Has dropbox’s reign finally started to decline? We’ve all heard and/or experienced their lack of security, and it seems others have stepped up with their own versions. Some already launched, some still in open beta.
Take a look and see for yourself if any of these options can replace your dependance on dropbox:

Minus
This is an open-sourced application that is almost identical to dropbox however it initially gives you 10 gigs, the source-code is hosted on github, has an iPhone, Android and browser apps and uses encryption up the wazoo. It also allows you to share your files in a global directory or keep them private for only those who you give the url to. Ohh, did i forget to mention you can upload up to 2 gigs per file? It’s definitely a huge condenser in this match.

SugarSync
Once again similar to dropbox, it’s made to sync files across all platforms from a cloud-hosted source. This gives you a free 5 gig account to play with but unlike dropbox, it has a built-in music player for any media files uploaded. It also has apps for just about every phone OS on the market as well as automatic sync apps you can install on your desktop. Sadly it only lets you share files that are no bigger than 25megabytes at a time.

Sparkleshare
This is not just a web-hosted service, but rather an open-source, github hosted platform that allow you to host your own version of the dropbox service. Not only that but there are already builds out for just about every type of software/server/OS. Every interaction with the service is encrypted (unlike dropbox) and you can even use github as a share instead of a server.

ownCloud
This is yet another self-hosted cloud sync service, though it uses WebDAV access, slows for OpenID authentication and also can sync between multiple servers (i.e. you can literally create your own cloud). It also has functionality in place for user and group access, streaming, and is current working on the next version which will include bookmark & calendar syncing as well. Should be interesting once it’s finished.

LIBOX
This is currently already in production, its a web-hosted file sharing site with NO SIZE limitations on the media you upload to share…it also can sync to most platforms and just about every mobile device. Some what cool, check it out. Completely 100% free.

iFolder
Here’s another self-hosted version, though it lets you use multiple servers that sync creating as big of a cloud as you’d like to connect your devices to in order to sync. It also allows for users to have multiple folders, enabling different users access to different material shared, including the ability to give users disk quotas (i.e multi-level administration). It can be installed on any server with openLDAP and viewed from just about anywhere.

There are just a few of many new ways you can achieve the same type of file synchronization that dropbox has enabled us, just some with added bonuses and encryption.

Running your website or app off a small VPS or old computer? Want to speed up load times? Google can help! Today Google released a new apache module called mod_pagespeed that implements over 15 server optimizations that supposedly can reduce page load times by up to 50%! Some important features of mod_pagespeed are an improved optimized cache as well as minimized payload size and a reduced number of client-server round trips. This is ideally aimed at small businesses and those hosting on low/shared resources, perfect for any DIY developer (or even small hosting company) however Google has already been working with huge tech companies to implement the module on an enterprise level.

Big services like GoDaddy.com and the Cotendo CDN have already implemented the module on their own networks of servers.

Here’s a side-by-side video comparison of the Google Adsense blog with and without mod_pagespeed:

It was a piece of cake to install, just follow the instructions on the official Google Code page for mod_pagespeed.

Just came across a new service that’s been officially approved by Twitter.com: introducing TweepML, an XML based format for sharing lists of twitter user accounts. If you know what OPML is then you already know the concept behind TweepML, it provides a free universal framework for importing, exporting and creating twitter ‘groups’ that can be shared or even stored as a backup of important accounts. The main website, www.tweepml.org, also includes a free follow tool that helps streamline following lists of users via your twitter account.

On the site it has various libraries and examples available to aid developers in implementing TweepML into new or existing apps. Currently the most popular lists seem to be the ones with the largest number of followers. I’d be willing to bet good money that this is already being used by spammers and/or marketers to cultivate their own twitter accounts targeting various ‘groups’ featured on the site…but then again, almost every tool or platform that is useful has the potential for grey/blackhat usage.

Interesting new format, it’s definitely going to make twitter account sharing (not to mention account duplication) a lot easier!

found via mashable

If you use twitter you’ve undoubtably come across a twitter bot, sadly there’s a very good chance it was because it was spamming you. In this post I’ll provide you with all the tools, source code and know-how to be able to build and launch your own twitter bot, and i’ll even give you resources to do it in the programming language of your choice. Why? Because there are so many positive uses for a twitter bot….including anti-spam! Go take a look at the twitter tag project for some good examples of bots currents on twitter if you’re not able to come up with any on your own.

First, if you’d like to fool around with an automated bot on twitter but lack the technical knowhow, go pay a visit to the Botomatic site. There you can create your own bot using their easy-to-use GUI. It’ll take you two seconds and you will be up and running.

If you’re a beginner, have no fear there’s a pre-configured setup for you as well. Go download and install the Twitterbotscript from Tyler Colwell. It’s 100% free and was coded to include a helpful GUI to control the bot functionality. It’s actually a pretty cool package that uses the API. I’ve taken a lot of his code and re-used it in various test bots of my own so i’d definitely recommend anyone looking to script their own bot in PHP to download his app.

Now for the PHP programmers out there, the first example of a great PHP5 twitter bot framework is from the folks over at ohloh.net (Jason Allen and Scott Collison). This one is setup to allow you to search and retweet what you’ve found.

If you’d like to incorporate Jabber/XMPP into the bot (that way you can access it via gchat), then there’s a great tutorial over on jazzychad.com. Tenderapp.com has on their blog a PHP tutorial with full source-code for a twitter bot that will look up the traffic conditions and tweet them when messaged. This one also has a walk-through for getting it up on xmpp/jabber. Here’s the source for a similar bot that looks up the weather and retweets it on command.

If you’d like to setup a twitter bot using Python, Halotis.com has a great tutorial that uses a sqlite backend to keep track of what it’s messaged. For a more elaborate version of an automated bot using python, there’s a script over on the flowingdata.com blog that also incorporates a local mail server to send and receive messages to the bot.

Last but not least, all of you Ruby folks….here’s a Twitter Ruby Gem to go along with the Twitter4R and Twitter Ruby Gems already found in the library. The site also takes you through a few different commands available with this new gem. For complete source-code of a twitter bot written in Ruby, head on over to this snippet of a Ruby RSS Twitter Bot.

Easy as pie and now you’ve got your very own automated twitter bot!

Coudal – The Fish Puzzle
Have some time to waste? Good, you’ll need it!

20 Ajax Effects You Need To Learn
Tutorials and source code, just how I like it.

Smush.it Image Optimizer
Quick and easy website that will optimize your images for viewing on the web. It’s an open-source project run by one of the members of Yahoo!’s “Exceptional Performance Team” – The same group that put out their YSlow Firefox application!

Enjoy!