Tip: Getting a ‘MyBrowserBar’ screen when you should be 404’ed? Here’s the fix.

So, every once and awhile lately, I had noticed something peculiar.  When I was surfing around on the ‘Net and hitting pages that were no longer there...I should have been hitting (and I did for about 1.5 seconds) a site hosted 404 page or error, but then was redirected to a page that is hosted by ‘MyBrowserBar.com’.  While this wasn't terribly annoying - there are indeed some 404 pages that are actually useful, and I really want to see them – Microsoft’s site comes to mind.

So, what the heck – Surely I’ve not let rogue bit of software on my system?

Upon doing a little bit of research, it appears that as a result of a PDFCreator installation, the 'PDFforge toolbar' somehow got installed, which like 99% of all other toolbars is not useful in any way.   

The fix:

If you see this screen instead of the typical 404, hit up your add/remove programs applet and perform a search for ‘PDFforge Toolbar’.  I need to do a bit of testing to make sure it doesn’t install itself even if I select not to – which I am pretty diligent about doing.

Request to PDFforge:  Remove this "helper" program from your install.

Source: [Enghiong]
Image courtesy [Homestarrunner.com]

Quick Look - Multi-Platform Mobile Chat: PingChat!

http://www.pingchat.com/



After my transition from BlackBerry to Android, my wife and I have been missing BlackBerry Messenger a LOT.  BBM was great for sending photos quickly between the two of us (she still has a BlackBerry).  For IM’ing, we’ve taken to Google Talk, and while it works, it’s just not there in terms of functionality if you really need something that can perform the additional things that BBM is just so darned good at.

Why I miss BlackBerry Messenger:

• Send photos, voice notes easily to chat recipient
• Send broadcasted messages to multiple recipients
• Create groups and interact in group chats with multiple recipients
• For others (I didn’t use this), group chat calendar and picture repository

An alternative?  Almost.

Full disclosure:  At the time of this writing, the BlackBerry client is in beta.

Currently at version 2.0 (BB beta notwithstanding), PingChat! is a client that has some compelling features to make it, in some ways, a viable alternative to BBM  if you and your friends/spouse have mixed devices.  Currently PingChat! supports Android, BlackBerry, iPhone and iPod Touch

So, I installed PingChat! on my wife’s BlackBerry Tour 9630 and on my Droid Incredible. The first thing I noticed right away is that the initial setup screen isn’t quite consistent (at least between these two platforms).  For example:

• When signing up on the Android phone, PingChat asked if I would like to use my mobile number as my id or create a new id using PingChat!’s system.  On the BlackBerry, it asked you to create an account, but no option for using the mobile number.

• On the Android, I could easily link my wife’s ad hoc contact to my address book.  On the BlackBerry, it was a bit difficult noticing when the ‘link to contact’ option was highlighted to click on.  There was no menu option either (its just good interface design to include a menu option for any major onscreen function)...

• Sending a photo is easy enough on the Android…just click the attachment icon, then browse for your photos via the built-in photo browser.  This is NOT the case on the BlackBerry, and is a major shortcoming in my opinion.  On the Tour, we had to browse the folder structure of her SD card in order to find the photo to send, and to top it off, there are no thumbnails, so unless you’ve named your pics something useful, good luck finding the right one…. 

I could see where you could send a message to multiple recipients, but I’ve not been able to test how well this works.  There did not seem to be a way to save a group if you created one.

Also, it appeared as though I could add a contact and just start chatting away, even though I don't recall seeing a prompt to accept the contact...

Multimedia files, pics, vids (yes!) and voicenotes were received easily from device to device, and over the WiFi, response was great.

A not-so-serious and very serious concern:

I like the fact that PingChat! will allow my Android device to create an account with my mobile number, but I’m curious as to what happens if I decide to change my number?  Do my contacts get updated on their side, or will the person who eventually gets my number have the potential to login and receive chats destined for me?

One huge concern for me is that you don't get a confirmation for a new chat buddy.  If someone knows your mobile number or userid, they can just start chatting it up with you.  With the lack of a 'friends-only' feature or block capability, this has the potential to cause some serious mental harm to people.  Think of it - bad break ups?  Stalkers?  Sure, you can delete the conversation, but if they keep messaging you...well, then PingChat! isn't the app for you (at this point).

So, some requests:

1. Themes - Minor
2. Make ‘Link to contact’ a menu option – Minor
3. On the BlackBerry, when sending a file through PingChat!, show a dialog for ‘Photo, Video and Audio’ like on the Android - Medium
4. Example taken from Android: ‘Share’ menu option to easily transfer a pic or other media file from the picture/media viewer via PingChat!  Note that this is different than sharing a picture from the PingChat! application itself – Medium
5. Tell us how the chat infrastructure works – some people might want to pay for an enterprise version of this for their workforce, and would likely want to know how secure the chat is - Medium
6. Give us an option to buy the application to remove the ads - Medium
7. Grant the ability to create a group from the main window (i.e. like a new contact) where you can quickly assign multiple contacts - Major
8. On the BlackBerry, add a link from the ‘Send/Share’ menu option while in the media application, akin to sharing via Twitter/Facebook, etc.  The current way is not user friendly at all (tweet from @PingChat! states that this will be better in OS 6.0, what about 5.0?) – Major
9. DESKTOP CHAT client – this would be a HUGE benefit over BBM – Major
10. Block a contact.  If you have no way of confirming a new chat buddy, then certainly, a 'block' function would be very useful - Major
11. Add a verification prompt for the other user when adding a new contact.  This seems rather unsafe, especially if people decide to start harassing or stalking you, coupled with the lack of 'block' feature...you get the idea - Major  

Summary:

There are some pretty glaring shortcomings after being held to the very high standard that BlackBerry Messenger has now achieved...namely, the inability to block a contact, no confirmations for chat buddies to be added to other's contact lists, and no way to create a group for later (please prove me wrong on this point - anyone?) makes for some good fodder for Enflick's programmers to work on.

With all that said - don’t get me wrong, I love the thing that PingChat! has going on here.  This is a niche that NEEDS to be filled as sending/sharing media via IM is not easy over multiple platforms.  If you can make this easy to use for all platforms and make a DESKTOP CLIENT, you will own BlackBerry Messenger.

--- update 10:40pm 8/12/2010 ---

The latest BB build fixes the 'link to contact' oddity I expressed above.  Good news!

Install:

• BlackBerry (beta)
• iPhone
• Android

Things I love: DropBox

DropBox - slightly updated 8/2/10
http://www.getdropbox.com/

I revisited this post as I installed it for my new Android phone (and now there is a beta BlackBerry version - slots filled, sorry!).

Now, DropBox isn't like every other online storage service - - or at least not like the Microsoft SkyDrive service which I used previously...DropBox works like this:

• You sign up for service, install client utility on computer 'A'
• Client utility creates 'My DropBox' folder under 'My Documents'
• Client copies/synchronizes contents of My DropBox to your DropBox account
• You install client utility on computer 'B'
• Client brings all files down from your DropBox online account to your 'My DropBox' folder on this computer (B)
• You change a file on Computer B, files get uploaded and then synchronized to Computer A as soon as the client utility connects from that computer

The files and folders inside your DropBox directory get a handy little sync indicator showing if the file has been uploaded or if it is pending upload to the online service. Nice!

Share your DropBox files

The beauty of DropBox is that you have the ability to share an individual file or a whole folder to a user. Simply right-click a file or folder under the 'My DropBox' directory to see the option.

• You share a folder with another user (who has a DropBox account and client loaded)
• Your contents are dropped to their computer - any changes made by them or you is synchronized to/from all computers that are shared (I'm not sure how it handles conflicts as of yet).

When you share a file, you do so via your Public folder. You drop a file into your public folder, right-click it > DropBox > 'Copy public link' then email your recipient the link and thats it! Your recipient can click the link on their side and download the file.

FYI: When you share a folder, your recipient will get a local copy of your shared folder - so, it goes without saying to try and not share a folder with more contents than what your recipient has in free drive space!

Download your folders as a ZIP file

A cool feature that the web site provides is the ability to download a shared folder as a ZIP file. So, if you don't have DropBox installed on a PC, you could download your folders as needed.

Refer to DropBox, get more space

The only downside to DropBox is that the free account is limited to 2Gb - but there is a cool offer for those who send referrals to DropBox. When you refer other users to sign up for the service and they create an account and download the client, you and your friend automatically get an additional 250Mb of free space!

Referral-related free space is limited to an additional 6Gb 8Gb (thanks Rarst!) total, so if you exclusively use a free account, you are limited to 8Gb 10Gb! You can sign up for a 50Gb plan for $99 a year, which really isn't bad, so if you have a lot of data to synchronize, this might do the trick for you!

Available across multiple platforms

There's an app for that...OS.  I've personally used the iPad (ok, I've opened it on my friend's iPad), Linux, Android and iPhone app in addition to Windows - and they all work without any learning curve.

Gotcha: 

If you share a folder with someone and they delete an object, it will delete in your folder as well!  Be warned!

Idea: Pyramid scheme!

How about a pyramid scheme type of system for referrals? User 'A' refers 'B', User 'A' gets 250Mb of space, User 'B' refers User 'C' - User A gets 125Mb, B gets 250Mb? Or, if a referral purchases a year's worth of space, the referring member gets a significant increase in space?

I love DropBox and use it daily.  It is like an Internet attached USB drive where I can keep all my stuff that I really need synchronized (and backed up if my system crashes!).

Idea #2:  Poor man backup for small business or home office

Fun backup tip for small businesses/users (not necessarily small users...!):  Have a backup run and create an archive in your Dropbox folder.  After it synchronizes to another PC, have that computer move the file to an archived or other backup device.

Do you have any other ideas about how to cleverly use Dropbox (or other online storage solutions)?  Post them in the comments section below (I apologize for the dates of some of the comments, I updated this article so some comments are related to the original post from March of 2009).