How to Work from the Beach

Computerworld — The designer and blogger behind the Outline Design Blog plans to spend the summer "living and working from the sandy beaches of Costa Rica" starting this month. He has put together a very good list of online resources that make his "extreme telecommuting" possible.

You can read Danny Outlaw's extensive blog entry here, but, in a nutshell, here's his list with my comments:

Picture storage: Flickr

You can't go wrong with Flickr, but photo sharing isn't really a "work" activity for most people.

Online data storage: Media Max

The big advantage of Media Max is that it's free, and offers a lot of storage—25 GB. However, backup is too important for some of us to trust a small company that's not charging anything. I use Jungle Disk, which isn't free but is very, very cheap, and that serves as a front end to Amazon.com's S3 service, which is super reliable and secure. Here's more about Jungle Disk.

Telephone: Skype

I used Skype on my previous trip, but I'm currently looking for an alternative. Their service is OK, but customer service and billing headaches have ruined the experience for me. Any advice?

Snail Mail: Earth Class Mail

I've just recently signed up for Earth Class Mail. They give you a new address, and all your mail goes to them. They scan both sides of the envelope and put all scans in an online list. You can look at the envelope and, click to tell them to trash it (recycle it, actually), open and scan the insides, archive it and other options. It's a way to make paper mail electronic, and a Godsend for people who travel constantly. Here's more about Earth Class Mail.

Office Software: Zoho

I haven't tried Zoho, have you? I've been using Google Docs and I'm very happy with it. I especially like Google Doc's versions feature, where you can go back in time and access any previous saved version of your documents very easily. Here's more on Google Docs. However, my cursive glance at ZoHo was intriguing. In addition to standard office applications, they offer Zoho Wiki, Zoho Projects, Zoho CRM and Zoho planner. I'm going to come back and spend some quality time with this, and I'll let you know what I discover.

Meetings: MyQuire

Here's another one I haven't tried. Outlaw says he likes it because of the built-in chat feature, but I find that external chat (like AIM) works fine. And it's free.

Continue Reading