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

Display

I am going to focus on the docking capabilities and desk integration more than the monitor itself. It is an LG Display that is beautiful. There is nothing I can say that other reviews have not already. Its beautiful and soaks up the entire desk with its size. In standard Apple fashion it is beautifully engineered and designed. Matches the sexy look of the MacBook Air for sure.

Cables

The monitor has a single cable attached permanently  to the back with the power cable being removable. Soon as I lifted it from the box I knew this would be a long-term issue as it caught to my belt loops. The cable attached is the MagSafe connector and Thunderbolt link for the laptop. My concern stems from this being the single cable with the most movement and use as the laptop is attached and removed. How many times have you found an old CRT with the VGA cable frayed and attached to the monitor? Other than this small concern the cables are sufficiently long to put your laptop around a desk in multiple places without too much taunt. I wish the thunderbolt/magsafe was a little more loose, but I can deal with it for now with some cable management. Just be aware that it isn’t as straight and laying flat as Apple’s pics would have you believe out of the box.

Ports

FINALLY! I get home from work/travel, take the laptop out, plug in to easily accessible cables and get to work. Before the purchase I would hunt down the cables that fell below the desk and pull out multiple USB hubs to connect everything. The most transfer speeds I could get via my USB ethernet adapter were not enough to justify the cable many times. Now though, Jumbo Frames on Gigabit Ethernet! Firewire 800! Das Keyboard! I finally feel like the Air is my primary machine and it doesn’t require me to strew cables across everything.

Speakers

They suck. Good enough, but don’t expect to rock out to them. Passable for VOIP conference calls.

iSight HD

The camera on the MacBook Air is the lower resolution camera vs. the HD version found on the rest of the lineup. The camera is MUCH MUCH better. Also having the camera on your primary monitor does away with the side-of-face view many of my business associates experienced. The microphone also seems much more capable of picking up my voice for calls which is nice for someone who spends a lot of time on VOIP calls.

Gaming

The laptop is incapable of driving both its internal monitor and external display at native resolution. When gaming with Civ IV or DoD:Source I have to step the resolution down to 1366×768 (native of the Air) to get any decent performance. I don’t do a lot of gaming, but it is nice to get online and frag my little brother from time to time. I am sure the display would be fine with an upgraded GPU.

Going Green

Before this purchase I literally had 4 computers and 3 monitors on standby at anytime. Now the power is just my monitor and laptop. Also the monitor is more integrated into the ecosystem of Apple so when I put things to sleep they all go to sleep rather than bits and pieces. I don’t measure the power per device (out of fear more than anything) but I can wager that I am saving some money on my power bill for sure.

Before and After

Laptop

I live on my laptop while on travel. My requirements were:

1. It always work when I open the lid
2. No moving parts to have break
3. Run UNIX
4. Fit on a Coach class seat tray
5. Be less than 3 pounds
6. Bring back my lovely memories of the Powerbook 12″
7. 1366×768 resolution

11" MacBook Air Max

The MacBook Air was the best fit for me. There are cheaper laptops for sure, but I wanted quality engineering and a well built machine that could standup against my schedule. The screen is beautiful and the machine is small enough to be tossed in the bag while sitting down on a plane for landing. I am truly in love with this machine and over the past year put some wear and tear on it.

11" MacBook Air Speck Case

I have a customer who says that Apple Laptop owners protect their laptops more carefully than others. We have keyboard protectors,arm rest pads, and cases. He might be right, but I think the cases go a long way in protecting the investment. Its easier to replace a Speck Case and Moshi armpad than it is to buy a new laptop.

I swear by the Speck Cases which work very well on the MacBook Air. It isn’t as solid as one would hope, but it does help with protecting it against the various scratches and dents I would inevitably have.

 Tablet

The iPad is one of those devices I never realized I needed till I had one. The battery life is amazing and the ability to view emails, documents, tech manuals, etc. has saved me countless hours. It is small enough that sitting in a taxi I can pull it out for a quick thought or edit.

Apple iPad2

I chose to purchase a iPad2 16GiB Wifi only instead of the more expensive models. The reasons were that felt the the 3G was not needed in Europe and hotels with the prevalence of Wifi and the 16GiB at the time seemed like a good idea as I store a ton in the cloud. Looking back I would jump for more storage as the cloud is not accessible when you are in the clouds…

In a later post I will cover the Apps I swear by for travel, but needless to say I run my business off this thing. In addition I enjoy the ability in iOS 5 to do encrypted/signed emails, encrypted storage, and remote wipe.

MacAlly Dualstand2

Like the MacBook Air, I put a case on my iPad. I’d say partially for protection, more for daily use. I use the fantastic Air Display App to use my iPad as a second monitor on my travels, but without some stand it was near useless. The HTC Evo back home made me accustom to having a kickstand to prop up my devices. The MacAlly Dualstand 2 case was a great addition as it protects the back, has 2 heights for propping up, and is yellow. The color at first was a little discomforting, but the brightness allows me to find it in low light condition which has been nice in dark airplanes and hotels.

Boxwave Stylus

I didn’t like the thought of taking down customer information in something that was so easily read. The Boxwave Stylus and any of the various note taking applications has allowed me to replace my unsecure Moleskins with a note taking machine.

 Security

When you are traveling across multiple international borders it is important to secure your data. In addition to your personal information you are carrying your customers’ and should treat it with a heightened level of control. The laptops in our company are configured to comply as closely as possible to the DISA STIG guidelines for the applicable OS. We disallow unencrypted storage on both internal and external storage also.

I use LastPass to generate one-time passwords for all my websites and documents. This way one leak or break-in does not compromise the rest of my net. If you search my blog you will see more lengthy posts on the usage, but the short end is that LastPass is cross-platform, works within a browser, and despite some questionable security issues in the past does a decent job.

Yubikey

I at one point was a very big user of Dropbox, but their recent actions have forced me onto another service. Having to encrypt prior to transmission negated the things that made Dropbox great. Luckily there are other services that have stepped up that provide a similar level of syncing without the security fail of Dropbox. I settled on Spideroak for keeping the laptop synced with my desktop and fileserver back home. It isn’t as seamless, but it is more secure and works in all the OS I care about.

IronKey USB Drive

When the cloud isn’t there and I need to backup something I use my Ironkey. It is Military Grade built meaning water, stress, heat, etc.are no issues. In addition the encryption software works without Admin rights on Mac, Windows, and Linux machines. I use it to store my important documents that if I lost my everything it would be in my pocket ready to get me out of some country. Skip the Sandisk software encryption and go with hardware if you can. They are expensive, but I value my data in this form factor.

For traversing foreigh networks I use a mixture of colocated servers and Amazon EC2 in various countries to ensure that no matter what “Great Firewall” might be in use I can tunnel my way out. My home server has a hosted DNS server allowing me control of my A-Records so that I can use DNS tunneling in addition to SSL/SSH. Last ditch effort is ICMP tunneling, but I have found very few places SSH or OpenVPN wasn’t sufficient. The first thing I do on any connection is VPN home before exchanging information. You can’t take big risks on foreign wifi access points.

Iomega eGo

Lastly you should always follow a 3-2-1 backup strategy even when on the road. My data is stored locally on the laptop, in the cloud, and on an Yubikey authenticated encrypted external hard drive. I picked the external drive most able to sustain abuse much like the IronKey. After doing some research (specifically watch this Popular Mechanics video - best quote: Survived a 15 ft. drop on concrete and the crushing weight of a Chevy Tahoe.) I ended up with an Iomega eGo 1TiB drive. While the laptop is unable to take advantage of its USB 3.0 speed, it is able to power it with one USB port. It serves as my TimeMachine backup drive and for some very large programs that just make very little sense to store on the storage limited SSD in the laptop.

When I am traveling the laptop and hard drive never travel together. One is in my carry-on and one is checked so that if either disappears my data is still in 2 other locations. A month ago I suffered a failure on the laptop (not really though, I was being dumb) and was able to take my external hard drive and, using the Apple Time Machine utilities during install, restore my “laptop” to a spare mac mini. The peace of mind of being able to run to an Apple store, buy any laptop, and be back online within an hour or two makes it worth the pains of this backup strategy.

Power on the Go

The only thing worse than being in an airport or hotel room, is being there watching your batteries slowly drain as you desperately try to get that one last email out.

Kensington Travel Inverter

Some of the newer planes and cars have standard wall sockets in the seats or consoles. This, next to airborne wifi, is the greatest thing ever. Every so often though I run into some means of transportation with the traditional connectors or in some car I wish to charge both the iPad and phones. The Kensington Inverter is the best device I have used thus far. Small and built like a brick it is able to charge the laptop and a few devices at once while staying relatively cool.

Tripshell International Adapter

When you finally get to your hotel room you will need some converter for whatever country you are in. In the past I carried multiple adapters for each country which meant I often lost them or they broke. With the Tripshell World Adapter I am covered for 90% of the countries I visit. In addition to being a converted two ways (European plugs into American sockets as an example) it also has a fuse for protecting those valuable electronics.

Quirky PowerCurl

The MacBook Air power adapter is very compact as is. The corporate guys are always amazed to see how tiny it is compared to their Dell/HP/etc. laptops. In addition the switchable adapters for long length or short is useful when trying to keep the wires managed. The legs that allow you to wrap up the excess is even more ingenious. Truth be told though, when I am in the airport I don’t want to deal with unraveling and switching adapters. At the same time I want to have the ability to wrap up the excess cord as I do when I traditionally flip up the legs. The Quirky PowerCurl is one product that has saved me tons of heartache with reaching for the last power socket. In addition it keeps my power adapter cleanly wrapped for storage in my bags.

Creature Comforts

The next few items aren’t requirements, but they do make my travels more comfortable.

Timbuk2 Command

The Timbuk2 Command Laptop bag is such a great carry-on companion. Lots of pockets, well made, and plenty of storage for all my geeky toys it has served me well. It also is TSA approved so when I am making my way through security it is very simple for me to lay it flat and never have to remove the laptop or tablet. It doesn’t look too unprofessional is passable to carry into a board room without feeling goofy. It is a little more pricey for what you are getting, but it is justifiable for the quality of the product in my opinion.

ZuniConnect 150

Some wifi services still to this day only allow a single MAC registered to the acces point. This means that my phone, ipad2, and whatever else feels left out when I am in the hotel room. I used to carry a router for sharing a 3G connection, but it only had one Wifi radio which didn’t help me. The ZuniConnect allows me to (powered via USB port mind you) connect to the pay-for wifi and then share it to my own private wifi network. The device is small, comes with a case, and if wall powered can charge 2 devices via USB. The device pays for itself after one long stint of travel.

Kensington USB Mini Dock

The MacBook Air, while a great laptop is short on USB ports. Also it is short on Ethernet ports. The best adapater I have found to date is the Kensington USB mini dock with Ethernet. It requires no drivers in MacOSX and is as simple as plugging in. When I have large transfers with clients or am in a secure location with no wifi it has saved me. Without power and simply plugged into the USB port it will allow for Ethernet and a single USB keyboard to operate. The adapter is rated for 220 so plugging it in to the wall jack is no issue. Price is cheaper than purchasing the equivalent USB NIC from Apple or NewEgg.

Rowenta Classic Travel

Lastly for my appearance I love a fresh ironed getup. Us Americans are spoiled that almost every room and hotel has an iron and ironingboard in the room. In Europe and the Middle East this is NOT the case. Either it is a shared non-steam iron in the hallway closet or the one they bring to your room is rusty and a mess. I couldn’t deal with it any longer and instead opted to purchase the Rowenta Travel Iron. Oh gosh how I love it…seriously it is the best little device to let this prior-military man continue to look sharp when shoving 10 days into a carry on suitcase. In addition the steaming and 110/220 switch means I am always able to use it.

Legal Formation:
Legal Zoom allowed us to establish a LLC for less than 600 dollars…expedited…The process was seamless and the product delivered (namely the official stamper which is loads of fun) met our immediate needs to become registered with the proper govt. agencies. Total Cost: Less than 600 dollars for NJ

Email/Calendar/Address Book/Intranet:
I am not sure if there is any other option that Google Apps. Google has showcased its willingness to embrace small business by offering free accounts and large marketplace support for Single-Sign On (SSO) applications. In addition they have recognized the need for multi-factor authentication and provided OpenID capable portals and tokens for phones. The idea of running my own server in a data center or at the house seems archaic. Living in a dependable cloud ensures we hit the availability numbers necessary to be successful. Total Cost: Free for 5 users

Book Keeping/Invoicing/Payroll:
I hate Intuit. We should start there as its a great pretense for why we went with them. In the face of countless other great options we quickly realized that industry standards and interoperability mattered more to us than the pure hate in our hearts. QuickBooks Online allows us to do payroll, invoice, and book keeping from a single application that supports iPad and other mobile apps. The key take-away was an integrated solution that we could export data and hand over to the thousands of quickbooks familiar CPA come tax season. Total Cost: 69 dollars a month with 30 days free

Small Business Banking:
Bank of America is also not one of my favorite companies. After comparing the services and capabilities we simply landed with what fit best. Their small business centric products and support for small lines of credit offered us the opportunity to grow ahead of that Net-30 Dragon. Total Cost: Fees are associated with the quantity of money kept with them. Also Credit Card rates vary

Trip Planning:
We are an international business from Day-1. My co-founder and I both come from large defense contractors where picking up the phone the night before corporate travel was not uncommon. Realizing that we were more than capable we moved to Web Based solutions. With Kayak and TripIt we are able to book affordable travel and automate team location coordination. Both integrate well into the Google Apps space. Total Cost: Free, but Business Plans for add-ons have additional costs

Expense Tracking and Submission:
Expensify was the easiest way to integrate with Google Apps and provide a decent work-flow for submission of travel reports by our employees. The categorization and pretty reports are perfect for shipping off to our customers for invoicing. Total Cost: Free, but Business Plans for add-ons have additional costs

Teleconferencing:
Sorry Twit.tv network and Leo, but GoToMeeting just wasn’t cheap enough or extensive enough to support the multiple OS and platform in use by our teams. Fuze Meeting on the other hand was cheaper and met our technical requirements. The Skype, Linux, Google Apps, and international dial-in support sealed the deal. Total Cost: 39 dollars a month for unlimited meetings. International dial-in #’s and additional features have associated costs.

Templates:
T&M Contract? Site agreements? NDA? So many documents we used to having at our disposal are gone when you venture on your own. DocStoc has given us a repo to share and pull from. It can be difficult to find “useful” templates as they just scavenge the inter tubes for documents, but there are some very nice ones in the piles of rubbish. Total Cost: 11 dollars a month

International Plans:
We are recommending the purchase of unlocked quad band phones. This allows our employees to be in any country and purchase a pre-paid SIM to keep in touch with. The phone isn’t the best option as the cost of data and voice is still extremely expensive. It is a necessary evil at this point until Wifi or data-only plans become prevalent. Side note: Tmobile and AT&T you both suck. 3 dollars a minute for some VERY common countries?!? Total Cost: Passport Plus depending on options is around 50 dollars

Voice/Video conferencing:
If we aren’t using Fuze Meetings and the meeting happens to be my partner and I just working on some contracts, Skype is hard to beat. The latest versions addition of screen-sharing make it that much simpler to quickly setup a call or chat. We are looking to move to XMPP/SIP based systems in the future due to multi platform support, but for now its the recognized standard. With that said…Skype 5 on Mac is an abomination and I hate whichever UX designer thought this was a good idea: Total Cost: Free

Information Technology:
In a broad description these are the bits and pieces of IT stuff required to perform work. As a big geek it always bothered me that my tools were dictated to be efficient with that work. CTO/CIO are obviously troubled at the idea of supporting multiple platforms and baselines, but for a specialized engineering firm like ours it is less of an issue. Instead we took a “requirements drive design” approach and set criteria your IT stuff must support. File formats, tools listed above, security constraints, etc. Also we made it very clear that the IT must never be in the way of completing work in a timely fashion. In return for the ability to pick your toolbox, we expect you to comply with the requirements and provide a stipend to keep your tools fresh. A side-note here is that Google fell flat on this requirement. Security is VERY important to us and the fact Android phones lack basic encryption makes them a non-starter. Ice Cream I hear might fix this, but until it does we cannot recommend or reimburse folks for the ability to carry our companies data on them. Total Cost: Stipend to employees

Document Collaboration:
Google Docs is amazing for simple documents. We are beginning to question the long-term usage due to some of the sizes and complexity of files we produce, but for now it is a good revision controlled document system. Total Cost: Free

That is all I have for now. I am on a flight with no wifi, but power receptacles, so I wanted to type this while fresh on my mind. Hope this helps other entrepreneurs out there.

With the issue above I went searching for an unlocked cell phone. My requirements were pretty simple:

1. Smartphone capabilities (email, calendar, browser, SSH client, etc.)
2. World GSM bands supported
3. Wifi hotspot capable
4. Support SSH tunnels and VPN connections
5. Encryption
6. Under 300 dollars

To be honest my first choice was to go with a used iPhone 3GS, but the more research I did the worse an idea it seemed. While traveling the last thing I want to do is be part of the cat and mouse game that is Apple vs. Hackers. Unlocking an iPhone of that era is not difficult, but why would I purchase something I knew would require serious hacking to make useful?

Android phones seemed like the next obvious choice, but here is the thing. The phones for that price range are cheap and I don’t feel comfortable carrying them. The Evo I know carry is serving as nothing more than an access point for my laptop and iPad. Reason is that in the year 2011, I still cannot get device encryption on my phone. Carry my personal data on that? HELL NO

Lastly I looked at Blackberry/WebOS/Feature Phones. Each had their own issues with either cost or performance. My choices were beginning to look very limited. It was then my geek mind wandered to a day of yore when I was given a demo unit from Nokia. The N900 was a hackers dream, but didn’t fit into my current needs back then. With Nokia basically abandoning the platform it is for all intensive purposes a sinking ship, but one that the hacker community has blueprints for. One of the benefits of this sinking ship is the phones go for well under 300 dollars on eBay and Amazon. So lets take a look at my requirements diff’d against it:

1. Smartphone capabilities (email, calendar, browser, SSH client, etc.) – Very capable device that is receiving updates for updated protocols and standards due to the similarity with various freedesktop.org standards
2. World GSM bands supported – Isn’t going to support 3G with AT&T, but for pre-paid SIM stateside your best bet is Tmobile anyways
3. Wifi hotspot capable – You can use the pretty GUI from JoikuSpot or drop to a terminal on the phone and setup one the same way you would on a Linux desktop
4. Support SSH tunnels and VPN connections – Supports it better than any other platform to date. Full kernel access ensures that the complexities of building TUN/TAP adapters on iOS/Android are not applicable
5. Encryption – The encryption at this point is not “Whole Disk,” but it is standards supported. Truecrypt and CryptSetup work great. Since it is just Linux you can symbolic link your way into an encrypted Home Folder.
6. Under 300 dollars – Very easy find on Amazon/Ebay/Craigslist

So here I am 2 years after the n900 was released buying one for unlocked usage. My mind is at ease of its continued use due to the awesomeness of the developers and community. With the phone just being Linux underneath it is very easy to keep it living beyond the life of support from Nokia. There are multiple efforts afoot to keep the code-base current such as Maemo Community CSU and Meego ARM n900 Port. I will write up some howto to bring the phone as close to 2011 standards as possible in the coming weeks. Just call me Captain of the Sinking Ship

At the age of 18 she married my Father and left their hometown without any regard for the challenges ahead. Soon after that move to Oklahoma, there I was in the world with them. My Father was part of the prestigious 3rd Herd Combat Communications Unit and constantly in the field or disappearing in the night for missions. Alone in a new state and city she took care of the homefront. I think back to the time I was 18 years old and what it would take to do something like this and can’t fathom the challenges. There she was though, Momma Bear taking on the world.

Throughout my life I have seen that strength grow as she packed the house and moved to foreign countries by herself (tetris eat your heart out) and raise my Brother and I in the toughest of conditions. She played nurturing mother and loving wife while organizing church charity events and volunteering at our schools. Her strength and courage were so extensive that she helped those around her by counseling them in times of need and lending a shoulder to cry on. While her friends will attending college, she was a mother of two and a military wife.

The title of this post is based on haven seen my Mother lay down the law. As a child my Mom was the disciplinarian. Don’t get me wrong, Dad was no slouch either, but Mom was the one my Brother and I got really scared of when we heard our middle names used. One time as a young child a neighbors mother disciplined me  without regard for the situation. I was not in the wrong by any stretch and I watched my Mother from a few hundred yards away stand-up from her chair on the porch and march towards us. Up until this point in my young life I assumed she only scared my Brother and I. That day I saw someone as scared as we would get as she laid into this woman over her total disrespect. I stood there in awe and jaw wide. She grabbed my hand as we walked back I remember the first time I heard her use the phrase “Don’t mess with my cubs or Momma Bear will bite.”

In middle school I was given a poor grade on an assignment for reasons not fair to the circumstances. It was well known the teacher didn’t care for me and frankly it was mutual. My mothers first reaction was to scold me for a poor grade, but after a logical talk about what happened the switch flipped. We had a parent/teacher conference and before I knew it the teacher was scared and offering me all “A’s” if that would make us go away :) My Mother said “if Nick was in the wrong then I will back you, but you clearly are in the wrong over something stupid. I expect a fair grade for him, not for you to give him an A.” The teach (more in fear I believe) gave me an A on the project. The response as we left the school was “Don’t mess with my cubs or Momma Bear will bite.”

Re-reading the above I make her out to be a Female Rambo which isn’t fair at all. She is the most loving and caring woman you could meet. When I meet people for the first time that have known her they always convey the love and compassion my Mom shows them. It is from that love that she has been there for our family. The matriarch and core of our tight-knit team. Though 14 broken bones, countless stitches, my divorce, a loss of everything, countless requests for advice, and many other things she has been my trusted confidant.

It is because of all these reasons that the I know she is going to make it through the aliment she has. The tumor is not strong enough to fight the woman that has done so much in this world. The growth inside of her is not ready to take on the type of determination it will now receive.

In a prior life I wanted to be a writer. Not because I am particularly skilled at such things, but rather because it is therapeutic for my analytical mind to put things to paper. I needed to write this to let go of some of the fear, to remind myself how much my Mom has been through already and how little this is in comparison. The few friends I have talked to have been such a help in working through the emotions. Hearing their stories of parents and loved ones deal with similar ailments has helped me move beyond the fear. It was important for me to remind myself that in the grand scheme of things this nothing compared to the life she has already conquered. Like she always said “Don’t mess with Momma Bear.”