How to Send Files Without the Internet

Now, rarely am I in a situation where I'm not online, but every so often it happens. Yesterday I needed to send a file from a friend's laptop to my desktop but we were without wireless. Since I wrote the other day about converting word docs into PDF - I thought I'd share another handy and often forgotten feature, bluetooth. No, bluetooth isn't some horrible dental affliction, it is actually a handy way for devices to talk to each other. In some cases, you can use bluetooth to send files without the web.

If you are using a mac, your bluetooth icon will be in the upper right corner of your screen, it is the "B" like symbol in the picture above. Click on this and choose "send file." You'll then get the option to choose a file to send. Once your file is chosen you'll have to find the device to send it to (the other computer has to have bluetooth enabled for this to work) and your bluetooth screen will show you all bluetooth enabeled devices within range (the other computer or device really needs to be in the same room).
Tip: If names of specific computers don't show up right away (sometimes it'll just say "laptop computer") give it a few seconds, usually it is just reading for a name.

You may then need someone (or yourself) at the other computer to accept the file you are sending (this prevents people from sending you malicious things via bluetooth).

File transfer is pretty quick depending on the computer - so within a minute or two you should be all set.

Ways to Make Your Sad Mac Happy

So, my laptop is a couple years old (I think it had its second birthday in October) and until a month ago I'd never had a problem with it. I never knew a mac could be so sad as what I saw in early december, when mine starting making this strange chirp as it would shut off (not when I asked it to, but all on its own). It was the sound of something going horribly wrong (as I'd heard this same phenomenon described by a few friends a coworkers) and could only mean one thing; the hard drive.

The mac geniuses (I don't mean that in a sarcastic way, the repair guys are called geniuses), gave me a new hard drive (and even a new keyboard cover as mine was doing that cracking thing that a lot of macbooks do), and I thought I was home free.

Well, the holidays came and I didn't use the macbook much, so when I picked it up last night to start re-installing all of my old programs (some of which I should write about) I expected everything to go smoothly and it did - for a while.

After twenty minutes I heard that familiar swan song, the chirp and shut off. Then I tried to turn it on again and it gave me the new equivalent of the sad mac, the file folder icon with a question mark (the computer is telling you "what hard drive?").

Anywho, needless to say I was worried, and I spent the better part of today working on an ulcer thinking about how I could make my sad mac happy (I already bought it a new hard drive, I'd given it lavish software gifts, I adorned it with only the softest of laptop cases and used it for only the most important of emails and ims - what more could a mac want?).

So I called Apple, and we went through that old song and dance (does it have power, did I download a macro virus, can I read or write), my genius even had me boot it up PC style (you know, black screen, lots of code) and type in some codes.

After an hour or so of sometimes sad mac, sometimes regular mac, my genius figured it out. My mac was sad because when it got a new hard drive, no one told it how to start again (I guess a mac with a new hard drive would be the equivalent of a person with a new brain - so sometimes you have to teach them things they once knew). So all I had to do was tell it which version of OS X to use to start - and it did - and it was happy.

Working From Home, Tools of the Trade

I've been feeling less than 100% for the last week or so, and the only thing I can figure is that I picked up a bug when on one of my many, many flights over the holidays (and that I hope it is not MRSA). So today I decided to work from my home rather than continue to gross out my coworkers with my constant throat clearing and nose blowing (which, according to this Boston Globe article about presenteeism, is really a favor to my office and the corporate world at large).

I feel like I've been getting sick more often this year than in the first year I moved to New York, which I think is odd because with all the people constantly in contact here (on the subways, in our huge office buildings, etc) you'd figure that the first year of life in this city would be comparable to the first year as a schoolteacher (although in some countries such as Japan and Britain it seems teachers may be taking sick days for other reasons)- with sickness abound - and that after that you'd be somewhat in the clear.

Well, anyhow, here I am. Lucky for me all of my work is Web-based, so it is actually a smooth transition from home to work and vice versa. But there are a few tools that make my telecommute much easier - so I thought I'd share those (sorry PCs, these are mostly Mac tools).

1. Adium - this combines all of my chat programs into one. People are often surprised at how much our office uses ichat programs, but it is sometimes just easier to ask someone for a hyperlink via chat than to walk over to their desk. When I'm at home it makes it so that I'm pretty much on call all the time.

2. Sendspace - this lets me send photos, files, whatever I need that is too large for an e-mail attachment.

3. Dashboard Widgets - I know that not everyone with a Mac uses their Dashboard, but I think it is pretty much the greatest invention since sliced bread. I use it as a dictionary, calculator, stock tracker, and most of all for the 15+ sticki notes that I have floating around on it reminding me what I need to do each day.

4. Firefox addons - this seems like an obvious one, and it really has to do more with tools I use in general rather than work-at-home tools in specific, but I love Firefox and I can't say enough good things about it. And I've added no less than a dozen applications to it (including foxytunes, clipmarks, and yoono) that have all enhanced my web experience greatly.

This is just a small (and somewhat generic) list of the programs/sites I use when I'm at home - we've got a huge list of great resources for work-at-homers in our Freelancing Web Guide. And, if you've got a cold like me and about half of the US population, take a gander at our Cold and Flu Web Guide.