Comments on: 7 Rules of the Road for Maximum Mobile Bliss

By: Duckboxxer

Duckboxxer — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:50:17 +0000

Nice article. Carry power; I bought a power plug for my phone that resides in my bag. I’ve forgotten this before and charging via laptop to phone is clunky and slow at best. I also found a battery driven phone battery charger. AA batter charges phone battery on the plane. Print out key phone numbers too.

By: Kal

Kal — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:49:07 +0000

Great list, Kevin. I’d add one other thing I’d add is a USB cable. Great way to recharge phone off computer, and you never know when you’re going to need to move info from one device to another or connect to another computer.

I also carry a thumb-drive-style card reader. If I’m giving a presentation (or whatever), I always put backups on my MicroSD card on my phone. Usually I can email the file to someone I’m working with, but it’s invaluable to be able to pop the MicroSD out of the phone and into the reader for backups in an emergency. I’ve run PowerPoints off my SD card more than once in a pinch.

By: bluespapa

bluespapa — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:52:52 +0000

Excellent list.

I’d add one, don’t go out live with untested gear. Don’t take a new toy into a meeting without knowing its tricks, don’t check out a laptop from the tech department without knowing how to tell it to run VGA-out, don’t hand the guest speaker a wireless mic you just unboxed (untested or charged up), and don’t walk in with your presentation on a thumb drive and discover the shop is on Windows 95. Nice gear can fail in the best of circumstances, but not knowing how to operate it, or not calling ahead, isn’t gear failure.

By: Eddie (Paul)

Eddie (Paul) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:50:52 +0000

First of all Thanks for the toned down background it’s unreal how much easier this is on the eyes…

Secondly Thanks for the reminders. I’ve been off the road for years now but still live on mobile devices. My main computer is a laptop. My house phone a Nextel. I have spare a/c adapters in addition to spare batteries. I use a CF for a toolkit but just realized I have no idea if this comp will boot from it in need. Guess I best go check that out huh?

Keep the great work flowing.

By: Luscious

Luscious — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:58:17 +0000

Great article Kevin! I wrote a similar piece on my blog a while back for notebooks. There’s a ton of tips and accessories you can get to bring the best out of your mobile experience – things that not only enthusiasts, but beginners too can really benefit from.

As I summed it up in my piece, “…with the right accessories and a little thinking, you can get a huge amount of potential out of your notebook alongside boosting your productivity. This can be especially significant when mobile, as these are often the times when the ability to adapt to circumstances means the difference between a successful day with your notebook vs. a very bad one.”

Keep up the great work!

By: matt

matt — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:56:12 +0000

by default, Dropbox saves revisions for files up to 30 days by default. i haven’t had much experience with time machine, but i’m assuming it provides a much more robust solution.

By: JC

JC — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:07:46 +0000

Kevin, good article. Question about the off-site back up sites you mentioned. Do any of them back up like time machine on the mac? I kind of like the way that works and can’t tell if they do. Thank you.

By: Kevin C. Tofel

Kevin C. Tofel — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:01:45 +0000

Completely agree about using wake on LAN if you can. I have it set up on my Windows Home Server for the same reasons — no need for it to be on all the time from either a security standpoint as well as one of wasted energy.

By: Mark H

Mark H — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:54:32 +0000

That’s pretty useful stuff. Still struggling to get Wake-on-LAN working so I can use my desktop as a file server when I’m out and about. From an environmental point of view I don’t like the idea of having it on all the time.