tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-460442973907396413.post-14753851731728005792008-04-11T23:36:00.004-04:002008-04-11T23:57:54.515-04:00I've been making a focused effort to make my office not only "paperless", but also, "hard-drive-less". In other words, my goal is to have almost all of my systems and data reside on the Internet rather than on my hard drive. I say "almost all" because I don't think it's quite possible to do this 100%. For example, I have software which has to live on my hard drive; - Dreamweaver and Fireworks are the main culprits. But as long as I own the licenses and have the CDs and/or rights to the programs, I don't even have to depend completely on my hard drive for them. And I still have some paper files, although I've reduced them by about 2/3.<br /><br />The following are some of the main programs and services which are allowing me to do this. Quite a few of them are Google-provided; whether or not I should be nervous about trusting so much to Google is a question I'm not going to delve into here, although I have to acknowledge that it's a fair question.<br /><br />1. <a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/">GMail</a> - by far the smartest, most convenient, easiest, keeps-me-most-organized email program I've ever used. I've used quite a few, and email is important to me. Its nearly flawless spam-filtering system, "tags", and searchability are just a few of the things I love about it. And I was able to access my email on computers all over Mexico in less than 30 seconds.<br /><br />2. <a href="http://docs.google.com">Google Docs</a>. I use it for information, not for documents that have to look perfect - but I have piles of information to keep track of, and the search function makes finding anything almost instantaneous.<br /><br />3. <a href="http://www.google.com/calendar/">Google Calendar</a>. I didn't even really believe that I was going to be able to give up my paper calendar, but I actually have. And my paper calendar never emailed me reminders about upcoming appointments and events!<br /><br />4. Online banking.<br /><br />5. <a href="http://www.highrisehq.com/">Highrise</a> by <a href="http://www.37signals.com/">37 Signals</a>, a wonderful contact manager where I know keep all of my personal and business contact information. Amazingly, for less than 250 contacts, it's free! Although I can see the wisdom of that business model, since after getting familiar with it I've already signed a client up with the paid version.<br /><br />6. <a href="http://www.37signals.com/">Backpack and Basecamp</a>, also by <a href="http://www.37signals.com/">37 Signals</a>. I'm still in the process of choosing between these two intranet-like applications for my own business and for a client's business. I really like both.<br /><br />7. <a href="http://oe.quickbooks.com">QuickBooks Online</a>. Good old QuickBooks, but resides online and is accessible anywhere. It's not cheap, but bookkeeping is too important to skimp on, in my opinion.Patty Ayersnoreply@blogger.com