Then I tried to figure out what I could leave out. In retrospect there are things I did not use, tripods, camera flash, but that is about it. I also did not know that going into the trip. The same goes for the networking troubleshooting kit, but once again I was not sure if it would be needed or not. I used part of it, but not all of it. Six show shirts came as a result of starting with three irregular shirts and then having three more shirts provided. I did however use everything else in there at least once, some things twice even. I could travel lighter with the toiletries, such as using the more expensive travel sizes and not bringing the electric razor.

The question becomes to pack lighter what does one give up? Any suggestions? Oh yeah and this trip was a work visit to Las Vegas with some time spent doing physical work setting up the show booth.

• I downloaded (very small installers) and installed the client on both my Windows and Mac computers
• On my Windows machine I copied over four PDFs for my trip to AES this weekend (I am sitting on a panel and a technical council)
• They appeared within about 30 seconds on my Mac machine
• On my Mac machine I renamed the files
• The updates appeared in about 15 seconds on the Windows machine
• I did not have to do a forced sync or anything, it just occurred in the background and worked great.

It was so easy I am thinking of using a bigger size that has a subscription fee and using it for more stuff. The interface is very easy, it was a very simple setup, it was done right. I am going to try the sharing next (even though I have my own FTP server I figure this could be faster and easier at times)

I also found that I could share the directory Dropbox on my Mac to the VMWare Fusion instance of Windows, copy the files I needed over, and voila they got synced. So now when I need my copy of Star*Explorer for uploading photos to SmugMug while I travel, it is easily available.

• http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/some-e-books-are-more-equal-than-others/
• http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html

Oh and I could not find anything on Amazon’s site about it…

Back to recovering from the Rally and commute back home

I left the hotel at 10:00PM Dubai Time, which is 2:00PM EDT. I then arrived at IAD at 6:00AM EDT. I boarded the plane at about 3:30PM EDT and remained in Seat 21J except for one trip to the facilities until 6:00AM the next day. So that is about 14.5 hours.

I was able to get some sleep thanks to the wonders of modern medicine Probably about 8 hours but not great sleep. There are times I can get good sleep on a plane, seat 21J was not one of them. The seat was not very comfortable, while it had tons of leg room as the “crew sleep seats” were in front of me, the seat itself was not comfortable. I ended up putting the pillow under my but to help.

I slept through dinner and breakfast was not very Brad Diet friendly. Good thing Mr. Budge took me out for a big dinner before I left.  I am not very happy with the traveler profile and meal situation.

We got in early which was nice, but I think it might have not actually gotten me through any quicker as there was a stack up at passport control with everyone arriving at 6AM. I think that when flights are scheduled there is some thought to staggering through choke points like passport control. As I said on my Twitter post (yes, you have to sign up to get the info) the process of passing through passport control was faster for me in Dubai than in Washington DC.

I was somewhat down periscope while I was in Dubai due to time changes and also do to the Internet usage situation. When I arrived my Blackberry was a doorstop. It was not turned on. That got sorted midday Monday Dubai Time. Trying to call AT&T from Dubai was not very succesful. Once work opened I was able to get it sorted out in about 15 minutes. Apparently saying I want International Calling meant I could make international calls. Whoops.

The other thing was that there were some sites that I could not get to through the Internet.

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Now before everyone starts chuckling and assuming that I was trying to get to “entertainment sites” I got this message on some pretty benign sites:

• Skype
• SmugMug
• iChat
• Amazon.com
• Twitter

So I was able to use the work laptop and its VPN connection to get to some things – but then I had corporate policy making things tough. For example I could not upload photos to my SmugMug account or get Skype to work. On my personal laptop I was able to get inbound Skype video chats, but not outbound phone calls.

Also the time change made life quite interesting as I would end up working long days as a result of getting back from dinner and it being midday back at the office. This would result in me being engaged and working until about 1AM Dubai Time at which point it would take me a little while to wind down to go to sleep.

I am sure that more things will be coming in upcoming Blog posts, but figured I should at least put this one up… Next flight leaves in about an hour. I think that this will only be 22 hours of travel.

Yup when one goes around the corporate IT and talks with people, they can get your Blackberry working in mere moments. Why I could not get through to anyone when I called… well they also changed that. Gotta love when someone just says I will take care of  it, and does. Even got me numbers for the next time – but hopefully there is not a next time…

I will say that not having the Blackberry did seem to cut down on the amount of distractions….. hang on my pocket is vibrating…….

Luckily the flight was not full in Economy Plus so people were able to change seats. I ended up having two seats to myself which was not too bad, reclined a little and got some sleep. I am not sure if getting sleep was the right thing but according to my body it was about 11PM when I left Washington DC, but it was 7AM Dubai time. I stayed awake through the meal service and then I fell asleep. There is something about a dark plane that just makes it easy for me to sleep.

I was surprised at the cleanliness of the plane lavatories during the flight. What I am not sure of is if it was poor cleaning and upkeep before we left or if they just plane (pun intended) got used hard in the flight. I doubt that they are serviced or cleaned during a flight so I guess that makes it somewhat understandable of the look of the facilities, but people are hard on them.

My seat preference has changed for international flights versus domestic flights. I typically request aisle seats on the domestic flights. However I have found that it is easier to sleep on the window portion of the two seats I have than the aisle seat. I think that this is due to two things. 1) I can lean against the wall a little if wanted; 2) I do not keep getting bumped in the process of people moving through the cabin. Of course this all goes out the window if I get upgraded to Biz or First as there, any seat would be good.

I am also pleasantly surprised by the inflight information that has been prepared for Arrival Information for Dubai that is playing on the seat back monitors. It explains where to go, what signs to look for, what documents are needed, and it includes pictures of the signs and the kiosks to look for. Very helpful, I am sure that part of it is to lower the amount of questions that are being asked but I still think it is very helpful and assuages some of the concerns I have about traversing an unfamiliar airport. This concern happens no matter where I travel to, domestically or internationally, just going someplace new and having to figure out where everything is located.

I will say that 24 hours of travel has been interesting.  I am not quite finished yet, but what I can say so far in looking back:

1. My body is sore – I am glad I packed ibuprofen in my carryon
2. The Red Carpet club definitely understands international travels as they kept it open later than usual as the flight was delayed
3. People can be courteous or rude no matter their background and ethnicity. I wonder though if they they are being rude or I am perceiving it that way.
4. My cell phone in Dubai does not work
5. The iPod Nano battery lasted the flight no problem.
6. My ATM Card did not work
7. I could not use my credit cards in the pay phones
8. 26 Hours door to door (House to Hotel)

• Griffin TuneJuice Charger for iPod and iPhone (Black)
• Kensington Mini Battery Extender and Charger for iPod; iPhone 1G, 3G (Black)

So I used the key consideration to decide:

• Griffin TuneJuice – $44.23
• Kensington Mini Battery – $28.25

Very simple decision there. Plus the fact that Kensington was direct through Amazon and not having to wait for another store put the final solution in there. So order placed. Later that afternoon I got an e-mail from my friend

http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/tunejuice-for-iphone This is not available on Amazon, but according to Best Buy’s website, it is in stock in the Mishawaka store.

I had to go right by Best Buy while running other errands so I figured I would take a look. Yes, they had it in stock, it was $29.99. It included batteries. I decided to purchase it as that way I would have it while I pondered this next question, “Batteries or rechargeable?”

Using the Battery solution, I can easily replace the batteries. The batteries are typically readily available – if expensive – at airports. This also allows me to simply place extra batteries in my travel bag as it is just 4 AAA batteries. Not a huge problem. Not very green and can easily add up in terms of cost. However the flexibility of just being able to purchase more batteries as needed can make it pretty flexible.

The Rechargeable solution allows me to stretch the time I can use the iPod, however it still requires that I charge it. I went to the Kensington website to find out a little more information.  According to the manual I can charge both the iPod and the battery at the same time. However it does not say how long it will take to charge, and it is charged through a USB port. The thing that has me the most concerned is this section from the manual: “Do not store your Mini Battery Pack and Charger either fully charged or discharged. It is best  to store your Mini Battery Pack and Charger with 60% charge remaining. To check the charge level of your Mini Battery Pack and Charger connect it to a power source with a USB cable. Check the charge level lights for a 60% charge level.” Not exactly easy to do and seems to be counterintuitive to the way that a user would typically use it.

The flippant answer to this decision is to buy rechargeable batteries to put in the Battery. That would be about $13 for the batteries, and then I would need to carry that charger as well. Just what I need more electronics to travel with. Plus I would have to remember to charge them.

I am going to wait until I see the unit in person, by my hunch is that the usability of being able to purcahse, acquire, store, carry … etc. fully charged AAA batteries is going to outweigh the form factor of the unit. But kind of disappointing on two fronts, one that the Rechargeable is not more “flexible”; two that the pricing and searching did not reveal some of this information in a timely fashion. It just goes to show what happens if one gets too dependent on one source for purchasing items. Next time I think I am going to do a Froogle search in addition to Amazon.

What was odd that while sitting in the same spot, I would have no signal. Than all of a sudden I would get a flurry of e-mails. So it was odd to watch the coverage change while I stayed still. I am still puzzled by that one.

However what surprises me is how many people do not even think to protect their stuff on the network. The first surprise was when I started up iTunes and saw other iTunes libraries. I did not know I even had mine setup to browse for other libraries. But what really surprised me was what I was able to see on other machines.

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I did not even know that there were X Rated Podcasts! But I guess I should not be surprised.

So then I figured I would see what else was on the network. I was amazed at how many shared drives I could find…

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Kind of surprising just how easy and open some stuff is. I wonder if people do not know or just don’t care.

Tomorrow’s comment will probably be about some of the stuff that has had me confused on the Mac… more fun coming.