Working online provides a host of solutions for managing your files. Cloud computing has allowed for large virtual server farms to span the globe via direct Internet access and file downloads. This cloud environment has created a method for delivering files more quickly and effortlessly than with standard physical servers.

By using a Content Delivery Network (CDN), webmasters have the option of storing alternate static files on servers worldwide. Then packet requests are sent to users based on their locations, so files can be loaded much quicker. Similarly you may store files in the cloud and share them with your friends or colleagues. This solution of virtualized servers in the cloud has provided a means for accessing files easier than ever before.

I would like to use this article as a look into some of the more popular CDN and cloud sharing applications. Small businesses and even freelancers can benefit tremendously by keeping a local backup of files along with copies in the cloud as needed. This provides the option of working from any computer with access to data that would otherwise be impossible.

Recommended Reading: 10 Important Factors To Consider Before Choosing A Web Host

Why Use Content Delivery Networks?

I should preface this list by saying that CDNs are not for everybody.

High-traffic websites and web applications would however notice a tremendous benefit in latency because of download speeds and performance. When you have visitors from all over the world, physical servers are limited to data transfers from a local connection.

The purpose of a delivery network is to deliver your static files (CSS, JS, Images) from the most convenient server farm based on the user’s location. So you may have people accessing your American-hosted website from Australia, Europe, Japan, and South America. Each of them could be served much quicker through a geographically-based cloud network.

A CDN can also be tied onto a particular domain or subdomain of your own website. This gives the illusion of hosting files on an alternate server which is also handy for backups. Any premium CDN will charge a hefty fee for their services, but some networks are very cheap or even free to take out for a test drive.

The Best CDN Web Services

I have put together a compilation of 7 outstanding Content Delivery Networks which provide exceptional service all around. Some are more expensive than others and some networks have much broader coverage than others. But this process is all about filling your specific needs for hosting solutions in the cloud.

1. CloudFlare

The CloudFlare network is actually quite expansive if you check out their regional map. I really like their service because CloudFlare is one of the few providers to offer a free plan. Also their servers cover the globe in many densely populated hotspots. Check out their plans & pricing page to see all the options you have available.

Anybody who is just getting interested in CDNs should try the free plan and get a better understanding. The backend system can be a little confusing until you have spent time working with a service provider. CloudFlare also boasts an incredible amount of security and support for detailed issues. I would call this one of the best “learning grounds” to get your feet wet.

But even though newcomers are just learning the ropes, more professional plans can offer plenty of beneficial features as well. It is worth noting that nobody will jump into a service paying money if they can try it out for free! CloudFlare does not charge based on bandwidth, but instead by a monthly fee and limited data caps. It’s a huge marketing bonus to the company and it gives interested clients a chance to gauge their potential without much risk.

2. CacheFly

I haven’t done much testing with CacheFly’s CDN but I can give credit to the name recognition and plenty of top-tier clients. CacheFly is serving files for companies which include Cartoon Network, Microsoft, Bandai-Namco, and Adobe. CacheFly as a company has been around since early 2002 and has one solid track record for hosting files in the cloud.

One interesting point on their homepage is the guided video tour which explains a bit about Content Delivery Networks. If you are still fuzzy on the concept I recommend watching the clip. It’s about 2-3 minutes long and provides a great explanation of what CacheFly can do.

The biggest issue I have with CacheFly is their distorted levels of pricing. You are paying close to $100/month on their simplest plan for only 256GB data transfer. This equates to about .25TB monthly before you would hit excess transfer charges. If you aren’t receiving enormous levels of traffic to your website or to website media (images, video) then CacheFly is probably worth waiting to put off for later.

3. Windows Azure

Microsoft, in my opinion, has always been on the fence with some really great & really bad software releases in the past two decades. But I would argue Windows Azure is one fascinating new launch which has a lot of potential in the realm of cloud hosting.

You can sign up for a free 90-day trial which offers all the basics for cloud users. This plan comes with 10 possible websites, 35GB of storage and 20GB CDN bandwidth. For anybody seriously considering CDN cloud hosting you should really give Azure a shot. Even before going onto a paid plan it’s worthwhile for testing purposes.

How Azure will stack up against other CDNs I can’t really say. It is still very new, but for webmasters Azure offers a lot of extra functionality like SQL database storage. If you have specific needs for your website try their price calculator to get an average cost estimate. You may be surprised with how economical Microsoft’s CDN will stack up compared with alternatives.

4. NetDNA

If you know that your website drives a lot of traffic and you need a seriously fast & stable delivery network, go with NetDNA. I have never been more impressed with a company who is willing to work directly with clients and solve specific bandwidth problems on their website infrastructure.

Some of their top client case studies include Template Monster, Sitepoint, and BuySellAds. These are big-name Internet companies which solely rely on NetDNA to deliver content across the globe. Their content is protected by SSL and may include rich media such as HD 720p/1080p video.

It’s also interesting if you check out their pricing chart you will notice that data is charged differently based on location. The cost get can very pricey when you are running multiple websites with an international audience. But webmasters who need a specific service may be interested in NetDNA’s other brands. CloudCache actually works off the MaxCDN network and runs as a partner with NetDNA.

Alternatively HDDN is a video storage and streaming network geared towards HD video. Websites which need to host tutorials or online videos may consider this service a lot more valuable than a typical CDN. There is more information in the pricing plans which give a solid breakdown of data usage. Spend some time working out numbers if you need to stream rich media files and see if the prices are worth paying to handle large bursts of traffic.

5. MaxCDN

The MaxCDN cloud hosting/CDN service is actually part of the greater NetDNA network. This is one of their smaller brands which is the perfect solution for small-to-medium sized businesses. This is especially true with blogs or online magazines which are displaying a lot of unique content on a single webpage.

Why I love MaxCDN so much is their flexible pay-as-you-go pricing plan which starts at $40 for 1TB of data. If you aren’t familiar with units of data transfer 1TB is just about 1000GB (which is huge). Any small business or new startup can hold onto this limit for a very long time without going over. But MaxCDN is very handy in that your account will receive a warning message when your limit is getting close.

After the initial 1TB of data is used you would be paying $70 for each additional Terabyte added. There are no time limits for when the data caps would run out, so you can hold onto this storage for as long as needed. This is one of the best CDNs for somebody who knows they want good quality but don’t have a lot of money to deal with overage fees and complicated monthly plans.

6. Google App Engine

Possibly the greatest advantage to using Google’s App Engine is that you can get disk space and file hosting through Google for absolutely free! Developers can sign up for a new application account and determine how much space is required for their app. Google is one of the more notorious tech companies in the world and holds a very strong reputation for security.

Google also has a lot of money to shell out for hardware and data centers. This means you can count on Google to serve your files through a tremendous network of server farms. You should understand that although Google offers a free plan, their CDN is at least 10x more powerful than those limitations. So if you have the money it would be worthwhile to pay for their more premium services.

When scouring the web recently I found a tutorial for setting up App Engine and how to create your first online CDN repository. This is an excellent step-by-step guide for newcomers who are not yet familiar with Google’s interface. There is some interaction with the command prompt but the whole process isn’t very difficult and actually fairly easy to replicate if you have the guide.

Also the App Engine interface is more of a solution for cloud-based storage in general. The most conclusive solution would be a CDN but it can host many of your core website files as well. There is a limit on the amount of disk space/bandwidth you may use, but Google has one of the best platforms for storing your website files in the cloud.

7. Rackspace

The Rackspace website is mostly filled with hosting plans for server space. But surprisingly they have broken into the business of public cloud CDN hosting partnered with the Akami Network. This delivery network is huge and gives your files a direct connection to almost anywhere in the entire world. There are multiple locations found all around the United States and Europe, along with Asia, Australia, and South America.

Now one alternatively interesting tidbit of info is that Rackspace has their own Cloud Files API which is public for any programmers to build with. You can upload large sets of files to the cloud by programming your own interface. This could be a desktop application or even a website application based on PHP or another common backend language.

When talking about pricing the storage & streaming charges are superbly reasonable. Any files stored in the cloud on server HDDs will cost $0.10/GB per month as long as your account is active. Then for all bandwidth used in a month Rackspace charges an additional $0.18/GB. If you are hosting reasonably sized files you could get away with paying $5-10 monthly for a huge performance boost.

Sharing Files in the Cloud

For this last segment I have composed a mini-showcase of alternative file sharing websites. These are all cloud-based solutions where you can upload files to the Internet and then share links with your friends or coworkers. All these services offer a free account plan to new users for sharing files with as many people as you’d like.

These file storage services can also double as a private cloud host for your own personal files. It can be annoying to find room for hosting backups and important documents, let alone keep them with you everywhere. But paying for a premium account with a website like RapidShare or MediaFire guarantees access to your files from any computer with an Internet connection.

4Shared

MediaFire

FileFactory

CloudApp

HotFile

BitShare

Uploading

Dropbox

DepositFiles

RapidShare

YouSendIt

SendSpace

GigaSize

Rapid Gator

TurboBit

Hitfile

Netload

Ziddu

Final Thoughts

Everybody will have a different purpose for working within the cloud. We all work with varying types of data and will thus need to shift focus accordingly. But I would argue that any project or business venture will notice benefits by working with cloud hosting techniques.

This article should provide a solid overview of CDNs and cloud file distribution in general. It is my hope that newer web developers will take the time to research this topic and learn more about file storage and cloud server infrastructure. Additionally if you have any suggestions or thoughts on the post feel free to share with us in the discussion area.

‘Passion’ is a word so excessively used and almost always blindingly paired with work, that if you actually ask around you may find that not everyone really gets what Passion is. At the root of it all, it points to that strong emotion you have inside of you, for someone, or some thing. And anyone who has ever succeeded in making a name for themselves would probably state their passion for the work / craft / industry as a reason for their success, but do you know yours?

(Image Source: firsttoknow)

I asked around, compiled some questions, got some answers, had a few headaches trying to decipher why everyone is telling me different things about what passion is to them. For example, some equate a passion (for something) to a hobby or a dream, but just because you love to sing (in the shower), that doesn’t necessarily mean that your passion is the act of singing.

Here are 10 things you should know about passion, which can perhaps help you find what your real passion is.

Recommended Reading: 8 Tell-Tale Signs You’re A Geek

1. It’s not A Hobby or A Dream

There should be a purposeful word choice in what you use in a sentence. With this logic in mind, ‘Passion’ is as far from a ‘hobby’ as a ‘hobby’ is to a ‘dream’. One special ingredient separates passion from the two. In the 2004 movie, National Treasure, treasure hunter Benjamin Gates asks his sidekick, Riley, this simple question: "We don’t need someone crazy. But one step short of crazy, what do you get?"

His sidekick says "Obsessed" but he corrects him with "Passionate."

When you do what you love to do at a moderate level, you can call it a hobby. It could be cooking, gardening, singing in the shower, disassembling gadgets, playing with action figures; the mix. But when you go all out with it, to the point that someone deems you a step short from crazy, that’s passion for you.

2. Being Happy With Your Passion

And you do it for a few reasons, one of which is because of how it makes you feel. Passion is engrained in your body and soul. For me, when you are really happy doing something, there’s a hint of what you are passionate about right there.

From that, add a level of obsession to it, a lot of man-hours, a devotion second only to a dog’s love for its master, and that’s just about as close as you can get to pinpointing what your passion is.

(Image Source: My Modern Met)

One of the reasons defining passion is so different from one man to another, is because sometimes it is hard to pin down what your real passion is.

3. You might not see it

It’s not true that passion has to be something that you can feel (as in touch, in physical form). Sometimes it is an effect of what you do. Believe it or not, some people really like to help other people, and that is really important in some professions e.g. a nurse in a child’s hospital, a social welfare worker, a flight attendent, a special needs teacher etc.

That effect not only pushes them to get out of bed and face all kinds of things that would cause you and me to break down on a daily basis (see #4) but they also do it because their passion is to make a difference in someone’s life.

4. Rough It Out

To be passionate about something is to weather the storm no matter how hard it is. If practising for hours on the guitar makes the skin of your fingers break, or dancing the ballet to the tune of the nutcracker gives you ugly toes, passion says ‘so be it’.

(Image Source: philosophyforchange)

You cease to care because at the end of the day you just want to be known as the person who can play Stairway to Heaven in your sleep or still dance even without all your limbs attached (go ahead, click it. It’s beautiful).

5. Childhood Crush

A probable source for what we are passionate about may come from what we were exposed to during our childhood. Many simple things such as sketching, music, collecting action figures or airplane models that we did when we were young evolve to become what we are passionate about when we are adults.

Have you seen what they can do with LEGO bricks? With just pen and paper? With wooden blocks? With trash and light? They may have the talent to do those things but passion is what brings those things from thought to reality, even when they are well into adulthood. For them, growing up doesn’t mean the same thing as letting go of what you love doing.

6. Being passionate is Being invested

Invested here refers to how much of you, you put inside your passion. The time, the effort, the costs, the blood and sweat – it’s not always positive energy or good news all the way (see #4). Passionate people may be angry almost all the time – passion is a combination of love and hatred – because along with the obsession, comes a need for perfection.

(Image Source: stephenwiltshire)

"Good enough" is never good enough because the passion does not allow it. And it has to do with #7.

7. You Don’t Mind Going Full Nerd

No one can describe passion better than geeks and nerds. It probably began as a hobby, then it became a favorite pastime, then a partime unpaid job (because of the hours you spend on it), then you start collecting and learning the jargon, and joining communities of fellow fans.

This is where you shut out almost everything else and fully devote yourself into pursuing and elevating what you love so that it is out in the limelight, looked at by the rest of the world. And the irony of it is, the world probably don’t and won’t ‘get it’. But you do and you don’t care.

8. You can’t stop it

Say you don’t want to go full nerd on it; well, here’s the bad news, you can’t stop it or refrain from doing it. It’s always there in your heart and up there at the back of your mind. You can’t switch it off or tone it down. And you won’t stop until you have let it all out or satisfy your craving – be it to draw your next masterpiece, or to write your breakthrough novel, or to redefine an industry. Follow it far enough in your career and your life and something big may come of it.

9. Raw Passion, Ambitions & Limits

At least the one thing that everyone could agree on about passion is that it is closely associated with drive, enthusiasm, limitless energy, motivation, the push, etc. Passion can be transformed into raw enthusiasm which is then processed into an internal drive that keeps you going.

Passionate people are almost always ambitious. They want to have a say in the field that they love. They read about it, study it, embrace it and never really escape from it. It is a gift and a curse. And I don’t think everyone has it.

10. Embracing Passion

"It is obvious that we can no more explain a passion to a person who has never experienced it than we can explain light to the blind." – T.S. Elliot

I think about passion the same way that I think about talent. Not everyone is gifted with it. Even if they are, not everyone has the bravery or the opportunity to embrace their passion. In order to survive, most of us prefer to be practical rather than passionate.

"Get a steady job, buy a car, pay your bills, sign checks, manage accounts." Don’t get me wrong, it is necessary to have a steady income to pursue your dreams but I don’t believe it when people say, "I am passionate about my work". Are you working for the money or for what you love? It’s a fine line between the two, but to be technical about it, it’s still a line.

Conclusion

When it comes to passion – a strong emotion of desire – there is a need to be brave enough to both acknowledge and embrace it. Some let their passion take over the wheel and do things that challenge the status quo, push boundaries, wreck tradition and ultimately reshape the world as we knew it. To strive for your passion is to be different from the rest. Take it from astronaut Chris Hadfield who has some pretty good advice to share with youngsters who want to one day go to space like how he did.

Do you have the same level of bravery to embrace your passion?

People who are camera shy but want to create viral videos turn to creating animated clips. However, if you’re camera shy plus have no idea how to draw or where to begin about animation, don’t fret. Wideo allows you to create an animated clip without any knowledge of drawing or video editing.

Wideo has a simple editor with easy to understand controls and many pre-loaded objects, shapes, backgrounds and sounds for you to create an animated clip with. It’s so simple to use that you’ll be able to start animating and creating your own video after checking out all its cool features, so read on!

Recommended Reading: Cartoonize Your Face With iMadeFace iPhone App

Getting Started With Wideo

Before creating your first animated clip on Wideo, you must register for a user account to save your projects. The controls on the video editor are very simple to navigate:

1. Horizontal Controls – Undo, Redo and Save; Vertical buttons – Insert background, objects, shapes, texts or sounds.
2. Animation / Editing area – Where the magic happens.
3. Timeline and Scenes – Control the speed of your animated objects and add multiple scenes.

Creating A Simple Animation

First, choose an object to animate. There are a lot of pre-loaded objects you can choose from or you can always upload one of your own.

For illustration purposes, we are going to create an animation of an object entering the scene. First, you’ll have to put the object outside the scene, then click on the animate button.

Choose the starting position of your object. Place it anywhere in the screen and when you’ve found the perfect location, click OK.

Now drag the object somewhere else and you’ll see the path the object will take. Once you’ve determined where you want your object to stop, click on OK again.

You have now created a simple animation where the object ‘flies’ in from the left to the center of the screen.

Now that you’ve learnt how to move an object from point A to point B, you can move that same object from point B to C, D, E, and so on. Using the same method, you can continue dragging the object and clicking on OK to register each point.

Understanding The Timeline

Creating that simple animation above adds a few things to the timeline. You’ll notice the markers (white circles with orange outlines) at the start and end of the timeline.

You can move the markers to different points on the timeline to determine when the object enters and when it completes its movement.

A marker will be added to the timeline every time a point (C, D, E) is added. You can move and evenly spread out these markers to ensure a smooth movement of the object throughout the scene.

You can also reduce or increase the scene duration depending on your project.

Grouping and Scenes

There are other cool features including grouping multiple objects together so that they can be animated as one object. You do this by dragging your mouse over multiple objects, then clicking on group.

If you are aiming to create longer animations, you can break down your storylines by creating one scene after the other. Animate on a new scene by clicking Scenes then the ‘+’ button. This ensures your previously animated scenes are not affected by subsequent scenes, making your stories more manageable.

Limitations

However, there are no layering options. All objects will intersect with each other with no difference in perspective or position when placed in close proximity.

All videos will also have a 5-second branding ad at the end of the video. If you don’t want this you need to pay a fee of $9 to have it removed, or $29 to have it removed from a video you want to download. If you feel like you will be using this a lot more often, there is a flat annual fee of $149 for ad removal, and $249 for ad removal from a downloaded video.

Conclusion

Wideo is pretty cool and has a lot of functionality and flexibility when it comes to basic animation, plus you can upload your own sounds or images to use as an object too. Overall, Wideo is easy to understand and master after playing with it for a few hours. You’ll soon start creating beautiful animated clip masterpieces like this "5 Reasons to Date a Geek" clip.

The new tab page in modern browsers, for most people, is rarely used for anything other than opening a new webpage, but here is one app that is changing that. OneFeed is best described as a desktop for your browser. It replaces your default new tab page and brings it to life to help you get everything you need and love in the same place.

Recommended Reading: 10 Firefox Plugins For A Safer Browsing Experience

Home Screen

When opening a new tab page the user will be presented with a beautiful, crystal clear and organized home screen layout that allows up to eight widgets on each page.

These home screen widgets can contain Dropbox or Google Drive files, most visited and bookmarked websites, Google Chrome extensions and even direct website URLs.

Personally, having eight widgets for my home screen is just not enough to fit all my stuff on there. If this is the case for you, simply right click a blank spot on the homepage and choose to create an empty screen or remove the one you are currently on.

All Your Social Accounts, Together

Busy with your social feeds? OneFeed, yet again, can save you time by connecting all your favorite social accounts into one feed. Easily search your accounts with the universal search, read feeds from those accounts and customize what you see in your other feeds in OneFeed.

OneFeed currently supports the linking of these accounts (which has pretty much most of the bases covered):

• Google
• Twitter
• Google+
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Dropbox
• Google Drive

Universal Search

OneFeed features a powerful search option on the top of each and every screen. Use this search option to easily search all the accounts you have linked (and searched) in your default search engine.

The only problem I have with the universal search and in fact, the only problem I have with OneFeed is that it will sometimes ignore some of the files I absolutely know I have in my Google Drive or Dropbox accounts. Hopefully this will soon be fixed in the near future.

News Feed

There are two main screens, the home screen and the news feed/social screen. When under the news feeds screen it is easy to stay up to date with all the current news stories, articles and other media from all your favorite media sources. The news feed (by default) covers many topics and categories such as business, tech, sport, entertainment etc.

Customization

Who doesn’t enjoy customization? With the OneFeed customizer you can easily and instantly change the color, background and source of your OneFeed extension and new tab page.

Within OneFeed, you don’t have to miss out on your favorite content either! Easily remove or add your favorite news or media websites and sources with the news feed source editor.

Conclusion

OneFeed is not only a great way to spruce up and customize your ‘new tab’ page, but it is great for saving time and increasing your productivity. I don’t believe I will ever be thinking about going back to the old default tab page now that I have OneFeed, my new tab page’s look is great, has tons of useful features and save me loads of time.

Now, go and try out OneFeed for yourself and let us know how you like it!