What I like about swiss people, apart from their exactitude, punctuality and concern for the environment, is their ability to mix practicality with design. That is the image I have of what I’d call “the Swiss spirit”. Continue Reading →
All posts in travel
Ridding my suitcase like a scooter!
I can say with certainty that this is the best roller bag ever made. Why this particular bit of genius hasn’t caught on, I can’t imagine. Possibly because, like those who ride the accursed Segway, riders of this contraption would give off a certain “punch me” vibe. And yet, one can’t entirely suppress the feeling of wanting to switch places with them, if only for a moment. Shameful, but understandable.
The Trolley Scooter from Samsonite und Micro Mobility is the perfect tool for bloggers like myself who cumulates hundred of miles (and that’s no lie…) wandering and running in Airports and at trade shows all year long with packs full of gear.
To be perfectly honest, I’d rather scoot than spend the day sweating my shirt running between airport gates. All the more so as I’ll probably look like the coolest traveller Airport security guys will have ever seen!
No price is given and I can’t find it on Micro Mobility’s site, but I would ballpark its cost at around 100€ — $120 or thereabouts.
Going On A Carbon Diet
Eco2 Widget is a mobile and desktop app to get your carbon eating habits under control. Sure you don’t gain weight from carbon but you do harm the Earth and we all agree – the Earth is in dire need of a carbon diet. Like all diets, it requires a lifestyle change. The Eco2 widget not only monitors carbon affluents between all your devices but also educations and recommends little things you could do to help Earth get slimmer cleaner. There’s even a reward system built-in for digital money and to plant trees.
Designers: Jinok Kim & Sanghee Ryu
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50 Reasons for You to Choose a Digital Nomad Way of Life
On November 10, 2009
In Bora Bora, Featured, Headline, picture of the week, telework, travel
With 1 Comment
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And the teacher asked the children what they wanted to be when they’re grown-up. At age five or six, such an easy question merely insult their intelligence. Without careful consideration or hesitation all of them squeaked back something along the lines of, “I’m going to be a doctor”, “an astronaut!”, “I want to be the president!”, “I would like to be a teacher”, “I’m gonna be a queen with a purple crown and a castle made of glitter and my cat, Miss Kitty, can be a princess“. This last input caused less disturbance than my own answer.
- “I want to be a digital nomad”
The teacher stared at me disturbed and upset. She probably wondered what was wrong with this kid and if my parents where some kind of hippies, nerds or communists.
This morning I read one of the most interesting posts about being a mobile worker I’ve read in a long time. It was only 215 words long but the beautiful images it featured said it all about what you get when you manage to get free from this static place called “office”. And those images reminded me once again why I chose to live that life of Digital Nomad. And because we’re human, words are often not enough; we sometimes need impacting images to trigger a spark in those 4% of that little thing called “brain” to make us realize what we’re missing.
Of course, when you work anywhere but from an office there are a lot of advantages: you can organize your time as you want it, work when you’re the most efficient (early in the morning or late at night), take care of your kids when they need to be taken care of, avoid rushours (on the road, at the supermarket or at the sportcenter), save money on telecommutes (and give a break to the environment…) and preserve your mental health by working in a less stressful environment you can adapt to your personal and physiological needs. That’s not all, but that’s not bad either.
Obviously, nothing is perfect in this life, and there are drawbacks. But the fact that I can work wherever I want to work from is far superior to any cumulated advantages (call it better pay check, quicker promotion, hot technological tools, funny co-workers or yearly company offsite) I’ll get by working in an office.
There is a WORLD and a life outside. A big, beautiful, colorful and accessible world. This is what I (re) discovered when I watched those pictures in “50 Photos to Inspire Life as a Digital Nomad”.
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And when you spend 8 to 10 hours a day working in an office, what will you really see of that world and taste of that life? Okay, you might tell yourself that you’ll keep that for when you will be doing some tourism during your next summer holidays and that it’s well enough (do you actually believe that?). Maybe that will please “the commons”, but will you ever feel the real essence of those things around you and live them for real*? You also might end up pissed at me and think that after all you’re happier than I am. Maybe, I don’t know.
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When you’re free to choose what you want to see from your “office” window, travel the world while earning a living, standing for real in the middle of those postcard-like landscapes, knowing that as soon as you get bored from a place and “lose the inspiration” you can get a train, a plane, a car (or, please, any green transportation!) to another place, enjoy from that summer holiday house you’ve been renovating for some years, then and only then you’ll have the deep feeling at the end of the day that you fully live your life.
Remember that there are thousands of jobs opportunities available for mobile workers and freelancers and that there is at least one waiting for you. It is never too late to change your way of working.
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While writing this post I realized once again how lucky I was to live this life, and that there is an infinity of possibilities to live and work anywhere in this world when you’re “office-free”. “Anywhere”? I should say “everywhere” as the concept itself of mobile worker implies that
So I thank you again Corbett Barr for reminding me why I chose to live this marvellous life of a digital nomad. If you liked the pics Corbett put together, you might also like those Kerolic, another digital nomad (not totally emancipated from the traditional-office-cubicle system – but this is just a question of time…) took along his various journeys around the world.
Other websites of interest to turn dreams into reality:
Freelance job offers on Elance and Guru
64 Ways Location Independent People Earn a Living by Corbett Barr
List of companies hiring telecommuter
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*I’m not too fond of that thing I’d call “fast-food-like-travelling”. Flying 13 hours to spend a week (or two) in a place I’ve never been before, and actually believe that I’ll have the guts to say “I know that place” because I’ve been there, tried a couple of local gastronomic specialities and took some pictures to prove my facebook friends (or to boast?) that I was actually there, is not for me. Sometimes you’ll learn more about a place by reading a good book than actually getting there; this week-end I made an impressive travel like never before: I discovered Calcutta after reading Dominique Lapierre’s s The City of Joy. Unforgettable.
All-In-One Electronic Card (travel light and green!)
On October 30, 2009
In environment/green, Featured, technology, travel, Vienna
With 2 Comments
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I always have this big issue to deal with when I’m travelling “light”: “what should I do with the dozen of plastic cards I have in my wallet?”. I have plastic cards for almost everything: of course my credit card, ID card and driving licence, but also my various customer cards, membership card from various associations and finally frequent flyer card for different airlines.
I let you imagine what my wallet looks like at the end of the day. So it’s always a big deal, when I’m trying to travel light, to decide which card to take or to leave in a drawer.
One other issue is that every time one card expires, its plastic adds to the trash. So do the numerous receipts that we accumulate after swiping our CC.
But a wind of change might blow (soon?)…
The fundamental of the One Card Electronic Card is quite simple: it wants to eliminate the trash and give a break to our poor ever growing wallet (and resolve issues like identity theft via discarded expired CCs) by proposing to be this all-credit-cards-in-one device.
On one end of the gadget is a Memory Card Slot that will help the user upload their various card Details.
The other end has a turning-knob that allows one to choose the appropriate card to be swiped.
The display on the device reflects an identical copy of the card front, while the strip on the back mimics a card’s magnetic strip. Once the transaction is completed, the receipt generated is displayed on the device (no paper receipt) and the info gets stored on the memory card.
The concept is pretty clear in what it wants to achieve, namely combine all cards that a person uses under one umbrella, reduce generation of paper/plastic trash, identity security etc. The only block is the compatibility with various banks and the willingness of people to rely on a gadget for daily CC transactions. Yes, we do use online, virtual services, but something like this is quite different.
As a matter of facts this concept may one day revolution our approach to the concept of wallet itself! Imagine that this all-in-one credit card may give us the ability not only to pay our goods, but also services (a virtual e-ticket for public transportations or airplanes, social security, insurance) and feature everything from our secured personal data (passport/ID card/Driving licence) to the family picture we carry everywhere…
Of course there’s always the issue of losing it with all the critical information it carries… but it is just the same problem as loosing your real wallet. Except that we can imagine that this all-in-one wallet will be able to be deactivated remotely and thus safeguards all our data.
A very nice concept indeed.
Designer: Kim Young Suk
Internet Speeds and Costs Around the World
“Internet access everywhere” or at least in major cities in developed countries, is something we almost take for granted. Wherever we are today, we expect to be able to find this salutary buoy to the outer world, lost in the middle of this ocean of reality (as opposed to virtuality). And finding the right Wifi hot spot (aka free and fast) is the absolute condition to a fun and productive day of work outside of the office.
However it seems that we don’t all compare too well Worldwide. This awesome infographic below shows the internet costs and speeds around the world for the top 20 nations in the ITIF Broadband Rankings.
Number one is, predictably, Japan, where the average broadband speed is 60mbps and they pay $0.27 per 1mbps! It wouldn’t be that nasty to be a mobile worker in the country of the rising sun!
I’m just happy that I’m not living in Mexico or Turkey, where the price of the Internet is literally obscene! I’m though wondering what is the actual monthly fee for 1mbps in China… Probably high too, as expensiveness is even a more effective way than censorship to limit the access of the masses to the Internet.
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via Gizmodo
Company Off-Site: camping, fireplace, crackers & beers
On October 20, 2009
In Bora Bora, Featured, mobility, places, telework, travel, Vienna
With 2 Comments
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Off-Sites are a tradition in many companies. This kind of two or three-days retreat generally aims at bringing people of an office together to do some brainstorming to discuss the new tactics & strategies to implement to boost the business, while giving co-workers a chance to get to know each others better.
Though most of the time off-sites don’t bring the expected results – in terms of idea generation which will actually be implemented to help the business grow… $$$ – they remain a good occasion to have a break during a hectic year and eventually to have fun. And when you’ll be planning your next off-site, forget all those “nice hotel, fancy resort, and cast of nonthreatening facilitators” to try something really cool, unique and that will probably strengthen like never (or not, depending where you decide to settle “the camp”) the relations your co-workers have with one another.
The mad scientist who created this camp-changing device is named Becky Greenwood. She’s got this idea that will bring camping people (and co-workers!) closer together without sacrificing their privacy.
It works by connecting two “two man” tents with a helpful storage container for tools and crackers and beers (of which you’ll have plenty thanks to the $$$ you saved vs a fancy hotel) and such. Once camping is complete, the bag functions like a normal “extra” camping bag, creating a larger space to hold the tent than the bag that it comes with, making it twice as fast to pack up.
And just make sure that you don’t forget to carry with you this magical transparent fireplace to add magic to the moment.
The beauty of the Electrolux Fireplace is that it stands out as this opaque ceramic column that slowly turns translucent to transparent, as the flames flare up. Upon cooling down the column goes back to being the white shaft it was.
Designer: Camillo Vanacore
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I wand to know more on how to organize a successful, memorable and rewarding off-site: read Can This Off-Site Be Saved?
Those Google Street View Drivers Had No Idea What They Were In For [Humor]
One great thing about using Google Street View is that you don’t get any more bad surprises when it comes to discovering for instance your new neighbourhood or the real face of the town in which you’ll spend the next month of your summer holiday you booked on line. Quite helpful actually. Personally, I’ve used it a couple of time when searching for a new apartment and to avoid a big disappointment when discovering on-site what the building actually looked like.
But who is behind this great initiative? Do you mean that there REAL people driving Google’s cars to picture-map the streets??
Apparently, those two Google Street View drivers had no idea what they were in for…
esPRESSivo. What else?
What I often miss, when I’m travelling the world Europe, is the taste of a Nespresso-like coffee wherever I have one (I mean a coffee). Every time I’m sitting in a restaurant, the decision to try or not to try their “local” coffee turns into a real dilemma. So I often end-up drinking a coke or something I know that will always more or less have the same taste should I be in in Beijing, Vienna, Paris or a small village in Himancham Pradesh. Continue Reading →