These days, a lot of people tend to use more than one computer, or even more than one operating system for that matter. Sometimes it can be hard to have the files you want on one system available on the other. Most people (including myself) solve this problem by having a thumbdrive or an external hard disk drive, which is all good until you reach a point where you need to work with both files on both systems almost simultaneously. Then it can be a pain to have to transfer from one drive to another.

That's where Dropbox comes in. If you have ever heard or used Windows Live Sync, it's something like that. Except in this case, Dropbox synchronises a single folder on your computer for up to 2GB in total with 350MB limit on any single file. While this is a show stopper for many people, it is easier to think of Dropbox as a thumbdrive that stored online.

You can access a folder's worth of information wherever you're connected to the net, even if you don't have Dropbox installed on a computer. In that aspect, I don't really to have to synchronise 20,000 files everywhere I go. Just the ones that I need, like my resume or certain programs or pictures. Which is also good because it works on Windows, OSX AND Linux operating systems, which means it's pretty much ubiquitous to where you can take your files.

To make the deal even more sweeter, Dropbox does give you the ability to restore previous revisions of a file, so in case you've overwritten them, you can restore the file to the revision you want. If that is not enough, you can also restore files that you have deleted as well. I'm not sure how long they last until they are automatically purged from the system but apparently I still can restore the files that I deleted over a year ago, when I first started using Dropbox. Handy when suddenly realise you might need something you deleted a while back.

The true beauty of Dropbox though is the ability share your files with your friends. If they have a Dropbox account (which is free), all you have to do is create a shared folder between the both of you and just drop whatever file you want into it and have it sync between both folders. It's that simple. However, if you want to send something to someone or to people in general, Dropbox also acts as a public file server. There is a folder in your Dropbox specifically for public use. All you have to do is drop the file you want in there and then copy the public url after it syncs with the online server. It's faster and easier this way than to send files via email. The later part of my thesis was sent to my supervisors this way as the severs couldn't handle a file larger than 5MB and my thesis was more than 10MB big.

If you're more the geek, it wouldn't take you long to realise that Dropbox synchronises symlinks as well. This means that you can synchronise data files between systems that need them. People have synchronised their browser bookmarks, configuration settings for various programs, even host a wiki or a website. Despite being able to synchronise a single folder, the limits to what Dropbox can do are still quite high. Some of the many things you can do with Dropbox can be found at their wiki (which may or may not have been created by someone's Dropbox account. Probably not).

Overall, I'd recommend it to anyone who likes to make sure they can access their files anywhere on the go or to anyone who often finds themselves sharing tonnes of files between friends from a great distance. All I know is, Dropbox has make my personal and professional life a little easier ever since I started using it, which is what good programs should be about.

1. Apparently there is a limit to how much physical punishment the body can take. I cannot for instance, stave off an encroaching flu bug while, doing a full body workout and work late hours at the same time. The fine balance doesn't call for a third weight.
2. There is not much you can do if you're a workaholic who has been forced to stay at home, except get some much needed rest. Better one day at home than a week in the hospital, as a patient.
3. Being a geek often means that you take up the responsibility of the knowledge you bear. This of course leads to the dependency from the uninformed and ignorant. The trick is not to wear yourself out when the simple hobby becomes a near obsession. Easier said than done when everyone seems to have problems all at once.
4. Being sick has never taken my sense of taste away from me. I will still demand for good food, which is been a pain since I tend to cook for myself these days. Still, there is no better substitute for good food to pick you up especially when done right. I have my own miso ramen noodles to testify to that.
5. It's nice to know that regardless of what happens, encouraging words and someone willing to cover for you often works better than constant nagging advice and a critique that you need to do better. It's a choice we have to make on who we are willing to be around. It can mean the difference between a more optimistic mind and a much more tired body.

Doing a "Chickybabe" refers to doing a list of random thoughts and is named in honour of ChickyBabe who awed me with her style of writing, especially when she did her set of random thoughts which this is named after.

It's hard to put into perspective the things you've seen and done throughout the course of your life, especially most of your life is spent trying to prove to older people that you can also share a sense of wisdom that equals their own.

I know it is particularly petty thing to do. That is to try and prove that you're better off than some people. It's just that when you're lead to believe all your life that you'll never amount to anything more than you are, you end up with two choices. You either resign yourself to the idea whatever people have told you is true and that at the end of it, their lack of respect for your own abilities is justified, or you can set out to defy every social construct that they imposed to define your own sense of success and failures. If that is immature, then I would gladly accept being called that if it means knowing that I gave my all to finding a little peace in the world around me.

Yet, because I've always chosen the latter, I've constantly been reminded by my family and peers that it is the wrong choice. While those closer to me may not say it in so many words, their actions often echo in their disapproval for the choices I've made. So too do my peers find it hard to believe that someone of my caliber can share with them wisdom of the ages without so much the age part. Too often, I hide how old I really am in an effort to be a little more convincing to people, my words of common sense and second opinions. While that works well with the net denizens whom I've spent years lending an ear and some sensible words, but it's not that easy pulling off the same thing in the real world where every feature except your own eyes betrays the physical age you carry.

Maybe I am just tired of having to constantly fend off statements that my words have no relevance to the world simply because I haven't lived enough of it. It's hard enough trying to prove that an idea or a wisdom, different to the contemporary mainstream words of the masses can be the proper course of action. It's even tougher to stop the stereotypical concepts of physical age dictating how much you should know or do, especially in a traditional Asian upbringing.

Still, for what it's worth, this road has been littered with more than a handful of experiences that few at this age would have lived through. If anything, justifying, debunking and refining your own ideals and wisdom to make your life work better for you is what growing up is really about. It shouldn't be so much of a problem, let alone matter, if people don't take me seriously. It's just the way I tick that drives and compels me to want to stand up and be heard. Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, but it is always nice to know that what works better for you can do the same for others.

I just need a chance and a moment of your time that's all.

I've been a fan system tweaking for ages. Not only does it allow your system to look completely different from every else, but it also allows you to fit your system into the way you do your work. Which means at the end of the day, you work faster and more efficiently than you would before. One of the programs that allows me to do just that is AutoHotKey.

Don't let the spartan design of the site or the size of the program fool you, this is probably one of the most powerful tool when you get the hang of it. Basically it allows you to customise your keyboard and mouse buttons to do almost anything you want on your system. No longer do I have to slowly click through and search for the folder that I frequently access. All I have to do is set it to a easy to press hotkey and it comes out when I want to.

For instance, I've changed it so that pressing the WinKey followed by "Z" opens the My Documents folder. Similar key sequences were done with other frequently access folders like the Control Panel or my Dropbox folder. Hotkeys can be set to run certain programs too. Some people who don't have multimedia keyboards prefer to add hotkeys into opening their browsers, IM clients or emails. As long as you can run it on your system, AutoHotKey can allow you to quickly access it.

However, that's not really all AutoHotKey can do. I'm not sure about you, but I've often found the CapsLock key useless and annoying especially when you accidentally hit it. With AutoHotKey, you can disable your CapsLock and turn it into another key (in my case, I turned it into an extra Ctrl key) and at the same time you can assign another hotkey to turn on your CapsLock so you don't lose the functions altogether (which I did by assigning it WinKey followed by CapsLock).

If you're not afraid to do a little more hands on scripting. The program has an in-depth manual on how you can expand on its capabilities such as resizing windows or adding consecutive actions from a single hotkey. If you find all these programing a little tough on you, there do showcase and offer pre-made scripts to add to your AutoHotKey. One of the best ones I've used is to emulate Windows 7's window resizing shotcuts on my XP system. I really can't give this program enough praise for such a small system footprint.

AutoHotKey just happens to be free and about 2MB in size, which wraps things up nicely for one of the best additions to your system that you could have. Get it and play around with it. You've got nothing to lose and chances are, you'll love it all the same.