Comments on: Cyber Minimalist: How to Work (Almost) Completely Online

By: Calebni

Calebni — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:50:41 +0000

Oh – I use Lynx as a browser most of the time, except for when I’m on heavy Web 2.0 websites, in which case I use Firefox (or something that works with the content). So, basically, I only use a graphical browser for watching YouTube, viewing important images on a website, and viewing files such as PDFs from Google-searches.

By: Calebni

Calebni — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:45:04 +0000

It is better if you do this on your own server, rather than Google’s server(s). I also suggest Portable Apps to be used on flash-drives.

This idea is very nice, but it isn’t a good idea to put your data on someone else’s hard-drive (which is Google’s hard-drive, for instance). Your files are no longer in your control when you do this. I suggest setting your computer up for remote access over the Internet (or turning it into a server that allows you to do what you need to do).

I’m able to connect to my computer via SSH over the Internet, as well as serve files from it with FTP. (If it’s *really* necessary, I can do remote-access using X11’s functionalities to use it in graphical mode, rather than in command-line mode.) With SSH and FTP, I can do all of the things I need to do on my computer over the Internet, with all my flies on *my* server, rather than on *their* server. And, I can use any application I need, and install any one I desire. Full power and flexibility.

By: ross sargent

ross sargent — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:44:45 +0000

Great article and great Blog, just getting into it, but really enjoying it, thank you! Can you explain point number 5 for me please, I am not the best when it comes to technology, and I am not sure how to achieve what you are saying but it sounds great, as filing is not my strong point!

ps I am using and loving google docs!

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:48:30 +0000

The one thing that puts me off using online apps more is a key feature found only in Apple’s Numbers ‘08 and that is Tables.

For Windows users, Numbers is like Excel. You have the spreadsheet containing your worksheets, but in Numbers the worksheets can contain tables (which are like mini worksheets) within the worksheets and that makes a huge difference to the design and usability of the spreadsheet.

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:44:10 +0000

I would like to use online apps more, especially thanks to Mac only software called “Fluid” which effectively builds an offline application with a single purpose and that purpose is to access and use the online application(s) of your choice. It’s known as an SSB, a Site Specific Browser. It’s less cluttered than a regular browser, but I sometimes think a regular browser with links to the apps is enough.

Try it yourself at http://www.fluidapp.com

Don McAllister also made a brilliant screencast about it (http://www.screencastsonline.com).

By: anthony parks

anthony parks — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:17:00 +0000

web apps are nice but often i find its most productive to use a hybrid of web apps and offline (’client-side’) apps. i tend to use online servers for backups with rsync instead. going to link this on computingminimalism.org

By: anand gupta

anand gupta — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:46:06 +0000

hi……….

By: Everything You Wanted to Know About Simplifying Your Life, and Way More – Ecoist

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:37:57 +0000

[...] Cyber Minimalist: How to Work (Almost) Completely Online [...]

By: Joel

Joel — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:25:04 +0000

Hi, Nice article. For those that are bound to using desktop apps & multiple computers portable apps works for me (as mentioned above) & it has a good sync utility.

More interestingly is that Microsoft have started off their Live Mesh (mesh.com) which gives you online storage space with “will” sync with all your devices (mobile, home/work pc, mac, etc). Its still in beta but looks like a real possibility.

Also if you have a hotmail account (and who doesn’t) check out SkyDrive (its 5GB of free online space!).

Cheers,
Joel

By: Ian Mayman

Ian Mayman — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 05:42:04 +0000

As a self-employed person, I think it’s important to point out there are many online applications available now for finance and productivity such as Expensr, Freshbooks, Cashboard, Xpenser, Zero, Invotrack and many more. These help track invoices and manage cashflow so that the accounts are almost all done automatically and backed up remotely.