Try TripIt. A free Web-based travel organizer, TripIt promises to sort out and maintain all your travel schedules if you merely forward reservation confirmation emails for your flights, cruises, hotel, car and train bookings to plans@tripit.com. What is generated is one single master itinerary that contains everything arranged chronologically. Automatically available alongside are weather information, locations maps, information on restaurants, travel guides, etc.
You can print this master itinerary out and keep it with you, or get it on email, or to a compatible mobile phone, and sync it with your calendar. And yes, if required, you can even share these nitty-gritties with colleagues, family and friends quite effortlessly. You can also go in and append frequent flyer numbers, add plans, and edit details of anything anytime. You can see flight seating plans through “seating advice” from SeatGuru.
One problem, though. Compatibility issues with your forwarded reservation mails can arise, but you will be suitably cautioned by mail within hours.
Wireless security
Whenever your PC is hooked into a wireless network, the danger to your personal data is clear and present. Anything that is transmitted over such a network can be read and copied. No harm being a bit paranoid and deploying some sort of safety shield to protect your data and also encrypt everything you send out. Several security mechanisms are available. Best-known among these are methods such as Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), Wi-Fi Protected Access (encryption based), Media Access Control Filtering (unknown MAC address rejection based), RADIUS Authentication and Authorization (login and password based) or Kerberos (key distribution based). And you can even combine these techniques to enhance your data safety.
So, before using public networks, it is always best to have a program such as KeyScrambler (‘www.qfxsoftware.com/products.htm#personal’) installed on your laptop. Available for free as a plug-in for Internet Explorer and Firefox, this program encrypts whatever you type in your browser.
On insecure public computer terminals, tiny USB carry-able tools such as Neo’s SafeKeys (‘www.aplin.com.au/?page_id=246’) protect you from prying eyes and snooping spies by allowing you to mouse-click your password on an on-screen keyboard. This also defeats any pre-installed keyloggers.
Wikimapia and Google Maps
www.wikimapia.comhttp://maps.google.com
Other than the newbie euphoria and initial virtual travel kicks you get with Google Earth/Maps, have you ever thought of putting these applications to use for your actual travel plans? With time always at a premium, and with little patience, you can really exploit Google Earth/Maps and put them to tangible use, especially while charting out a holiday.
Zip down to Wikimapia (yeah, don’t bother with the 29.6MB Google Earth download if you think installing it is a pain). And get an insta-flyby and bird’s eye view of the place you’re going to. Hover around and examine the location of the hotel where you’re planning to stay... You’ll be able to get an excellent idea of the general surroundings, rough estimates of distances to and fro from points of business and non-business interest. If the establishment is reasonably decent and well known, chances are you will find it marked in Wikimapia (even if it’s not, there are ways of finding it with a dollop of ingenious navigation).
Other useful resources