Using the ScanSnap To Preserve Family Memories
September 29, 2009
The ScanSnap Community site has an interesting article by Megan Fowler, the Marketing Communications Manager over at Fujitsu.
It shows how she used the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500M (though really any ScanSnap would do) and an online photobook site called Blurb to perserve her husband’s grandfather’s football legacy.
After my husband’s grandfather passed away, his grandmother gave us several newspaper clippings and photos from grandpa’s tenure on the Navy football team in the 1940’s. Like any family, we wanted to preserve this unique history and share it with all of his eight grandchildren.
Great idea.
CloudBerry Online Backup Uses Amazon S3 (And More Later)
September 22, 2009
If you are a user of Amazon Web Services’ S3 storage service, you have probably come across CloudBerry Explorer, which is a tool for managing your S3 data.
Well, now the team from that product have taken the next step and have a new product in Beta called CloudBerry Online Backup which, not surprisingly, acts as a front-end for Amazon S3.
I personally am a big fan of Amazon S3. Even if you are nervous about storing your data “in the cloud” with some startup company, in the case of S3, its pretty unlikely that Amazon is going anywhere any time soon.
Currently, CloudBerry Backup is Windows-only, and of course an Amazon S3 account is required.
Installing CloudBerry Backup is pretty simple. Once you do you are greeted with a welcome screen.
It has easy to access buttons for doing a Backup and a Restore, and helpfully comes with Backup Plans (what you set up to tell CloudBerry what to backup when) already defined for My Pictures, My Documents, and My Internet Bookmarks.
When you first install, you will be asked to set up your Amazon account.
If you don’t already have an account, they have a link to set one up. I know some less technical users might have a hard time wrapping their head around this step, but with S3 there isn’t really a way around it (that I can think of). CloudBerry does a good job in helping the user along and pointing them where they need to go.
Setting Up Backup
Setting up the backup is pretty easy. They use a wizard system to take you step by step.
The first step is a tree where you can choose the directories you want to back up.
Next you can choose whether you want to backup all files or just certain types (or exclude certain types).
The next step will be good for privacy-conscious people. You can choose to compress or encrypt your files on upload. They have a ton of different options for encryption, which are too many to list here but suffice it to say there are a lot.
You also have the option to purge files (if you choose). You can purge versions of files older than a certain number of days, or only keep the last x versions of a file.
Finally, of course, you can choose the schedule that the backup runs on.
Running The Backup
When you run a backup, you get a progress report (of course), and then once it is done you can check the history, either for all backups, or for each backup plan.
Restoring
Restoring is also done via a wizard. You can bring back the latest version of a file, or bring it back to a certain point in time (great feature), or of course you can also choose it manually.
What’s Next?
Of course, this is a Beta, and CloudBerry is still working on some new features. The first is to create a virtual disk so that your S3 backup looks like a drive on your computer.
They will also be adding estimates for storage costs. This is a great idea. One of the problems with using S3 as backup is you really don’t know for sure how much your backup is going to cost. Sure you can sit there and use Amazon’s calculator, but who wants to do that? If CloudBerry can estimate before uploading, that would be great.
They’ll also be expanding to support Azure and Sun Cloud storage. This is a smart move to not be tied to one provider and give people choice.
So, if you want to check out the CloudBerry Online Backup beta, go here. Anyone else using Amazon S3 for their backup?
Fujitsu ScanSnap Stars On Designing Spaces
September 17, 2009
I am not a big home improvement TV watcher, mostly because I’m completely useless when it comes to anything handy (keep me away from a nail gun).
However, I know a lot of people like it, so I thought I’d point out that our good friend the ScanSnap S1500 was featured on an episode of Designing Spaces recently. Oh, and Derek Flower from Fujitsu was there too.
Here’s the segment:
Enjoy!
(via @ScanSnapIT)
RightSignature lets you sign documents online
September 15, 2009
Via @JordanBrown on Twitter, I came across this document signing service called RightSignature.
As much as we like to promote being paperless around here, there are some things that you just need paper for, and a signature is one of them. Or do you?
RightSignature is a startup that is trying to tackle that space.
Let’s say you have a document that needs to be signed. Here’s how it works:
- You upload the document to RightSignature and enter the recipient’s email address
- The recipient gets an email. They click the link
- They go into RightSignature’s interface and use their mouse or other input device to put their signature into the online signature pad
- You then have a legally binding agreement (according to them they comply with US and EU directives)
It’s a pretty cool service for small businesses that don’t want the expense of couriering documents all over the place or (ugh) dealing with a fax machine.
There is also an iPhone app that lets you sign the document using the iPhone’s touchpad.
Another cool feature is that RightSignature interfaces with FreshBooks, so you can create estimates or invoices in FreshBooks and send them to clients for them to sign in RightSignature all with a few clicks.
RightSignature has a range of plans from free for 5 documents per month and 1 user, up to $249/month for Unlimited documents and 50 users.
Would you use an online signing service, or do you still need that pen-to-paper?
Video: Scanning A Book With the ScanSnap
September 10, 2009
We all know that a desktop scanner like the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 or S1500M is good for scanning a whole bunch of documents, but how about scanning an actual book?
Came across this video from Japan (I think) where the guy used a heavy duty paper cutter (like this one?) to cut the spine off a book and then ran it through his ScanSnap.
If only I had room for a paper cutter…
How about you, does anyone out their use their ScanSnap or other scanner to scan in books?
Carbonite Remote File Access Lets You Get Your Files From Anywhere
September 8, 2009
Most people know that Carbonite is a good solution for backing up your PC or Mac. However, what a lot of people don’t know is that you can also access your backed-up files on the go.
A while ago, Carbonite rolled out their new Remote File Access feature.
To access it, go the Carbonite homepage. Up at the top right you will see a link for Remote Access.
Once you’re in there, you can see the files have backed up for your computer(s) and you can navigate the tree view.
There are a few limitations to this. A few types of files can’t be accessed or downloaded via remote file access:
- Windows Encrypted Files
- Mac Package Directories (such as the application packages in the Applications folder)
- Files backed up by Carbonite version 2.3 or earlier (if you started backing up with Carbonite in late 2007 then you have 3.0 or higher).
When you’re using online backup, is having remote file access like Carbonite an important feature for you? Or would you prefer a vendor not have it at all?
Home Document Manager For Windows Now Supports ScanSnap
September 3, 2009
I’ve been interacting with Tim Haughton (@documentmanager) quite a bit on Twitter lately, and he let me know that one of the most requested features of Home Document Manager has now been implemented – it now works with the Fujitsu ScanSnap.
Uses A Watch Folder
Traditionally, Home Document Manager has worked with TWAIN scanners, which we all know the ScanSnap does not support. The way they did it is using a watch folder. You configure ScanSnap Manager to save the PDF to a folder, and then configure Home Document Manager to watch that folder. Whenever you scan something using the ScanSnap (or, of course, just save the file in that folder), Home Document Manager will import it. You can either use ScanSnap’s OCR or Home Document Manager’s.
HDM has a comprehensive blog post showing how it’s all done.
What Is Home Document Manager?
HDM is a Windows only document management solution. For a Windows program (sorry 
) it looks pretty good.
I installed it here and while the software requires .NET, which I did not have, the software installed it for me and I was good to go.
Home Document Manager has a number of functions:
- Import BMP, JPG, TIF, GIF, or PDF files
- Scan directly into Home Document Manager from a TWAIN scanner. If your scanner does not support TWAIN (such as a ScanSnap), scan to a watch folder to automatically import
- OCR them to make them into searchable PDFs. If importing a PDF that is not already searchable, it will OCR it to make it searchable
- Sort and manage your documents in a folder structure of your choosing
- Search within PDFs to find what you’re looking for
- Choose where you want the imported files to be stored
You have a choice of whether you want to delete the source file that you are importing. If you choose to do that, make sure you have a backup of the folder where your HDM information is stored in case something ever becomes corrupted.
All in all, if you are a Windows user, I recommend checking out Home Document Manager. It’s $49 but there is a 60 day/50 document trial so you can see how it works out for you.
NeatWorks For Mac Ready For Snow Leopard
September 1, 2009
One thing I should mention amongst all the posts about whether the ScanSnap is compatible with Snow Leopard. Back on August 26, NeatWorks for Mac version 2.1.7 was released that makes the software compatible with Snow Leopard.
From their blog post on the topic:
The next major release of NeatWorks, slated for the fall of 2009, will deliver new features that utilize technologies such as Quick Look, Core Image, and Image Capture that Apple introduced in OS X 10.5 and improved in OS X 10.6.
Sounds good! NeatWorks users, make sure you upgrade if you are going to take a look at Snow Leopard.
(Source: Neat Company Blog)
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