Comments on: How to spot a tech-friendly hotel http://www.elliott.org/power-trip/how-to-spot-a-tech-friendly-hotel/ Consumer advocate Christopher Elliott's site. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:25:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Douglas Muth http://www.elliott.org/power-trip/how-to-spot-a-tech-friendly-hotel/comment-page-1/#comment-7186 Douglas Muth Mon, 17 Dec 2007 21:53:13 +0000 http://beta.elliott.org/photos/how-to-spot-a-tech-friendly-hotel/#comment-7186 > But what if you leave your PC at home or it breaks while you’re on the road? Well, if > your hotel is truly concerned about your ability to get work done while you’re a guest, it > will offer you a spare. A business-center PC is a good start, and some properties will > even set one up in your room, all downloaded with the essential applications. As a computer professional, I must caution folks about the possibility of spyware being installed on said PCs. All it takes is one guest who visits a malicious website (or worse yet, a user actually *being* malicious) to install some spyware on a machine which can then capture your passwords, bank account numbers, or credit card information. I would strongly suggest using a boot CD, such as Knoppix or the Ubuntu Live CD, and web-based services such as Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar to get work done when you are on the road. The advantage of having a boot CD is that since CDs are not writable more than once, you know when you start up a computer using such a CD that it will contain only your software on it, and not any additional spyware. Also, you don't have to worry about losing any important data through a lost, stolen, and or damaged laptop. (But you will download copies and back them up when you get back home, right? ;-) > But what if you leave your PC at home or it breaks while you’re on the road? Well, if
> your hotel is truly concerned about your ability to get work done while you’re a guest, it
> will offer you a spare. A business-center PC is a good start, and some properties will
> even set one up in your room, all downloaded with the essential applications.

As a computer professional, I must caution folks about the possibility of spyware being installed on said PCs. All it takes is one guest who visits a malicious website (or worse yet, a user actually *being* malicious) to install some spyware on a machine which can then capture your passwords, bank account numbers, or credit card information.

I would strongly suggest using a boot CD, such as Knoppix or the Ubuntu Live CD, and web-based services such as Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar to get work done when you are on the road.

The advantage of having a boot CD is that since CDs are not writable more than once, you know when you start up a computer using such a CD that it will contain only your software on it, and not any additional spyware. Also, you don’t have to worry about losing any important data through a lost, stolen, and or damaged laptop. (But you will download copies and back them up when you get back home, right? ;-)

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