While I might spend a few days at a beach resort with just my lightweight travel kit, for work related trips a “full” laptop is necessary. So here’s my normal travel setup, which centers around a new Macbook Air, and support accessories.
- Clockwise from upper left:
- Macbook Air – I’ve spent most of the last decade living with a top of the line 15″ Powerbook/Macbook Pro. Even though 6 lbs. doesn’t sound like much, it was the day to day of hauling it around town that got to me. The Macbook Air suits most of my mobile needs while still hooking up my desktop monitor for full programming sessions. I’ve chosen the solid-state drive version to minimize the likelihood of a drive failure while traveling. Some users bemoan the limitations of the Macbook Air, but I see most of them as necessary evils to get the best possible travel laptop. Working tethered to a desk in a hotel room isn’t comfortable or convenient so I always bring a wireless access point, instead of depending on in-room ethernet. I rarely use the CD/DVD drive while traveling, and if I do want it, can add the external DVD burner and still come in lighter than my old Macbook Pro. Much has been made of the lack of swappable batteries in the Air, but if I wanted to carry an extra two pounds of power, I wouldn’t have minded a larger/heavier laptop. Overall the MBA seems rugged and comfortable enough for prolonged use. Look for a long-term review after I make a few long trips with it.
- Steve Sleeve – (under the Macbook Air) Ok, this is more just a cute case than a practical travel case. I’ve already ordered a Tom Bihn Brain Cell for real travel.
- TrekStor Microdisk 120GB – the smallest drive I could find that would allow me to clone a bootable version of the internal drive in my Macbook Air. I make a complete backup clone of the laptop hard drive the night before a trip, and take it with me. In the event of some kind of failure on my Mac, I can get by with any other Mac that can boot from USB (which is most of them).
- Zip-Linq USB cable – There are a lot of cheap USB cables available. This one is reliable even with high-powered USB devices, and doesn’t take up much room in my accessory bag. This cable is used to connect the external hard drive and my digital camera (see below) to the laptop.
- Logitech Premium 4-Port USB Hub – This small USB hub fits in well with my travel kit, and seems like a good thing to carry considering the single USB port on the Macbook Air. My external hard drive works with this hub, but the special Apple DVD drive still needs to be connected directly to the MBA. But the hub is still small and useful enough to carry for my other USB devices.
- D-Link DWL-G730AP – I usually bring a wireless access point on work trips, since hotels sometimes only provide ethernet connections (or charge per user). The smallest, most versatile access point I have ever found, this D-Link access point, has the benefit of: being tiny, running on USB (see the USB power adapter from my ultralight kit), and doubling as a wireless adapter and ethernet-wireless bridge. That kind of versatility makes the G730AP a worthy addition to any geek’s kit.
- Zip-Linq Cat6 Ethernet cable – Again, there are smaller, less expensive alternatives, but this Cat6e seems to be the most reliable in adverse (e.g. travel) conditions. This cable was more useful when I travelled with a laptop that had ethernet built-in. These days it connects my portable wireless access point to in-room ethernet. Since I don’t use it as much anymore, I’ll probably switch to the smaller & lighter cat5 version soon.
- Mini DisplayPort to VGA – Pretty much a necessary accessory if you plan to give a presentation with any of the current Macs. I’ve used some version of this adapter for years so I’m used to carrying it. Frankly the mini DisplayPort gives me as much flexibility as I ever had on the Macbook Pro.
- USB Key – as large an amount of memory as I can get at a good price. When 128GB flash drives become available, I’ll probably replace the TrekStor with one. I’d like to set-up one these with Windows XP to dual-boot the Macbook Air, but this seems to be a pretty large project. I’ll have to see if I can manage it.
- Ricoh GX200 – On longer (or more interesting) trips, a better camera than my iPhone is warranted. While I’d like to take a full digital SLR setup, a single point and shoot is much more convenient. The Ricoh GX200 is a photo geek’s friend, with manual focus and exposure modes. The 24-72mm focal lengths might seem limiting, but it’s a wide enough range for my needs; available tele/wide converters can extend it’s flexibility for more demanding users. Unfortunately, it requires it’s own charger which adds to the bulk of the setup.
Adding this set of devices to the ultralight travel kit provides me with a relatively small computing configuration with minimal comprise. I usually pick and choose the right setup for each trip, and the results have kept me happy so far.
What tools do you find indispensable when traveling?
I love my first generation MacBook Air (though I am envious of those with bigger solid state drives, and may have to upgrade some day). It’s delightfully zippy for random storage; it’s always all about storage bandwidth and latency!
I use an old 3COM 3C460B USB ethernet adaptor when I can’t get WiFi. It’s not my first choice, but I already had it sitting around.
I count on the internet being so ubiquitous that I don’t bother carrying USB flash drive or external drives on trips; I just hit various websites for data; though for backups I have a USB G-Drive to do image backups and a Time Capsule for incremental backups.
I have a Fossil bag Erci bought for me in New York. I suspect she was buying her way out of guilt for getting the 3G iPhone by waiting in a line at the beautiful Apple store there when we were on vacation.
We have an Airport Express for travel wireless.
Since my Air is first generation, I have micro-DVI converters for S-Video/Composite, VGA, and DVI.
On trips I confess I still carry my venerable, but trusty, Canon Elph Powershot S410; it can’t touch the big Rebel XTi we have, but it’s small, and easy to carry, and still uses huge CompactFlash cards of staggering capacity. In fact, I can (in a pinch) use the camera as a USB drive.
I love my first generation MacBook Air (though I am envious of those with bigger solid state drives, and may have to upgrade some day). It’s delightfully zippy for random storage; it’s always all about storage bandwidth and latency!
I use an old 3COM 3C460B USB ethernet adaptor when I can’t get WiFi. It’s not my first choice, but I already had it sitting around.
I count on the internet being so ubiquitous that I don’t bother carrying USB flash drive or external drives on trips; I just hit various websites for data; though for backups I have a USB G-Drive to do image backups and a Time Capsule for incremental backups.
I have a Fossil bag Erci bought for me in New York. I suspect she was buying her way out of guilt for getting the 3G iPhone by waiting in a line at the beautiful Apple store there when we were on vacation.
We have an Airport Express for travel wireless.
Since my Air is first generation, I have micro-DVI converters for S-Video/Composite, VGA, and DVI.
On trips I confess I still carry my venerable, but trusty, Canon Elph Powershot S410; it can’t touch the big Rebel XTi we have, but it’s small, and easy to carry, and still uses huge CompactFlash cards of staggering capacity. In fact, I can (in a pinch) use the camera as a USB drive.
I have to admit that I only carry a VGA cable because I’m pretty much figuring any place I give a presentation will allow a VGA hook-up. If I thought they all would have DVI, I’d carry that instead (since I prefer to use that on campus).
Do you find that you get a lot of use out of the Video adapter?
I have to admit that I only carry a VGA cable because I’m pretty much figuring any place I give a presentation will allow a VGA hook-up. If I thought they all would have DVI, I’d carry that instead (since I prefer to use that on campus).
Do you find that you get a lot of use out of the Video adapter?
Snolan typically brings to computer so I bring the Rebel XTi. Most of the time when we travel we divide the tech so that we both have an equal amount of gear to haul.
Snolan typically brings to computer so I bring the Rebel XTi. Most of the time when we travel we divide the tech so that we both have an equal amount of gear to haul.