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.

From the time I carried my fathers forgotten Palm or Casio PDA, I have always had some sortof technology in my pocket. When the connected PDA and first smartphones began to hit the market I scrounged what little funds I had to acquire one. There is no other device that  is more of a  knowledge force multiplier. Being able to find old emails, read RSS feeds, and query my second brain AKA the Internet made my moments in line at the store or riding around town filled with information consumption. In the military I was given the blackberry to the left and it changed everything. I always had issues with organization and keeping appointments. No longer! Today I am glued to my HTC Evo 4G most of my waking moments to ensure I am responsive to my clients and friends. In addition it downloads all my news and information for O2G access.

One of my favorite activities is diving into technical manuals and white papers. Many of my clients and coworkers can attest to me awake at 1am reading through some material and having that “AHA!” moment and sending them a fix. In the early days of my life I carted a few hundred pounds of books around, but that isn’t needed anymore. Truth be told, books are no longer that necessary. Between Instapaper and eBooks I am set. The long form articles on my favorite websites mixed with the ability to search some command or term through a few hundred PDF’s make me a knowledge machine. I have gone through every eBook technology, but have finally settled on the iPad as my reading consumption device. The SoftBook reader I started with provided much better reading clarity, but at the expense of PDF rendering and multi-application usage. Part of being a young business geek is mobility and having a single purpose device just doesn’t work anymore.

My vehicles all have bluetooth for stereo or iPods for a very simple reason, podcasts. Ever since I start with Juice on my linux box years ago I was hooked. It started as a way for me to connect and listen to other like-minded geeks. When I was a teenager I did a local radio show focusing on technology every so often, but specifically I was the “Linux” guy. Before podcasts unless you happen to catch me on those rare Saturdays, there was little opportunity for you hear the latest news. Even then if you happen to catch the show I wasn’t able to dive into the gory details of Linux kernel or latest GTK releases. Podcasts changed all of that. Every night my devices download the latest and greatest Economist, tons of TWIT stuff, This American Life, NPR Planet Money, BBC Documentaries, Hardcore History, MIT Courseware, Philosophy Talk, and countless others. While walking to the metro or sitting at work I almost always have some podcast going. They allow me to absorb information while multi-tasking and completing other tasks. Also due to the extensive selection I am able to broaden my horizons by moving outside the mainstream and hearing other perspectives. In the business world this has afforded me a ton of kudos. “That contract won’t hit there because the finance ministry is in utter-turmoil” makes you sound like a superstar.

It is embarrassing how much I use Google Reader. In fact thanks to their trending and analytics I can tell you I have read 2,240,432 items since 2006.  I have bounced on self hosting my RSS reader and using NetNewsWire, but always come home to Google. The API and integration with applications allows me to view and sync my feeds across all my devices. In a systems engineering perspective though Google Reader though is the tool, the requirement is information. For me to be beneficial to my customers I must always be aware of the latest and greatest. On top of general information, I add a multitude of political, religious, local, and hundreds others to my stream to compare. It is impossible to ingest news and data in a linear fashion. For example rather than “watching” television on a single station I am able to see every opposing view within seconds. Over the years I have also kept up with researchers and people I admire via RSS. The next time I see them I am able to know what their mind is focused on and make the best use of our engagement. “I loved your article on new network heuristics using more than just simple ICMP/SNMP, where do you think the technology will take vulnerability scanners?” Being able to showcase that you are aware of what the industry is doing, what they are doing, and that your time with them is important ensures you aren’t just talking about the weather.

I have no intention of starting an Operating System war, but I have to attribute my ability to stay connected to UNIX/Linux. With my Debian and OpenBSD home servers I am able to SSH, tunnel, VPN, manage, sync, and store my data securely. Even those items that I have moved into the cloud I still ensure I sync back to my home systems. Using a mixture of screen, bitlbee, tor, and links I am able to keep constant roaming communications with everyone. The prevalence of open-source gives me the ability to do this securely and from any device. Heck, even my Blackberry from work has a SSH Client. Numerous times I have been in situations where my ability to have constant and secure communications has saved us. “Oh noes! We can’t access this from here?!?” Then I step in with a UNIX platform and a comms link and fix it. Others argue that in fact its the ability to utilize remote services, but I’d argue that UNIX is the only intrinsically remote/secure way to do it.

Where were you when you found out Osama bin Laden was killed? I was sitting in bed with my iPad and twitter open. The pace at which information flows now is mind blowing. I believe this is why we see CNN and others just running shows around “trending topics” which is highly depressing. The edge has been lost and given to people willing to sort through the data. Between Reddit, Twitter, and Hacker News I am able to stay DAYS ahead of the mainstream and react before the masses have been made aware. You must apply some filters to the data as it is often streaming live to your device. For example when the riots began in Egypt and Iran there was a good bit of disinformation, but if you took it as a whole the picture made more sense. I can’t imagine relying on mainstream media to curate my information any more. The only reason I utilize news outlets like the Economist, BBC, or Al Jazeera is to dig deeper. Seeing pictures and video live from breaking news is great, but I go back to traditional media for the “what it all means” side. If you want to stay steps ahead of your peers these three sites will keep you there for tech, politics, and just about everything else.

At this point in life I cannot afford to hire an assistant and many close to me have made it clear they aren’t interested in pitching in :) Google Voice (tech hipster point – I was using it when it was Grand Central) has changed the way I think of mobile communications. No matter where my phones are I am able to get SMS, Voice Mail (transcribed!), and make calls with Google Talk. Everyone continues to see my single phone number and is no smarter to the fact I am not near a line. There are still a few rough edges, such as the feature-set and lack of strong applications for iOS or updated Android apps, but it doesn’t change the fact it is central to my daily life. On the fly recording, conference calls, and movement from one phone to the next keeps me in constant comms.

Last time I forgot an important date? NEVER…If it is on my calendar I am guaranteed to be there. My girlfriend is able to, at a moments notice, know if we are going to have time to go out or eat in. Friends are sent meeting invites to parties and meetings to make sure I am there on-time. In good humor they joke with me about my meticulous attention to sending meeting invites to the simple things, but I am sure deep down appreciate my timeliness. Do I need to send an invite to remind me you are coming to play basketball? YOU BETCHA! Between Google Calendar and Tasks I have a forward and reverse look at all important dates in my life. Before the advent of a central calendar I was tied to a single data point. Forgot your phone? Screwed. Forgot your day planner? Screwed. Forgot your girlfriend? Double in Trouble. Live alerts via javascript, SMS, and email ensure that I am not only on time, but usually early. The Air Force made damn sure I knew that on-time was late; 15 minutes early was on time.

I am going to let a secret out that my father taught me. It really ties into the last entry on Google Calendar, but expands beyond just reminders. When we work in business we often divorce the P&L, staffing profiles, and technology reports from the pure emotions of life. Many of my colleagues are very nervous about Facebook and other Social Networks. There is certainly some risk in being transparent to your staff and coworkers, but think of how much better a leader you are if you know the things that effect our lives outside of work. For example in the past when I was managing a highly mobile team I was able to see when my guys’ kid was having a birthday. Or see that his weekend was filled with an emergency due to some unexpected event and react. In a business sense none of that is suppose to matter, but imagine the look and relief in their voices when I called to tell them we could do without them for a few days to handle business at home. It was an amazing feeling to send some guy home for his birthday or anniversary even if he hadn’t told anyone. Sure I was cheating by using published data, but I did it to ensure my team was happy and getting the all to forgotten recharge time. Teams I no longer work with I still follow to see how their careers are blossoming, families growing, or their desire for another challenge working for me :)

This is a short sampling of what makes-up my process for staying savvy and connected. I am having such a hard time to decide where to cut off this list as there are so many more. Netflix, Skype, Amazon, Kayak, TripIT, etc. There are just a ton of things that make me incredibly connected and organized. The downside to all of this of course is I am LOST without an internet connection. Such are the things we give up to have a digital life.

• Poor sister bought me games for Christmas for a System that I do not have. Don’t have the heart to tell her that she bought something I can’t use.
  • Not only did a redditor send him a GBA system, but the team pitched in and got them a tree too!
• Please help me reunite with my family for the holidays. – A redditor PAYS for his flight home
  • A redditor pays for his flight home to see his family
• Redeeming Myself: I AM a kidney donor. I always will be. My father-in-law is sick and I only wanted to boost his spirits. I did not lie. Not one bit. Here’s the proof.
  • Over 5000 dollars donated to the American Cancer Society and it spurred the next on my list…
• The same anonymous Redditor who donated $3700 to the American Cancer Society just donated $5000 to r/atheism’s Doctor’s Without Borders fund! – 45k total raised at last count!
  • 45,000 dollars raised is no small amount. What really makes me excited about these threads are that the donations are almost always anonymous.
• Redditor bails out student jailed for filming police.
  • Say what you will about the situation, but the kid did not need to be in jail. The reddit.com community agreed and one great guy bailed him out.
• Can we please make this guy the happiest person ever for a day?
  • Joint 4chan/Reddit effort. A grandchild of a 90year old WW2 vet made a poster stating “WANTED – People for Birthday Party.” Someone took a pic with their camera phone and started Operation: Strangelove. They found the family and the community decided to send cards and throw this guy a super party. After they successfully filled the awesomeness quota for this guys party, they began donating to local VA charities.
• For every upvote I’ll donate $1 to charity (please read inside)
  • 2280 upvotes and dollars submitted :) Childreach.org.uk the chosen charity
• Reddit- Help me find her killer, please.
  • People don’t realize how many digital traces of themselves are online. This thread exposes every single one of them. Through the hard work of reddit and law enforcement the guys is in jail.
• I need some help from Colorado Redditors. Westboro Baptists intends on protesting my friend’s funeral tomorrow…
  • A Brother in Arms was killed by a rocket attack in Iraq. She was on her last month of duty. The Westboro Baptist Church decided to be douche bags again and protest this girls funeral. A redditor who served with her and who was still in Iraq made a call for help. Coordination FTW
• Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria! r/Atheism and r/Christianity have a friendly competition up for a holiday charity drive that is spilling over into other subreddits. Please check out the details inside.
  • EvilSchwin sums it up best: “Finally, a holy war I can get behind.“

My Personal Favorites:

• Breaking! Colbert Rally is confirmed for October 30, 2010. Just announced by Jon Stewart!
  • Over $500,000 donated to Schools and Students. That my friends is the real story. The next runner up after we wiped the floor with everyone was Hillary Clinton with 35k. What made me smile about this story was the fact that to get Stephen Colbert’s attention we didn’t hack his website, hunt him down in the middle of the night, or humiliate him for fun and pleasure. Nope we raised so much money it became a news story, one worthy of Truthiness and Coverage.
• REDDIT: I own a toy store near the 7-year old being taunted by her neighbors…
  • This poor girl was TORMENTED this poor girl who was dying of Huntington’s Disease. They were posting pictures on her facebook of “skull and crossbone” and went as far as to hitch a coffin to a pick-up truck in front of her house. If there is one thing you don’t do is piss off a group of geeks. Reddit jumped into action and a few weeks later a limo showed up with toys for her and other sick children. In addition the community reached out to vendors and local companies to pitch-in. The list is too long to put here, but stop by the thread to see what all was given. She had the best day ever.
• Look who is going to Haiti to aid today … nice effing job reddit! More than 77k donated already!
  • End result was over 125k donated to a charity that gave 98% of the money to Haitians in need. Also the thread is fricken hilarious remind us all that our cynicism and cheesy humor are okay to display even when helping.
• $100 Paypal offer. I just returned from a deployment to an empty house. My son is away with the ex-wife. My immediate family is scattered around the globe.
  • This one just hit close to home coming from a long-line of military men. The thread was a display of class as the guy took what was a horrible situation and gave.

Books you need to read from Amazon.com I compiled a list there so you can just purchase in whole or pick what is interesting. If you only pick one book be sure it is the Mythical Man Month. It brought home for me the resource vs. task view of the world. Being able to defend your position and schedules is just as important as being able to create them. Highly Recommend

From blogs you should monitor via Google Reader or various other RSS reader…

Specific posts that made me take pause and wonder what I was doing:

Tips for Managing Geeks is a big topic in my world. The models you will read in books apply to MBA and more traditional engineering models. Geeks have nuances, this is my mix of all the sites I have read on the topic and many you guys have heard me say:

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-07-06/

That is why I stored this file. The one document named mine. This was her journal I had happened across as I undeleted the files from a laptop. It really wasn’t a journal as much as it was a long letter she never sent to me. I am not sure she ever intended to send it to me but tonight it was as if she had. What really hit me was the “experience the world, smile like there’s no tomorrow.” I kid you not, I have used that exact line in the past month as justification for the crazy life I live now.

Which all brings me to my point. We switched places. I hated her for choosing the military over me and for wanting to be young at heart. Why was it that I was the younger one and yet I felt more mature? Here I am 3 years later married to my job. The big difference of course being that I am not married now, but there is no chance I could be. That is the one thing I learned from her. That is one thing I learned from God. You can only serve one Master.

I haven’t the foggiest idea where I am going in life. Heck I can’t figure out what I will do tomorrow or what country I will be in on Monday. All I know is I don’t want to live my life like she wanted to live ours then. I am going to make some changes. It is time to open up and let God really put me where he wants me. I have very little play for the this year but it is about time to make some changes for the next year.

Geeks pride themselves on our ability to store files forever. The Egyptians sealed away tombs of carved walls, God gave Moses commandments on tablets, and I store encrypted files on a dual redundant backup plan. I understand why we store things, you never know what treasures and gems you will find buried in the dark.