Tools, Gadgets, and Widgets - Cloud

Backing up data is a critical function of computing life.  In the olden days, as a computer programmer, my company did a double back up. Just in case one back up failed (maybe a bad sector on the disk), we'd have a second back up. The second back up would be stored off site at a data storage facility like Iron Mountain.  Secure but not convenient if you needed the back up toot sweet as you'd have to wait for a driver to retrieve the backup.

Portable solutions like DVDs, thumb drives, and SD cards are convenient. If you don't want the hassle of burning DVDs, carrying around thumb drives,  or SD cards, Office Skydrive is a perfect solution. And it's free! You get 25 GB of free storage. You can upload picture files, documents, even PDF files.

If you're working on a group project, you can select people you want to share files with. You can even give them permission to edit the documents even if they don't have Microsoft Office on their computer. Or you don't have to share files at all. The best part? You can access these files from any computer. Anywhere. That means you don't have to carry around a squid of thumb drives. Now there's no excuse for not backing up.