There are a few tried and true ways to control multiple computers from one keyboard and mouse.  If you want to use only one monitor and one computer at a time there’s always a KVM, which is hardware that you run multiple computers into and hook up one Keyboard, Video display and Mouse (KVM).  The drawbacks with a KVM is that it’s another piece of hardware and it’s generally for using one computer and a time as you switch the monitor between them.

There are also software options. You can use something like Windows remote desktop or the OS X Screens app to control a second computer through a window on your primary computer.

But if you want to control multiple computers with their own displays using only one keyboard and mouse there are two good options, one free and one almost sort of free.

Synergy has been around for a while and is completely free open source software.  If you use it a lot a donation is always nice, but there aren’t any restrictions on its use.  It’s cross platform and can be used between Macs, PCs or Linux boxen.

Sharemouse is an alternative that I’ve just discovered and am using now.  It’s free for personal use between two computers and has one advantage over Synergy: Setup is a breeze.  I mean this is possibly the easiest to configure software I’ve ever used, it’s almost like magic.  You just install the software on both machines, run it and it will automatically detect the other machine.  Then you just roll your mouse curser off screen towards the other machines monitor and it’s set up and working.

There’s a nice flow to the way it works as well.  When you switch machines the seconday monitor dims and a big triangular arrow appears pointing in the direction of the primary monitor.  This makes it easy to immediately see what’s going on and eliminates problems of accidentaly drifting the mouse cursor onto the wrong machine.

The only drawback of Sharemouse is potentially to price.  $25 per machine for professional use is a lot higher that Synergies price of $0, but the ease of set up and use is remarkable.

Offsite backups can be trickier, especially if you have a lot of data. Most services have limits to the data and monthly fees can add up. After looking around and comparing a few different options I settled on Crashplan. There are a few things that I really like about their service. First of all the software is robust and free. You can use it locally, or even across a network with a friends machine for free without any service subscription. If you do opt to use the crash plan servers the cost structure is very competitive and they offer a discount for prepaying up to four years in advance which I really like. If I’m going to use a backup system I’m going to use it for more than a year. They also offer web access to your backed up files and you can create backup sets to prioritize your files and schedule the backups.

I’ve been using crash plan for about a year now. I’m writing about it today because they just added a new feature that changes it from a great backup service to an indispensable daily tool – Crashplan has just released a mobile app for iOS and android. I’ve just tested the iPhone and iPad version and am blown away by the quick access to all of my files. It may be because the tool has just been release and not many people are using it, but navigating my backup file structure is zippy- it’s like browsing a local directory. To view a file you click it once and it downloads the file, then click it again to view it.

I can see this app being a huge lifesaver. Huge kudos to the Crashplan team for their service and this fantastic new app!

Obviously I’m posting this via the Blogsy app.

The interface is decent, I could see it taking a bit of time to get used to. My favorite feature so far is the two sided editor. You swipe the main screen to flip between the HTML code side and the media formatting side.

My least favorite thing about it is that there appears to be no way to upload photos from the app. You can insert photos from your flickr or picasa account, but you’d have to plan ahead and have your images already uploaded, or leave the app to add new images from your iPad.

It does have an in app browser and google image search tool, which would be nice for finding stock images to add to posts.

I’ve added my flickr account and am adding a photo from that here to test image embedding:

You can also add a YouTube account link, but for whatever reason that does not appear to working right now. I get to the ‘approve access for this app’ screen, but granting access never seems to stick. It would be nice if there were other online services that you could add, as I prefer vimeo for hosting my video work.

For certain kinds of blogging I can see this app being very nice. If you’re syncing your photo library with flickr or picasa and want to use them in an online diary, this app will work well for you. For me it feels to limited without in-app photo uploading and no way to set the wordpress feature image for the post.

If you came from an all PC background and used an old windows smart phone you know this isn’t too complicated. You could use outlook and sync it with your phone.

But what if you’re a switcher, a turncoat, a technical wanderer? Apples iPhone is a great combination of hardware and software, but they left some pretty basic stuff out, one of which is a to-do list.

For the last year I’ve looked around for a solution to this lack, never really finding the right combination of iPhone and desktop software that would work together flawlessly.

The closest solution looked like it was Things by cultured code. Things is an elegant task management program that is very flexible and has an iPhone app that works with it. Problem solved right?

Well, not exactly. Things is Mac only and I’m platform agnostic. The iPhone app can only sync manually over wi-fi, and worse than that is the price. The desktop app is 60 bucks and the iPhone app is $10.

$70 bucks for a task list? Really? I guess Apple users are willing to pay more for everything.

So after all my searching and complaining and being cheap, what’s the point of all this?

The point is I found the dream solution I was looking for.

Wunderlist runs on Mac, PC & iPhone and they say an Android app will be released soon. Wunderlist does wireless cloud syncing and is the right combination of simple, powerful and pretty. And how much does this elegance cost?

Nothing.

Nada. Zip. Not a penny charged for the desktop or iPhone version. There isn’t even any advertising in the various app versions.

WTF? How can they do that? I have no idea, but after just a few days of using it I can highly recommend it.

The remarkable thing about WHS is how it manages to get the balance right between technical customization and ‘out-of-the-box’ usability.  For the average user there is very little setup or maintenance necessary, and most of it is of the simplest button clicking kind.  Windows Home Server boxes are a central place to keep files, allow for automatic backup and media streaming as well as remote access from external web browsers and mobile phones.

Part of the core elegance of Windows Home Server is Drive Extender, a technology that lets you plug in extra drives and have them automatically added to a single pool of storage, effectively turning them into one large drive.  As long as you have room left on one drive, you have room left in every shared folder available on your server.  On top of this you have the ability to set whether your content is duplicated across multiple drives or not, protecting you from drive failure.  This gives you the protection of RAID without the setup and maintenance complexity.

I was reminded of the importance of this system when my original Acer h340 Easystore Home Server hardware failed.  Because the drives are in a standard format I could simply plug them into another computer to retrieve the files.  By this point I’m addicted to all the additional functionality I get out of the Home Server system, so I’ve since replaced the server with an HP ex490 MediaSmart server, but it sure was a comfort to see all my data safe and sound before my new server was even ordered.

Microsoft is currently developing a 2nd version of the Windows Home Server system, but just announced that they will not be including this drive extender technology in that system.

Why?  It’s likely an economic decision.  I suspect Home Server never sold that tremendously for them and never had the profit margins that Business Server products have.  They’ve brought the two teams together and Home Server is obviously taking a back seat.  The official reasoning is that Drive Extender didn’t work properly under business demands, and they clearly see the next version of Home Server as a neutered business server if it’s ever completed.

It’s unfortunate.  This was a product that for the most part just worked, but it was also a product that people never really knew why they would want it.  A Home Server is a hard sell to non-technical people.

Is there a software package out there that can help you tag, sort and organize a collection of PDF files? Yep.

Ironic Software makes a few different tools for sorting, organizing and searching for information on OSX.  Yep is their PDF catalog tool, and is the only one of their products I’ve tried, but I can vouch for its usefulness and sensible design.  I’m using it with a Fujitsu ScanSnap to convert old paper to new digital files that are organized and searchable.

Unlike iTunes, iPhoto or Calibre, Yep doesn’t move files into its own structure.  Instead you sent directories you want it to monitor (I have one for scans) and as soon as new PDFs show up there they’ll be added to Yep.  You can also drag files into the program from other locations, and add tags to make finding stuff later easier.

I’m finding this to be a very useful program in my effort to move away from paper.  Combined with the ScanSnap I’m slowly converting old nostalgic paperwork into digital form and getting rid of mass.  Yep strikes the right balance between simple and powerful to do exactly what I need it to do.

During my dayjob I design and direct animation for tv series and commercials.  Like anyone else who works in graphics or design there are a surprising number of times when I’m called upon to match a font.  In this case the client isn’t sure what font they are using for their identity, but it’s important that it remains the same.  Now you could run through the list of fonts on your machine trying to find the right match, but that can be time consuming and not always successful.  So what’s a poor designer to do?

Enter What the Font, the brilliant online tool to compare and match fonts.  If you have an image of the font you need matched (tif, jpg or gif) you can upload it and quickly get possible matches displayed for you.  This works best if your source image is a greyscale tiff with a letter height of about 100 pixels, but even if your submission doesn’t match those parameters this utility is surprisingly effective.

And if the automated process doesn’t work they have a forum filled with helpful typography enthusiast that can help you identify the correct typeface.  Quick, free and easy to use.  What’s not to like?