Have Laptop Will Travel

American Airlines to test inflight broadband internet access in 2008

Originally posted on August 1, 2007 @ 6:29 am

Laptops can be such an addictive machine. I remember when I had my first laptop — I just had to bring it with me wherever I went. Lugging around my computer made me feel so much more productive because I can squeeze in more work. Entertaining myself when I’m bored was also answered by having my laptop with me. With the advent of WiFi, bringing a laptop became so much more fun. You can now chat with friends, surf your favorite sites or even play online. Unfortunately, there are some areas where you can only wish that you can use the internet with your laptop. Long airplane trips are one of those situations where having an internet access would have made a great difference. Fortunately, American Airlines sees the world the same way I do.

The airline company has recently announced that it will begin tests for the deployment of inflight broadband internet access by 2008. The tests will initially be conducted on American Airlines’ transcontinental routes. The service is going to be fee based and will also block video conferencing and VOIP services so that these internet tasks will not disrupt ground to air communications. Also, this particular service will only be available in US flights because of the nature of the technology being used.

New Tools For The Blogger On The Road

Originally posted on June 3, 2007 @ 8:29 am

After only some days, the list can be updated.

With the introduction of the excellent offline Google Reader [modus], we can delete FeedDemon from the list and save $25.
Although FeedDemon still has some more features than Google Reader, Google Reader performs well and fast.

Another addition to the list, comes in the form of the new version of Windows Live Writer.
Windows Live Writer is an all straightforward, out of the box editor for most blog platforms. Installation is easy and writing is even easier. It feels like writing in Word, with support options for your theme, just less bloated than MS Word. If you blog alot and hate to be stuck in your blogplatform editor, Windows Live Writer is what you need.

The Editor comes with many insertion and formatting possibilities and also supports tags properly, but not 100% correctly if you want to use site internal tags.
Live Writer can ping services when publishing entries, or publish entries at a specific time. Basically you’ll find everything you need and the feel is nicer than writing in the WP editor.
Screenshots after the jump

[Read more…]

6 Essential Mac Applications For Work On The Road

Originally posted on July 7, 2007 @ 12:04 am

I’m a serial entrepreneur who has sold more businesses than most people will have jobs. I think the average American has 8 jobs in his/her life and 2 career changes. Me I’ve had countless ‘jobs’ and I’m working on career number 5. All before I’m 28. Wow. The underlying factor is you know what I love what I do. I’m ready to hit the road again. I’ve got the foundation for a nice income setup and you know what I’m ready to work on the road again. At lot must be done to get ready to hit the road. Number one is making sure clients are happy. `Number two is getting more organized than usual. I have a tendency to not be nearly as organized when I travel for some reason. So I try to overplan and be more organized that way when it all falls apart I can have something to fall back on and that’s a solid travel routine.

1. Checkoff
Checkoff is great for me because I’m totally disorganized without it. It’s a great way to make a simple list that I will actually use. It’s like an offline Tada List.

2. Skype
What’s not to love about Skype. it’s a great way to stay in touch with my closest business allies. Without them and it I’d be lost.

3. OpenOffice
I still like to have a copy of my documents offline. And I’m not going to pay for a Microsoft product when I can use a great open source project’s work.

4. WriteRoom
I’m easily distracted and this program takes all my distractions and tosses them into a deep deep black hole.

5. Coda
I don’t do a lot of coding but when I do I need something that just works for me. And this thing get’s the job done and does way more than a simple text editor.

6. iBank
Organizing finances on the road is a hugely important thing for me to do. This program has made me happy a gazillion times over.

Laptops and Jihad

Originally posted on April 11, 2007 @ 8:44 am

Jihad and Laptops

Here’s your chance to vote.

Will giving laptops away virtually for free in countries with heavy influence from radical Islam result in:

A) A new generation of peaceful Muslims who appreciate the generosity of the West

or

B) A new generation of tech savvy radical Musilims ready to wage jihad with their laptops?

Passport RFID Chips

Originally posted on March 4, 2007 @ 9:33 pm

Did you know that all passports issued by the US State Department after January 1, 2007 have always-on radio frequency identification chips, making it easy for officials and hackers to grab your personal stats?

If you’re worried about strangers slurping up your identity or your privacy in general, here’s what you can do about it.

Disclaimer: Tampering with a passport is punishable by 25 years in prison, not to mention the “special” customs search with rubber gloves.

I am not instructing you to try these methods, only discussing possible solutions.

The RFID-tagged passports have a distinctive logo on the front cover. The chip is embedded in the back.

Accidentally leaving your passport in the jeans you just put in the washer won’t work to disable the RFID chip. You’re more likely to ruin the passport itself than the chip.

Forget about nuking it in the microwave as the chip could burst into flames, which wouldn’t be good. It would probably leave telltale scorch marks, besides a burnt passport probably wouldn’t smell to nice.

So what is the best approach you might be asking yourself?

Hammer time. Hitting the chip with a blunt, hard object should disable it.

To the best of my knowledge, a nonworking RFID doesn’t invalidate the passport, so you can still use it.

I bet right about now you’re wondering what information is stored on the RFID chips. I’ll tell you… your name, nationality, sex, date of birth, place of birth and a digitized photograph of you, the passport holder.

Eventually, the government contemplates adding additional digitized data such as fingerprints or iris scans.

According to a document I found, the State Department claims it has addressed privacy concerns. The chipped passports “will not permit ‘tracking’ of individuals,” the department said.

I don’t buy it for one second. How about you?

The document goes on to say that the RFID chip “will only permit governmental authorities to know that an individual has arrived at a port of entry, which governmental authorities already know from presentation of non-electronic passports with greater assurance that the person who presents the passport is the legitimate holder of the passport.”

If you have any more information about this exciting violation of our privacy, let me know. Feel free to comment or contact me in private.