Number 210 - November 2000

Portal Site - BLOX.COM
by Bob Thomson, Tacoma Open Group for Microcomputers
'Way back in the February 2000 TOGGLE, on page 1, I talked about the new "webtop" or "portal" sites that were beginning to spring up. The idea is that eventually you won't need to own software to create and manipulate spreadsheets, databases, presentations and the like. The software will be provided on these portal sites as well as space to store your data, which then would be available to you from anywhere in the world through the Internet. Presumably, there will be a fee for this service, but at the moment it is free, while the bugs are being worked out. How long will it be free? Who knows? Maybe, as is presently the case, forever--for personal use--with businesses expected to pay for the service.     One such site was HalfBrain.com where you could create your own spreadsheets, presentations or other files and store them on the HalfBrain website. Then, if you travelled, you could call them up and display them on any computer at a remote location without having to carry equipment or disks with you. I created a simple slide show and then told a few friends where to find it and gave them a password to view the slide show. You can do the same.     Since February, several users of the site have created sample files in many, many areas and posted	them for the use of anyone who signs on. The Website name has changed because HalfBrain has been merged into AlphBlox and the Website is now called Blox.com. Here are the areas where spreadsheets and other files have been posted on the site. Each of these areas carries several sample charts, such as:     Business & Finance     Education     Forms     Fun & Entertainment     Health & Fitness     House & Home     Human Resources     Investing & Stocks     Measurement Converter     My Kids     Personal Finance     Sales & Marketing     Science     Sports     Travel     You won't find everything you are looking for, but chances are good that you will find something useful there. You might even be inspired to post an example or two of your own. try it--you may grow to like it.
Number 210 - November 2000