RogueWolves

Rogue Wolves is the personal site of .

I'm currently a research scientist with Oculus Info Inc. in Toronto, Ontario Canada.

My research interests include: adaptive user interfaces, machine learning, Bayesian reasoning and distributed artificial intelligence.

Synchronized File Store

I have a problem that I think is fairly common these days. I have several machines I work on day to day and several different sets of files scattered in the winds. I'll be working on one machine and realize a file I want to view is on a different machine. I try to manually tidy up my mess when I can but it's a losing battle. I end up doing what I think many others do...I end up emailing files to myself to transfer them from one machine to another (I don't own a flash drive and this is usually the fastest method). Emailing while a fairly ugly way to transfer files sometimes is the easiest way to do it. For my home machines I can copy over the network but for my office machine it's not as easy.

So.....

I have a server that I do use as a fileserver but I tend not to store all my files there because I don't always have access to it. I need to have offline access to my files.

What I'm thinking of for a solution:

I want to store all files on my home directory on my server BUT have each laptop have a working copy of that set of files. I want to be able to synchronize the filesystems so whatever machine I'm working on with have the latest set of files. Also would be nice to be able to access the file store on the server directly from any computer/platform with little setup for those times when I'm using a public terminal. Also I would like it to be secure and communications to be encrypted.

I want to be able to work on the files if I am disconnected from the network and I want files to sync back up with the server automatically when I reconnect to the network.

It's a lot to ask but this should be feasible...at least in part. I was thinking I might be able to use RSYNC for the synchronization... I was even considering CVS or Subversion but thought this might be overkill and could be cumbersome... I even thought of using tools that turn GMail into a filesystem but I would rather host the files myself and not trust someone else. I am after all talking about ALL my digital files.

Anyone have any thoughts on a good solution? Or any feedback on how they work around the problem?

I think if I figure something out this could be awesome...