Comments on: 10 Most Useful Online Tools Ever!

By: Free Fax Service

Free Fax Service — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 07:05:15 +0000

Iron key is looking awesome. $7 for a USB stick…will check it out.

By: Orlando

Orlando — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:23:51 +0000

Nice list but, since Google has more than even 10 useful online tools, you could just compile all the Google related tools into one and just say “Google”

By: Lady Helena Handbasket

Lady Helena Handbasket — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:17:50 +0000

My dog ate my USB stick. Ironkey sounds pretty good to me.

By: Bulk Sms Software

Bulk Sms Software — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:33:09 +0000

Hey There,

The Iron Key looks preety impressive but its not worthy in 170$ for me..

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:32:40 +0000

Why spend all that money on an Ironkey when you can implement TrueCrypt on a $7 USB stick… it’s industry standard encryption, well maintained, and free.

By: John

John — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:11:28 +0000

I hadn’t heard of Cachefly. I’m going to check that out, as I’m now creating tutorial videos for my employer’s website.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:44:52 +0000

Yup – IronKey is expensive, and may not fit everybody’s needs. You *can* use a regular USB drive and encrypt the data yourself, but I find this to be much less of a hassle.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:37:54 +0000

I get the concept, I just think it’s an overpriced gimmick unless you encounter situations on a daily basis in which you need to traffic such sensitive data manually.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:59:04 +0000

@Mouserz and Alex M – Thank you for the tip on Grooveshark. I’m wary by nature of any P2P network due to their fuzzy legality. If it’s legal, then that’s awesome but who knows what will happen when the RIAA get in the mix. Remember Muxtape?

@Jonathan – the idea is that if the IronKey falls into unauthorized hands, only 10 consecutive attempts can be made to accessing your data before it erases the content. Unfortunately, it cannot distinguish between a thief and a toddler playing with your computer.

Otherwise, the drive itself is physically near indestructible. It’s supposed to be able to withstand being ran over by a car or something …

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:35:20 +0000

The Iron Key sounds sort of impressive, but I wouldn’t risk paying 170 dollars for a USB stick when someone could find it and destroy it with ten carriage returns. Hardly indestructible.

By: Alex M

Alex M — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:29:44 +0000

I would also have suggested Grooveshark.
You can listen to entire albums, just pick a few songs you want to listen to or even create a playlist that you can share with others.
I’m listening to it right now.

By: Mouserz

Mouserz — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:25:16 +0000

Pandora was bloody awful, even before the copyright restriction. You could only skip a few songs per day, you could listen to the song you actually wanted and you couldn’t play the previous song. Grooveshark is 9999 times better then Pandora; it lets you listen to what you want, along with the other similar songs.

By: Eric Howe

Eric Howe — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:30:28 +0000

This is a bit OT but my eyes always read “IronKey” as “Iron Monkey”, maybe I’ve seen too many Kung Fu movies.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:42:26 +0000

Joshua has a good point. You *can* set up your own automatic backup using an external drive, or even to a networked drive.

Each method has its own pros and cons – if you do an external drive attached to the computer, you’re still at risk if the computer and drive were stolen or if the place burned down in a fire. If you back up over to your own drive/server online then you have to constantly be on top of online security.

I think it’s easier for most lay persons to contract a service like Carbonite.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:09:42 +0000

The description of Carbonite implies that automated backups are a feature restricted to web based solutions, which is false. There are numerous ways of setting up a local method of data backup that are just as easy and convenient.

I think it would also be a good idea to include a caveat about paying close attention to the terms of use when giving your data over to a third party like carbonite and to include a link to a primer on backing up.