What I Needed

My wife and I lead rather busy lives. We both work full-time and we have two children, things can get pretty hectic. It’s very important for us to be on the same page in terms of our schedules and we need to keep track of each other’s appointments as well as our children’s. Ideally I wanted to be able to enter appointments in one place, whether it be on my mobile phone or in Outlook, and have the ability to automatically share pertinent information with my wife. My main issue is that I didn’t want to have to enter the same information into multiple places. I’m sure there are more than a few ways to accomplish this, some less elegant than others, but my solution is OggSync.

For work I use Microsoft Exchange Server for email, calendars and tasks. At home I use Google for my personal email and calendar. The same situation applies to my wife. My wife and I are on different Exchange servers so it’s not possible to share calendars as seamlessly as I’d like to and I like to keep my work life separated from my personal life as much as possible (they do tend to overlap quite a bit though since I work from home). That’s where OggSync comes in.

The Solution

Using OggSync I am able to bridge my Exchange account with my Google account in real-time, over-the-air using my Windows Mobile Phone. Meaning that whether I enter an appointment or contact on my mobile phone, in Outlook using Exchange or on the web using Google they’re all synced. There’s a desktop version of OggSync as well, but the Windows Mobile version runs in the background on my phone at all times and I don’t need to leave my computer logged in to get sync results. Google does have a service they call Sync, but it uses the Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync Protocol so I’d have to choose one or the other: Exchange sync for work or Google Sync for personal stuff… no dice. With OggSync I can have it both ways.

As you may or may not know, Google Calendar allows you to create as many different calendars as you want and share each one of them individually. The real beauty of OggSync is that it treats Google calendars like Outlook categories and vice versa. If you enter an appointment into Outlook and assign a category to it, OggSync will sync that appointment to the Google Calendar of the same name if it exists. As an example, If I create an Outlook category called ‘Family’ and a Google Calendar called ‘Family’ that I share with my wife, any appointment I enter into Outlook and assign to the category ‘Family’ will sync to my Google Calendar ‘Family’ and will be shared with my wife. Conversely, if I enter an appointment and assign it to the category ‘work’ it will sync to the Google Calendar ‘work’ and my wife won’t see it. This is very useful because it allows you to share different information with different people.

How It Works

As I mentioned before I use OggSync on my mobile device because that is what suits my needs best, you may find otherwise and they do offer different solutions. With the phone version it works like this: my Exchange server information (emails, appointments, contacts and tasks) sync to my Windows Mobile Phone over-the-air via ActiveSync. Once on my phone  picks up the changes (appointments and contacts) OggSync sends them to my Google account and vice-versa for complete, 2-way synchronization.

The Remaining Problem (for me)

The main drawback to this setup is the inability to sync tasks. I’d like to be able to sync and share tasks in the same manner as appointments using OggSync and keep the platforms to a minimum, currently Exchange Server and Google. Unfortunately Google, to date, hasn’t offered much in the way of tasks or task synchronization. Tasks are thrown into the Google Calendar app almost like an after-thought which I don’t find as useful as it ought to be, especially for a task-minded person such as myself. I rely on Outlook tasks and would like to see Google incorporate more features into their tasks. I have, however, found a solution through Remember The Milk. They offer MilkSync for Windows Mobile which provides pretty much the same basic functionality for tasks as Oggsync does for appointments. The application is only available for Pro Remember The Milk accounts ($25/yr), which is one more expense I’m hesitant to add to the list. Also, it would mean adding another platform to the mix. They do have a Gmail gadget though so in reality any task I entered in Outlook, Gmail or on my phone would be synced and I could access Remember The Milk tasks from all three locations. Still debating whether I wait for Google to incorporate tasks or sign-up for Remember The Milk.

Central Desktop offers team collaboration, affordable ‘intranet’ and ‘extranet’

Central Desktop is a heavy-hitter in the online collaboration arena. It’s used by companies such as Sony, Adobe, J.D. Power and Associates and Greenpeace… just to name a few of their 275,000+ customers. It’s not difficult to understand why with it’s list of impressive features and affordable pricing plan.

What sets Central Desktop a notch above, in my opinion, is it’s quick setup on the user end. There’s virtually no learning curve and it seems as though user feedback must have figured heavily in it’s development. I’ve used similar solutions that fell short in the usability department, seemingly developed by IT people for IT people, leaving the average user bewildered.

Central desktop offers real-time collaboration for your team members. With the web meetings and audio conferencing features you can also collaborate with customers or partners by voice, sharing screens or remote presentation. Central Desktop also integrates with Skype (with voice supported), Yahoo, MSN Messenger, AIM, ICQ and Jabber, centralizing all your communication. If you’re an Outlook junky like me you’ll like to know that Outlook calendar integration is an option.

For your team’s document needs you can create, edit and store online docs and spreadsheets in a secure workspace environment. You can even collaborate on documents in real-time. Central Desktop also offers the ability to track document history and revisions. Their extensive search feature allows for full text and document search so you can find what your looking for fast, even if it’s in a document, a conversation thread or a different workspace.

Very important for me is the ability to access my workspaces form anywhere. Whether I’m at home or on the road, as long as I have an internet connection I can quickly and easily access my workspaces with no difficult setup process. Although mobile browser-based access is possible with a smartphone, it’s a bit cramped and not techincally supported so I have to knock the rating down half a star.

If you’re like me you want to be your own boss. You want to experience life without walls and have the freedom to work when you want and where you want. With that freedom comes limitations… well at least there used to. Earth Class Mail has tackled a major hurdle for us: postal mail. Now you can get your postal mail online, wherever you are and never have to change your mailing address again.

When you sign up for their service they’ll ask you to choose an address in their network. This network includes 19 major US cities, including prestigious locations such as Hollywood or Manhattan. A major advantage to their address choices is that you can have a street address instead of a PO box which is important since mail couriers such as FedEX and UPS don’t deliver packages to PO boxes. For a small yearly fee, Earth Class Mail will even serve as your corporate registered agent at your chosen address.

Once you’ve got your address picked out and you authorize the U.S. Post Office to deliver your mail to Earth Class Mail you can begin checking your mail online. When you receive new postal mail you’ll be alerted via email and you can view images of your envelopes right in the email or online. From there you can decide which pieces of mail to have securely scanned so you can view their contents as a PDF, which pieces to recycle or shred and which pieces to have forwarded to your current location. Earth Class Mail guarantees the security of your mail and goes to extreme measures to ensure it’s safety.

Overall excellent service and crucial for the truly mobile virtual office. To see all of the features they have to offer visit Earth Class Mail on the web.

This is the kind of stuff I love. I know, I’m a geek, but I just found a solution to one of my biggest travel quandaries: how do I fax or scan documents from any location? My mobile virtual office has been lacking scan and fax capability for some time but the answer is pretty simple and I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out sooner… I use my digital camera. What’s that you say? You’re right, hotels do have fax machines and odds are I’m staying at one, but who wants to wait in the lobby to send or receive a fax? Plus, this method is way cooler and increases your nerd quotient by at least a factor of 2.

The basic premise here is to take a digital picture of the documents you wish to scan and, snap, you’ve got yourself a digital document. Combine this with an internet fax service like MyFax, eFax or RingCentral and you’re faxing your way to the fast track. It’s not rocket science but it could save you some time and hassle.

My Windows Mobile Phone

Now being the Windows Mobile junky I am I found a great application over at Handango.com called Scan2PDF Mobile. This program uses my Windows Mobile phone’s camera to ’scan’ documents which it then converts to PDF files at which point they can be saved or emailed. Combine that with one of the email to fax services above and I can send faxes directly from my cell phone. How awesome is that?

If you’re an iPhone user, you can use your camera to take pictures of documents as well. Someone has even developed a platform you can use to get perfect scans every time. Check it out here. You may also want to look into Evernote, which you can find here.

If you’re not an iPhone or Windows Mobile user, you don’t have to be left out in the cold on this one. You can use a regular digital camera to take pictures of your documents and then upload them to your PC. The key to good images is going to be lighting and angle. You’re going to want to make sure you keep the camera as parallel to the document as you can and use your flash (making sure glare isn’t a problem) or just make sure the room is well lit.

I know I feel much better knowing I can conduct business at full-speed no matter where my travels take me. Hopefully you find this useful too.

Mozy Progress

About a year ago, maybe more, I started researching and experimenting with online backup systems. I felt the only way for true peace of mind was to have a backup in a completely different geographical location. After trying a few I settled on Mozy because of the price and ease of use. Their service is, by far, the easiest I’ve tried. Literally all I did was install the software and Mozy went to work backing up my files. It took a few days for the initial backup after which I could count on automatic incremental backups to keep my data safe. I still do local backups, but no more burning and copying DVDs. Now I can sleep at night knowing that even if my house burned down, there was a meltdown at work and my sister’s house got struck by a meteor all in one night, my data would still be safe in the Mozy data center.

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Having a mobile office means staying connected on-the-go. This, undoubtedly, requires connecting to the internet.  More often than not you’ll probably be using unsecured wireless networks, or WiFi hotspots, at the local bookstore, coffee shop or your hotel. Connecting to the Internet, in general, without using at least basic firewall and anti-virus protection would be like wandering the infectious disease ward at a hospital in a third-world country without a mask on… not a good idea and odds are, you’re gonna catch something. Connecting to an unsecured public access point without a firewall and anti-viruses software, on the other hand, is really asking for it. I don’t want to go too far into detail and technical jargon so suffice it to say: the Internet is teeming with viruses, trojans amd worms (oh my!), and probably some stuff I’ve never heard of. I hope we’re all past disbelief and realize the Internet is no place for an unprotected computer.

Over the years I’ve experimented with and used many different anti-virus and firewall programs. There’s a lot of them, and most are pretty good.  Two, in particular though, have been my favorites over the years: ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite and Comodo Internet Security Pro. I recently switched exclusively to Comodo for it’s advanced features but I still recommend ZoneAlarm to family and friends for it’s ease of use. Both are excellent programs and provide top-notch protection.

ZoneAlarm Security Alert

ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite, as I stated before, offers excellent protection and it’s easy to use. It has advanced features but, for the most part, it’s very user friendly. ZoneAlarm automatically detects new networks and allows you to name them and asks that you identify them as public or private, secure, networks. I like that ZoneAlarm is proactive. It shows pop-ups for events to notify you of certain occurrences and asks your permission in an easy-to-understand interface with suggestions before allowing them to occur. When a program tries to access the Internet, for example, a window pops up to alert you to this fact. The window shows, among other things, the application name, the IP destination and a SmartDefense Advisor recommendation as to whether the program is safe or not. If it’s a trusted application SmartDefense Advisor will recommend that you select ‘Remember this setting’ and then click allow which will give the go-ahead for the program to connect and prevent the pop-up from occuring again for that application. ZoneAlarms features are numerous. Special Internet Offer for ZoneAlarm Antivirus Protection – Click here!

Comodo Internet Security Pro

Comodo Internet Security Pro, on the other hand, is a little more complicated to use but packs a serious punch. The firewall consults a huge list of over two-million PC-friendly applications before it allows an Internet connection. If the program isn’t on the list, it’ll ask you to decide. Some security programs bar access to your computer based on what they know to be bad. Comodo takes the reverse approach. If it’s not on their exclusive “safe-list’ it can’t get in without your permission. Another feature, Defense+, monitors all executable files on your computer and lets the ones run that are recognized or that you give permission too. Comodo allows you to quickly and easily set security levels for Defense+ and the firewall. Defense+ can be set to ‘Disabled’, ‘Training Mode’, ‘Clean PC Mode’, ‘Safe Mode’ and ‘Paranoid Mode’ depending upon user situation. The firewall allows for ‘Disabled’, ‘Training Mode’ and ‘Safe Mode’ too, as well as ‘Custom Policy Mode’ and ‘Block All Mode’. A huge benefit to Comodo Internet Security Pro is it’s TrustConnect WiFi security feature. TrustConnect works as a VPN to insure all your traffic to and from the Internet is encrypted and remains insusceptible to sniffers. Overall excellent product which is why I use it myself. Sign Up Now and Receive one month free of Comodo Internet Security Pro!

Both ZoneAlarm and Comodo offer excellent security suites and if you’re going to connect to the internet, especially on-the-go, you need to protect yourself from intrusion. If you’re looking for ease of use and excellent protection, ZoneAlarm is the ticket. If you’d like excellent protection that’s a little more feature-rich, give Comodo a shot.

My Mobile Office In My Kitchen

Right now my mobile office is in my living room, but the key is: it can be anywhere.  Usually it’s wherever my AT&T Fuze and my laptop are, sometimes just where my Fuze is at.  For the most part that’s usually in or around my home, but the benefit of creating and maintaining my mobile office is that, if I so choose, I can leave for any destination at a moments notice and my office comes with. Now that’s not to say that productivity follows directly in tow; it’s not easy being as productive as you are at home when you’re with the family for a weeks vacation in Florida.

Since I’m self-employed I have the freedom to go where I want, when I want and work from any location I choose.  Why not take advantage of that? I need to stay productive, though, to earn a living so I bring my work with me when I travel instead of risking smaller paychecks. My livelihood depends on my ability to stay connected, to the internet, my contacs, my files, my email, my partners and so on and so forth. Much of that connecting occurs right in my own home, my main workplace, but without the usual benifits employers offer in terms of infrastructure. I need to be able to recreate that office infrastructure for myself, but on a much smaller budget and a mobile version to boot. That’s the subject of my website with which I will share with you my knowledge and experience in software, online tools and services and hardware for the mobile virtual office.