Whether you want to work remotely for convenience (avoiding long commutes) or for necessity (you are a salesman on the move), at some point you will need to organise access to your data and systems, which is stored at your computer at work. There are several options for organising remote work.

First option: Remotely access to your computer at work/home.

On the move, from home, off working hours (other cases) you need to connect/access your computer at work or home where all your data related to your work is stored. Depending on the situation you might use a netbook or a hand-held device, or a full-sized computer belonging to somebody else (in the library).

You have a couple of alternatives here:

Operating systems have a build-in facility for remote connection. Remote Desktop Services, is one of the components of Microsoft Windows (both server and client versions) that allows a user to access applications and data on a remote computer over a network and the Internet.

There are alternative software packages that allow you to do the same as windows remote desktop, and you can find them by searching Google or Download.com

With windows remote desktop connection, you do not have to pay anything, but should have enough technical skills to configure the remote connection initially, and do it securely. If any problems occur, you are also left alone for troubleshooting.

There are services on the Internet that solve the above problems by making remote access programs more usable, taking care of user security and authentication.

The most popular services we are aware of are PCanyware and Gotomyps. To setup a remote access you need to register with them, download a small program and install it on your (host) PC. Then you can access your computer from anywhere using an Internet browser.

Second option: keep your data with you.

If you just need to access some files, consider copying all your critical data onto a removable storage (usb flash card). You might have plenty of files, and a large amount of data to move, but there are some clever programs that help you to synchronise data, thus speeding up the process by avoiding copying files that have not been changed. The one I use is called GoodSync. A few years back, I have tried a few programs of that sort, and GoodSync appeared to be the fastest and most reliable.

There are additional benefits of using this approach: you can work offline, and you maintain a backup copy of all your important data.

You can also sync files with a remotely located server. You will have to have an Internet access for that, but you do not have to carry files with you in that case. It also might be a pretty reliable option as an “off-site” backup / data storage. This is a paid for option, but it usually does not cost much, and most of providers offer a free basic account. There are two types of services: one more oriented to data synchronisation, and allows to browse your data via browser, the same way your brows your local folders. Dropbox, and Box.net are good examples of that.

Another type of services is more oriented towards backups - for example mozy.

I carry all my data on a usb flash drive, and sync to a remote server / service. So if my notebook is stolen together with a flash drive, at least I will be able to recover my data.

Whether you have your data on your computer, or on a removable storage, you have to think about security. Operating systems offer some basic protection, in form of data encryption, but it is better to use a specialised software for this. Truecrypt is a very popular option.

There is also an option for “hardware encryption”, where your files are encrypted within the storage, rather then by a software. This option is more expensive, but easier to use, and normally faster.

You will have your data with you, but not all the software and systems that you can access at work. Although some software packages can run from USB drives, there are only a few of them.

This moves us to a third option:

Third option: use online services and software to do your work.

If you are Internet-connected consider using online/social collaboration software - keep your stuff there instead of a hard-drive. There are many specific, and general (Google Apps) services, that can help you to do more or less everything that can be done by using a desktop software. But this is a topic for my next post.

If our new web application were a movie…this would be the ‘pitch’. The ’sell’.

And we wouldn’t be web developers, no; we’d be the young, cocky scriptwriters, sure in the knowledge that we had the next box-office smash.

You? You’re the producer in the loud Hawaiian shirt drinking Margheritas, sunning yourself by the poolside (no offence, the shirt looks good on you). But - you’ve seen it all before and you need persuading. We get that.

Two sides of the same fence and…yet we’re not so different - you love the movies, we love the movies.

Meet the hero: an online service, which gives you an opportunity to set up lists of movies, arranged according to particular categories.

Is there a love interest, you ask? Why yes, yes there is - it’s the movies you love. Films you can watch time and time again. Films which you’re sure your friends would like - maybe they’re films you’ve watched together with your friends.

What’s the plot? The plot is simple, but engaging. We know you love movies and you want to share that love. But you want to find more movies that you’d love to watch - and this is where the plot develops.

You invite your friends (think of them as the supporting cast!), you recommend the films you know and love to them and they do the same for you. Pretty soon, you’re on a quest to see new films, to boldly go…sorry, we’re getting carried away.

But you get the idea - My Movie List is a place where you can share films and discover new ones.

And like your favourite director, you’re in control. You can add movies, create custom lists - anything you don’t like ends up on the cutting room floor!

Thanks for your time. See you on My Movie List!

This article introduces you to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)—and advanced technology used to build modern web pages and explains how this technique can be used to improve the quality of websites and optimise their future support.

As your business grows and develops, so will your website. When you build it today, you should already be taking into account how you might want to improve it in the future including possible modifications to its look and feel and even complete change of the visual design.
We view websites via so-called browsers—the software built to explore websites and make the best use of their functionality and features. The most popular browsers are Internet Explorer and Firefox, but there are many others. They allow us to see web pages as formatted text. The web pages are formatted using a special markup language called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and the browsers interpret the HTML to present the web pages to us properly. HTML is also read by mobile phones, screen readers and other devices.
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