Project Management in the Cloud

Working on-the-go often means less then reliable Internet connections.  Because so much of project management and cloud computing relies on the Internet, tweaking your settings to deal with a slower connection speed then you may be used to will help you accomplish the same amount of tasks with less frustration.  While you can access some things offline and outside of the cloud, sometimes you just really need the Internet for things like email, which can’t always wait.

Web Worker Daily outlines How to deal with slow Internet connections when traveling, one of the best pieces of advice they offer is to split your workload up into light and heavy bandwidth tasks.  Lifehacker also has a great writeup on How to survive a slow Internet connection, mostly dealing with tweaks to Firefox so pages load faster.

Your other option is a bit more drastic, but if you need a faster Internet connection you can always scope out a coffee shop or other business that offers free Wi-Fi and consider working there for a period of time.

Tags: Internet
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By the very definition, an Operating System is,

an interface between hardware and user. An OS is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer. The operating system acts as a host for computing applications run on the machine.

So what if that operating system is only installed on the hardware and then used to reach out to the web and connect you with cloud based tools?  If you’ve been playing around with Google Chrome, Google says You’re already running Google OS. Even last year when Chrome was announced others caught on to the fact that Google launched an OS and called it a browser, perhaps as a way to not confuse customers yet.

The Google OS could mean that the now popular Netbooks can really become more feature-filled, relying less on Windows based software and operating systems, since the majority of the hardware churning apps is done on the cloud.

For project management, the Google OS is somewhat of a dream.  It means that less hardware can perform for longer before it’s considered obsolete and connect more team members with more features, functions and apps.

Tags: Google, Google OS, Operating Systems
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Without a doubt we’ve all felt the sinking feeling in our stomach when a hard drive crashes, a computer is corrupted or somehow your important files can’t be found on the computer.  It’s nerve-wrecking, usually leads to cold sweats and in the end, an explanation to someone as to where the data went.

Data loss is something that can’t be stopped, it can and will happen at some point to all of us.   We’ve outlined how to back data up, why using cloud computing has its advantages, and how to access the cloud offline, but none of that will help when the data is lost.

First, relax, chances are some of it can be retrieved.  The most important thing to do is realize exactly when it happened and then start the steps to recovery.  There is software to recover deleted files from your hard drive, if you aren’t comfortable doing it yourself, there is a huge list of data recovery companies that will for a fee.

Check external hard drives, USB thumb drives and even your sent email folder to see if you can salvage some of the data from correspondences with co-workers, or even yourself.  Lastly, look in your recycle bin or trash can, see if there is still data in there that somehow got accidentally deleted, more often then not you’ll find what you are looking for right there.

Tags: Data loss
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Spreadsheets are a necessary evil in the business world.  Their cells are used for complex math algorithms, charting, graphs and sometimes, as an easy way to show simple lists of things like inventory.  Moving your spreadsheets into the cloud removes the necessity to install software on each workstation and email the file back and forth to multiple team members, wondering who has the most recent version. Collaborating on spreadsheets in the cloud allows for (in some cases) real time edits that are viewable by all and a centralized location to keep data.

Wikipedia has a great list of Online Spreadsheet Software, most powered with AJAX technologies.  For a more in-depth comparison, check out Edit Grid who built one based on the six most popular options and displays it in one of their own spreadsheets.

Tags: Spreadsheet
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