Dan Gillmor is at the forefront of globe-trotting technology journalism, with a reputation for writing that is thoughtful, insightful, and (and we know we said ‘technology journalism’) often right. Besides his work for the San Jose Mercury News, he continues to update his pioneering weblog with thoughts from the field. We had to ask him: What’s in your gadget bag?
Wow, what a mess. Gotta clean this out one of these days.
Personal Computer: OK, I start with a Mac 15-inch aluminum Powerbook. It worries me how much of my professional existence is in this thing. I also have a DC charger that works in the car and on airplanes.
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Backup: Which is why I also carry an 80GB backup drive, a FireLite from SmartDisk, for routine backups including a daily backup of my essential files such as chapter drafts of a book. I lost a bunch of important e-mails in the middle of 2003 and decided that wouldn’t happen again. Of course, if someone steals both the backup drive and the computer…
Modular Carrying Case: On planes I carry my Mac double-wrapped, in a sense. I put the computer in a padded, ballistic-nylon “sleevecase” from WaterField Designs. The sleevecase then goes into a carry-on bag that adds further protection. Once I get there, I pull out the sleevecase and attach a padded shoulder strap and piggy-back bag that holds my power supply plus a notebook (analog), digital camera, a couple of cables and other small items. In effect, I end up with a carry bag inside the carry bag, for protection and to be able to leave the big bag in the hotel instead of schlepping it around.
Phone/PDA: The Treo 600 is my current favorite phone/PDA combo. I’ve been loading a bunch of third-party software on the thing, including a FreeCell game for emergency boredom fixes. I have a to carry the Treo I use a padded camera pouch that attaches to my belt. I also have a retractable sync and cable/charger thingie, which saves lots of room and is vastly more convenient.
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Assortment of other cables including: Retractable phone, Ethernet and firewire, several from a company called Zip-LINQ.
Headphones: At the moment I’m using the Sennheiser PCX 250 noise-canceling model. They’re not as good as the Bose headphones but they work well enough and take up much less room in the bag.
Camera: Sony CyberShot DSC-T1. It’s very small but has (in theory) 5-megapixel resolution. Even better, it takes 30-frames-per-second MPEG videos. There’s a 3X optical zoom, a large LCD display and not-great battery life. Big drawback is the obnoxiously proprietary and therefor expensive Memory Stick Duo Pro plug-in memory card.
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Other: Extra batteries, USB adapter for various device memory cards to download pictures and transfer files. Also, various notebooks, pens, tissues, anti-bacterial hand-wipes, decongestant nose spray (essential if you get a cold and fly) and other basic remedies and vitamins. And — this is crucial — a book; I never know when I might be waiting in line (the immigration line at Tokyo Narita took an hour last week), and it’s always nice to have something to read.
What I’ve stopped carrying: My iPod
. This was a revelation, because I love the iPod. But when I put a 512MB SD card into the Treo and found a third-party MP3 player, it was trivial to copy a bunch of albums over to the card and listen to them from the Treo. Doing this isn’t hard on the battery, and you can hold a lot of music in half a gigabyte. Since I’m carrying all my digital music anyway in the Mac, it’s not all that hard to move a few albums to the Treo before or during a trip. I lose some convenience in one way but gain a lot in another.
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