2014
Quote about long journey
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.- Lao Tzu
Quote about teamwork and relationships
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. - Henry Ford
Quote about self love and respect
“If you're lonely when you're alone, you're in bad company.” - Jean-Paul Sartre
Quote about love
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. - Lao Tzu
Quote about knowing
“You don't need to climb a mountain to know that it's high.” - Paulo Coelho
Amazon giving away $135 worth of Android apps free
Everybody loves free and now Amazon is giving you $165 worth of apps for free (nada, zilch) on its Android AppStore. The offer includes a wide range of categories from office productivity to gaming. Examples of the free apps includes: Sonic 4 Episode II Riptide GP2 Threes Paper Camera Sketchbook Pro OfficeSuite Pro 7 Swype keyboard Perfectly Clear <- AMAZING PHOTO APP. Get it Get It Get It! Merriam-Webster Pro dictionary City Maps 2 Go (great offline maps for travel) many many more Deal will be offered until September 27 so download it while the downloading is good.
A light tough enough for your GoPro action cam
A lot of people buy the GoPro adventure camera (cam) as the family vacation video camera. Putting these people aside, the real adventure seekers are the ones that are ready for a challenge anytime day or night. But the GoPro doesn't work at night (quality really degrades quickly as it get's darker and darker). But fear not my friend, the Knog Qudos is here to shed light when ordinary lights scare away and break. The GoPro friendly accessory mounts next to your beloved recorder and shines a very bright 400 lumens in wide angle mode (175 in target spot and 275 in ultra wide).
Beartooth will allow you to use your cell off-grid
There are times when you will be off-grid (camping, disasters, remote location work, etc). You could use satellite phones to stay in touch with your team but that can get costly very quickly. A company called BearTooth claims to have built a smartphone sleeve that turns it into an FRS style radio that uses unlicensed bands to communicate (it seems to convert your cell into a high priced software controlled FRS radio). It will allow you to have voice conversations, send text messages and send your geolocation information.
Travel Tip: LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt hard drive review
The Physical <img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/86909891b5.jpg" alt=""> If you travel frequently, you know how important it is to carry an external hard drive. This is useful for on the road backup but also to carry your data (considering most modern high end laptops are still based on 250GB SSD drives.) But your typical made for home hard drive will have a difficult time putting up with the rigors of travel. Enter the Lacie Rugged Thunderbolt hard drive (also has a USB 3.
IOS 8 means Apple can't unlock your device for law enforcement
The slow and consistent Snowden leaks about how everything we do is monitored, recorded and analysed is freaking some people out. And this extra customer push may be what was needed to finally improve on-device security for our most personal devices (aka smartphones). Apple announced (link) that IOS 8 is a big move for IOS device security because it is now "technologically impossible" to access data stored on a passcode or TouchID locked device. Apple says they can no longer bypass device security.
Travel Tip: Essential iPhone apps every traveller should have
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“2500”]Image by Andrew Butitta used under Creative Commons License [/caption] I love my smartphone because it simplifies or amplifies so many aspects of my life. The smartphone has become an indispensable travel tool. It make every part of travel easier from reserving your airline seats, to buying show tickets to getting around a foreign city. There are thousands upon thousands of travel apps available. I will try to share some of the more useful ones with you. If I forgot something, add it in the comments.
Travel Tip : The best foldable portable travel bottle
I wrote about the Vapur bottle in April (link) . Go read that article but for anyone that travel (even casually for vacations), goes hiking or camping, this the bottle for you. Easy to to use, easy to clean, super lightweight and packs away super small when empty. Did I mention you should do read my previous article linked above? LOL <img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/7d1f6ff80e.jpg" alt="">
Travel Tip: Check your hotel room for bedbugs
I started doing this 15 years ago when I first started to travel to Asia and have done it for every hotel stay since. The minute I walk into a room I drop my luggage in the washroom, remove the bedding and check for bedbugs. Why the washroom? Bedbugs typically hate all tile hotel washrooms and there are very few places for them to hide in there. This make the washroom the safest place to store your luggage until you finish with your bed bug check.
Groundskeeper Willie from the Simpsons and Scottish independence
The ever popular Simpson's character groundskeeper Willie presenting his "unbiased" opinion about the upcoming Scottish independence vote.
Travel Tip : Snap a picture of your luggage
I have worked in the Air Transportation industry for many years and know airlines take the PAWOB (Passengers without bags) statistic very seriously. Having flown over 1 million miles so far, my bags have been irrecoverably lost only once. Every Time you are about to check in a bag, take a picture of the bag and then another one of the airline bag tag. In the event is is lost, you can show a picture of it to the airline attendant (instead of spending 10 minutes trying to describe what it looks like) and the picture of the bag tag is to show that the routing code was correct when you handed it off.
Travel Tip : Where to shop for airline tickets
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“800”]Image by Julia P used under Creative Commons License [/caption] After hundreds of thousands of air miles (hundreds of trips for business and pleasure), I can safely say the best value tickets are rarely found by searching on travel booking sites (Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc). The best way to find a great deal on your next flight is to use a meta search service. This is a service that doesn't directly book flights but rather that searches dozens of them to show you the best deals.
Travel Tip : Bring Your Own
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1296”]Image by Angelo DeSantis used under Creative Commons License [/caption] For the best travel experience, BRING YOUR OWN STUFF. Everything you think you may want or need on the plane should be brought with you. Why? Because things you buy on a plane are expensive, bad quality and generally not that good. If you want a pillow, bring a small inflatable travel pillow. If you get cold, bring your own sweater. If you are travelling during breakfast, lunch or supper, buy something in the airport and bring it with you.
Check if your accounts have been hacked
Another day, another hack. It seems there is another media story every week talking about a site getting hacked and thousands (or millions) of account being compromised. Companies have Information Security teams that track these breaches to protect their users, but how does an average user protect himself? As an average user, you are on your own but there are sites that can help. One of these sites is called haveibeenpwned.com (link) <img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/dae5e9461d.jpg" alt=""> You enter your address and the site will check if it was included in any of the breach leaks they track.
Travel Tip : travel as light as possible
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“600”]Image by Reg Natarajan used under Creative Commons License [/caption] Related Articles: How To Travel Light With Only A Carry-On My Review Of The Red Oxx AirBoss Carry-On Luggage Wanderlite Daypack Review - A Light Packable Backpack Review Of The Scottevest Travel Boxers 2.0 WineSkin Is The Ideal Way To Bring Back Wine From Your Trip Airlines are trying to nickle and dime you every chance they have. In addition to paying top dollar for tickets, Air Canada (as an example) charges a fee for every piece of checked luggage and is making carry-on allowances smaller and lighter.
Travel Tip : Reserve that airplane seat
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1200”]Image by Angelo DeSantis used under Creative Commons License [/caption] Always, always. always, always, always. always, always, always. always, always, always. always, always, always. always, always, always. always, always, always. always, always, always. always, always, always. always, always, always. always, always, always. always, always, always. always, always book your seat in advance. The minute you can reserve your seat (24 hours before flight or at booking) do it. Many travel agents can do it for free (no surcharge).