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Since I travel around and carry my laptop, I've come up with various strategies to keep my data synced on as many as five different computers with two different operating systems.
So far, one of the ways that has worked best for me is Dropbox. It's a folder that sets on each of your computers and is synced with a master folder kept on the company's servers. The free version gives you 2+ Gig of room, which is plenty for someone who is usually using text files.
I also use GoogleDocs for collaborating with others and MobileMe for moving larger files from one machine to another. MobileMe costs money but the other two are free at the basic level -- and DropBox will give you an extra 250 Meg in the free version if you use the link I gave above to sign up. I'll get an extra 250 Meg too for each one who signs up, but that's not a big deal, really. I haven't even used half of the first Gig yet.
There are other sorts of these services and some are better than others but DropBox is really simple to use and GoogleDocs is amazing at handling actual simultaneous editing of the same document, as long as two writers are not altering the same passage at the same time.
I've tried Scribd, too, which has an additional wrinkle -- you can sell access to what you've written. The deal they offer is not quite as good as Lulu.com's ebooks, nor is it as easy to use as a reader but it's a bit easier to set up as an author. And it's basically free at the lowest level of service.
Just a few possibly useful notes from an insomniac. :)
Hugs,
Erin
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Thanks for the suggestions...
... A few years ago, I worked at a company that was a beta site for "Groove"... This is now included in the "uber" M$ Office package. It had several of the same features as Dropbox - including some collaboration features that were interesting. No clue how much it costs these days though... And, I suspect only Windoze support.
For sensitive information that I can't put on a public site (which Dropbox & GoogleDocs are) is a flash drive that I carry & manually 'clone' and haul around with me (okay I carry two, okay it's three, but the third is more of a conversation piece - I mean 256MB? Come one.... LOL ) This has the added advantage of working when the Internet's not available (or the sites are blocked - which some corporation do... Imagine that. They even block BCTS.
Thanks again for the references.
Annette
I do my writing on three
I do my writing on three different computers, so Dropbox looks rather promising. I just signed up for it, so you'll get that 250 mb you don't need. ;) Thanks for the info, I didn't realize there were free services like this out there.
Saless
"But it is also tradition that times *must* and always do change, my friend." - Eddie Murphy, Coming To America
Just to join in...
My solutions for multiple computers, multiple operating systems (Mac, Linux, iPhone, occasionally Windows):
Email: My mail server support IMAP (as most do) so I need only log in with any modern mail client and it's all there. I usually use Thunderbird on all platforms with a keyboard, but Apple Mail on both desktop and iPhone works with that too, as does Outlook Express (only did that to try it) on Windows. But very few mail clients won't support it.
Web browsing: My bookmarks and other stuff is synced between my various computers using XMarks, formerly FoxMarks. This started as a Firefox extension, and Firefox is my preferred browser on all platforms mostly for Adblock Plus, but XMarks will also sync with IE and Safari.
"Office": OpenOffice.org; works the same on all the main platforms.
Writing: My ongoing (and past) writing projects are managed using a revision control system, in my case Subversion (svn), hosted on a colo box. I can check out all my writing projects with a single command onto any new machine, and view and make changes on any machine and commit those changes back to the repository. Writing is done in plaintext, so I can use any text editor (as long as it does unix-style (LF) linefeeds) and am not tied down to a given platform's writing application. With the DAV-E app I can even write on the iPhone and commit changes from that anywhere I can get a net connection.
RapidSVN is a reasonable GUI subversion client that works on the three main platforms, though prod me for a better Mac build than they provide. :-)
Text editors used for writing:
Mac: TextMate, WriteRoom
Linux: gedit, geany, pyroom
iPhone: Writeroom.iphone, DAV-E's embedded editor
Windows: e-texteditor (TextMate clone), DarkRoom/JDarkRoom (WriteRoom clone)
The use of subversion probably fulfils the same role that DropBox does for you - and in fact having followed your referral link I may even give that a go, though not for writing as I really prefer that to be hosted on my own system, but just for the various other *stuff* that lies around.
Google Mail is also a good choice for portable mail - and in fact you can set your account up for IMAP too, so you can combine that with a nicer desktop application where available as well as use it through a web browser.
I've *tried* to like Google Docs, but haven't really succeeded. :-) Although it's been a while since I tried it; since before the days of Google Gears, so I don't know how well the problems I had have been resolved - like working away from a net connection. I don't really do collaborative in that sense either, for writing: my proofers email typos/suggested fixes and I choose to apply them or not; they don't get edit rights, though they can get viewing rights to the svn repository.
Prolly not Useful for Everyone
But I've fallen in lust with Evernote, as a way to help enable my note-taking habits.
One advantage I have in making files available is that I run my own server with svn and webDAV. Once a file gets put up there, I can get it from anywhere; although I had been looking at Dropbox. Is it like mediafire, where you can provide direct links to files?
I've just signed up for
I've just signed up for Dropbox and haven't had time to mess around with it much yet, but there's a 'Public' folder in it that has a note about public links, so I think the answer is yes.
Saless
"But it is also tradition that times *must* and always do change, my friend." - Eddie Murphy, Coming To America
DropBox seemed a bit slow to
DropBox seemed a bit slow to me. I would want some of my stuff (stories etc) encrypted thus the file i tried to upload was 10mb (TrueCrypt volume) but it would have taken 8 mins to upload. So I doubt i will use it although it looks good :( Currently im using a Cruicial Gizmo Jr. (tiny 8gb usb stick) and TrueCrypt for storing stuff on.
Connection Speed
I have a very fast cable modem connection, so this is not an issue. If you have a slow internet connection, none of these will work well for you. MobileMe is rather slow compared to the others.
Hugs,
erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Unison
When it comes to maintaining a folder across a bunch of systems, I've found Unison to be wonderful. No cost, works great locally or across the network. Does it's best to work across diverse platforms. It uses the rsync protocol as its transport method so only changes in a file get propagated. I've used it for syncing the laptop, and also for keeping the home directories on the servers in sync.
Admittedly no one program is great for everything, but I find myself opting for Unison over Distributed file systems, various copying scripts, and file syncing schemes.
- Aimee Michelle
A completely different take on sharing computers..
I've known several people that had more than one computer running at the same time - and something on one computer was needed on another, or they grabbed the wrong keyboard or mouse...
There's a solution that seems to work well - and been around for a few years called Synergy from SourceForge.net. Works across OSs as well. You've not "lived" until you've dragged a file from one computer to another! LOL
Annette