Wonder what technology drives the home office highway?

Discover as I discuss the topic with Jim Blasingame with Small Business Advocate. A hint: Mifi, a netbook, the Cloud — and a barking dog. The pleasures and realities of live radio — from a rocking chair at the General Store at Stone Mountain Park Campground. It’s even good for telework and road warriors, if they want to work from an RV…

Finally, a 'hotspot' that's easy to use, small as a business card - and a true 'cloud'.

More on the Mifi…

It’s every home office, telework and road warrior’s lament. At least those with kids (and a wife in search of ‘net-time): How to get online, without attracting attention from the little scoundrels, who’ll then want the Internet-connected laptop for their own.

Of course, RV parks across America promise “Free Wifi.” Good luck finding a network that works…

Here’s one review of the MiFi personal hotspot. Specifically, Daniel Terdiman said of mobile hot spot, it “converts the carrier’s EV-DO signal into a Wi-Fi connection that up to five people can share. I had already used the MiFi to provide a signal for the iPod Touch at the very beginning of the trip so that, while sitting on a boarding airplane, I could download a large file from iTunes…Now, I realized that by turning the MiFi on and sticking it in my back pocket, I could become, in essence, a walking hot spot, allowing me to get online on the iPod Touch, no matter where I was. That meant that I could use the Skype app to make a phone call, run several other apps for one reason or another, and look up good places to eat using the device’s browser…”

My two cents: This device has made working remotely seamless and breezy. Read More »

Night surfing with the Verizon MiFi and the MSI U123 netbook.

Years ago, surfing in public meant first paying $15 an hour for a user ID and password hand-written on a scrap of paper so you could log on to some cyber cafe’s network.

Now, it’s as easy as hitting the MiFi, powering up the netbook — and in less than a minute, you’re up.

This year’s home office highway is shaping up as an exercise in simplified surfing. Last year, setting up a network meant powering up and wiring in a router the size of a cigar box. This year’s “access point” is a business card-sized device that enables five Internet devices — netbooks, laptops, MP3 players, an iTouch — to log on simultaneously. Read More »

What’s in your pack? A tablet PC, walkie-talkie radio, flash drive, broadband wireless card, five-plug, surge protected power strip. That’s what in mine…

When we recently took a family cruise, I made sure to pack my backpack with all the essentials needed to create a home office from the road.

Along side my HP tablet PC were my broadband wireless aircard (essentially useless hundreds of miles out to sea), my Ativa Memory Stick card reader, a USB flash drive, and a Monster five-plug, surge protected power strip. You never know when you’ll have to plug the laptop, camera charger and some other device into one single outlet.

I also carry a stretch of ethernet cable, and a clutch of adapters.

Here’s what some other people had in their backpacks and laptop bags. Wireless Road Warrior found size essential. Webworker Daily had a review of the stash in one laptop case (read the comments for some more good ideas). Here’s some more threads on the topic.

Your industrious cottage can make remote work workable by Nancy Doniger for the New York Times.

The New York Times had a piece on the tools needed to make a second home or vacation getaway an industrious place. I lent a few insights.

For home office workers (entrepreneurs or teleworkers alike), top tips included:

– Wireless broadband. Internet is central to any effective home office or remote workplace.

– A computer. Netbooks and small laptops allow people to take their work anywhere — without dragging a luggable in tow.

– Cloud with Web-apps. “The cloud is the concept of working in an untethered environment, so all your documents are out there,” writer Billie Cohen quoted me as saying. Click here to learn more…

The people at CoolTools recently reviewed several cool apps — ideal for the home officer-turned-road warrior.

According to writer Arthur Heafer, the Versacharger is a combo 110V AC and 12V DC USB converter to charge phones, PDAs, and various other electronics. Purchase additional USB connectors and “tips” as you go for specific gadgets. Some GPS units also can be charged with appropriate voltage transducers.

Heafer has used this charger over a year, mostly when traveling. It greatly reduces the amount of cables, chargers, wall wart and the like carried around. Heafer keeps all my devices (GPS, Palm T/X, cell phone) and charger in a small cloth, drawstring bag, along with a Ziploc bag for all the various tips (Add’l Tip: He uses a gold marking pen to write which tip goes with which device). Read More »

PC Magazine recently had a piece on the growing epidemic of laptop theft.

Apparently, 12,000 laptops each week sprout legs NOT belonging to their owners — and venture off with strangers of ill-intent (Ponemon Institute and Dell Computer). This mostly happens in “high distraction places” like airport security checkpoints, departure gates and drinking establishments where business execs and road warriors are educating clients and prospects on the finer points of this phenomenon called, The Final Four.

In an RV, where you may be roaming with the bears or enjoying Grand Ol’ Opry while your mobile office on wheels lies unwatched (at least, by you, that is), how can you protect your stuff?

Once stolen, only three in 10 travelers ever recover their laptops (fewer land the prospect’s account). As for the confidential info or customer data lost from the absent PC or tongue loosened by spirits during said Final Four outing, it’ll show up — in your competitor’s next Exclusive Priduct, and your Corporate Termination Exit Review…

		PC Magazine SLIDESHOW (10)
		Slideshow | All Shots

Laptop security is a crap-shoot. Best we can do is hope to thwart thieves. When I’m shacked up in a hotel — but venture out to a local haunt or watering hole, I leave my laptop in plain sight — locked tightly around a permanent fixture with a cable lock.

Beyond cable locks, other solutions include proximity alarms, software and duct tape to strap the laptop to your hands. Actually, PC offered a slideshow on 10 Laptop Security Products to keep your laptop and its data yours. Products include the PC Guardian Ezolution Multi Combo RS, Mobile Edge SecuriCable Key Lock, Targus Laptop Privacy Screens, Datamation Snap It Laptop Security Cable, Hush Communications StealthSurfer, M2SYS M2-S1 Fingerprint Reader, Yoggie Pico Personal, and LaptopLock. Read More »

In the hunt for flexibility, mobility, cost savings and untethered workers, corporations are searching for the tools to drive their organizations to the leading edge.

Such services — VoIP, wireless broadband Internet access and full-featured phones, to name a few — comprise integrated solutions that enable employees to work anytime and anyplace.

That can be for a home office worker, a remote teleworker, even road warriors working from a corporate sedan — or an RV.

And companies are responding at a time when telework and remote officing continues to grow in popularity. Telework, or the use of telecommunications to enable employees to work from almost anywhere, is becoming a popular counter to rising real estate costs, worker mobility and fuel prices. HR association WorldatWork reports that the total number of U.S. teleworkers — from employees to contractors and even business owners — has risen 17 percent, from 28.7 million in 2006 to 33.7 million in 2008.

“Mainstreaming telework will enable employers to control costs and provide the foundation for employment stability and future growth,” said Chuck Wilsker, president of The Telework Coalition. The volume of  employer inquiries his organization receives has tripled in the past two years. Read More »