Tech Support Pits:

From Anita===
Dear Webby
You seem to be able to work while travelling. I have been
trying to convince my husband that it can be done just as
easy as working from home, at least for the time necessary
for a trip to the USA. 

What kinds of preparations would you recommend?
Thanks
Anita

Dear Anita
You need one electrical outlet adapter for each cord that 
you might plug in. Get the small flat plugs that have two 
flat blades like screwdrivers in the front and the round 
holes for plugging in your cords. They are cheap, compact
and reliable. You don't need any transformers for laptops,
printers, or cameras. You can get those adapters from 
iGO.com for $5 if your electrical store doesn't carry them: 
http://igo.com/Product_Detail.asp?ItemID=27533&CatalogID=41#
They also have a "Road Warrior" kit for each country, but
I found that an unnecessary luxury.

Once you get here, get a few long phone cords and a few
lightweight extension cords. That's it for the electrical stuff.

Sign up with earthlink.net to get local access just about 
anywhere in North America and 1-800 access in the few 
villages for which they don't have local access numbers.

Measure your carry-on luggage or suitcase and get a sheet 
of plexiglass cut to just fit. You will need that to convert the
night tables or dresser drawers into a laptop desk. Exactly
like in European hotels,the tables and chairs in hotels and 
motels here are designed for short legged and long backed 
people to efficiently shovel rice with chopsticks from a bowl 
at shoulder level into a hungry and impatient mouth. Using
a laptop at that level is painfully awkward. 
When you jam the plexiglass into a partially opened drawer
of a night stand or dresser, you instantly have a laptop table
at the perfect hight for hotel and motel chairs.

Because I find laptop keyboards too slow for my style of 
typing,I also carry my regular keyboard and a wireless 
mouse. 

Before you start travelling print out the local access 
numbers for each state or province that you might possibly
visit, so that you don't have to use the 1-800 access to 
look up the local numbers. 

Whenever I do the on-line booking for the next hotel or
motel, I also prepare a DUN (connection) for that town,
and before shutting down I make that DUN the default.
That way, when I plug in and turn on the laptop in the next
town, it will connect and MailWasher will start working
on the mail while I unpack the rest of the stuff.

Have FUN
Dear Webby