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posted by Rob on Thursday, September 17, 2009
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Skype announced today that they are closing the Skype Extras program:
Despite the incredible breadth of Extras developed for Skype, simply not enough people were using them to justify our continued support of the Extras programme. Unfortunately, effective today, we will shut down the Skype Extras programme.
Cucku Backup has been a certified Skype Extra since version 1.21. This announcement means that 2.10 will be the last Skype certified version of Cucku.
Skype has said that they will continue to support their API and so existing Cucku users should not be concerned that their backups will be affected by this decision. Skype is discontinuing their distribution of Extras, not support for the underlying technology that allows Cucku to send files to a backup partner over Skype.
Cucku is one of many Extras available in Skype including games, screen sharing, translation, IM interoperability, call recording, fax and call center services. This community of Extras developers provide valuable complements to Skype, an ecosystem that is key to the long term success of a platform: the iPhone App Store, Facebook Applications, the Twitter API, etc.
Skype Extras have suffered from a lack of visibility in the Skype Client. Potential users need to dig through menus to discover the availability of Extras and then launch a second application (the Extras Manager) which provides very limited information to users trying to decide if they should install an Extra or not.
The poor update rate for Extras should have been seen as an opportunity to streamline the process for discovery and installation. Instead, the decision was taken to pull the plug. With Skype's recent transition back to a private company it's understandable that they need to focus the business. But this seems like the wrong focus. It's hard work to create a developer community but it doesn't take long to lose it. As a paying member of the program Cucku was notified by email the same morning that this news was made public. In their blog Skype say:
...we still believe there are opportunities for third-party developers to enhance the Skype experience. We'll keep you posted.
I wonder how many developers will put their faith in the platform a second time?
Updated: Michael Arrington at TechCrunch says "Wrong Way, Skype". Om Malik at GigaOm says "Skype's new owners should be aware of one small thing: They are paying $2 billion for a company that, despite having more than 400 million subscribers, doesn't know how to leverage that platform."
posted by Rob on Friday, September 11, 2009
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As autumn closes in on the northern hemisphere we can all recall the happy memories of summer breaks spent with family and friends. Many of those memories have been captured with digital photography making them easy to browse on a camera or PC. However, these prized digital images are also vulnerable.
Traditional photo printing is on the decline so the only copy you may have of your irreplaceable photos may be on the hard drive of your PC or worse, still on the camera's memory card. Now is the time to organise your photos to ensure that they are saved for you and future generations to enjoy.
First, make sure you copy your photos from your camera's memory card to your PC. To do this either: remove the memory card from the camera and plug it into the PC; or use the cable provided by the camera manufacturer to attach the camera to the PC (usually via a USB or firewire port). Then follow the operating system or camera software instructions to copy the photos to the photos folder on your PC.
Now that you have a copy of your photos safely stored on your PC, you need to make a local backup to a second hard disk drive, network drive or to removable media such as a thumb drive or DVDs. This will protect your photos against accidental deletion, virus corruption or the hard disk drive in your PC failing.
But what if your PC and external hard drive are stolen, accidentally damaged or destroyed by fire or flood? This is where remote backups come in. Using remote backup software you can store your photos off-site therefore protecting your precious memories from every eventuality.
Click here for your one stop shop solution to all your photo backup needs.
Labels: Local Backup, Photo Backup, Remote Backup, Social Backup
posted by Mark on Friday, September 04, 2009
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Choosing backup software can be a daunting experience with so many packages and features on the market. Here are some tips to guide you through the decision process.
1. Local Backup - Choose a backup package that offers complete protection from: hard disk drive failure; accidental deletion of files; and virus or other corruption. Your data must be backed up to a second physical hard disk drive. This could be an internal drive, an external drive or a network location (on another computer or a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device). A local backup allows you to retrieve your data quickly even on a new PC.
2. Remote Backup - Choose a backup package that offers complete protection from: fire, theft, virus or other corruption. This essentially means storing a copy of your vital data offsite. You can do this manually by copying the files onto a set of DVDs each day or week and physically storing that data offsite or in a fire safe. Alternatively you can let the backup software automate the process of sending the data to an offsite location for safe keeping. You can purchase separate local backup and remote backup solutions but it is better to get a completely integrated package that does both. Consider also, sending your backup to multiple offsite locations to improve resilience to failure or perhaps you could host the backup for a number of your friends.
3. Backup Seeding - Remote, offsite backup solutions use your broadband internet connection to transmit files to the remote location. The speed at which your PC can send data to the internet is typically 1/5th the speed at which you can receive, so with a 5MB broadband package you will probably be restricted to just 1MB upstream bandwidth or less. This means that the time taken to send your initial backup offsite may be several weeks or months during which time you are not fully protected. To overcome this, you can use a backup solution that allows you to send a copy of your local backup on DVDs or an external hard drive or thumb drive to the remote site to "seed" the backup. From that point onwards, only changed or new files should be sent over the internet.
4. Security - The most common encryption in use is the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES, otherwise known as Rijndael) with a 256 bit key. Other encryption technologies include RSA, Blowfish, Twofish and Elliptic Curve Technology (ECT). The important point is that your data is fully encrypted (including filenames) before it leaves your machine so if the remote site is hacked then your data is not vulnerable.
5. Easy to use but fully featured - For the less technically savvy user, the backup software should be easy to install and use and the default settings should provide sufficient backup protection for most users. However, options should also be available to fine tune the backup: specifying other files and folders to back up; disabling backup of selective files or subfolders; defining where your backups reside; deleting files from your backup and managing your own encryption keys.
6. Scheduling capability - Options should allow you to backup daily, weekly or at specific times. An option to stop the backup occurring while you are using the machine is also useful. For remote backups, the remote backup may take a considerable amount of time so backup should be continuous with an option to pause the remote backup while you are using your machine.
7. Support for different storage devices - Different drive types include DVD, thumb drives, internal and external hard disk drives, NAS drives and network drives. Ensure the backup software supports backing up from and to the drive types you need.
8. Locked files - When you have a file open in an application (e.g. email) other applications cannot normally access that file. Makes sure that your software solution implements locked file backup - normally using the Microsoft Volume Shadow Service.
9. Storing and sending differences - When a file changes (e.g. a letter you are writing), the changes are usually much smaller than the whole file. It is important that the backup software only stores the differences (also known as deltas) rather than a full copy of the file again. The backup software should store multiple versions of the file so that you can restore any previous version of the file. Differencing helps reduce the hard disk space usage and the time taken to transmit files over the internet.
10. Restore is the other half of Backup - Make sure that you test the restore process before you buy. A great backup is nothing without a restore process that is easy to use, fast and reliable. Consider how quickly you can get your remote backup delivered to you. Do you have to wait for weeks to retrieve your data over the internet or can the entire backup be sent to you on DVDs, hard drive or thumb drive? Will the restore allow you to selectively restore files; restore files as they existed on a particular date; restore files of a particular version? Many people only consider the restore process when they have a catastrophic failure. It is best to familiarise yourself with the restore process when you are not under pressure to do so.
See how Cucku Backup measures up.
Download integrated local and remote backup for free from http://www.cucku.com/download.aspx
Labels: Local Backup, Online Backup, Remote Backup
posted by Mark on Wednesday, September 02, 2009
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