Sync means I’m not scared

I just picked up a Dell M4300 off eBay so I’ll be able to do “real” work when I’m out on the road this March as my other laptops I have available to me are either too old (Toshiba M200), too limited (Chrome CR48) or too small (Dell XT2).

At one time or another, I would have dreaded adding another machine to the mix. But these days, it really isn’t that big of a deal. After I install my basic apps (Chrome, Office, Visual Studio) the cloud + sync tools take care of the rest.

1) Chrome sync. This solves 90% of my “set up a new computer” issues as it automatically installs all my browser settings and extensions including LastPass which then, in turn, takes care of my web logins.

2) Live Mesh. I could easily write a book on sync technologies and this is the one I’m using now.

3) BeanstalkApp for SVN. This is where all of our URDB code lives. I just need to grab my login info from LastPass and I’m off and running.

4) Exchange & Outlook. I flirt seriously with Gmail and use it as often as I can, but at the end of the day, there are still a handful of reasons I still prefer Outlook.

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