directory

Recently a friend of mine asked me about good programs to find duplicate files. She had important files on two different drives and knew she had a significant amount of duplication, but didn't want to lose newer files in either location. Moreover, she wanted to transfer all of her files to a new computer she had just bought.

I knew of one program that worked for me in the past, but did a little research to find several programs that quickly scan drives and let you compare files to know which ones you can delete. Not only do these applications offer a solution to my friend's problem above, you can also free up a significant amount of hard drive space by getting rid of duplicates.… Read more

The Samba team has released an early look at a new version 4.0 of the open-source file-sharing software that's geared to mesh more tightly with Windows networks.

Samba reproduces Windows protocols used by file and print servers, letting Linux or Unix operating systems handle some tasks a Windows server ordinarily would. The most notable feature of the Samba 4.0 alpha release is support for Windows Active Directory logon technology used since Windows 2000, project leaders said last week.

The feature has been under development for years. The Samba group released a version of Samba with the Active Directory support … Read more

Amnesty Hypercube is a small application for Windows XP, Vista, and Mac OS X that will help you pull bits of Web content to use as widgets. These widgets can be brought up or dismissed ad hoc, or added to your desktop as a permanent fixture. Besides its cool name (second only to flux capacitor), the service is not so different from many existing widget platforms, like Yahoo Widgets, OS X's Dashboard, or the Windows Vista sidebar. Yet the company is taking a slightly different approach, one a little closer to Yourminis, which uses Adobe Integrated Runtime to run widgets on your desktop.… Read more

How do you deal with all the clutter on the Internet? A new Web site that launched on Thursday purports to help you separate the wheat from the chaff with a directory of popular sites for various search categories, but there doesn't seem to be much to it.

The site, which sports the cutesy name of Cludr, features a Google search box and a list of 18 categories including "dating," "health," "investments," "music," "news," "shopping," "search" and "Yellow Pages." Behind the links are … Read more

Tellme Networks, which Microsoft is acquiring, today is scheduled to launch a free service that allows people to get directory listings on their phone by voice or text message. The service is designed to enable Tellme users to call 1-800-555-TELL (8355) and say "business search" to get a business listing or to search for a category like "cafes."

People can also send a text message to TELLM (83556) with a request such as "Starbucks San Francisco" and get a text message back with listings and map links. Tellme also offers a software download for … Read more

When I read about "hyperlocal" blog directory Placeblogger on BoingBoing, I immediately thought of "ZipUSA," the feature in National Geographic magazine that presents a slice-of-life mini photo essay of the goings-on in a given U.S. zip code. I envisioned Placeblogger as a sort of ZipUSA directory, the kind of site where I could click around and get immersed in small-town gossip from a West Virginia blogger, urban-planning politics from Austin, or cross-cultural reflections from an expat in Singapore. Basically, I was looking forward to adding it to my extensive list of recommended procrastination tools.

But … Read more