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Archives for Resources/Services
Share and store files using Dropbox
Dropbox is an incredibly useful file sharing application that can be added to your Mac or PC (and even a Linux operating system). If you are looking for a way to share or store files on the web, and are averse to using Google Docs, this may be the application for you. It is incredibly easy to use and your files can be accessed from any computer via your Dropbox account. Here is a quick overview on the basics:
- No complicated interfaces to learn. Dropbox runs in the background on your desktop.
- Sync your files automatically to your computers and the web.
- Sign in and access your files from any browser or mobile device.
- Sharing files with your friends and family is just two clicks away.
- View your photos in a gallery and share them easily with anyone.
This is what Apple’s iDisk should be, but isn’t. Dropbox offers a superior product that is easy to use and runs in the background. For a video tour of the application in action go to Dropbox and watch the informative presentation.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Coverleaf may be a way to curb magazine clutter
If you are tired of receiving magazine subscriptions in the mail, but still enjoy reading them, you may want to check out Coverleaf. Coverleaf is a way to read magazines online and forgo the hard copy altogether. From their site:
Coverleaf.com is a service that provides digital editions of many of your favorite magazines allowing you to conveniently read your magazine anywhere with Internet access. No software downloads are required. If you are a current print edition subscriber, you can access your magazines for free by verifying your subscription. You can also browse the selection of magazines on coverleaf.com and look inside any issue for a free preview. If you opt to register on coverleaf.com, you can clip, save and share pages from any issue. Coverleaf is provided by Texterity, a leading provider of digital publishing services, in partnership with leading publishing and fulfillment companies.
You also can purchase digital copies of a single issues for $0.99. The current selection offered by Coverleaf is pretty limited at the moment, but we hope to see their selection expand. They offer an Unclutterer favorite, ReadyMade, for $0.99 per digital issue.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Have someone else digitize your old photos
How long would it take you to scan 1000 photos? I’m thinking it would take me quite some time and I don’t think I’d be able to do anything else if I wanted to get them scanned in a reasonable amount of time. If you have a large amount of photos sitting in closet, basement, or attic, you may want to check out ScanMyPhotos.com. The service promises to professionally scan 1,000 photos for you, the same day it receives them, and put them on a DVD for $50.
The company uses a Kodak scanning machine that can process a hundred photos per minute. From an informative New York Times article about the whole process:
Because it must feed your photos through this machine, ScanMyPhotos has set some rules. Photo sizes can range from 3 by 3 inches (Polaroids) to 11 by 14.
The photos must be put into similar-size bundles (4-by-6 prints together, for example) with rubber bands. The only way to label the batches is to write on index cards, which are scanned along with the photos like title cards. If you want the bundles scanned in a certain sequence, you can number the index cards.
The photos can’t be in albums or scrapbooks. That’s understandable, but it can be heart-wrenching to have to dismantle photo albums that somebody once spent a lot of time and effort creating.
Your photos can’t be in envelopes, either. For my test, I submitted about 20 years’ worth of pictures. (I found out later that there were more than 1,800 in all. I had no idea it was that many; those bundles look deceptively small.) They came from dozens of drugstore envelopes, meaning that I had to separate them from their negatives, probably forever, given that matching 1,800 prints with their original envelopes would take the rest of my life. And my descendants’.
The photos are scanned exactly as you send them. If one is upside down or backward, that’s how it winds up on the DVD. Similarly, you’re supposed to ensure that all horizontal photos are upright, and all vertical photos are consistently rotated 90 degrees the same way.
Finally, you pack your bundles into a box, stuffing it carefully to avoid shifting.
The company’s Web site offers copious photos of the right and wrong ways to pack up your pictures. The bottom line is, ScanMyPhotos will do the scanning. But you have to do the prep work, and it’s not insubstantial.
This seems like a pretty reasonable option for digitizing your old photos. Preparing your photos for shipment looks like the most labor intensive part of the whole process. It seems like a rather even tradeoff, though, for getting a DVD full of your digitized photos.
Popularity: 10% [?]
