Being Truly Mobile ...

Hi all ... this episode has been generated because of the dreaded event of having to send my Motion M1400 in for repair ... my machine is over two years old (has never skipped a beat) and yet the tech support there unhesitatingly sent me an RMA and FedEx prepaid label to send my machine in for a repair ... now that is service, Motion is a breath of fresh air in the sea of manufacturers and outsourcing ...

Anyway, this event has caused a few sleepless nights ... let me describe my work ... I run a company that has deals and projects going internationally ... most of the standard office type files and I rely heavily on MindManager as any that have followed my blog ... so being without my machine has caused me to think through my needs and how to be without and yet being able to work on present things and allow for any new items .... therein was the problem ...

I have a couple of other machines, but this is where all work takes place, so I needed to find a solution fast before having to ship the machine out ... I tried loading my Seagate 5G drive with my files (use MS Synch Toy) so anything that I worked on new would be synched up when this primary machine got back. I rely on Evernote for a lot of my information odds and ends, so they have an elegant solution to this problem. With their newest version, they have a mobile client and the program will synch the database and keep most current entries up to date, so while away I can use the mobile client and it will update my regular machine when it comes back ...

I think I got ahead of myself ... the Seagate was good, but I was trying to use a MojoPac installation so I could run MindManager on the drive, it worked, but kinda slow and was balky in using on other machines ... so I went to a U3 enabled flash drive ... 2G was enough to synch all my maps and working documents ... I also installed the evernote mobile and synched and then installed via the U3 a full copy of Open Office so I could work on docs ... the idea of doing this is the flash will not leave any pieces on the computer you are using, so security is not compromised if you are travelling ... I also used the firefox from U3 and configured it to my open tabs so I could simply carry all my web enabled items to any machine ...

Now the crowning piece ... I was reading on the web today about a web enabled site called MindMeister .. this is in private beta, but I was able to get an invite and tried the application ... it is GREAT ... for quick work and uploading maps that I have made before and working on it ... it is wonderful ... now with the other web enabled suites (I use Zoho, ThinkFree and Google Docs) this completes my needs .. it has really set me free ... I am working with the program now, but will put it through it's paces more in the coming week ... I think I now can let me puter go ...