Geek travel
01Jun09
First day in the new job, and I’m back on the road again after a quiet 18 months from a travel perspective. I’ve spent some time over the last few years trying to optimise things so that I’m carrying the least weight but the most functionality (particularly important when trying to avoid checking stuff in).
In the bag today:
- Lenovo s10e (with a Novatel Merlin XU870 3G datacard)
- 320G HDD so that I can have all my music and plenty of videos
- Atheros WiFi NIC so that I can do packet injection
- BlackBerry Curve 8900
- iPod Touch 16G – for when the battery on the netbook isn’t going to last
- Koss ‘Spark Plugs’ – comfortable for long flights, and excellent sound quality even in noisy environments
- Fuji FinePix F-45fd – great little camera with excellent low light performance
- iGo Juice 70 multi adaptor (works on wall sockets, in the car, and on planes [at least the ones with power outlets]). I keep lot of bits in the bag:
- iGo Peripheral Power System – to charge the smaller devices
- iGo DualPower – so that I can charge two small things at once
- iGo tips for everything I’m likely to have with me (or need to help out a friend)
- Swiss adaptor – to plug into UK/US/EU sockets
- D-Link DWL-G730AP portable WiFi router – handy for turning a fixed connection into a hotspot (which helps a lot when you want multiple connections pretending to come from one MAC)
- The ethernet cable that came with the mini router
- Retractable sync’n’charge cables for BlackBerry and iPod
- A Microsoft USB GPS
- Various USB flash drives, at least one with BackTrack on
- A 2.5″ SATA drive enclosure, with a 160G drive in it and the USB cables it needs for power/data
- Audio cables
- 3.5mm-3.5mm
- 3.5mm-phono
- 3.5mm Y splitter (so that I can share my music or videos)
- An airline adaptor (just in case they have a movie I want to watch and use those weird old 2×3.5mm mono things)
- MS Bluetooth Presenter Mouse
- Plantronics Voyager 510 Bluetooth Headset – comes with a USB device that makes it appear as a sound device
I’m pretty sure I’m not missing much, but could I do better?
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Chris Swan's Weblog 
A Kindle! I know it’s got no service over there on their dumb-ass ‘Whispernet’ – AKA 2.2G Sprint connection – but it’s still worth it if you sync from the Lenovo. I was a real skeptic until I saw a well-travelled friend with one and he swears by it. Bought it three weeks ago and I will never go back.
I dabbled a little with eBooks when I had a tablet PC with a high res display (before I got the netbook). I think this is one of those things where I don’t want to lug another device around. If my netbook becomes an ebook reader in due course then fine.
The other thing is that I carry a dead tree book with me for those times when you’re not allowed electronic devices – how does that work out with the Kindle?
In the leather case they sell for $29, it looks like a book, and so far the flight attendants haven’t grokked that this is in fact an electronic device; I turn off its wireless most of the time anyway except in the morning to get the papers, so I’m not worried about RF interference (which is another discussion entirely) but there’s something else I like that I never thought I would like; the standardised reading experience, so that most all books look and behave the same. I read a lot, and I never noticed how fiddly you have to get with learning the nuances of how to hold each book. It seems precious when I say it, but I can’t deny that it’s a real thing – how do you have to hold it so the pages stay where you want, how can you lie or sit when you’re reading – each book brings its own quirks. And I usually have several on the go at once. So I like it. Also the digital ink thing is pretty good, though I don’t like the brief black flash whenever you turn a page.
How long before a pico projector joins the pack?
http://www.duracell.co.uk/en-GB/product/mobile-traveler-battery-charger.jspx is my personal favourite. It’s an AA battery charger with a USB port that’s powered by either the wall socket or the batteries. There’s even a car charger for it too.
So I carry this, plus some spare batteries, and that keeps my E71 fed for ages, even if it’s doing SatNav duty constantly (given a single AA is close to twice even the E71’s mammoth battery).
Nice. I’m not sure that this would make it to my business travel bag, but it certainly looks useful for family holidays. I just ordered one from eBay for £8.49 :)