encryption levels, as well three shredding methods. Encrypting files was simply a matter of adding files and folders, entering a password, and an output path. … Read more

Recession makes cave-dwellers sell on eBay

Curt Sleeper is a man ahead of the curve. The curve that begins the downward spiral.

Understanding that humanity is regressing to its cave-dweller roots, he and his wife Deborah bought their own cave in Festus, Mo., back when most people were tossing their home equity down a cavernous hole.

The Sleepers even sold their DVD collection to buy the 17,000 square foot cave. I don't even want to think what their heating bills must be. However, I know they are now experiencing a deep chill.

The cave cost $160,000, of which the Sleepers put down half. … Read more

For frequent Google-oids

Google's all-in-one search application for Windows Mobile phones is a handy sliver of an application that brings Google search, Google mail, maps, and a flurry of Google's other online services to your fingertips. On Windows Mobile phones, Google Mobile App installs as a Home Screen plug-in, from which you'll be able to type a term into the search bar or scroll through icons to launch a Google service on your mobile browser, like Gmail, Picasa Web albums, and Google Docs.

If you don't choose to install the plug-in, or if your phone has a custom screen, … Read more

Enterprise 2.0's pricing model is open source 1.0

Schlumberger manager Julien le Nestour offers an innovative new pricing model to drive "enterprise 2.0" software like Twitter-for-the-enterprise: instead of offering volume discounts, start with a superlow up-front charge, and scale up fees as more users start using the software.

I have news for Le Nestour: enterprise IT already has this pricing model widely in use. It's called open source.

Reading Le Nestour's description of his proposed model sounds exactly like the pricing models used by Openbravo, Pentaho, Alfresco, Hyperic, and others:

Instead of charging less per user, as more accounts are purchased, vendors should … Read more

No user guidance, no problem

Despite the lack of user guidance, this video-file downloader is easy to set up and use. VDownloader's interface is on the plain side and no Help file is offered, but it shouldn't take most users long to get the hang of downloading videos from their favorite sites.

The interface contains four large icons: Download, Search, Browser, and Settings. By default, VDownloader is set to monitor the clipboard when it's running, so as soon as we copied the link to a video, the program responded and asked us for Save As information. It's a small thing, but … Read more

Addicted to mah-jongg

Beware, after playing just one game of Moraff's "MahJongg 2009," you'll find yourself eager to come back and play more. We just wish the trial period lasted longer.

The user interface is colorful, easy to navigate, and offers users a few extra features. Prominent menu buttons reside at the top of the window, and allow you to choose from different game designs, and apply game settings, such as the number of matches, and tile-set displays. There also are buttons to undo and redo moves. In terms of extras, you'll find a radio that plays soothing … Read more

The biggest online security risk: humans

Following up on a post about the top Web 2.0 security threats I thought I would take a quick look at what I mentioned as one of the biggest security threats to any company: information leakage.

All the delightful modern collaboration tools we use--blogs, wikis, SaaS applications, etc.--just make it easier for your corporate information to walk out the door. Regardless of the systems or applications your company uses, odds are any piece of data can (and will) be accessed, e-mailed, written down, or just remembered by a large percentage of your staff.

Information Leakage: Web 2.0 applications promote user-generated content and thus blur the line between work and private life. As a result, users may publish as part of their Web presence, information considered sensitive by their employer. Even if users are careful and do not leak information that is by itself sensitive, the aggregation of many small data items may be unacceptable.

Generally speaking, information leakage is nearly impossible to contain, regardless if data is Web 2.0 browser-based or not. Think back to the last time you used a public Web terminal at an event or hotel--I can't remember a time when I couldn't just hit the back button or history tab that at a bare minimum revealed the last users' e-mail address.

So what can you do to protect your business? The truth is that there are few non-draconian methods available to protect your data and ensure that people are using collaborative tools effectively. In this case, prevention is the best medicine. … Read more

The firewall vs. the cloud

I was a little surprised when the Twitter-for-the-Enterprise service Yammer won the TechCrunch50 Best of Show award in 2008. Not because Yammer is a bad app or because I think the idea of a business Twitter is silly (I think it makes a lot of sense, in fact), but because as an enterprise service, Yammer seemed tone deaf in one key area: it was released as a hosted service and didn't give business customers direct control of the records of conversations that their employees might be having.

The hosted model makes financial sense. It's much cheaper to contract … Read more