Portable Office

Recently, I've installed many OS on my computer to test some frameworks and setup environment to build some Proof Of Concept. So, I can not centralize all of necessary working information: emails, chat log, documentations because I usually switch between OS.

One more disadvantage, when I go home and need to check old emails in company. I have to do remote desktop to the computer in my office - because all of old emails were downloaded into that computer.


To solve all of these issues, I decided to build a portable office for my own.

Requirements of the ideal portable office

1/ I can centralize all necessary information (emails, documents, chat log) in work just in one place
2/ I can take them into any place.
3/ I can work with them offline (in VietNam, there are some places that you can not access to Internet). These information can be synchronized automatically when the Internet connection can be accessed.
4/ The computer at my home is Ubuntu, so I need all of these information can be accessed from that easily.

Build the portable office

Step 1: Download and install necessary softwares

I found a good place that contains a lot of portable applications that I can use (http://portableapps.com/apps).
At the first step, I download all of necessary below portable softwares:

• aMSN portable: using for chat with MSN.
  
• Pidgin portable: using for chatting with YM, MSN, Google Talk, ...
  
• Mozilla Thunderbird portable: using for emails
  
• Firefox portable: I need firefox portable because I need to save all bookmarks and extension necessary for offline working.
  
• PNotes portable: I use this application to take notes. It helps me package all notes with me to anyplace :-)
• Taskcoach portable: this helps me to organize my tasks in one place
• Keepass: I have many accounts and password. This helps me to collect all of them

I install all of them into an USB in the folder: PortableApps.

Step 2: Install extensions for some softwares to help me to work offline

With firefox, I install Google Gear to work offline with Google Docs. Actually, I haven't tried this with my Ubuntu computer at home. Hope it works. Moreover, I installs all other extension to help me work efficiently with Firefox.

With thunderbird, do the same things.

Step 3: Just a little bit effort to work with my Ubuntu

Portable Apps works very nice with Windows OS in my company. But when I plug my USB into Ubuntu at home and run them with Wine. It can not save chat log and emails to USB. Why?
Just a simple thing, the user I am logging in is not the created user for files and folder on USB. Just do one thing with the PortableApps folder

Go to terminal and browse to the USB disk, type the command to change owner for PortableApps

chown -R myusername PortableApps

One more command to change mode to all folders and sub folders
chmod -R 777 PortableApps => this is very stupid, but you can assign your custom mode.

Now these apps can be run OK.

Do you want to try?

Open source collaborative working solutions

My girl friend is working in a perfume company (an inter-continent company). The CEO of this company wanted to find a solution to help his workers work in a collaborative environment with highest efficiency. They also need a Customer relationship management system to keep track of their customers information and their business goal. He asked the IT staff to do it.
As the result, they choose 2 software: Highrise for CRM and TeamworkLive for collaborative working system.

I do not have any idea about their choosing. However, I asked myself: what are alternative open source solutions for these needs. Actually, I am interested in collaborative working model. For a long time ago, I've had an idea about creating a software solution for collaborative working, but I do not have enough time to research carefully about this idea at that time.
In this topic, I only show you some open source solutions for collaborative working model that are available on Internet. I haven't had a detail look on these solutions. I hope you can. If you have more helpful information about these solutions or other solutions, please share to me also.

MindQuarry :
Mindquarry is an Open Source collaborative software platform for file sharing (documents, images, media files, etc.), task and project management, team collaboration and Wiki editing that meshes simplicity and functionality. As a result, knowledge workers are able to connect with team members and share information from wherever they are, effectively improving team-work and increasing productivity within the company.

Teamwork

Teamwork is a proven, reliable and friendly web based software solution for managing work and communication in any field. Groupware and project management features are used in an integrated environment, from which you can coordinate and manage hundreds of projects at once. It offers us some cool features for: Project management, Issues tracking, Document managing, Work logging, Smart features (shared calendar, prioritize assignment, ...)
Teamwork has an open source version (written on Java, Database independent). I downloaded it but not deployed yet. I will update you if I have any more information.

Dimdim:
Dimdim is the leading provider of open source web meeting software.
Dimdim is a free web conferencing service where you can share your desktop, show slides, collaborate, chat, talk and broadcast via webcam with absolutely no download required for attendees. It also offers us an open source version. We can customize it as our real needs.

kablink

A single Integrated Collaboration Environment that establishes a collaborative group workspace of people, teams, functions, tasks and content all working together to drive effective teamwork to the next level.

Kaplink is built from Java with Hibernate, Liferay portal and use Lucene as the Full text search solution behind.

If you have any other open source solutions for this, please share to me!
My slogan: Share to get more. I like this.