Great escapes for geeks: InfoWorld readers weigh in
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(InfoWorld) - Forget isolation and relaxation. For the seriously connected geek of today, vacations just aren't what they used to be. An informal and completely unscientific poll of InfoWorld readers revealed that -- although a few certified techies unplug completely when on vacation -- most elect to stay at least somewhat connected with their regular life; thanks to the ever-broadening range of cellular and wireless networks, most of them can. [See InfoWorld's Top 10 geek vacation list.] Jeff Helm witnessed the transition at one vacation spot: "I first took the family to Pigeon Forge (near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park) in October 2001. I walked across the hotel parking lot to the new public library to get on the Internet and check mail. I was told I would have to fill out a form, pay $5, let them hold on to my driver's license, and swear that I wouldn't 'conduct any business' or credit card transactions of any kind." Fast-forward to August 2006: "We went to the same hotel. I got out of the car to check in, and my PDA gave an audible report that it found a wireless signal. Yes, the same library was now beaming invitations to connect to the Internet to everyone in the area. Every hotel â¦ did the same. I checked e-mail at the outside mall, waiting for a patio table at the restaurant, and just about every place I went. I shut off the audible alert because the thing was going off constantly with all the networks." "The Outer Banks of North Carolina have a full complement of Net hotspot and cell-phone coverage capabilities," writes Peter B. Young. "I like to sit in the shade of an upper deck on our mansion-of-the-week, my sturdy old laptop plugged into an outlet in the living room or often out on the deck itself, and let 'er rip -- as gentle southern breezes caress my worn and wounded body." Rand Foster recommends cruising the San Juan Islands in northwest Washington between                                                     Vancouver Island and the mainland: "There is Wi-Fi at every marina." Brad St. Pierre found the perfect combo in Canada's Northwest Territories: "At the Bayside B and B in Yellowknife, I could watch the lakeside airplane and boat activity from the lounge or deck all day while surfing the Net. With almost 24 hours of sunshine, it's never too late to do the things you forgot to do while you were online." High-tech contractor David G. Evans found a way to have his vacation and get paid for it, too. "I was on call for production support. I spent a few weeks grooming my contacts to text me if they had an issue. That being done, I found a wonderful camp spot in Seaside, Calif., 20 seconds from pristine dunes and the ocean, 15 minutes from downtown Monterey, private, inexpensive, and well equipped. The recreation room has two hookups for Internet and a Web-mail kiosk. "Since this was an East Coast contract, I would get up at 4:30 or 5 to do a quick message check and reply as a first-thing-in-the-morning connection for them. Then we would drive to the Monterey Bay Aquarium but leave me three blocks away at the Kinko's with my laptop, where access is free, 24 hour, and comfortable. I would spend an hour or two working, then wander down to the wharf to meet them for some exhibits and lunch. If there was work, I would check back at Kinko's; if not, we had family time. Except for some mad coding from the backseat of the Volvo, plugged into the cigarette lighter for a portion of the trip home, this was the best working vacation I ever had." Edward C. Horvath had the best idea for a busman's holiday: "Buy yourself a ticket to the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Live on caffeine, sugar, new technology, and the famed Jobs Reality Distortion Field for a week." The prize for the most far-out connected experience has to go to Savio Rodrigues, one of the authors of our Open Sources blog. He proudly sent us a photo from Machu Picchu -- not of himself, but of his BlackBerry, with a strong connection. A close second: April Harris Calderwood's working vacation, "going to a third-world country and helping a community project with technology; you rest and give back to the community."
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From Google wonders to laptop reviews to iPhone torture tests, here's what the Web was reading and watching on PCWorld.com this year.
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We at InfoWorld.com? like to think that our coverage of the news and trends shaping the enterprise technology world is the best in the business. But not even InfoWorld (not to mention our competitors) can connect all the dots as they're forming ? the welter of news and the fast pace of events sometimes makes that difficult. That's why we've revisited the sea of dots to make those connections that weren't evident at first.
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Also: Mobile office challenge finds monkeys are distracting. Read these stories and more from around the Web on News.com Extra.
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Geeks flock to the famous electronics district to get the jump on Microsoft's new operating system.
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Our colleagues over at PC World gathered up a list of products that each of them simply couldn't imagine going through daily life without. Some are relatively obvious, such as Windows 2003,  TiVO and Skype, and others a bit more odd, such as Cyber Systems' RoboForm. Heh?
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InfoWorld editors share more of their favorites, adding to yesterday's list of top vacation spots.
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You don&#39;t have to be a computer geek to know who Craig Newmark is, though familiarity with the Internet helps. His is a household name in the virtual, if not the real, world because of the Web site he launched
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A trip to a Beijing tech expo offers insights into what's up in desktop media, street-corner DVDs and more.
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Before heading over to the Web 2.0 conference at the Palace Hotel in SF this morning, I couldn't resist doing some more digging into alternate user interfaces for news reading based on the NY Times keywords.  One thing I learned the hard way is that when you access the Times site from a script (not through a browser) if you try to read an article that's too old (not sure what the time limit is) it tries to redirect you to a login page (which is pretty pointless considering that there's no human being around to log in). I hit this problem yesterday, and then hit it again this morning, but couldn't remember what the problem was. So by writing it up this time I hope to remember.  No doubt some debunked hack journalist posing as a tech industry mogul will slander me for this, but the asshat asshole has no idea how blogging works, and who the fuck cares what he thinks anyway. "cheesecake"
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a go-to Web site for tech product reviews - is expanding from geekville to soccer moms and dads. The shift is aimed at showing tired, wired consumers how to make high-tech gadgets work together.
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Many people don&#39;t pay all that much attention to their e-mail software. After all, it takes a real geek to care about the fine points of one program or another, especially when they all do more or less the same thing.
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In the current issue: &nbsp;October 2006  Slap a "Powered by Linux" sticker on your front door. The October issue of Linux Journal takes "Linux Everywhere" literally. See how Linux runs a total multimedia center like TiVo on steroids, serves as a central phone system with call screening, regulates your home heating system, controls robots and much more.  This isn't just a digital lifestyle, it's a Linux lifestyle of leisure, which proves that geeks, particularly Linux geeks, truly have the best toys.  Not a subscriber? Check out this post to read abstracts of the current issues' articles and to read for "free" this months Bonus Article: Do-It-Yourself Robots with Linux by Michael Surran.
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Also: Flirting, online and off. See what people are saying on News.com Extra.
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Wired checks out the six leading candidates' online efforts. While there's a lot to like, we see plenty to suggest that this geek thing is still pretty new.
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Readers remark on cyber mugging, tree hugging, and de-bugging. Plus: Links to our most popular blog posts.
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The go-to place for must-have gadgets is worth your time.