A Dozen Free Mac OSX Applications I Couldn’t Live Without -part 8

Live Mesh from Microsoft

Although not a big Microsoft supporter, I must admit that they do have a decent free online storage service or Online desktop as they call it.

This service -because it is more then just an application- provides you with an online desktop of 5GB and let’s you synchronize certain folders on your Mac with your online desktop.

You can choose if this should happen one-way or bidirectional. Live Mesh is currently in it’s beta phase and supports only Intel Macs running Leopard (OS X 10.5) or Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6)

You have to download the Live Mesh agent which provides you information about which folders are being synched between Mac and Online Desktop and which Users have access to those folders.

You can access your files from any random computer with an internet connection, you can share these files or specific folders with other users.

I use it personally to backup my documents and professionally to share documents with colleagues.

The betaversion vcan be tried and downloaded here.

A Dozen Free Mac OSX Applications I Couldn’t Live Without -part 6

FileSync + DSW


Today I want to talk about a software combo I found to be very useful. The tag-team I am referring to is Do Something When and FileSync.

FileSync lets you synchronize two (or multiple) folders with each other. It’s really easy to use. 
Just use the ‘Add’ button to create a sync rule and then press ‘Sync’ to start your synchronization. A Progress window will open and keeps you informed of the files that are being treated.

DSW (Do Something When) on the other hand is a preference pane that, once loaded, will do something when a certain rule applies. You can trigger your self-made rules by mounting/unmounting volumes (drives) or launching/quitting applications.

In my setup when I insert a specific USB Key it will load File Sync. This way I can easily make a synchronization of my professional folders and files when I want it. If I don’t feel like synching, I just press ‘Quit’ in FileSync.

DSW can be downloaded here and FileSync here.