What is in your Travel Kit?

Every few months somebody asks us why we bought our Vaio's. They are expensive blah blah blah. For me, hands down, the largest factor was a ratio. Weight vs. performance. I simply cannot find anything similar to my SZ's specs at its 3.7 lbs. I travel a lot and for me every pound counts. It is not just the weight of my computer, but all of the other crazy items you need really be mobile. So, here is my question for you road warriors or even college students who have to carry your laptops around all day.

What is in your laptop bag and do you have any truly useful items some of us may not have thought about? Here is a look at my contents right now.

-Sony Vaio SZ370P/C (in a neoprene skin to protect it)
-APC UPB80 Universal Notebook Battery
-Cingular 3125 for bluetooth tethered internet connection (Actually caried in my pocket) and synch cable and charger.
-APC Power ready notebook case for 15.5 inch screens
-Targus 150W power inverter (for Aircraft and Auto charging)
-3 outlet power bar (for airports where outlets are a hot commodity)
-2 usb thumb drives
-1 LAN cord (4 Ft)
-1 set of Bose Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones
-1 Canon PowerShot SD300 Elph with charger and synch cable
-1 Garmin Nuvi and Charger
-Sony memory card adapter
-1 USB to mini USB converter
-1 micro USB converter
-1 DVD containing back up MS Windows XP
-1 DVD containing MS Office 2003
-1 DVD containing all phone and camera drivers
-Passport
-1st season of House MD (have to change that to the 5th season of 24 tomorrow)
-Roll of dental floss
-package of 4 spare AA batteries
-Black ballpoint pen

 

My Timbuk 2 Commuter bag holds my SZ and the following items.
6 Pen/Pencil
1 High Lighter
1 Soft CD case ( holds 10 CD/DVD)
1 Badge/ID card
1 Kensington travel charger
1 iPod Nano w headphones
1pk (AA) 4 count batteries
1 Razor phone
1 BT Logitech Mouse
Photo lens cloth
Sony Memory card Adap.
Keys with USB drive.
1 Notebook with built in sleeve

The SZ weighs 3.7 lbs.
My bag with the following item weighs 5.9 lbs.

 

I have to weigh my entire contraption. You might have me beat though (less weight) I have tried to optimize, but I really think I already have. Oh I want to add a little computer tool set. But that would be a few more ounces.

 

Laptop
Sony original power brick
Neoprene cover
Logitec mouse (most useful)
Pre-loaded DVD's
Pre-loaded games
food
cloths

 

Laptop: SZ1HP
bag: cheap fake diesel from China.

Sandwich, chocolates, sweets
bank statements, credit card bills
fork, ketchup, chopsticks
2 laptop hdd uncovered

and yes my laptop is covered in scratches.




edit: Its not that bad, you should see my colleague. She brings her laptop in those plastic bags from supermarket eg tesco. She swings it around and slam it on the desk when she gets in. Then she ask why is her hard drive not working...

 

For the Clevo M570U


And i thought i was the worst one

Can i know you and your girl-friend?

 

For the Clevo M570U


And i thought i was the worst one

Can i know you and your girl-friend?

 

I should look into pre loading DVD's. I had not really thought of that before. It seems like a time investment though. I am a weight miser, but DVD's are very light. How long would it take me to save a Season of 24, or The Wire on my HD at max resolution?

I used to just put my Laptop in my laptop bag naked. But with all of the in and out of the bag at airports, I now put it in a neoprene VAIO bag as well. The airports do not make you remove it and it has done a great job of protecting my expensive laptop. Oh, I still slip that pink piece of foam between the LCD and the CPU.

 

That's actually a pretty nifty way to pose a question, pwaggs. It could be a way for people to boast or to give an insight into their personal style. It will be half/half for me.
For me, it is my travel pack, and therefore is all my electronic toys I don't trust putting in my checked luggage

-Sony Vaio C190P/H
--spare battery
-Targus AC, car, airplane power adapter
-Wireless mouse
-spare batteries
-Universal boot CD full of helpful utilities
-microSD and memory stick adapters
-Ear plugs
-Microfiber cloth (because I'm anal about not having marks on my screen)
-Current flavor of portable MP3 player
-Earphones
-USB floppy drive
-USB keypad
-USB harddrive
-4 port powered USB hub (you'll see why this is important later on...)
-Vehicle outlet to 5V USB adapter
-PSP
-Nintendo DS
-Garmin nüvi GPS
-Canon digital camera (and battery charger)
-CAT5 cable
-RJ11 cable
-S-video cable (w/ S-video to composite adapter plug)
-3.5mm-to-RCA cable
-USB cable, A to mini-B, 6 foot
-USB cable, A to mini-B, 6 inch
-USB cable, A to PSP power
-USB cable, A to NDS power
-USB cable, A to Samsung phone, 6 inch
-USB cable, A to <MP3 player>
-Pen and pencil
-the current book I'm reading
and of course...
-a Bottle opener!

And also I throw in some DVDs that would like to watch over the trip.
The bag is nowhere near light, I get worn out after about an hour standing at the airport wearing it, heh.

Now, notice that aside from the Targus, the only other AC adapter belongs to the 4 port USB hub. I got sick of all the power adapters... phone, nintendo, psp, mp3 player, GPS, etc... hogging up so much freakin space in the bag; so I just found a small profile USB hub with a power adapter capable of at least 2Amps. Since all of my portable electronic devices have charge-from-USB capability, I can charge 4 at once--and only use a single outlet! (without the need for the computer being on) I then found or made short version of the USB cables for the devices, and now for roughly the physical space consumption of 2 device AC adapters, I have a charging adapter for everything, as well as a 4 port hub if necessary! Sure, some devices may take 2-5 times as long to charge via this method... but even when it's 1 hour going to 5 hour charge time... I leave them charge overnight, so the tradeoff is transparent to me.

The big thing there is making sure you find a power adapter that can supply the 500mA per port standard of USB. I had a 7port hub initially, but with only a 3A supply. However, I could tell from the size and weight of it that there was NO WAY IN FROSTY HELL it could handle that--maybe 1.5A for short periods of time. It also couldn't truly supply the 500mA per port; I would get "over current protection" errors from windows when plugging in some devices, when the peak current draw hit only 98mA!

This posting served its purpose for me, as I could definitely see the power strip being a valuable commodity in this bundle of accessories for the technogeek on the go!

 

That's very useful information. Thank you.

 

I am in airports quite a bit. It is always funny to see people hovering over the power outlets. Very few airports have enough of them. Who can blame them really. Has there been a major airport outside of DEN that has opened in the last 20 years. Anyway, a little power bar is a God send. I have never had anybody tell me that I could not disconnect heir computer and then reconnect it to my powerbar. I just have a little grounded thing I bought fom RadioShack for $3.00. It has three outlets. I'd love a little three outlet squid, but I have never been able to find one.

Oh and my flight yesterday a bottle of water was spilled on my bag. No harm done, but the previous poster's plastic bag would not have workd out. I am always amazed at how I see some very expensive laptops treated. I saw a very nice 17 inch MacPro lose a fight to an airport luggage conveyor belt the other day. Why would you pack it below...except that they are sooooo heavy.

 

SZ280 or Black MacBook
Spare Standard Size Notebook Battery
Kensington Universal Power Supply, dual adapter, and Tips
Kensington Bluetooth Mouse
Retractable USB and Mini USB Cables
Pentax PocketJet Printer & Paper
Pentax Scanner
USB Hard Drive (with Laptop Image on it)
SwissGear Tool (for hard drive ectimy if needed)
Panasonic Lumix FX01 Camera, Charger & Spare Battery
Garmin Nuvi GPS w Mount and 12v Adapter
Sure e4c headphones
iPod (5th Gen)
Razr Phone
Pen & Sharpie
Zeiss MiniQuick Monicular
Recovery and Critical Software DVD
Blank CD-RW, DVD-RW, and USB Thumb drive
Travel Food (Jerky, Trail mix)
Gortex Windbreaker
$1 in change

 

Here is what I carry:

Mountainsmith explorer backback (the best I have found)
SZ 330 in neoprene sleeve with screen privacy filter
Bluetooth mouse
IGO 130 power adapter (in place of sony adapter) to allow me to plug in notebook and cell phone anywhere
8 ft RJ45 cable
RJ11 cable
Laptop security locking cable
Swiss tool
Various console cables (I am a network engineer)
USB to DB9 adapter
Enough CD/DVD's to rebuild my system
USB Microhub
Notebook for taking notes on
Razr phone w/IGO adapter
Tylenol extra strength
Pens/Pencils
USB night light to illuminate keyboard on red eye flights
Noise cancelling headphones
Canon S2IS digitial camera

Haven't weighed my bag loaded, but I know its a helluva lot lighter than when I had my Dell C810

 

Ouch!!!...I just weighed my bad on my last flight this past Friday. 17lbs. I am assuming that it was fairly accurate using the airport luggage scale. So I'll look at trimming down when I get home. I think that the majority of the weight is in the extended life backup battery. But I nee that for longer flights and when airplane power is not available. For any engineers out there, there has to be serious money in designing log lasting lightweight batteries.

About privacy filters. I have never really felt the need to have one. Do you users out there like them? I just don't do any proprietary work in public. But they are advertised all over airports.

 

OMG! You guys are packrats!!! I do nearly 100,000 miles a year and that's just too much clutter to carry in addition to work materials and magazines.

I'm going to help you guys cut down your weight. More details to come. But don't worry, earplugs and cleaning cloths will still be included in kit!

 

I bought my privacy filter as more of a screen protector than anything. But, I do spend considerable amounts of time working on customers designs when in public areas, so I do have to follow due dilligence. Do I think someone would hijack information from a Visio I was working on,,,,,no, but I would hate to be the first one they did it too.

 

Ubercool if you can trim my load down please do. My deal is that I never want to be caught without something when I need it. I would toss the LAN cable as everything is WiFi except that every once in a while a length of cable comes in handy. I did finally start leaving my crossover cable

 

I have tried leaving my crossover cable behind, then I end up needing it, so back in it goes.

This is a good thread as I am always looking for ways to lighten my load. Waiting on the other poster to show us how it is done!

 

Yes, I do bring a long ethernet cable and a portable base station for those gnarly situations where cabled Internet is the only option, but I pack those in my suitcase to reduce carry-on weight.

I do like the USB hub approach for charging devices, which would work for my iPod and BlackBerry, but stay tuned for more info.

 

I like the USB charging station idea as well and I do already carry those usb adapters, however, I really only use them in a pinch. I like charging them completely with AC. The charge seems to last longer. Oh and I use my car DC/AC adapter as an outlet occasionally to charge other devices full speed.

My heaviest component is my long life external battery. If I can find a suitable replacement for that, I would be in there. Thanks for all of the input with this thread. Keep it coming.

 

I chose an IGO-130 instead of an extended battery. I figure if I can plug in anywhere, then I could do without the extended battery. Works for me.

 

You are right, but for those time you are in an Airbus instead of a Boeing aircraft and do not have aircraft power, it is very nice to have an extended battery. I just wonder if there is not a more weight effective one out there. I almost wonder if I would not be better off buying two Sony extended life batteries instead. One day I may try a test and see what the life is of a Sony extended life. I get just about 4 hours of DVD operation out of my current external battery with full brightness setting.

 

I am always trying to keep the weight and size down:
SONY SZ Premium
Kensington 120W AC/DC Adapter
Verizon Broadband Express Card V640
Kensington PowerMouse Micro Optical Wireless (the best tiny mouse!)
USB to mini USB for RAZR charging and syncing
O/O Gear Tiny Retractable Ethernet cable
ZipLinQ retractable palm cable(don't use for syncing since using bluetooth - but might need for charging if long trip)
Palm T/X
Vaio Express Slot Memory Card Reader
1(or 2) flash drives
2 spare AAA batteries
Black/Red/Green markers and a highlighter
tiny container of post it flags
Biz Cards
Listerine Pocket Pack Strips

If flying, my ipod and cable go in.

Great thread.

 

My TX850 fits in my purse. So
Laptop
Money
Emergency Makeup