My mother sent me an email today commenting, among other things, that she recognizes I have to be careful with my computer when traveling that someone doesn’t pick it up - that it would be a disaster if I lost everything on my laptop.

That’s an interesting comment about it being a disaster if I lost my computer. I figured out about two years ago that I couldn’t afford that to happen. So now I keep almost nothing on my computer. All of my files are on servers located in the internet cloud. If I lost my computer today (or it crashes), I just have to get another one - or get to another one - and I can access everything on the net.

I use three computers - two Macs and a Windows machine. So I can get on any one and work and my files, email, everything, are always synchronized. I can also just drop into any internet cafe and do most of my work from any computer there although there are some things I need my Apple Macintosh for. I pay a little extra to have these services available, but I can’t imagine doing anything else. Too risky.

Here are some of the on-line services I use - most I pay for.

• Google Mail hosted domain service for asianenergyadvisors.com
• Apple’s .Mac service with iDisk synchronization - 2 GB space. All my client files are synchronized across computers and backed-up online with this.
• Highrise by 37signals - a contact management system that allows me to share info with staff
• Basecamp by 37signals - a project management system that my clients can also access for sharing/storing files and messages
• Freshbooks - a client billing/invoicing system with time sheet management that my clients can access
• PB Wiki - a wiki system I also use to maintain publicly shared files and data.
• EditGrid - Online spreadsheets. I try to do all my spreadsheet work on EditGrid. Plus it allows me to store worksheets and share worksheets with specific people or with the public.
• Plaxo - maintains my address books information online and synchronizes it across computers, with my Mac address books, with Yahoo addresses, with Google, with AOL, and LinkedIn. Eliminates or merges duplicates. I have 1,000 contacts in my address book - these are also all on my phone, the same file is synchronized to my Nokia cell phone with Mac software.
• Servint - A server hosting service I use to host several domains I own - I also store and backup files here - all accessible on the net. These guys are super. An excellent hosting services in the U.S.
• Wordpress - I use it to maintain several weblogs on my servers at Servint. All web-based management and storage.
• del.icio.us - an online bookmarking service
• 30boxes - an online calendaring systems
• Vonage - this is a VOIP service I use that provides me with a US-based phone number that rings in the Philippines, but it also gives me online access to my voicemails. It also automatically transcribes them to text and sends me an email of the text and an audio file
• GoogleReader - my web-based RSS reader.

This list could go on and on. But these are what I use mostly to keep important data off my computer and in the cloud.

Now you can see why my internet connection is so important.