Last night I finally installed Dropbox at the urging of my friends. It really is amazing!

You sign up for free and download an application that installs a folder on each computer. When you want to transfer a file to a different computer, simply put it into the Dropbox folder and it appears in the corresponding folder on the other computer almost instantly.

Other features that I really like are

• A public folder that is accessible to anyone – just give them a link to the file they want and they can download it.
• Private shared folders – this creates a matching folder in another user’s Dropbox folder and anything you put into it will sync to their computer as well. We’ve already used this for transferring files among the people I work with. The possibilities with this one are endless.

This is everything that MobileMe’s file syncing should be, but isn’t. Try it.

Disclaimer: If you sign up to Dropbox using the links here, we’ll both get a little extra free space in my account.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has written an open letter explaining why Apple does not allow Flash to run on the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

I like it because it’s not only well thought out, but he taken all of his random verbal explanations from the last few years and put them all in one place. It’s definitely worth reading.

Apple’s iTunes LP 6 Months Later: LP What?

I have to admit that I never saw the attraction. I think I looked at the sampler once – just once.

According to this article on AppleInsider, Apple is not stopping with electronic books, and is attempting to attack Amazon’s mp3 download business as well.

Sources say that iTunes representatives have been urging labels to rethink their participation in the Amazon promotion and that they have backed up those warnings by withdrawing marketing support for certain releases featured as Daily Deals

I hope Amazon fights back, and hard. I’ve grown to love their mp3 downloads, and now buy far more from there than iTunes. They tend to have more variety, generally better prices and I don’t have to pay sales tax.

As an example, today’s daily deal – Hospice by The Antlers – is $2.99 on Amazon and $9.99 (plus tax) on iTunes. Moving away from the daily deal because it really is a special price just for today, one of my favorite albums – The Midnight Organ Fight by Frightened Rabbit – is currently $5.00 on Amazon and $9.99 (plus tax) on iTunes.

My biggest worry about something like this happening is that it will drive up prices for consumers. We’ve already seen indications of that happening with electronic books and I would hate to see it happen with music as well. So much of the music today is already overpriced nonsense – raising prices will only make it harder for people to find the really good stuff.

For some bizarre reason our friends at Apple have never included an easy method of viewing hidden files and folders in OS X.

Sure, you can do a google search and get the exact code to enter into the Terminal, but there’s a reason I use a Mac and not some obscure variant of Unix.

Today I stumbled across a great little utility for turning the hidden file view on and off. Where? Surprisingly, on the Apple site.

showHiddenFiles does exactly what Apple should have included in the first place. The only thing that could make it better would be if it was a checkbox in Finder.app, but I guess it’s too much to hope for for Apple to include it in the upcoming 10.6.3 release.

I just put it into my Applications > Utilities folder hoping that I’ll remember it’s there next time I need it.

I’ve been thinking about eBook Readers for a long time now.

I almost bought a Kindle. Several times. Then I almost bought a Nook. Then I almost bought a Kindle. Again.

The thing that kept stopping me was that I wanted something that could do more. I like to travel, but I don’t like to carry a lot of stuff – my devices need to multitask. I needed to at least be able to email with the same device I read on.

I carried my 17″ laptop with me everywhere, but you really start to notice the weight after a few hours of lugging it around an airport. Then I started carrying a netbook instead. It’s a lot lighter and therefore, easier to travel with. I could do watch movies on the plane and do email at my destination, but I couldn’t read documents because of the screen size. It was just frustrating.

I think Apple’s new iPad could be an answer to my problems. I don’t know how long I would be able to read books on it for, but I’m guessing longer than my current solution. The screen is the same size as my netbook, but you can turn it to portrait mode. Plus, I can watch movies and do email.

It’s a great start. I’m still undecided, but I like what I see. Watch this space.

Introducing a theme reminiscent of the old school style of blogging, otherwise known as writing in a journal – Simple Notepad.

Simple Notepad is a theme for the WordPress platform. It was intentionally designed without a lot of visible frills in the background with the goal of keeping the reader’s attention focused on the content.

• Compatible with WordPress 2.7 and above
• Gravatars
• Tags
• Threaded comments
• Widgets
• Suitable for multiple authors. It also features an about page for each one, based on the information entered in the WordPress user settings.
• SEO optimized
• Two columns
• Note paper

Version 1.0.1 – 22 July 2009

• Corrected formatting error when readers are leaving comments

Version 1.0 – 17 July 2009

• Initial public release

Recently, somebody suggested I take a look at CSSEdit by MacRabbit. As a regular user of MacRabbit’s Espresso, I had no qualms with downloading the trial version to take a look. The rest, as they say, is history.

I played with the application for less than 5 minutes before deciding to purchase a license. Why? The preview screen works in real time to show me the effect a change has made as soon as I press a key.

Changing a color? It changes as soon as I press the delete key to remove the first character of the hex code. Adjusting a column’s width? It changes as soon as I enter the number of pixels.

That’s it. There are more features that I haven’t even looked at yet, but the instant preview alone was enough to convince me. No more saving the document and refreshing the browser. Not only that, but the changes are all made in a second version of the document meaning that the original stylesheet isn’t touched until I decide to do so.

If you’re a regular stylesheet editor, do yourself a favor and have a look at CSSEdit. You won’t regret it.

There has been widespread concern around the internet world following Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems earlier this week. It’s no surprise really, when you consider most of the internet runs on the open source MySQL database that will soon find itself in Oracle’s world-class (and costly) database lineup.

I’ve given it some thought, and I don’t think there is anything to worry about. Here’s why.

• Over the last few years, Oracle has invested a lot of time and money in adding to their open source credentials. To damage MySQL in any way would also damage the reputation they have worked so hard to foster within the Open Source community.
• The key word among Oracle and their competitors is marketshare. When was the last time you saw an advertisement for Oracle that wasn’t related to the number of customers they have in a given market? By acquiring MySQL, Oracle effectively becomes the dominant player in the online market – a market they had virtually no presence in last week.
• Oracle can now start pursuing MySQL users in an effort to convince them to upgrade to one of the revenue generating products in their database lineup. In fact, they already have. Here’s an excerpt from an email I received from Oracle last night advertising a seminar comparing Oracle to MySQL.
  

  Learn why choosing an Oracle technology platform lowers the total cost of ownership for your company during this live, interactive one hour program. Tony Tarone, the Director of Operations at Cedar Document Technologies, will discuss how he gained a reliable, scalable, secure, and cost effective platform by moving from MySQL to Oracle.

I believe MySQL will be safe under the Oracle umbrella. It may or may not get a new name, but that will be the extent of it. The potential losses in terms of reputation, marketshare and upgrade revenue is far too important for Oracle to start messing with something so loved by millions and millions of users.

It seems like there are plugins to do almost everything except make coffee for the WordPress user these days.

Like people, some are right out in the front, visible to all of your visitors every time they log in; while others run quietly and unobtrusively in the background just making things happen and not expecting any thanks.

It’s the latter variety that I’d like to highlight here. These are 5 of my favorite plugins that do just that – help the blog run smoothly without anyone even realizing they are there.

• Akismet is the undisputed king of spam detection for WordPress. A bonus is that it is included in the default WordPress installation, so all you need to do is register and activate it.
  Download it here.
• All in One SEO Pack does a lot of the Search Engine Optimization work for you. All you need to do is fill out a few fields when you first activate the plugin, and then carry on blogging as normal.
  Download it here.
• Contact Form 7 gives your readers a simple contact form to complete when they want to contact you. There are a lot of contact plugins out there, but I think this one is one of the easiest to configure and use.
  Download it here.
• Google Analytics for WordPress gives you the easiest possible way to set up Google Analytics to track your blog statistics.
  Download it here.
• XML Sitemap Generator generates a sitemap in the accepted standard of Google, Ask.com, Yahoo! and MSN Search.
  Download it here.