TravelAddict.org Blog

I have decided that I am going to go through my file of important documents, scan everything, and destroy anything that I can. I will then keep backups on my laptop, desktop, DVD, and external hard drive to make sure I have it all covered.

This will making living and working remotely a lot easier and less clutter that I have to deal with. I know their will be certain documents that I cannot destroy. I plan to keep those in a heavy duty envelope and stored in a safe place.

This will make finding things much easier and faster. I already do this to a certain extent and need to finish the job. I have access to good scanners at work where I can get it done easily and for free. One of my goals for next year is to have this completely done.

I have used this for years and wonder why a lot of others have not figured this out yet. It makes things much easier but my guess is that most people are simply ignorant, lazy, or both. That said the strategy is simple.

I have 1 email address that I give only to humans. Meaning friends, family, other travelers, etc.

I have another that I use for signing up for things such as websites, online accounts, contests, etc.

This makes things much easier since 95% of your important mail goes to the “human-only” account and all the junk goes to the other. I check my main account at least daily and my junk account at least weekly. Using gmail is also helpful since you can search the junk account for exactly what you need.

In the end its all about saving time–and money!

I finally gave in and restored my iPhone 3g to factory and then restored from backup. This cleared up all the problems in my phone and allowed me to update my way out of date applications.

After much forum digging and cussing I found this was the only way. It took about 20 minutes and was pretty painless. For those experiencing crashing issues with your iPhone I suggest you do this!

I decided that I still need to have a cheap point and shoot digital camera for smaller occasions and lighter short trips. They are also good for self photos and nights at the bar. I will not be taking my SLR to Belize since I will only be there for a week.

I got a Canon A530 (same as I had before) on ebay for $47 shipped. I am familiar with it and liked the quality of images that it produced. If it breaks or gets wet I won’t be too upset since it was cheap. I also got a hard case for it for $7 on eBay as well. Not bad!

My main computer is a Macbook Pro. It is a big investment that I want to protect. Based on friends’ past experience I believe Apple Care is a must. What most people don’t know is that you do not have to pay full price for it. Apple Care for the iPod is always good as they tend to get beat up from use. Its worth it!

You can get Apple Care for just about any product from eBay. They are signifcantly cheaper than directly from Apple. Some of you may be worried about scams but you have to look for a few things:

1. Make sure the seller has a very high rating (over 500)
2. Look for similar past auctions from that seller.
3. Read the listing carefully, a true reseller will be professional
4. They usually sell in bulk lots, say 20 at a time in one listing

The above will ensure that you are not getting ripped off. Even if you do eBay has solutions for that. The normal Macbook Pro Apple Care price is $350. It is going on eBay now for $205. That is low enough to buy and resell locally yourself!

It’s official. I had to replace the motherboard in my Dell laptop. It took me 3 hours and about $200 in parts to get it running again. So far it is running ok. I won’t do this again. I would rather buy a new one.

This is also one of those rare instances where that extended warranty would have paid for itself in lack of headache. The old motherboard went bad and kept blowing out power supplies. Other than that it worked fine. I still am unsure what the real cause of the problem was. I am guessing a power surge nuked something and it kept back-feeding current to the power brick.

Either way I think I am going to invest in Apple Care for my MacBook Pro. Parts are even more expensive and it is already a big investment.

Earning just came out for Apple and they beat estimates. I bought the stock ahead of the announcement predicting exactly this. It took me 3 trips to the Apple store to finally get my 3G. The first 2 times their were LONG lines out the door. I knew this would bode well for them.

The stock is up after hours and I hope it will continue tomorrow so I can sell for some quick cash. Its nice to actually make money on stocks for a change!

Being the avid iPhone user that I am I have realized that it is time to ditch hotmail. They do not allow access from a mail client, much less IMAP. I am going throught the painstakingly long process of changing all of my online accounts over to gmail.

I already have a gmail account for this site and one that I give out to real humans. I am now moving my junk email account over to gmail so I can get iphone access to it. I also like the gmail interface MUCH better.

I have most of the major items moved over but I will have to monitor it and change things as I go. I figure I should be completely off hotmail by year end.

I have been looking at MagicJack VOIP Phone adapter and I am toying with the idea of trying it out. It is basically a USB device that you can plug any standard phone into. You pay $19.95 per year for unlimited calls to the USA and Canada. This would be great for a portable office.

If it works well enough then it can be useful. I could be in Thailand making “local” calls to the USA. $19.95 is really cheap and I hope it can continue that way. You can make and receive calls just like a real phone. All you need is broadband internet on your laptop/desktop and you are ready to go.

If I intend to become self-employed this will make things easier.

This is always a difficult thing to maintain while on the road. I have multiple strategies that I employ to make sure I do not lose my photos. Everything else is replacable with the exception of photos.

When possible I will upload to a site such as facebook or flickr or even ftp to my website. An external hard drive and/or flash drive/ipod/etc is helpful. Do not delete photos from your memory cards and have multiple cards for space. Last resort can be CD/DVD and actual prints.

Once back to a base or home you can get them more organized and backed up. You can clear off the memory cards and keep on going. I tend to take a lot of pictures since I have an unofficial hobby of it. This is also time to photoshop them and crop them for various uses.

I lost my photos 1 time and learned my lesson. Having to do data recovery on a memory card is not a pretty process. Don’t get stuck like I did!