It’s a relatively old problem:

Getting files from one of your computers to another.

Photos and MP3s at your home computer, your frequent flier documents on your work computer, and who knows what else is on your iPhone (I won’t ask.).  From emailing yourself to USB Keys shaped like dolphins, floppy disks to Jazz Disks (ha!), the options are endless, and usually a pain in the butt!

I found this cool service called DropBox that will allow you to share files with yourself. Simple as that.

You can also set up permissions so that special people can have specific access.  Say allowing your Aunt Petunia to see your vacation photos, or your boss, Bill Gates, to see your latest work files.

Best of all, you can have 2GB of storage for free.  That’s the price tag that influenced me to sign up.  I’m testing it out to see what sort of uses I can find for it.  I might not have any immediate needs, but the idea of having it available is comforting and will certainly pay off the next time I want to transfer information from one computer to the next.

They also have an iPhone app.  Will it really be all that necessary to have my work files accessible on my iPhone? Probably not.  Though I’m sure many superstars out there might find a time they need too.  Either way, it’s an excellent touch- and fills out the service, making it *everywhere*.

As our computing power grows, we’ll continue to see virtual storage grow.  I wonder if they’ll ever have computers with *no* storage capabilities beyond operating systems and applications?  If you really think about it, the gaming console Xbox and the online community Xbox Live is essentially along the same lines.  Sounds like a new topic brewing!  Until next time, keep water skiing!

Do you have a free email address from Google?

If the answer is yes, you’re already suited up to Waterski the Web.

(I’ll post a link here to send you somewhere else once it’s written.)

If the answer is no, then grab your floaties and come with me.

Google Mail, or Gmail as the hippy web hipsters like to call it, is the essential tool toward getting you up on both waterskis.  To really rock the web you’re going to want to sign up for it.  It’s free! Go get ‘em!

What’s that you say?  This is only my second blog post and the first one doesn’t really count?

Well that is true, per se.  (Okay not really a ‘per se’ situation, but it sounded cool.)

Let me give you the fat and skinny on Gmail (jee-mail) and why you should get it:

1. Google Mail is free. $00000.00
2. The email address you end up with: chuckyeager@gmail.com can be as professional looking as you’d like it to be.  May I suggest going with first/last name?  It’s actually quite acceptable on resumes.  Ditch the sexysurfer9018@hotmail.com address.
3. Google Searches are quite effective- and they give you the ability to Google Search your email.  This really comes in handy trying to find an email from Aunt Petunia sent 4 months ago!
4. Chat is built in, yup you can chat with the people you’ve already emailed.
5. It’s web based, meaning you can get it anywhere the Internet is available.
6. Pretty decent SPAM filter.  I can’t recall the last time a Spammy email got through to me.
7. It’s the Keys to the City of the Web!

Wait- what? 

You see the most important aspect of Gmail is that when you signup- that login and password can be used to access to all the other free Google tools.  This is the first wrench you’ll need in building your online Toolkit of Power.

From YouTube to Google Reader, you’ll be able to log in using your Gmail credentials.

It also makes for a great personal email that you keep with you irregardless of where you work or who your Internet Service Provider might be today.  (Wait, did I just sneak in an 8th reason? Consider it a BONUS for reading to here.)

We’re going to be talking a lot about utilizing many of the free Google tools, and Gmail will set you up to access all of them when the time comes.