I travel quite a bit and a couple of people have asked me what I bring along. So here it is. I emptied my computer knapsack onto the table at the Vancouver hotel I am in after yet another conference. Roughly from left to right:
- Spare wireless cards - Rarely used, but sometimes it is handy to have two wireless nics in the laptop to bounce a signal along or to lend cards to people.
- Charger for the Canon S400 travel camera (camera is taking the picture, of course)
- S-Video cable and 8mm to audio left/right cable used for connecting the laptop to the hotel TV so I can watch movies on a screen bigger than my laptop screen.
- USB cable for offloading the camera and also for connecting the flash mp3 player
- Case for the camera
- Toiletries
- Targus Air travel power supply
- Lightweight extension cord
- USB memory stick which doubles as a pen
- RSA Key to connect to the work network
- 2-foot omni-directional wifi antenna
- WRT54G + power supply
- Spare AAA battery needed for both mp3 player and noise-cancelling headphones
- Watch
- DVI-VGA Adapter cable (critical for presentations)
- Credit cards and ATM card
- Passport (preferably from a non-war mongering nation)
- Laptop + power supply
- Network cable
- USB Mouse (because trackpads suck)
- mp3 player
- Noise cancelling headphones
Nothing really out of the ordinary here except perhaps the rather large antenna. Also, make sure all your power supplies are 110-240 safe and avoid any surge-protection powerbars (they are too big anyway) since that stuff tends to blow up when you plug them into a 220V outlet.