Stop. Collaborate and Listen

Yes, it was inevitable; as an IT geek, I had to include a post about technology that we'll be utilizing while down under.  I apologize in advance for the dry content of this post, personally I find this stuff fascinating, however I realize not everyone thinks virtualization and Linux are cooler than the other side of the pillow.  For those of you whose eyes don’t dilate when the next Linux kernel version is released, I don’t blame you for skimming over this one…

Despite Australia's similar culture and language (well, maybe not so similar language), it is awfully far away from the States; 7,918 miles, or 12,669 kilometers to be exact. It absolutely boggles my mind what immigrating to Australia would have been like before air travel was a viable consumer option; in 1860 it was a three-month voyage from Puget Sound to Sydney- considerably more of a commitment than a 16-hour flight.  Factor in not having the modern conveniences and technology that we have today and it must have been akin to moving to a different planet.  The good news is it’s not 1860 and we have a plethora of technology to enable instant communication, entertainment, trade, and work.  We plan on fully leveraging technology to maintain contact with friends and family and to offer some familiarity in an otherwise exotic and unfamiliar place; after all, it was a prerequisite for my undergraduate degree to commit myself to following UGA football until death.  Here are some of the technologies we’ll be leveraging to keep in touch, make the transition easier, and maintain traditions we’d otherwise have to forfeit.

·        OpenVPN – Most corporate stiffs are familiar with SSL VPNs (virtual private networks); it allows office drones like myself to securely access internal company resources from remote locations, such as email, file shares, virtual desktops, and virtual applications.  In most cases, they’re pretty handy, although for other purposes, the technology can be pretty cumbersome or insecure.  Anyways, I’m setting up a personal VPN using my Linux server which will stay in Atlanta at my parent’s house (thanks Mom and Dad!), although not for the reasons cited above.  Many of us take for granted free or pay-for services available online here in the states, such as Hulu, Netflix, or iTunes. Even UGA football games are televised online for free. What we don’t often have to worry about is that in order to use these services, one must have a US IP address, due to media copyright and licensing laws and contracts, something not easily obtained in Australia, or abroad.  By redirecting my traffic and NATing it through my Linux server at home, we’ll still be able to enjoy these services while in Australia.  OpenVPN is a free SSL VPN server that will allow us to do exactly that.  The nice thing about using OpenVPN is that only users with signed certificates can utilize the server, thus once the certificates are installed on the client and the server, users (read: Lydia and I) won’t have to authenticate to use the server.

·        Apache Forward Proxy – Effectively serves the same purpose as what I intend to use the OpenVPN server for (masquerading my IP address) but without the overhead of tunneling the traffic over an SSL VPN.  This should result in faster performance with the same benefits, although traffic will be limited to HTTP/HTTPS.  For those familiar with the OSI model, this is a layer 4 (transport) solution, whereas SSL VPN is a layer 3 (network) solution.  Instead of SSL certificates, this Apache proxy will rely on htaccess user authentication.

·        Amazon Kindle – Knowledge is invaluable, intangible, and relatively mobile; Books on the other hand, are not.  They’re heavy, they take up a lot of space, and they’re otherwise cumbersome to use.  As much as I’d love to move my book collection down to Australia with me, it’s just not practical checking a second bag for my personal library.  Enter the increasingly pervasive e-reader.  The nice thing about the Kindle, other than the fact that it’s small, portable, and easy on the eyes for reading, is that all book purchases are stored “in the cloud.”  This means I can purchase a book once, and access it from anywhere at any time (dependent on the availability of an internet connection) on nearly any device; Kindle, computer, smart phone.  And it saves your page number to boot.  My only complaint is what about physical titles that I already own?  Unlike CDs or DVDs, I can’t “convert” my analog books to Kindle form, although I can’t think of any easy way for Amazon to prove ownership of tangible books, at least for titles not purchased through them.  And while I plan on purchasing the 3G-less Ad-laden Wifi edition, the 3G “whispernet” version also works in Australia.

·        MapDroyd – This one stings; my beloved Sprint Evo 4G Android phone will not work as a phone down in Australia. Oh the tragedy! Spare the fact that Australia doesn’t yet have a 4G network, although it will soon, the phone uses WiMax for 4G whereas Telstra is opting for the Verizon choice of LTE, and for voice coverage the phone only works with CDMA, whereas most of Oz uses AT&T’s choice of GSM.  Despite no data coverage for the phone down in Australia, I’ll still be able to use its GPS and Wifi features to navigate down in Melbourne.  A problem arises, however, in that Google Maps does not allow maps to be cached on the phone; it relies on a data connection (3G, 4G, or Wifi) to download its maps from the web.  Without data coverage or free Wifi, the GPS effectively becomes useless.  Enter MapDroyd- a free Android application that can use downloaded cached maps for navigation.  While not as robust as Google Maps (no searching for restaurants, stores, or addresses or turn-by-turn navigation), it will at least pinpoint its location on a map so I don’t end up lost in the bush.

·        Google Chat/Voice – International calling is expensive and unreasonably complex; “Dial the country code, followed by the city code, wait ten minutes, turn counterclockwise, recite the Lord’s prayer, dial in your blood type using the touchtone pad, then the hexadecimal representation of the phone number you’re trying to dial.”  And that’s just for landline calls.  Fortunately, VoIP and video chat are simple to use and free for computer-to-computer calling.  To keep in touch with loved ones, we’re opting for a web cam and Google Chat (traditionally Skype has been the big name in VoIP, but I’m hesitant to use the service as they were recently acquired by Microsoft, plus all of my contact numbers are already stored in Gmail).  And with increasingly available bandwidth and improved video and audio compression technologies, VoIP and telepresence are quickly outshining traditional landline and mobile telephones.  The really cool part of Google Voice is you can now port your mobile number.  I’ll be able to continue to receive calls using my US number, so there’s no overhead in having to provide friends and family with a new Aussie number.

·        Online Banking – We’ll likely touch on this in a future post on banking/etc, but it’s worth mentioning here.  Since we don’t intend on converting all of our currency to Aussie dollars and don’t want to have to deal with international transfers or wires and ridiculous international withdrawal fees ($5/transaction and 3% of the transaction amount for Wells Fargo), we’re opting for an online bank.  After a good bit of research, we landed on Schwab’s High Yield Checking.  Aside from simply not being Wells Fargo, Schwab offers free cash withdraws from any ATM worldwide, no minimum balance requirements, and no monthly service charge.  And the account can all be managed online.  You can even deposit checks from your smartphone! While we plan on opening an Aussie account when we arrive, having a fully-functional online bank will be crucial, especially in the first few months

·        Blogspot – Given that you’re reading this post on this blog, need I say more?

Oh technology, Je t’aime.  After reviewing this post, it seems it got a little out of hand.  If you’ve made it this far without falling asleep, congratulations, you’ve achieved a mild feat!

*Image courtesy of Jess Laccetti