Travel for Geeks: What's In Your Bag?

A true gadget nerd is only as good as the gadgets that they carry with them. We live in an age of amazing laptop bags with room, as well as special pockets, for just about everything a real world person could need, from cellphones to PDAs to the ubiquitous laptops. That doesn’t mean, however, that all gear carriers are made the same. In fact, the differences in gadget encumbrance not only make each road warrior and weekend geek unique, but can give you quite a bit of insight into the person carrying the pack.

In today’s installment of Travel-for-Geeks, we take a look at the equipment three geeks on-the-street and ask them why they’re hefting what they are, what they left at home, and we’ll try to find out what they’d bring along if they could.


Geek One: Mike Regan

Items: MacBook Pro, Lacie Rugged toughdrive external firewire drive, Sennheiser HD 280 pro headphones, Nokia N93

Matt: So you’re going light today, yah?

Mike: Yah, usually I’ve got a camera, either my Panasonic HVX-200 or my Canon 30D, but I’m only editing today, so I only have what I need. I bus, so I don’t take it all with me, that would siz-uck.

Matt: No iPod?

Mike: I have two, but I can’t find them. I have a third but it’s broken. They might be in that bag, but I’m not looking for them.

Matt: Sennhieser, nice. Those are dope headphones.

Mike: They’re nice, I can edit in public with them, even at the lame hipster bars, though I find it hard to concentrate. But these help.

Matt: Cool. That Lacie drive, tell me about it.

Mike: I think it’s a 120, it’s Firewire and usb, and bus-powered. It kicks ass. I want a bigger one, but they’re hard to find.

Matt: So is there any porn on there?

Mike: Ha ha, no. No porn.

Matt: I thought you were a film maker?

Mike: Shut up, yo. There’s footage of schitzophrenic women, but it’s not porn. It’s for a project I’m working on. You’re not as funny as you think.


Geek Two: Kira Arnold, retail manager

Items: iPod, HP Omnibook 6100, T-Mobile MDA, Pabst

Matt: Tell us what’s in your bag and what you use it for?

Kira: I use the HP Laptop when I’m at the coffee shop to read trashy blogs. It’s what laptops are for. I just got my iPod last year and Love it, I ride the bus a lot so that’s what that’s for. I have the MDA because I’m thinking management like, and it’s handy to have the calender and email. I got it for $50 last summer on Amazon, good deal dude! It’s really good for MySpace, too. And it’s a decent digital camera.

Matt: So what else is in the bag?

Kira: A beer!

Matt: Can I have it?

Kira: No you brought your own I saw you.

Matt: Jerk. Do you have any porn on your iPod?

Kira: No! Quiet, I’m on the phone with my dad!

Matt: I can wait. Now is there any porn on your iPod? I have “One Night in Paris” if you’d like.

Kira: No, I don’t want any porn. Thank you, though.

Matt: Whatevs, snob. You totally have porn on your iPod.


Geek Three: Grace Golice

Items: MacBook Pro, Zune, multi-card reader, Canon camera, cables.

Matt: So you were an early adopter with the MacBook Pro, I remember you telling me that you ordered it as soon as it came out.

Grace: Actually, it’s the second gen MacBook Pro. You’re still using a Powerbook I see?

Matt: This isn’t about me, Grace, this is about you. Usually you like that.

Grace: Shut it.

Matt: Why a Zune?

Grace: I’m part of the anything-but-an-iPod camp, and it was a gift. I wanted a black one but got a brown, but I’m into it now. What’s cool is that you see iPods everywhere and ignore them, but people actually come up to me and ask me what it is. I like to show it off.

Matt: Hear that, readers? Grace likes to “show it off”.

Grace: Shut it, Hickey.

Matt: Ok, the 8525. You girls like your smartphones. From HTC no less! We like HTC.

Grace: It’s not HTC, it’s from Cingular.

Matt: Dude, HTC makes the phone for Cingular.

Grace: I know, I was kidding. I’ve got it hooked up through Bluetooth to my MacBook as a modem. It actually uses the Cingular network pretty fast, so if I can’t get WiFi I use it. Kills the battery though.

Matt: Makes sense, I do sort of the same thing. And the camera?

Grace: It’s an old Powershot, just a little camera so I can take photos when my friends are being stupid.

Matt: They like to “show it off” too?

Grace: This interview is over.

So we know what these nerds take with them, but the question is, gentle readers, what is it you’ve got? You read our little blog because you like modern tech toys, especially the kind you can carry from place to place. We want to know what you take with, and we’d like to know what you think our people should add to their arsenal.