foXnoMad

Maintaining a travel blog requires experience traveling, making it difficult at times to keep writing new posts when you’re on the move. Yesterday I suddenly realized my December travel schedule is looking more hectic as I hop all over the US and in Asia. Balancing traveling with writing is a dilemma all travel writers and bloggers face from time to time.

Luckily there are a number of quick ways to post quick, good material, in advance, without jeopardizing your schedule.

Pictures You’ve Taken

The easy way out is to post some travel photos you find online or from other blogs. However it’s much more interesting for your readers to see photos that you’ve personally taken (here are mine) - even if you don’t feel they’re ‘good enough’.

• The pictures and posts that I don’t feel are ‘good enough’ are usually the ones that generate the most feedback. Don’t fret too much and hit “publish”!

• Include yourself in some of the pictures since most of the travel photos you post are likely to be of other people.

Chop It Down

Almost any written post can be cut down, even ones as short as 200 words. Make a short series of a post that you would normally run on one day. You can even incorporate pictures into the flow and potentially turn one regular post into a week’s worth when your traveling.

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For the last week or so I’ve been in the middle of a move from one home to another and been having trouble setting up Internet service. As I shuttle from libraries, friend’s houses, and parking lots looking for a solid connection it occurred to me this is what many of us experience when traveling.

Luckily there are a number of free ways to steal borrow Internet connections and find Wi-Fi signals, without jeopardizing your computer’s safety.

Where To Begin

Wireless Internet signals can be found in many urban areas but one place you’ll want to begin looking is the airport. First check WiFinder and WeFi too see if there are any free and open Wi-Fi connections at the airport or close by. If not, download the free NetStumbler to your laptop or iPod Touch/iPhone and look for hidden internal airline networks.

Generally you’ll be able to pick up at least one connection using these methods and several computer-to-computer connections, which you should never use.

• If you are desperate it may be possible to crack a WEP or WAP encrypted wireless Internet connection. It is illegal, but may come in handy if you’re crashing at your friend’s place and they don’t remember their passphrase. This Wiki article has a technical walk through of the procedure.

Now You’re Connected - Protect Yourself

Whenever you are connected to an unfamiliar wireless network your computer and data are at risk from being read or corrupted by anyone listening in. (The connection is all over the air, remember?) Download HotSpot Shield, available for Windows and Mac. Not only will it protect the data you transmit over the Wi-Fi connection, you’ll be able to get around regional blocks and watch your favorite online TV shows as well.

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There are many Google Maps mashups (customizations) that can help you get a feel for you next trip. Begin your travel planning with street views, videos, and 360 looks around using the follow Google Maps mashups for travelers

1. Virtual Video Map - A world map with markers dotted all over the planet with a video from each location.
2. Satellite-Sightseer - Ariel views from Google maps of many interesting places around the world, including Bill Gate’s house, the Grand Canyon, and the Pyramids at Giza.
3. Virtual Tourism - Not the most intuitive website, but if you click around you’ll discover travel videos, and specialized Google Maps of music events, festivals,  sporting events.

Google Maps mania has an extensive list of travel mashups if you haven’t gotten enough. After your plans go from virtual to real, display them by creating your own travel map, calculate distances, and get around traffic jams.

[photo by: webg33k]

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TripSay is a social networking website for vacationers and travel enthusiasts, which launches today (out of private beta) at 10am PST and I was invited to preview the site before it went live.

What Is TripSay?

TripSay is a networking tool for travel enthusiasts based on personally created travel profiles allowing them to connect with other vacationers, find new places to visit, and discuss travel-related events.

It uses a unique recommendation engine to proactively match destinations, places, sights, content, and activities for people across their network of friends as well as with those with similar tastes.

The site is free and only requires a valid email address.

Setting Up an Account

It didn’t take me long to create a profile that included providing some information on the type of traveler I am (from ’surfer’ to ‘loner rockstar’). The interface is extremely clean and I was done in 2 minutes with a few mouse clicks. It adjusts and generates a specific travel map (a Google Maps mashup) based on your preferences and interests with recommendations from any new friends you’ve added.

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Protect your personal data and computer contents from being indefinitely confiscated upon entry to the US by removing your laptop hard drive and mailing it ahead. Newly released policy documents from the Department of Homeland Security make clear that,

Federal agents may take a traveler’s laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing.

Many travelers have been shipping their luggage to avoid airline fees, but the fees for international travel are still prohibitively expensive. The cheapest option is to remove your laptop hard drive and mail it back a day or two before you return to the US.

The cost is approximately $75 for UPS and FedEx, but you’re sure to keep your data safe in case your laptop gets confiscated at the airport. Mailing your hard drive carries its own risks so always do the following.

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Stay in touch with your friends and family without jeopardizing the information in your email account by setting up a temporary travel account.

There are several free and quick ways to do this without having to create a huge number of additional accounts.

Create A Travel Email Account - Open a new email account with your current provider.? The new account should be your regular email address with “trav” at the end of it (i.e. “cindy@yahoo.com” becomes “cindytrav@yahoo.com”).

• Hotmail and Yahoo - These two email providers don’t have forwarding capabilities, but the free download GetMail can do it for you. Have all of your emails forwarded to the new account to protect your privacy abroad.

Set up a vacation response (Gmail can do this too) telling your friends and family that you’re out traveling and to contact your ‘trav’ address.

• Gmail - Forwarding capabilities are built it as well strong filtering capabilities (Settings > Filters).

In your primary account setup a filter for any words, people, or businesses you don’t want to be bothered by while on vacation. Have only the email you want delivered to your “trav” account forwarded.

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Travelers going through security airlines everywhere in the US may have their laptops searched or confiscated by the TSA for any reason. Other countries like England, Israel, and many more can do the same.

Password protecting your laptop won’t help either because if you don’t provide it when asked they’ll keep the machine. (And just crack it later.)

Fortunately for us there is powerful and free technology that can not only protect your files but make it look like you aren’t - no matter what skill level you possess.

Create An Encrypted Folder - Download the powerful Truecrypt and create an encrypted volume by following a simple wizard. Then copy all of your personal files there.

• What Is It? A Truecrypt volume is an encrypted folder that can only be opened with a password.
• Skill Level Required: Intermediate

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Segway tours are becoming a popular way to travel cities all over the world but certainly a luxury over just walking. Tours via Segway can be a nice change for the experianced traveler but can also make you a tourist attraction yourself.

My recent Segway tour of DC was undoubtedly fun but I wanted to put it to the test against the traditional walking tour.

Attention On You

Traveling around on a Segway, no less in a group of them, makes your stand out. People will stare at you, homeless will yell meaningless rants in your direction, and high schoolers may tease you. Touring a town by Segway is not ideal for those who like to wander around a city and blend in.

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Zip around the US Capital, Washington Monument, and Smithsonian buildings on Capital Segway. I recently had the unexpected pleasure to receive a tour as a gift, and enjoyed the experience.

The Tour

Tours are given 3 times a day (including weekends and most holidays). After a 15-minute training video, each person is given a Segway to steer inside and around the offices of Capital Segway. Groups are 5-15 people on average. The tours last 2 hours and take you to the traditional Washington DC tourist sights. What set the tour apart for me (aside from the Segway) was how informed and interesting the tour guides made each stop. Already familiar with the area, I found the information from the tour to be unique.

Riding The Segway

The Segway can be quite intimidating to see at first. The instructional video is rather thin and makes it seem like all you can do is fall off the thing. Once you set on though you’ll see how seamlessly the internal gyroscopes do their job. A little lean forward will get you going and a little pull back will slow you down. I was comfortable on the Segway after about 10 minutes and was zipping around the first stop - Pennsylvania Avenue outside of the White House.

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Increase the security of your wireless connections and bypass international blocks of websites by downloading Hotspot Shield. The program connects you to the Hotspot Shield virtual private network (VPN) located in the US potentially getting you around regional blocks of popular websites.

Netflix for example doesn’t allow users to access their “play now” feature which lets you watch movies in your queue on your PC. A connection through the Hotspot Shield VPN will trick this and many other websites into thinking you’re located in the US.

This hack didn’t work for me each time and the connections were less than stable, but tolerable for the most part. Hotspot Shield also purports to give you “unbreakable” secure wireless access but doesn’t tell you how. If you’re connecting through a fairly reputable wireless connection (like an airport or T-Mobile hot spot) most of your important data like passwords will already be encrypted by the websites you visit.

Avoid any computer-to-computer networks and keep your online accounts safe at Internet cafes with these 12 applications you can run from a USB drive. The advertisement heavy Hotspot Shield is a free download, for both PC and Mac.

Thanks Felipe!

EDITED [5/31]: Hotspot Shield works for both PC and Mac and is Lifehacker’s featured download today.

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