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Saturday, October 17, 2009

How to get through airport security faster

By JD Rinne

(Budget Travel) -- Airport security is a traveler's rite of passage: the long lines, the ID check, the shuffling of personal items. Get through security faster with these easy strategies.

To move through security quickly, wear slip-on shoes, minimal jewelry and no belt.

Pack like you're making lasagna (no, seriously!)
You probably don't want a security official inspecting your carry-on bag by hand. Time-consuming inspections usually only happen when an X-ray machine operator can't identify items. Avoid this hassle by packing in a way that keeps your curling iron, hair dryer, and other hard-plastic or dense items separate in your bag, instead of allowing them to get tangled in a pile -- and look suspiciously like a bomb or a weapon on an X-ray scan.

Layer your electronics and toiletries in between your clothes like you're spreading ricotta cheese in between strips of pasta to prepare lasagna. Put heavy clothes on top to act as a weight and secure loose items.

Remember the 3-1-1 rule
If you plan to go carry-on only, any liquid should be kept in a 3.4-ounce bottle or smaller. You're only allowed as many bottles as can fit in one quart-size, clear ziplock bag. Find bottles in your local drugstore's travel or $1 section, or online.

Buying products packaged in small amounts can be expensive: We recently found face wash in a two-ounce bottle for for $9, shaving cream for about $6, and contact lens solution for $10.50. By transferring your liquids from standard-size bottles into TSA-friendly containers, like these squishy bottles from humangear.com, you should save a lot of money.

Dress for success
Slip-on shoes (preferably with socks; think of the dirty feet that have been on that linoleum), minimal jewelry and no belt is the standard uniform for moving through security fast. If you insist on wearing jewelry and a watch on the plane, take them off and slip them into a pocket in your carry-on before you enter the security cordon.

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Use flight-ready toiletries
Keep your travel bag stocked with "flight ready" items that don't break the TSA's liquid rules, such as solid perfume, and lip balm instead of lip gloss.

Buy a TSA-approved laptop bag
The TSA allows laptops to go through the X-ray in checkpoint-friendly laptop bags, like a simple $20 Skooba Skin. The most common and cheapest is a laptop sleeve. Consumer Reports recommends a few here. Laptops are also among the most-forgotten items at security, so label yours with a business card or ID tag.

Keep an eye peeled for new security programs
Fifty airports (including Boston, Chicago, and Seattle) have security lines split among Expert, Casual, and Family travelers. Look for the signs and hit the line that's right for you -- we suggest Expert now that you've read our tips.

Also, remember that 18 airports and five airlines are currently participating in the Paperless Boarding Pass pilot program. If the program covers your flight, you can go straight to the security checkpoint and use your cell phone as a boarding pass. Read about it on our blog.

It's showtime
Once you've presented your ID and boarding pass, get moving. Find the shortest line -- look especially for lines toward your left because studies show that Americans are more likely to turn right than left when entering a building, so lines on the left will tend to be shorter.

Grab two bins. The TSA is asking travelers to put shoes directly on the X-ray belt, so do that first. Pull out your quart-size bag of liquids and small electronics (like an iPhone) and lay them on top of your jacket. In the second bin, put your laptop (or, if you've got just got one bag or purse, use this bin for that).

After successfully passing through the metal detector (because we know you will), grab your shoes and slip them on, then snag your other belongings and slip them back in your bag. Look around quickly for anything that may have come loose, and then exit the security area to keep the line moving.

Friday, October 16, 2009

7 Rules of the Road for Maximum Mobile Bliss

By Kevin C. Tofel | Thursday, October 15,

James and I have been involved in the mobile technology space for quite some time now. He’s been using mobile devices “since they weighed 30 pounds.” Those are the days when I weighed 30 pounds, but you catch my drift. Between the two of us, we have years of practical experience in this space. And while new gadgets, operating systems and software appear on a daily basis, there are still some common fundamentals that are useful — mobile maxims, if you will. While the specific tools supporting them might change, these mobile suggestions never go out of style.

1. Always buy a second battery for your main device — This one is really simple. If you can afford it, buy a second battery for your main notebook or netbook upon purchasing the device. I do this for a few reasons. Doubling the battery life on any of my current — and presumably future — devices means that I have all day mobile computing. This frees me from having to work only in locations where I may be able to find an electrical outlet. I don’t have to be constrained to locations with electricity when I have two batteries. This also helps with leveling the “wear” in my batteries. Eventually, the batteries will hold less of a charge when full. By rotating batteries on a regular basis, I can even out that wear over time. If I don’t do that, I end up with two batteries that offer a wildly variable run time. Need another reason to buy a second battery at time of purchase? You don’t have to worry as much about battery availability in the future. There’s nothing worse than to have a device — and its batteries — become discontinued or hard to find when you really need a spare power pack.

2. Carry a toolkit for drive restores – It helps to expect the unexpected. In the case of mobile computers, it could be a hard drive failure, file corruption or who knows what. While you can’t anticipate every issue, you can easily prepare yourself for disaster with nothing more than a small flash drive. I carry one around with me and make sure it has software like a partition manager, certain device drivers, portable apps and anything else I might need in the event of a major issue. These days it’s not all that hard to build up a collection of such tools and drop them on a cheap USB drive. Why not even carry an OS with you? Ubuntu can be booted and run off of a flash drive in a pinch.

3. Have a backup plan for wireless connectivity — You can’t be totally mobile without some type of connectivity. So I pay for a monthly 3G plan with Verizon Wireless and use the very common USB adapter for it. This lets me use the connection with any Mac or PC, plus I can share that connection over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi in a pinch. But I also pay $10 a month for access to the Boingo Wireless network. I consider it cheap insurance and I often use it at a Starbucks or other location. I also have my iPhone set up for Internet Tethering, which is why I’m not upgrading beyond iPhone OS 3.0. I recommend having at least one backup connectivity plan, just in case your primary one goes on the fritz. It happened to me once before and because I was prepared, I was still productive.

4. When not in use, turn off the juice — There are many strategies for this mantra and they’ll vary based on your needs and your devices. For me it means to turn off radios and put devices into sleep mode when possible. I often use this strategy with my mail and RSS feeds. Because I use Google for both services and Google supports offline use via Gears — except for Snow Leopard installs — it’s common for me to fetch mail or feeds and then shut down my Wi-Fi or 3G. Although idle radios today are more efficient than they used to be, why have them use power when I can work offline for a while thanks to Gears? I also reduce the screen brightness on everything to the lowest usable level that’s still comfortable. For me that’s around 30% or so, but of course for you it could be different. The point is: aside from using the built-in power management features of your device, reducing your power needs can help bring more run time during the day.

5. Invest in a useful web-based data storage and synchronization service (or provide your own) — I actually use several tools in this area, mainly because if one experiences a service disruption, chances are one of the others will be fine. The idea behind this mantra is to have your data available to you regardless of what device you have with you. And if your device itself goes bad, a web-based storage service like Dropbox, SugarSync, Box.net, or ZumoDrive (to name a few) can be used with a public or borrowed machine. Ultimately, you don’t want to have data only available to one local device. When you do, you’re limited to using only that device. If you can’t use that device because the batteries ran down or because you left it somewhere, you’re dead in the water with local data. The corollary to this mantra is to provide your own remote storage. I’ve done just that with my Windows Home Server project, but you don’t need to buy or build another machine. Installing remote access software or using a service like LogMeIn can get you back to the data on a computer at home.

6. Consider using the “lightest” tool for the task at hand — Think about pairing the right tool with right task when it comes to mobile activities. For example, if I’m simply consuming basic content like email, I use my phone. Why? Because the phone battery lasts far longer than a laptop battery. It’s a “lighter” tool for the task and saves the battery on a “heavier tool” like my netbook or notebook for doing things I can’t easily do on the phone. I realize that it’s far more comfortable to reply or compose long emails on a larger device, so I often read my mail and mark items so I know I have to take action or respond. I later take action on those messages on the laptop if they require much typing. The same goes for checking a few items on the web. Why waste CPU cycles and battery life on a notebook or netbook if I can almost as easily hit them on a handset? Would I sit and surf the web for hours on a phone? Nope. But if I’m just checking the latest Techmeme headlines, browsing the most recent blog comments or something else that’s a bite-sized chunk of the web, why not do it on a “lighter” device? It seems a shame to waste precious battery life on a laptop for small, Internet morsels.

7. Tote a headset -- I make sure to always carry a wired headset and mic combo. At first, this one might sound frivolous, but I’ve found it to be very useful. It doesn’t add much weight to your gear bag, yet it can reap big rewards. I still carry a Bluetooth headset from time to time, but you run the risk of a dead battery. With a wired headset, battery life is one less thing to worry about. It comes in handy when you’re trying to work in a noisy area or you simply want to hear some relaxing music. I can also hear much better on a headset when a call comes in because I can be in any number of situations. It could be noisy when that phone rings unexpectedly, but I’m prepared to have my conversation regardless.

So those are my mobile mantras. Pick and choose to see what works for you. Even better — share yours in the comments so we can build up a nice useful list!

How to pick the perfect holiday for your personality

By Kate Schneide

Bora Bora

The key to finding your perfect type of holiday may lie in discovering your personality traits / Supplied

HAVE you ever returned from a holiday feeling underwhelmed, or needing another trip away to recover?

A city break that’s a bit too hectic or a holiday that’s too tranquil may be the result of not having chosen the right holiday for your personality type, travel booking site Expedia says.

The key to selecting the perfect getaway lies in knowing both your and your travel companion’s personality types, Expedia Australia’s Marketing Manager Louise Crompton says.

Researching likely holiday scenarios and considering these alongside practical elements such as time available, distance and budget, can help.

“Choosing the right holiday is more than just picking a place or experience that sounds fun or interesting,” she said.

“Travellers should carefully reflect on what makes them and their travel companions tick, and then research travel destination options and consult independent traveller reviews.“

Dr Marylouise Caldwell, a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Sydney, says that a model called the Five Factor, which includes five broad domains of personality that have been found to include roughly all known personality traits, could aid traveller in picking the perfect holiday.

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The five personality traits include extrovert or introvert, apprehensive or relaxed, open or closed, conservative or eccentric, conscientious or non-conscientious.

So which ones relate to you?

Personality Trait #1: Extrovert v Introvert

Extroverts are characterised by sociability, assertiveness, activity, talkativeness and the need for excitement and stimulation.

Conversely, introverts are typically more reserved, and prefer to be alone or in small groups. They like to lead life at a more even pace.

Holiday behaviour: Extroverts seek holiday experiences that provide high levels of stimulation, novelty, risk taking and social interaction. They tend to prefer big cities, restaurants and crowded bars rather than art galleries and temples or churches. They don’t like to rise too early – they are likely to stay out to the wee hours because they are night owls.

Introverts are the opposite: they like activities that promote introspection, deep thinking and experiences that have an intellectual or mystical bent, like art-house film festivals or meditating at Buddhist retreats.

Personality Trait #2: Apprehensive v Relaxed

Apprehensive people tend to experience negative emotions such as anxiety, fear, disappointment, embarrassment, anger, guilt and disgust, while relaxed individuals tend to have an absence of these feelings.

Relaxed people are not easily flustered, shocked or irritated and they tend to be even tempered.

Holiday behaviour: Apprehensive individuals tend to seek destinations, cultural activities and food types that remind them of home, or past travel experiences. Although they prefer not to travel alone, they can find resorts or holiday experiences with high levels of socialising and activities overwhelming.

Relaxed people are just the opposite. They are okay with trips involving unknowns, and deal with new challenges one at a time and take them in their stride.

Personality Trait #3: Open v Closed

Open people are characterised by vivid fantasy, attraction to art and beauty, depth of feelings, intellectual curiosity and flexible value systems. Very open people seek heaps of different types of experiences that are emotional, sensual, aesthetic or social.

Closed people prefer familiarity over novelty and are resistant to new or unfamiliar experiences – similar to apprehensive individuals.

Holiday behaviour: Open people will rarely go back to the same destination unless they have fallen in love with the place and wish to explore it further. They seek urban hubs that offer lots of variety, such as London, Paris, New York or Sydney – not smaller cities like Darwin, Cleveland or Birmingham.

Closed people visit places they have fond memories of such as their hometowns. They will often go back to the same holiday destination time and time again.

Personality Trait #4: Conservative v Eccentric

Conservative types are cooperative, altruistic and easily fit in with others. They gravitate towards what is traditional or the norm.

Eccentrics like to be different to others, staying clear of what they consider to be fads. They are often uninterested in others, let alone others’ opinions.

Holiday behaviour: Conservative types will often do what is socially accepted and rewarded – taking holidays that others will be impressed by within their immediate social circles. Hence they love telling others where they have been and showing them their latest holiday photos.

Eccentrics take holidays that might not win them much social approval, such as bird-watching in Siberia!

Personality Trait #5: Conscientious v Non-conscientious

People with a conscientious personality trait enjoy control, planning and order. They are always prepared and pay attention to detail, doing their best to control what’s going on around them.

Non-conscientious people tend to be less disciplined and are inclined to be a lot more self-indulgent and impulsive. They often appear disorganised.

Holiday behaviour: Conscientious people like to plan well in advance – way before a holiday even begins. They tend to have strict time and money budgets and will spend a lot of time researching on the internet, reading travel books and questioning their travel agents.

Non-conscientious people are spontaneous, acting on their desires without planning or notice and will go along with the flow with whatever might come along in their travels.