The right tools
After years of manually trying to synchronize the contents of my laptop and my desktop, I installed several tools to manage the process over the winter. Getting set up for the sync at the start of the trip took about half the time that the transfer, with all my cross checks, used to take. Unpacking my laptop, as it were, at the end of the trip just took me 20 minutes tops when it used to be a process that I would dread, defer, and eventually lose a work day on.
The first tool was a move to a distributed source control system (Bazaar) which has made it a lot easier to work on the two machines independently and then share changes. Using true distributed source control means that I don't have to be online to check in changes, and so I'm able to check in my changes at a much finer level of control. And sweeping those changes to the other machine is a single command.
The second tool is SyncBack. There are lots of sync tools, but I finally decided to just pick one and run with it. Unlike tools like SugarSync, which run in the cloud, I'm just using this to sync between two machines side by side. Lots of control on how to resolve conflicts and the ability to preview changes is already a huge improvement on the old process, which depended on a properly functioning brain.
I doubt I'll have a functioning brain for a few days yet.
The first tool was a move to a distributed source control system (Bazaar) which has made it a lot easier to work on the two machines independently and then share changes. Using true distributed source control means that I don't have to be online to check in changes, and so I'm able to check in my changes at a much finer level of control. And sweeping those changes to the other machine is a single command.
The second tool is SyncBack. There are lots of sync tools, but I finally decided to just pick one and run with it. Unlike tools like SugarSync, which run in the cloud, I'm just using this to sync between two machines side by side. Lots of control on how to resolve conflicts and the ability to preview changes is already a huge improvement on the old process, which depended on a properly functioning brain.
I doubt I'll have a functioning brain for a few days yet.