Jun 17

Written by:
Friday, June 17, 2011 

This isn’t so much a post for software development.  It’s more a modern day information worker’s essential tools list!  I should clarify what I mean by ‘modern day information worker’.  In the last 2 years, broadband has finally become ubiquitous.  You don’t carry a laptop or smartphone without portable broadband data access.  Along with Cloud services, this was the game changer.

I didn’t really upgrade the way I worked until I moved to using a desktop PC for the first time in my life.  I’ve always lugged a (heavy) performance laptop to both my workplace, home and when travelling.  Hence, I always had everything with me.

I’ve now traded this for a high spec MacBook Air 13” (which I love!), and a mega-grunty (that’s a technical term) desktop.

Suddenly I was faced with the dilemma of managing work across 2 machines.  Gone are the days of copying files onto USB sticks, or emailing yourself files.  I was determined to find a seamless way of working such that I didn’t have to manage this sort of headache.

I had some overriding premises.  Make it simple, make it easy, make it robust, and make it easy to support (very important if you have family members who are like the Bermuda Triangle for technology!).

I’ve split the list into the following areas:

• Email, Contacts and Calendar

• File Management

• Note Management

• Invoicing

• Cloud Accounting

• Project Management

• Backup

• Remote Access

• Source Control

 

Email, Contacts and Calendar

Use a cloud service.  It’s that simple.  I use Google Apps together with Google Sync, Microsoft Outlook 2010 and an iPhone.  Make sure you use the Google Sync configuration on your iPhone and PC’s (not POP) and everything will sync beautifully across your devices.  I am delighted with the experience and service quality.  

For USD$50 per user per year, you get 25GB storage, web portal access, an ‘Exchange’ like experience whereby your email (Inbox and Sent), Contacts and Calendars are synchronised across all your devices (computers and phones).  I add a contact on my phone, and it’s there like magic on both computers.  I send an email on my laptop, and it appears in the sent mail on my phone.  Magic.

You can limit the size of your mail box synchronised with your computers, so if you’re looking for a really old item you just go to your web mail portal.

Other communication tools are:

• Skype (essential)
• Office 365
• WebEx (although, beware.  Its a great service and very easy to setup a subscription.  But to cancel was a monumental effort!).

 

File Management

I use two solutions here. 

DropBox

DropBox is amazing.  I can’t talk highly enough about this service.  DropBox is basically a file synchronisation service that is available almost everywhere (computers, phones, web).  The entry level is a free 2GB account.  You can download an application that designates a folder as your ‘DropBox’ folder.  You then work like normal, except that anything you do under the DropBox folder is trickled up to your online storage account.  This means folders, files – the works.  I haven’t found any sort of file size or type limitation.  It is brilliant!

You can download this software onto other computers, sign in with your account details, and like magic the files are synchronised.

I set up all commonly used files and current project files under DropBox.  This way, when I make a change on my laptop – it’s there like magic on my Desktop.  If I need a file at a client site or on a Virtual Machine, I just log into the web portal and download/upload the file required.

You can also manage folder sharing with other parties, or send a web link to a common file in your Public folder.

These files are also available on all common smart phones, and there are many application that integrate with DropBox allowing you to upload content directly (such as Photo application on your iPhone, etc.).

You can upgrade your storage with a paid account and it’s well worth the money.  A paid subscriber can also elect to have access to older versions of a file (source control), and you can also recover accidentally deleted files.

If your 2 computers are located on the same network, then the local network is used for copy files.  This saves return trips to the web and so is cheaper and faster.

I’ll say it again.  DropBox is brilliant!  Not only does the synchronising of files work well, your have an online backup of critical working files that includes versioning.  And it just works – no management required.

 

SecondCopy

The other solution I use here is more for synchronising more static files.  I have a large hard drive at home (a QNAP NAS) that I used for local storage and backup.  I choose to ‘synchronise’ a number of directories with my Desktop machine so that if I change anything locally, it’s copied to the NAS.  Likewise, if anything is changed on the NAS, it gets copied to my Desktop.

For this I use Second Copy.  It’s a scheduled file synchronisation tool and works very well.

 

 

Note Taking

For note taking and capturing snippets of information, I use Evernote.  Evernote is a little like DropBox.  You can access a free account with generous limits, from just about every device known to mankind (computers, phones, tablets, and the web).  Like DropBox, Evernote synchronises everything to your web account ensuring that all devices auto-magically have access to your latest musings.

Searching for information is also brilliant.  You can tag notes, and it will also index text WITHIN images so that these also appear in search results.

Know it, use it, love it!

 

Invoicing and Timesheets

Cash flow is king.  I’ll say it again, cash flow is king.  Have a great process for capturing what you do, invoicing for it, and receiving payment.  Or, go back to working for someone else (where they will make you timesheet what you do, so that they can invoice it and chase payment).

After many years of trying to find/build a better mouse trap, I now use Freshbooks with a 3rd party add-on called Timersync.

Freshbooks allows you to setup Clients, Projects, Rates, Tasks, etc.  You can then capture time against Projects and then raise invoices.  These are emailed to your clients via a link.  When they click the link, they are presented with a professional looking portal that shows then invoices, payment history, invoice disputes, support notes, and their details.  You can also link Freshbooks with on line payment gateways such as PayPal so that clients can pay you directly.  And of course there is an iPhone app (of course!).

 

Other alternatives to Freshbooks are:

• Harvest
• Solo

 

Cloud Accounting

For more fully featured applications, you can go the whole hog and use a cloud based accounting system.  The best reviews I have read are for:

http://www.saasu.com/

 

http://www.xero.com

 

Project Management

Many of the above tools involve some sort of project management, or at least the ability to categorise something as belonging to a project.  If you want to get a little more serious about project management, there are a number of excellent tools.

I currently use Axosoft’s OnTime product.  This is mostly because I know it, and I forked out $800 in license fees.  OnTime has both a Windows Client, a Web Client, a Customer Portal, and an iPhone client.  You have the option of self hosting, or paying a monthly subscription.  It is highly configurable, and quite useful.

 

http://www.axosoft.com

 

http://www.atlassian.com/

 

http://www.fogcreek.com/fogbugz/

 

 

Backup

I use a number of backup strategies, however the more I move my data and systems to the cloud, the more comfortable I get.  Part of moving your systems to the cloud is the promise of redundancy.  However, it doesn’t hurt to be a little paranoid.

CrashPlan (Cloud based, good storage limits, multi-computer)

 

Acronis (local backup to an external hard drive)

 

Remote Access

Accessing computers remotely can be pretty handy.  Especially when travelling with a netbook, and you require access to your home desktop system.  LogMeIn has a web based interface, as well as an iPhone and iPad application.

https://secure.logmein.com/

 

Source Control

I use Subversion. It’s fast, easy, free (although there are some excellent 3rd party add ins I highly recommend) and works. I use VisualSVN for both server and Visual Studio 2010 integration.

http://www.visualsvn.com

For database source control I use Red-Gate’s excellent Source Control, which works in conjunction with Subversion.

http://www.red-gate.com/products/sql-development/sql-source-control/

• SourceGear
• Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010
• Kiln (Mercurial)