I have spent a number of years following backup services and discovering new ones. Some are good, some are bad, but one that slipped under my radar was a service called SpiderOak. I was contacted by Ethan Oberman, co-founder, for this relatively new service and I was, of course, ready to experience a new backup service with open arms.

As our digital media grow, it is imperative that we all find ways to keep it forever. I was once a strong believer that I could never be a victim of hundreds of important files lost. I saw more clearly my mistake when I lost some of my most valuable pictures, videos, and music years ago. To keep that from ever happening again, I backup to several places so in the event that anything fails, I have a backup somewhere else. SpiderOak has made the list of saving my most important files, and doing it well.

For For $10 a month, you can store up to 100GB; this can be further increased with another $10 per 100GB increment not just for one computer, not two, but all your computers! If you are like me, then you’ll take it and run with it. One thing that $10/month will get you is advanced security. SpiderOak has one of the most advanced security systems that I have used in a backup service. Many people have their security concerns, so the SpiderOak team takes great pride in protecting their customers. In fact, because of its strong encryption, the program is currently available only in the United States. MacNN, a favorite site of mine, mention: “While it’s unlikely that employees will browse through your files, the possibility is always there, which means you lack true privacy. That’s why the site uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), a US government algorithm, for encrypting your data on its servers. In theory this not only halts local access, but means that if the password is lost or forgotten, even you will never be able to retrieve your files ever again.”

I would probably suggest you always remember your password . Also unique to SpiderOak is a feature I absolutely love. Versioning is a wonderful feature that all backup services should use in my opinion. Imagine you save a document, and you decided to change some things within the document and resave it. Most services would replace the backup copy with the new one, however, SpiderOak not only keeps that version, but any previous changes you have made or will make. Brilliant.

SpiderOak also takes great pride in giving users the ability to share their files. You can designate specific files to share, assign a password to them, and then anyone with the right password can access your files over the Internet. Simple as that! With such a simple program, anyone can use it and not only am I talking about any person being able to use this program but any operating system can use it as well. This cross-platform program can have you backing up on your Mac laptop, Windows PC, or your Linux computer.

I am not particularly fond of the look and feel of SpiderOak, but in my conversations with Oberman, he made it easily understandable when he said, “this has been as issue that we have discussed at length internally. However, given that one of our top priorities from the beginning was to be completely cross platform, we wanted to provide a consistent look and feel within the application regardless of platform. Therefore, if you are on a Mac, a Windows machine, or working in Linux, the SpiderOak application will look and feel the exact same.”

That is when the saying, Never judge a book by its cover comes to mind. Despite its unpleasing facade lies a great functional program that not only backs up your files (as it is suppose to do) but also does so with security that even you cannot access without the password. SpiderOak is also joining the “Cloud.” “The company allows users to create a ‘SuperCloud’ that protects them against data loss, makes all stored information available by browser on a 24×7 basis, offers password-protected ‘ShareRooms’ for easy family/friend/colleague access, and provides a variety of technical advantages for efficient and cost-effective data management.” 

If you answered yes, then I suggest you read on. Remember when I wrote about SpeedDate.com? SpeedDate is a dating site where dates are short, sweet, and one-on-one. SpeedDate.com will match you up based on some basic personality and geographical preferences.

The service is hosting what they call the “Olympic Speed Dating Competition.” What exactly daoes that entail? Do you have the looks, the charm, and all the right moves, but just not competition-ready when it comes to speed, strength, and endurance? If So, SpeedDate.com has the Olympic event for you.

Starting Tuesday, SpeedDate.com is hosting an Olympic-themed online dating competition to determine the world’s best online daters. This event will run all the way through Sunday August 24. SpeedDate will then announce the winners by offering gold, silver, and bronze metals to the men and woman who match with the most other singles.

“SpeedDate.com has millions of eligible and attractive single who’ve got the potential to be the world’s best online dater,” said Dan Abelon, co-founder of SpeedDate.com. To get in the Olympic spirit, SpeedDate will ask questions such as: If you go on a date with any athlete, who would it be? Which sport has the sexiest athletes? Which two athletes would make the best couple? Which Olympic event would you most like to compete in?

If anything, you should check out the site and look around. The site is neat, fresh, and offers you the luxury of dating from home. Brush your teeth, comb your hair, wax those eyebrows, and work on your charming, charismatic conversation in preparation for the Olympic Speed Dating Competition. It is sure-to-be an exciting event! 

Text messaging is huge! Almost everyone with a cell phone is texting more often these days. Why? I guess it’s the cool thing to do. Not to mention, it is sweet, short, and simple. So many companies and services are taking advantage of text messaging and I could spend a couple of days going through each one, but I’m not going to bore you. Just the other day, I text-messaged my order to Papa Johns and my pizza was here in no time!

One technology that I find rather neat is fighting crime with text messaging. Just like callers to a crime hot line, text tipsters can collect rewards for significant information. It is done with the cooperation of banks that hand over the cash — no questions asked — to people who present a code issued by police.

Most of us can agree that it is sometimes easier and less time-consuming to text rather than call, especially if you don’t feel like talking, so Police hope the idea helps recruit teens and 20-somethings who would not normally dial a Crime Stoppers hot line to share information with authorities. For instance, if your son/daughter overhears someone threatening to blow up their teacher’s car with explosives, then they can text that in. I hope they would!

“It’s obvious that the future of communication is texting,” said Officer Michael Charbonnier, commander of the Boston Police Department’s Crime Stoppers unit. I would agree with him. Texting is not going away soon and will only be used more often if not favored more than talking in the future. Personally, I can never see myself favoring text messaging over talking, but as time goes by, and children are born with cell phones in hand, talking is likely to be the least thing on the younger crowds minds. Especially at schools where text messaging soars.

I think the idea is awesome. It sure is a sneaky way to rat out another person. I just hope it does not get abused. Another problem that may arise is this text messaging language that has surfaced. Not everyone knows “lol” (laugh out loud) or “ttyl” (talk to you later). God knows what might be texted to police and misinterpreted. I can see a list now of “commonly used text messaging abbreviations” being distributed on desks in police departments. 

Another dating site in amongst us so what does the new dating service have that others do not? Simply put – Images. Youniverse.com is a site and a network that connects people with image tests. Youniverse.com uses images to discover people’s interests, character, and style. I thought to myself, “how cool is that,” so I headed over to the site to see why it is craving so much attention.

Upon arriving at the website, you are instantly greeted with images. You may get confused as to what they are supposed to be, until you read the question above the images. Individuals take an image test where they are asked questions and told to respond by choosing the image that best embodies the answer. Youniverse.com has a love test that asks questions about love and has you answer with images. Once you have finished the tests you will get a description of your perception of love. The answer to the image test is your visualDNA. Once you have taken the love test you can create a profile. You can find love by searching for users with similar visualDNA. Besides finding people with similar visualDNA you can find gifts that you will find attractive and appeal to your taste. Find the perfect match and great valentine products at Youniverse.com.

” We’ve developed a way of understanding people’s feelings with the help of over 5 million people who have come from all over the world to our sister site, Imagini.net. 
As a result, everyone that’s part of Youniverse will eventually be able to have a relationship with the internet that’s guided by their feelings.”

The site is very unique and I am sure their uniquness will be rewarded with great numbers. Youniverse is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Imagini Holdings (www.imagini.net), the inventor of VisualDNA^TM, so the team knows what they are doing. The two sites may appear to be the same, but differences arise when you take a closer look. The site is clean, simple, fun, and – off the record – a little creepy. “Through our behavioral assessment tool we will allow people to discover more about themselves and, as a result, meet and connect with people in more meaningful and true ways,” said Alex Willcock, founder and CEO of Youniverse. However, you will enjoy it. It is very intreguing, and there is the prospect of meeting the woman/man of your dreams based on commonalities of your answers so go ahead and try it out!

Not quite sure where to eat? Do you want to know what others think about a particular restaurant? Try BooRah! BooRah is a semantic and natural language processing aggregator of restaurant reviews. The service pulls in reviews from numerous review sites and a substantial list of restaurant review blogs, and then analyzes the emotional tone of the reviews it finds. Good reviews (“Rahs”) and bad reviews (“Boohs”) are collected concerning food, service, and ambience.

“BooRah is the ultimate, personalized review guide providing consumers a smarter way to find great restaurants. BooRah’s patent-pending natural language processing technology automatically summarizes a collection of online reviews from bloggers, professional critics and consumers, and allows consumers to search based on personal preferences. By capturing the community vibe and social essence of existing online groups, and comparing the results to individual search criteria, BooRah delivers unsurpassed relevance with the broadest community reach…”

Now there are plenty of restaurant review sites out there, so it is imperative to stand out from the rest. How does BooRah do it? One thing is inside the review excerpt. You will find food terms, like a particular dish, identified and linked out to a search results page displaying that same item in the same location at which you are currently looking. If I am reading a review that says some place’s shrimp (my favorite) are alright but aren’t the best in town – I’m one click on the word shrimp away from finding out where in town is said to have better ones. I think a few other review sites my do this also; I just do not remember them being as simple.

The site searches for reviews across many different sources, depending on the location. CitySearch, Yahoo Travel, Tripadvisor and many many more are included. In some locations, even the local newspaper is a source. Now that they have the sources, reviews also need a personal touch. Reviews can also be written on the BooRah site itself. I am sure it is extremely hard for systems that scan reviews to recognize things like sarcasm or other peculiarities of human communication, but BooRah seems to do a decent job making a review objective instead of subjective.

BooRah is an impressive database of restaurant reviews from around the US, primarily focused on the nation’s large metropolitan areas. I was able to find good reviews in my smaller town however. Your first visit to BooRah can be a little overwhelming. There is information everywhere crammed, on what seems like, one page. Of course, this can quickly be solved by narrowing your search. Once you have found the restaurant, it’ll even show where it is using Google Maps!

Other than the easily fixable quirks, I really love BooRah. It is informative, simple, and fun. Not to mention, if you direct your mobile browser to BooRah.com, you will be taken to the mobile version (currently in Alpha) and able to search on the go. Pretty cool.

So what are you waiting for? After looking up your local “Rahs,” go ahead and take your family out to eat making it another “Rah” in their book.