In recent weeks I have been doing some freelance work which involves me commuting to Dublin a couple of times a week. This normally means 2+ hours on a bus. Now I do not use a desktop computer exactly though my Dell XPS M1730 is a little cumbersome for the bus journey to say the very least.
Not to worry though also have a nice little Dell Mini 12 which I use when I need to be portable. Coupled with a USB 3g Broadband device I can be quite mobile.
Accessing the big machine!
So in the past few weeks I have discovered some applications that I would simply be lost without. The first of which I would like to talk about is LogMeIn. This is a very compact web based remote access program. The program itself sits the computer that you want remote access to and then you take control via any web browser. Super simple and for home users free. I use LogMeIn when the task at hand is a little to challenging for the 1.6GHz Atom processor or 1GB ram on the Mini 12.
I do not always log in to my main machine at home though when I am working on the bus. Sometimes I use the little Dell. Despite the relatively low spec, there are times that I need to open a file locally to get the full range of colour etc.
Keeping files in sync
In the first few weeks this meant duplicating files right left and centre on the two machines. Often meaning leaving home with the wrong (outdated copy of a file I had been working on. Enter DropBox. The basic service is again free of charge. Setup is straight forward and the application is quite small. You set a directory on your machine and DropBox keeps it in sync with any other machines that you have linked to your DropBox account.
I have been using it to very good effect in the previous weeks. It also means that I am rarely carrying a USB stick with me as I can access all of the files in my DropBox account via their web interface also. DropBox works on Windows, Mac and Linux which is very handy as I work on a Mac in the office. You can buy a premium account to increase the storage though the 2gb free account will be enough for most people.
Mobile
Of course I also use my iPhone when I am on the road. In recent weeks it has become even more useful with ActiveSync of mail and contact to gMail. I am considering hosted exchange for email having seen the advantages it has to offer after setting it up for a client of mine. We shall see though. DropBox above also has an iPhone app with limited support for opening certain file types. Really handy in a bind though.
I will be updating this a little more regularly as I find more useful applications for those on the move.
