I've become frustrated lately with the inability to work from home. Don't get me wrong, work is great in this regard -- you can Citrix in or VPN. Great... but I want to work anywhere. And I want my data from anywhere. And I want to access whatever tool or site I want.
I know, I'm spoiled, but I've managed to achieve about 99% of what I want now through the following mechanisms:
Webdav
I've enabled a webdav folder on my web server. Webdav stands for web documents and versions and works via http. It would be a very cool protocol if Microsoft hadn't have fucked up the implementation so bad over XP and Vista but I digress. I'm already running Apache on my Linux box so I downloaded and installed Apache Mod_Dav. You turn it on very simply in your httpd.conf file ...
Dav On
You also have to configure a lock db (read the docs for this one), just make sure it's a folder that's writable by your http daemon and make sure the mod_dav modules are loaded.
Next, under XP (from work) go into My Network Places and add a network place, pointing to your server and folder. That's it, it's now mounted like a drive.
I've transferred all the documents I need out of my "My Documents" folder at work into this folder at my home machine. Now it's accessible anywhere by any windows, Linux, or mac box. Very cool.
PHPProxy
Tired of getting websensed at work? Download PHPProxy and install it (assuming you're running Apache and PHP). It's not a true proxy but will fetch and render pages from your remote server beyond the touch of websense.
XRDP
Work doesn't allow VNC traffic but does allow RDP (Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol). XRDP builds a bridge between a VNC server on your Linux box and RDP. Plus, almost any machine you touch will be a windows box and have Remote Desktop installed.
Now you can RDP into your home Linux box and use any tool you want.
Google Reader
I'm in love with Google Reader. I had built a php feed aggregator myself but Google Reader just rocks. Very easy to use -- I can go through 300 or so news items every morning in 20 minutes. Very cool.
But the best part is that it's running off of Google's servers, which means that it doesn't matter if I hit it from work, home, my blackberry, or cell phone. It keeps track of my feeds and my unread items. Sweet.
It's annoying that I had to work so hard to be able to work the way that I wanted to -- anywhere, any time, from any device. But now that I've got the above set up, my work aggrevation has dropped and my productivity skyrocketed.
