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By Jeff Zbar
www.homeofficehighway.com

This dispatch is from BestStuff technology and home office contributor Jeff Zbar, who's on a three-week family road trip through the American West. Whether you're a road warrior, a home-based business owner, a teleworker, or just a family in search of the freedom of the road, enjoy Jeff's commentary. Want to learn more? Hit www.chiefhomeofficer.com.

Sitting in a hotel room near Palo Alto, California, my family's enjoying some quality time, 21st Century style. Kids are on their MacBooks and iPod Touch. Robbie's on her Kindle. I'm on my Acer Iconia Android Tablet, and we're all surfing via our Verizon Mifi personal hotspot.

A little work, a little exploration. Nothing in particular.

We're each in our own orbit around the sun of the moment – a bio of Selena Gomez on the TV.

Call it what you will, it is a wholly different form of quality time, the New York Times recently commented. But it's quality time nonetheless. Robbie and I wanted the kids to bring their devices. To demand otherwise would have been to, 1. Ignore reality, and 2. Invite World War III.Read more

By Jeff Zbar
www.homeofficehighway.com

This dispatch is from BestStuff technology and home office contributor Jeff Zbar, who's on a three-week family road trip through the American West. Whether you're a road warrior, a home-based business owner, a teleworker, or just a family in search of the freedom of the road, enjoy Jeff's commentary. Want to learn more? Hit www.chiefhomeofficer.com.

My wife is no technophile. When her netbook wigs out, drops its wifi connection or otherwise gets kinda jiggy, she loses it and shuts the cover. "I hate technology," she'll grumble.

She's had a Facebook going on two years now. But she never uses it. Twitter? Isn't that a nervous response to an unsettling situation – like using technology?

You could say that, aside from insects, prison movies and my immature annoyances, she hates nothing more than technology.

Call her Robbie, Queen of the Luddites.

I think she's slowing realizing, though, that she cannot live — or at least work — in the 21st Century without some tech in her life.

As a nurse practitioner with a budding side business in patient tutorials, she should receive and reply to emails throughout the day. Yet, she could go days without checking email, leading her clients to re-send – and then call – wondering if she received their work assignments.Read more

By Jeff Zbar
www.homeofficehighway.com

This dispatch is from BestStuff technology and home office contributor Jeff Zbar, who's on a three-week family road trip through the American West. Whether you're a road warrior, a home-based business owner, a teleworker, or just a family in search of the freedom of the road, enjoy Jeff's commentary. Want to learn more? Hit www.chiefhomeofficer.com.

So we checked into a Calhoun, Georgia, Hampton Inn, and it didn't take long for tech to start earning its keep. The hotel didn't have menus for local restaurants, so we fired up the Acer tablet, searched for local eateries (found a Ruby Tuesday), hit their site to read the menu, called the local location, and 25 minutes later were vanquishing ravenous appetites.

It didn't take long for me to realize I needed to "customize" the tablet. Email sent via Gmail went out without any sig. Once I synched it to my Gmail account, it dropped in my custom signature. Just for good measure, I input a simple signature – name, office phone, and links to my key web sites.

I also tweaked the home screen to include a Gmail icon and a few others I use regularly. I adjusted the clock, and several onscreen icons. I'm wary and protective of cyber fraud and theft. So, before I turn the review unit back in, I have to remember to delete all my personal information and data.Read more

By Jeff Zbar
www.homeofficehighway.com

Summertime's a great time to hit the open road – without leaving life behind. Technology widely available to the consumer market helps the "anywhere" office – and online personality – come alive without an electrical outlet or Ethernet cable in sight. This is Americana in a way Norman Rockwell never could have imagined.

This summer, the Home Office Highway '11 road show will showcase the tech, tools and tips that empower people to work and play from the interstate highway – or the information superhighway. The three-week excursion and social media event will highlight how "location independence" can be found wherever life's journey ventures.

This year, we'll travel from Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco. Part sightseeing trip, part college tour, all fun-n-games. The van will have laptops, digital cameras and other technology common to the modern family home.

As families grow up, so do their technology needs, even when they're on vacation. We'll file blogs, Facebook updates, tweets and videos from the road. We'll even manage family finances effortlessly from anywhere. "With wifi, the cloud and a computer, you can work and play from anywhere." Read more