I’ve been on a single PC for … well, probably at least a decade. That PC has been a notebook from my company. I’ve used it for personal use as well, guided by my own ethical impulse that my personal use would never interfere with the company’s resources on the machine (no begging for a larger hard drive because I’ve filled mine up with music, for example). It’s still been a bit dodgy, esp. since the machine is subject to scanning and inventory by the company.
But now — new PC at home, all mine. I can shift my personal stuff, or most of it, to the new PC. But I also have to start living in two PCs again.
Bear in mind that a decade ago, the idea of keeping two machines in sync with files, etc., was pretty crude — mostly managed via, for example, Zip Disks. So all of a sudden questions of how to make sure that “Oh, I’m on my work machine and that’s on the home system” (and vice-versa) don’t mess me up have suddenly become important. I need ways to share information and processes between two systems in a lot of different ways.
- I’ve already started using Google Docs to track notes, rather than create text files.
- I need to look at using some sort of bookmark sync program for Firefox. There are a number of those, from what I recall. Foxmarks (now Xmarks) looks to be a good possibility.
- I use a little popup program called Xreminder Pro for simple … well, reminders that pop up on my computer. “Wow, need to remember (and be reminded) to do that when I get home.” Unfortunately, there’s not a trivial way for two machines to share it. So I need to rethink my reminder strategy. Maybe I need to try Remember the Milk again? Or maybe Jott? But, jeez, I just need something to remind me with a popup that I can set without going through all sorts of web gyrations. Suggestions welcome.
- RoboForm has an online sync tool now. On the other hand, LastPass also looks very attractive in the password manager arena, and was designed to be shared. Evaluating.
I want it all, and I want it simple. Oh, and I want a pony, too.
This is further complicated by my laptop being some 4.5y old, with some licensed software on it long since unavailable or the license keys for it gone with the wind (or buried somewhere). I expect that will all be highly entertaining to work around, too.