Get Moving!

As the information flows faster the ability of keeping up with the flow is becoming more and more important, critical in some cases! In order to keep up with the fast pace of information we need to be able to access any given piece of data from anywhere, anytime. This information can be public and thus be accessible to everyone, or personal and require user authentication.

By definition I assume public information is out there and you don't need to anything particularly to obtain it! Private information on the other hand...

In this post I'll talk about how can someone use technology in order to be able to perform any of their usual routine anywhere in almost any peace of equipment available . For this i make one assumption, it's supposed to have an internet connection always available!

Trough out this post I'll make some suggestions that are based only on personal experience, I also don't know all features of the available services so feel free comment if you think other service is better (and why).

• Email
  

Email is supposed to be easy accessible.

You can access your email through a program installed on your computer (like Outlook Express, Evolution, Thunderbird or Kmail, etc...), via browser (Firefox, IE, Opera, etc...) or you can do it both ways, an hybrid solution;

Mobility wise, having the email stored in an online mail server is probably the best solution. This way you can access it from any point with internet.

There are a lot of web-based mail server's,I personally use Gmail because all that space available (almost 5Gb!), the clean interface and a lot of features I need (like pop access to other email accounts). The possibility of using your own domain with Google Apps. And the gmail app for s60 mobile phones that allows you a comfortable access mail from your phone.

• Address Book
  

The list of your contact's information should be always with you; You can choose between an actual address book (made of paper) or a digital one; Usually the address book is also provided by the same service that provides email, but there are others that can be used separately.

I use Gmail address book, that is far from being perfect (it's better since the update of Gmail, but anyway...), it's a bit stiff and doesn't have that much option that'll allow the creation of a true contact card; It also lack integration with the other Google services (like gCal on the contact's date of anniversary); I also keep my phone address book sync with the Gmail contact list; This requires an intricate process that converts Gmail address book to Outlook's and then syncing with the mobile phone.

• Agenda
  

Your daily planing and to do list. You should be able to check and modify (add/delete) this information easily. There are many option that provide this kind of features but there are two I personally recommend; gCal for agenda, it has a lot of cool features, the best is probably SMS notification, and this service is free (at least for Portugal). This mean that not only you are able to access the all information from anywhere, but you will also be notified before your appointments.

I use Remember the Milk as a to do list. This is a recent change; Just a while ago i used a regular sheet of paper and carried it around with me! But with Remember the Milk's integration with iGoogle it become the better solution, because not only I'd get my tasks displayed upfront when I open my browser but also have a robust tool to manage my tasks (and not risk losing the paper of my long-term tasks).
Unfortunately Remember the Milk still lacks SMS notification support for Portugal!

• Browser Definitions
  

(Mostly for Firefox users) This means Bookmarks, Stored Passwords and Extensions; Google Browser Sync, an Add-on for Mozilla Firefox takes pretty good care of Bookmarks and Stored Passwords syncing (as well as Cookies and Browsing History). Syncing extensions is a little bit harder, but it can be done with FolderShare (only on Windows).

• Files
  

FolderShare propose is folder syncing across the internet so this part is pretty much covered; But, if you need your files in computers with Linux, you can always upload them, using a service like the one provided by DivShare that offers unlimited online space for you to upload whatever you want.

• Documents
  

Another great tool from Google is GoogleDocs that is primarily an online editor (for text, spreadsheets and sideshow presentation) but also provide the storage for those documents; Alternatively you can always use DivShare (or other like it) to upload your files.

• Remote Desktop
  

There are plenty solutions but there are two worth mention. VNC (like in tightvnc) that allows to control your computer (although you have to install the software both on the server and client computer); And just for Windows users LogMeIn, that only requires software being installed in the client computer and the access is done through the browser, perfect!


Final Considerations
One of the most problematic issue in mobility is when there's the need to use computers with different Operating Systems; Although Linux as many advantages the services available for Windows make it a better choice when coming to have your information accessible;

Another service only available for Windows is PortableApps, that allows having multiple programs and the custom settings stored in an USB drive. Thus having you personal settings wherever you go.

So, as a Linux user I'd like to see some improvement in this area, specially in services like LogMeIn and Portable Apps.

Enjoy, and GET MOVING!