Technology for travel

As some would know I am a bit of a gadget man.... I have been asked what I take with me when I travel. Well, normally I would bring along my Macbook (since it can boot both Mac OS - my primary OS - and Windows). However, on this trip I decided not to bring that since I had to bring quite a few books and papers and so weight was an issue.

So, here's a picture of my primary computing rig on this trip.


In the centre is my computer, a Sony Vaio UX 180 micro PC which dual boots Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux. Attached to that is my 40 Gig ipod (for music and backup of data), in front of the PC is my 'old' Nokia 9500 smart phone... My primary phone back home is a Palm Treo 750 (blackberry style), but that would not autoconfigure here... I always travel with a Nokia - they seem to just work everywhere. My Nokia has a prepaid sim card in it. Amazingly, I bought the sim card when I was in the UK in 2005, it had a pound of credit on it, and it still worked two years later! On the right of the computer (the square silver thing) is my batterygeek external battery. That gives me about 20 hours (!) worth of juice on the Vaio.

Not pictured in the photo are my old Canon Ixus 500 digicam (an old, but small and reliable camera), my mini USB keyboard and mouse, and the USB infrared receiver I use to download my heart rate monitor data from my Polar SX625 watch. Oh, and of course the Sanyo MP3 voice recorder used to record podcasts.

The Vaio is a great little machine. It is small, functional, and inobtrusive. It can do everything a larger PC can do, yet it can fit into a coat pocket if needs be (I tend to carry the Vaio, the keyboard, external battery, and docking station in my backpack). Since the Vaio has a tiny little camera on the front of the machine I have been using it to do Skype Video calls with Megie, Courts and Liam back home.

Here's a screen shot of one such call.


All in all, it is a great rig. However, when I travel to Malaysia next week I shall take my Macbook with me simply to have the extra functionality for the larger venue's I'll be addressing, and the ability to play DVD's during my workshop.