• Mac OS X,  On the Road,  Travel

    On the Road: Sprint SmartView

    When I’m on the road, I use a Sprint Sierra card. I used to pay for Internet access in my room, fish around for Wi-fi networks, etc. But no more. Now, when I’m at the airport, in the hotel or even when I’m at home and both of my Internet connections go down (sadly, it happens) I’m able to use my laptop and be online. Right now, I’m using the Compass 597 from Sierra, which has a top speed of 3.1 Mbps down or 1.8 Mbps up. I look forward to the day when I can upgrade to the Sierra USB 306/307, which actually bumps that top speed to 21…

  • On the Road

    On the Road: Vegas

    I’m staying on the West Side of Las Vegas for the first time, to be close to my job site.  It’s nice.  It’s less crowded, less pretentious and really a lot more like a suburb with a random casino here and there.  If you’re looking for the Vegas experience, probably not what you’re after.  But if you’re looking for a low-key place away from it all, there’s plenty here that’s appealing.  Good stuff.

  • On the Road

    On the Road: DIA Again

    For the second time in two months I got stuck in Denver International for the night in the middle of a layover.  But this time it was a completely different experience.  Last time I arrived at DIA at midnight after being delayed and after facing a snotty customer service desk ended up stuck outside the airport (the security gate was closed already) and proceeded to grab a hotel for 4 or 5 hours on my own dime only to come back to a standby flight where I got to sit in the center seat in the back of the plane.  This time though I arrived about 5 minutes after my…

  • Consulting

    On the Road Again

    When you’re traveling it can be difficult to keep track of all those receipts.  Whether it’s cabs, parking or meals you’re bound to loose a receipt or two.  That’s one reason I like to reconcile my expense reports on a nightly basis.  I’ve made a little spreadsheet to do it for me, but sometimes I get back to the hotel room and realize I’ve lost that receipt.  This is where being able to log into Amex comes into play.  I scribble down what I missed in the spreadsheet and then it appears on Amex shortly thereafter.  I print the copy out of the web portal, attach it to my expense report, and…

  • Consulting

    On the Road: Milwaukee

    Traveling for work can suck.  Like really suck.  It just gets old.  But then you get sent to a city like Milwaukee, WI (aka Beer City), where all they can talk about on the radio is Brett Favre.  If you get the chance, stay at the Ambassador Inn some time, head down to Mader’s (which is over 100 years old) and grab some good old school German food and then try to go do work the next day…  It’s tough, but well worth it!

  • Consulting

    On the Road: Gaining Weight

    It sure is a good feeling to be the one that figures out the impossible.  When you’re at a client and you can walk out of there with that kind of feeling, you feel like you own the world.  That is, until you realize you’re in a small town in the middle of nowhere and the only thing open is a Taco Bell.  Then you realize you didn’t bother to eat lunch or dinner and you scarf down more food than you really should.  That’s when you realize, sitting in your hotel room, that you haven’t worked out in months, your surfboard has run off with a boogie board (well…

  • Business,  Consulting

    On the Road: Death and Taxes

    Be careful with keeping expenses used for work separate from those used for taxes.  You see the last thing you want is to have to get IRS help from someone like American Tax Relief.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that type of company, but no one wants a IRS problem.  They can be timely and costly.  So, don’t expense things your job pays you back for…

  • On the Road

    On the Road: Miles

    How many miles have I let expire?  How many flights did I not bother to register the mileage properly for?  All that’s changed.  Sure, there might be better programs out there but I’m in love with AmEx.  That’s all I have to say about that.

  • Uncategorized

    On the Road: Orange County

    I know, it’s close to LA so not very big on the travel thing.  But according to what part of OC you are in you still might want to just stay down here rather than brave traffic nightly.  But the thing that strikes me so much about OC is how different it is from LA.  There are definitely different parts of OC, each with its own little thing about it to set it apart.  Anaheim seems a lot like Atlanta.  It’s not as trashy as LA anywhere here, and there is obviously a lot of money.  I like that so many people here surf.  But there’s a reason people say…