Need help organizing my digital life!

March 29, 2005 11:31 AM

I need help organizing my digital life! I am an academic who works on three different XP computers...

I work on a desktop in my office (60% of the time, maybe), a laptop at home and about (30%) and a desktop at home (10%). I also use a PDA (Dell Axim w/ wireless) mostly for email, addresses, etc. Much of my days are spent trying to figure out which machine has the latest version of that grant proposal or essay or vacation pictures. I stuck a flash drive on my keychain but I have to remember to use it and anticipate which files I may need later, so it is a marginal help.

Thos of you who work on multiple machines, how do you keep your digital lives orderly and maintain access to important files?

posted by LarryC to computers & internet (10 comments total)

Maybe you should look at collaboration software like Groove Networks Virtual Office tool.

This allows one to share the same files over many different machines and/or locations. Use it for personal use, it's only $69. The tool is a lot like the Windows Explorer, where you drag and drop files across different machines (I believe). There's also a 60-day free trial.
posted by zenorbital at 11:55 AM on March 29, 2005

When I was using multiple computers, I had a CVS repository with all my work in it, and used cvs over ssh to synchronize the two computers. I've since moved over to doing everything on my laptop so I don't bother with this any more. If I were to do it now, I'd use subversion, but I'm not sure there's a windows version of that. This may be too technical for what you want, but it worked really well for me. It won't work so well if you use word (CVS/subversion won't be able to do proper version control on word files afaik); most of my work is in the form of text files (latex), and for that it was very nice.
posted by advil at 12:11 PM on March 29, 2005

I recommend you try to simplify. Ask yourself if you really need three computers and a PDA. I am a programmer, and I love geek toys, but years ago I decided the mental burden of keeping everything synchronized was more than I cared for. So I tossed the PDA and laptop. These days my "desktop" at work is a laptop. That's it. Now I keep my contacts, calendar and to-do list at Yahoo, where they've been for five years. I carry a cell phone that I hate, and I enter numbers into it manually when I think they're important enough. Today I probably lack the accessorization to be considered a power geek, but so what.

Consider whether you can reduce yourself to simply a laptop at work and a home PC. Keep work stuff on your laptop and personal stuff on your PC. Unplug your desktop at work and use its monitor as a second monitor for your laptop (if it supports it). If you really have a need to shuttle your files from computer to computer, get a compact USB2 or FireWire disk drive, and work directly from it -- don't copy stuff off except for backup.

Having lots of computers and screens and gizmos makes one feel important I know. But the simplification is worth it.
posted by ldenneau at 12:14 PM on March 29, 2005

Are all your machines on the network? If so, I recommend the Unison file synchronizer. It's free, relatively easy to use, fast, and very customizable. Just run it at the beginning and end of each work session and all of your files will be up to date on every computer.
posted by mr_roboto at 12:58 PM on March 29, 2005

Foldershare would be useful for automatically keeping file folders on multiple Windows machines synchronized. It's very easy to set-up and it just seems to work. Plus, it gives you web access to your files from computers you haven't installed the client on. The basic product is free and there are additional tiers that allow for syncing more files, etc.

It's a lot lighter weight that Groove. On the other hand, Groove may be more secure.

I can't really help with the PDA, other than that I think there are a few alternatives to the included Pocket Office applications that apparently do a better job if you decide to make changes to the word doc or excel spreadsheet on the mobile and then transfer it back to a PC
posted by Good Brain at 5:53 PM on March 29, 2005

I have sympathy as we (my wife and I) have three personal laptops and my professional responsibilities take me from desktop to desktop--my answer is very unsophisticated but it works for me--I use web based e mail where I store documents on which I am likely to work--I will look for other's answers
posted by rmhsinc at 5:56 PM on March 29, 2005

May we assume you've investigated -- and discarded -- the Windows Briefcase feature (combined with, say, that flash drive). You can also run a Yahoo! Briefcase app which will synchronize with an online filebase.

I think simplification and organization are probably key here, though. Try to only have one place where those family photos are kept, and scrupulously clean up after yourself if you need to download digital photos at work, for instance -- e.g. mail them to yourself in an archive immediately.

Another way to handle the work stuff is to set up a VPN. If you need to work on a business document, log in and modify the one on your business computer, rather than cart it home.

I'm frustrated right now because I just changed computers and I have practically nothing from my prior computer due to technical issues, and I still have leftover stuff from an interim period where I was borrowing a family member's computer. I haven't merged my Thunderbird mail and address books back together at all. I really need to do that, as having those loose ends out there is gnawing at me.
posted by dhartung at 9:13 PM on March 29, 2005

Thanks friends. I will look into all these suggestions, though I suspect ldenneau has nailed it--I just need to use fewer machines!
posted by LarryC at 9:20 PM on March 29, 2005

I find VNC very very useful - you can download it free here.

It isn't exactly a solution to your problem, but it enables you to log on to, and control, your work computers from home - their desktops simply appear as a windows on your home machine. I use this setup to control my 3 work machines from home on my puny P800 Thinkpad when I have to work weekends or am out sick, or simply need to check some files or emails.

All you need is your IT guy to create a tunnel for you through your network's firewall, which is no big deal.
posted by forallmankind at 10:05 PM on March 29, 2005

Keep the most recent version of your current working set of files on a usb drive. That way, even if you're using a computer that's not one of your usual set, it's easy to get access to them.

Then, keep your finished projects organized. When you've finished a project (e.g. sent out a final draft of your grant proposal) copy the final files to a directory on one of your computers and share it via ftp or similar. That way, if you need to grab it unexpectedly, you still can.
posted by ThePants at 9:55 AM on March 30, 2005