Online backup services have become very popular over the past few years, with companies like iBackup, Carbonite, and EMC providing offerings that promise to whisk-away your data to storage hidden deep within the Internet. If something happens to your computer, not to worry – you’ll be able to restore your data without missing a beat.

And to be sure, online if effective – but like any service, it’s not flawless. Here are some things to look out for when finding a solution that works for you.

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Here’s an interesting review of a stack of antivirus products. My favorite, NOD32, makes a decent showing in detecting known viruses, but really shines in protecting against unknown threats, with a first place finish.

What’s surprising is the lead by AOL’s antivirus engine. They switched from McAfee over to the industry-leading Kaspersky, and now their product seems to catch everything in sight.

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There’s nothing like a freshly delivered desktop to breathe new productivity into your workday. Unfortunately, companies like Dell are quick to accept a few bucks to load your brand new computer with completely unnecessary software. Much of my install time for new computers is removing this nonsense.

If you’ve just received a new computer, you may want to download the PC De-Crapifier and give it a whirl. It’ll help remove all that junk which, besides being unnecessary, is likely having a real impact on your system’s performance.

To answer that, and many other timeless questions, visit www.speedtest.net. It’s the latest bandwidth-testing site. You can check your Internet speed with any number of hosts across the globe.

For data a little more useful, you’ll want to measure from the closest server. To NYC, we scored close to 22 mbit/s. To Auckland, a more anemic .5 mbit/s.

Joining HP on my list of unnecessarily large software installations is Adobe Reader. Install the latest version, and you may inadvently drag along Adobe Photoshop Album and a Yahoo toolbar for the ride.

If you want to keep your system lean, forget about Adobe and check out Foxit Reader. Their site ain’t pretty, but loading PDFs in a flash is.

Also check out their pro version. It’s a reasonable $39, and provides a much-requested typewriter tool for entering text right on top of and PDF document. It’s great for government forms.

I was all set to blog about this nice tool from Microsoft providing a password-encrypted folder for confidential information, but it was yanked before I had a chance.

Never mind, there are better alternatives. Check out TrueCrypt; it will create a file that acts as an encrypted drive. Enter your password, and you have access to all the files within. Your encrypted file is portable - put it on a usb stick and you’ll have secure access to all your confidential files wherever you are.

Assuming you use a strong enough password, Truecrypt will protect your data against prying eyes, even if your computer is stolen.

It’s the time of the year to take a final summer fling. But if you’re like me, the only way you can properly relax is knowing that you can handle any business emergency that may arise.

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There’s no disputing the dominance of Microsoft Word, or Microsoft Office in general, when it comes to office productivty applications. Sure, Word Perfect had a decent run in the late 80s, but with the advent of Windows, Microsoft came out with a great set of tools which have been largely uncontested for fifteen years.

The internet is delivering some interesting challengers, which while not feature-rich and secure enough to be replacements for Microsoft’s products, do offer some unique benefits.

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I was never one to be organized. Look at my email inbox, or my documents directory, and you’ll see very few folders. If I want something, I’ll sort and search until I find it.

For people like me, there are applications which will crawl your hard drive and mailbox files, indexing everything for fast retrieval. My favorite just became free. (more…)

If you live in the wilds of North Greenwich or Silvermine, you may find that your Blackberry isn’t working quite as well as it should. Chances are you are in a mobile phone deadspot.
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