Post by The 2.0 Life contributor Squealing Rat. Find him on Twitter.

Talking to a friend about 2 weeks ago left me stunned after hearing one amazing comment. “Backup? Oh, I press the save button every once in a while.” What? NO! Are you kidding? Writing your thesis and not backing up in at least 7 different places?

Well, for all of the students out there (or anyone with stuff you’d rather not lose when your hard drive inevitably goes south), this is how you quickly and easily backup anything, and everything, everywhere.

1. First things, first. Press save. Every minute. Or every two minutes. But seriously, the best thing you can do is press save. Because that triggers the next 6 or so things I am going to suggest.

2. This point is for the people that are too lazy, forgetful or just plain engaged in their writing to press save. And if you loose your work, like I have done countless times, it is devastating. So, auto-save! Apps like Google Docs and Zoho Docs use auto-save to protect lazybones like us. I like Google Docs, but you can use Zoho Docs as well. Check out a more in-depth review of Zoho Docs here.

3. Dropbox. I use Dropbox to sync my documents with other computers and to backup my documents online. You could also use Mozy or Backblaze, which only backup and do not sync your files. Did I mention that all of these apps give you 2 GBs free? Dropbox syncs your documents with your other computers and with the server. It updates the servers when you click Save, and all the other computers when you log on.

4. Back to Google Docs for a second. In the olden days, I used a program which I loved called DocSyncer. The program is now resting in peace–*sniff*–but all good things must come to an end. Anyway, the program synced all of your documents on your PC with your Google Docs. Incredible, huh? But the point here lies in the fact that you can also use Google Docs to backup your PPTs, documents, and spreadsheets. Upload them every once in as another way of emailing them to yourself. There are a bunch of applications that do this for you– Syncplicity is a particularly good one.

5. Coming to the subject of emailing to yourself. Many people do it. It is fairly nice to have a backup of your thesis in your email. The only downside to this is that you have to manually send it to yourself. Or do you? Lifehacker has a great article on how you can set up automatic sending of important files to your email. Breathtaking!!! The only catch- you have to press save in order to trigger the email.

6. Have you ever had one of those Jerry Maguire moments where you poured your heart into an online review comment or form, only to loose it in a browser crash? And you were devastated for days. Well, I may have a solution for you. It’s called Lazarus, and it’s a Firefox add-on that saves all of your text entered online. So if you somehow crash your browser, simply recover the text using Lazarus.

So go, backup! And do let us know in the comments what other solutions you use.

[Post originally published on Lost in Technology. See the post here.]

The internet is a place of wonders, leaps of faith, media and ways to save money. What? Save money? How? Many leap at the flashing ads on the sides of pages, broadcasting “WIN AN IPOD”. But, there are actually legitimate ways to save money and grab freebies online.

Every day I check my Google Reader. I check out all of the blog posts, news and freebies. Freebies are free samples, or promotional items spotted on websites, then posted to sites for the community to see and use. Why would you want them? They are free. And sometimes useful. I have received gigantic Ziplock bags, seeds for my garden, free chocolate, water bottles and more.

Here are some of the better communities to find freebies.

Websites

Spoofee – Like many other sites does not just serve freebie finds, but deals and coupons as well. I just watch the freebies section as most finds are quite good. Every so often, a scam site is posted, so watch out. Usually, the site is spotted by a user, then posted on the thread, so read the thread before signing up for the freebie.

Fatwallet – Another large community, FatWallet serves great deals, coupons, and freebies. The selection is large and very good.

SampleADay – Is just like it sounds. With a large audience, Sample A Day writes about free samples daily.

Absurdly Cool Freebie Finder – Is a robot that aggregates freebies from many sites, and from the users.

Current Deals

Free Chocolate – Mars INC, The makers of M&Ms, Snickers, Three Musketeers  and more are giving away 1 free chocolate bar coupon to the first 250,000 each Friday this summer. A coupon arrives in the mail several weeks after signing up. You can sign up every week if you like, the limit is one per email address, four per household.

Free Samples – Walmart, constantly gives away free sample. Some of the samples featured include products by StayFree and Johnson.

Protecting Your Identity

Even when signing up to what looks legitimate, it is always good to use a little caution. Here are several tips to protect your identity.

Email Address – Because the likelihood of spammers is quite high, I suggest making a new Gmail address to funnel the constant spam. Signing up for freebies usually requires an email address just to confirm the recipient is real. Check the email address after signing up for freebies, then forget about it. If you don’t want to bother with a new address, simply use one of the following disposable email address services:

• Mail Expire
• Spam Gourmet
• Zoe Mail
• Dodgeit
• Sneak Email
• Temp Email
• Mailinator
• My Trash Mail
  

Phone Number – Google Voice gives you a free phone number that has blocking capabilities. You can also sign up for iNumbr.com which gives you a phone number that expires in 30 days. This service is not active right now, but will be up soon according to their website.

Autofill – Signing up for freebies can be tiresome when you have to constantly type in your email, and phone number. Using Google Toolbar’s Autofill tool to autofill the forms can make filling out forms much faster.

Good luck finding freebies!

Post by Squealing Rat. Find me on Twitter.

[Post originally published on The 2.0 Life. See the post here.]

Post by Squealer from Squealing Rat. Find Squealer on Twitter.

When I write How-To articles, it always strikes me how easy they would be to do if I didn’t write anything and simply showed a screencast. But alas, I write.

Screencasts can be helpful for showing your friend how to do something, taking a video of your latest creation or simply having some fun. Here are some helpful tools, and tips.

At this point, some may be asking, “What the heck are screencasts?” Well, screencasts are basically videos of your screen, that often include a voice over explaining what is happening on the screen. Usually you install software, and use the software to capture screen movements.

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