Dropbox Seamlessly Syncs Files – PC, Mac, iPhone

Dropbox is a file synchronization service available for multiple platforms. The service offers free accounts that allow up to 2GB of storage space. For those of you needing more, upgrade plans are available. The clients are light weight and run in the background.

One of the nice features of the system is the file monitoring kicks off the sync on every save. The process Is very quick because the system transfers only the file changes rather than the whole file.

This is all great but the feature that won me over is the new iPhone app that allows access to all the files in your sync folder. Photos, word docs, PDFs and more are all available through this app.

Contrasting the app to other tools such as DataViz’ Documents To Go  and box.net, Dropbox provides most the the same features better and cheaper. Honestly I found Documents To Go to cumbersome and expensive. The sync mechanism requires the iphone to be on the same wireless network as the host system. Additionally all the documents are downloaded to the iPhone, thus taking up space. Dropbox is internet based allowing you to access your documents regardless of network access method and loading only the document you’re interested in. Box.net does provided some of the same features as Dropbox but lacked the seamless file system integration. When I reviewed box.net the process required you to upload the documents manually to the server to be shared. While there is webdav integration, there was no local copy for off-line use. Dropbox manages the synchronization of files between computers behind the scenes providing local copies for offline use. 

I’m impressed with Dropbox’s seamless and cost effective sync solution. Check it our for yourself.

Remember The Milk iPhone app Comparison

Ok so I’ve been using Remember The Milk to manage my todo list for sometime now. I love being able to access it from everywhere. Back when I got my iPhone, getting access to RTM was one of the first things I wanted to do. At the time I was only using the online mobile site that RTM offers. This was fantastic by itself later I purchased the ToDo app by Appigo. This has been the best purchase I’ve made for my phone to date. So just the other day RTM releases their own app for the iPhone. Great right after I buy something a free version comes out. Sobiys free and I figured I’d check it out. Here is my review and comparison of the two.

First and foremost both apps offer offline support. Obviously RTM is free while Appigo charges. Beyond that both offer mostly the same features. The RTM app looks very similar to  the mobile site they offer. The fields are similar except that this app allows you to customize which fields are displayed on task entry. The lists view is similar to the online version.

So switching to Appigo ToDo, the interface feels like an integrated iPhone app something that might have been there since day one. It supports synchronization with two different online services. The interface offers a quick entry feature which allows you to just enter the title and be done. It also offers the same lists and views as the RTM app and site. One nice feature is the fancy completed options. Simple but I like it. This feature allows you to strike out, or cross off or otherwise mark the tasks as complete per your own preference.  One final thing is that the Appigo app seems to have better data entry options. The priority option is an easy to hit set of buttons rather than a select box, and a few other minor things that just make it feel better.

Having purchased Appigo ToDo I and also downloading the RTM app I have to lean toward the Appigo app. Having said that though, the RTM app is free and is very good. If you can drop a few bucks get Appigo, otherwise grab RTM. Either way Remember The Milk continues to be the best productivity tool I’ve accessed.

– Post From My iPhone

Code Quality with Eclipse Plugins

Tech leads are continually challenged with identifying and governing code quality. The common response is to look to test coverage as a measure of quality. Previously I was challenged to monitor code and architectural quality for over 50 developers both on and offshore. The shear amount of code made manual reviews a nightmare. While had reports on coverage it became apparent that the quality of the tests themselves  was also in question. It was time for a more automated review of quality.

After reviewing a series of tools and working through various industry best practices, here is the list of tools I ended up relying on regularly.

Automatically Format on Save

• FormatOnSave (http://ejp.sourceforge.net/formatonsave/update/)

The standard fare

• PMD (http://pmd.sf.net/eclipse/)
• Checkstyle (http://eclipse-cs.sourceforge.net/update)

Often Overlooked

• Find Bugs (http://findbugs.cs.umd.edu/eclipse)
• Enerjy (http://update.enerjy.com/eclipse)

Code Coverage

• Coverclipse (http://coverlipse.sourceforge.net/update)
• EclEmma (http://update.eclemma.org)

Focus on the important code

• JDepend (http://andrei.gmxhome.de/eclipse/)
• Metrics Plugin (http://metrics.sourceforge.net/update)

There are a few really good articles to help you get up and running with these

Check out:

Andrew Glover: In Pursuit of code quality

• In pursuit of code quality: Don’t be fooled by the coverage report
• In pursuit of code quality: Monitoring cyclomatic complexity
• In pursuit of code quality: Code quality for software architects

Metrics

• Metrics Plugin

Use the tools available to analyze faster and make your code stronger.

FEEDBACK: Let me know if there are other tools or resources that make your life easier.

Bite Size: ToDo List with RememberTheMilk.com

Being a rather scatterbrained person, I’m always looking for ways to stay on track and keep organized. After working with the Franklin Covey system and GTD productivity systems the main thing I found lacking was integration with my digital life. Remember The Milk is a great solution for managing all your ToDos.

Right off the bat, RTM manages simple Task lists with no configuration needed. It manages tasks with due dates and even locations. These tasks can be organized into lists for easier management.  The customization features allow you to set up lists, categories and reminders to match whatever productivity system you ascribe to.

The real benefit of the system is it’s wide variety of integration options. The system integrates with many popular applications and sites. Do you use GMail and Google Calendar? RTM integrates right into the flow. There are also a variety of desktop application integration points. My personal favorites are the ability to email tasks to RTM to be added to your list. My wife emails me simple ToDo items like “Pick up milk on the way home” that show up right on top of my daily ToDo list. When I’m in the store if i forget what she asked for I just jump on to RTM with the iPhone integration and quickly see what I missed.

This is a great tool that everyone should check out.