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Think of this page as Better Homes and Websites. Your computer or smartphone can help you with your travels, your entertaining, your hobbies and even your fine, fine fashion sense. I share some of my ideas for how networks can help make life easier, more fun and more stylish.

10 geek gifts for this holiday season

December 14, 2011

The holiday season sends many of us into the aisles of Best Buy or the Apple Store. We might wander…

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3 reasons to make TV social & connected with the new Plex & myPlex

November 24, 2011

I want you to think really carefully about how happy you are right now, because as soon as I describe the killer features of the latest iteration of the Plex media center software, you’re going to be plunged into deep despair. Despair over the fact that you don’t have the new Plex installed on your computer right [...]

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5 ways to maximize computer use — and happiness

November 22, 2011

Q: How many computers does it take to enjoy a relaxing evening at home? A:  7.  Five to use simultaneously, a sixth to blog about how you’re doing that, and a seventh to keep your spouse entertained while you do. Yeah, I know, it reads like a formulaic joke. But that is indeed how I spent [...]

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10 funny things to read or do online from a hotel room

October 21, 2011

Dear Bored Travellers of Earth, I am assuming that if you were horny you would be googling different keywords. So I am figuring you are merely looking for amusement, which is why I have rounded up some blog posts that point you towards moderately entertaining activities, or which may even be enjoyable reading in an [...]

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Welcome to Social Media for Bored Travellers

October 20, 2011

Some people remember their freshman year of college for their first love, or the professor who blew their mind, or the book that changed their whole way of looking at the world. What I remember is the life-altering realization that I was now living in a building with a vending machine that provided 24/7 access [...]

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10 essential iPad and iPhone apps for your next road trip

August 16, 2011

When you’re about to hit the road, you need to look at your iPad or iPhone as a Swiss Army Knife: a device to load up with the essential tools that allow you to rise to any challenge. Here are 10 apps I won’t leave him without: TripAdvisor: To check out reviews of any hotel [...]

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Packing list: 11 tech accessories for your web-enabled road trip

August 11, 2011

If only Apple would introduce an Apple Store passport! We’re well on our way to the goal of getting stamped at every Apple Store in North America. Not (only) because we make a point of seeking out each retail location in hope of finding some as-yet-unseen doodad, but because we rarely hit the road without [...]

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10 ways to save on roaming charges when traveling with your smartphone

August 9, 2011

Don’t blow the savings from your budget-conscious vacation on a whopping cell phone bill. These 10 tips will help keep your voice and data costs under control.

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10 ways to save on hotels using your smartphone or tablet

August 8, 2011

I’m just back from a week-long family road trip to the Oregon Coast, Portland and Seattle. One of the great virtues of a family vacation is its ability to separate us from our screens: to wean the kids from their daily fix of PBS edutainment, to interrupt the staccato sounds of videogame walkthroughs enjoyed on [...]

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Creating a visitor’s guide to your home tech setup

July 12, 2011
Woman looks confused while holding multiple remotes

One of the joys of living in a multicultural society is the experience of welcoming someone from a different heritage into your home, and introducing them to the various artifacts, practices and beliefs of your own culture. It is in this spirit that we sometimes receive visitors to our home who use Windows machines rather [...]

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10 ways Microsoft Kinect will change our world in the next decade

June 7, 2011

Six months after our Kinect arrived in our lives, it’s mostly unused. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less transformative than I’d hoped…just in different ways than I predicted. In our household the Kinect’s shining moment came on New Year’s Eve, when our first effort at having a kid-friendly grownup party (as opposed to a [...]

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