Gadgetry To Go

Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing asked one of my favorite questions today:

I'm interested in hearing what kinds of gadgets you carry around and find indispensible (sic). [...] What do you carry and why?

The QuickTopic has been alive with commenary. Here's my annotated inventory:

Black Rolfs leather wallet

Standard wallet usage: cards, money, receipts, temporary holding place for business cards

Passport

I've gotten used to using my passport as my primary source of ID pretty much everywhere I go.

Handspring Visor Platinum with 8MB Flash Module and Backup Module

I use the Visor for a small number of things these days, and almost always in "read-only" fashion. You don't often find me entering data into it directly, which I used to do all the time. Instead, I use it to look up phone numbers, keep track of passwords (one of it's most critical functions), and as an alarm clock.

Small Moleskine squared notebook

General memoranda finds its way into here. I have a small lined Moleskine notebook that I use as a day journal, but it hasn't been accompanying me everywhere for a while now, whereas this has. The elastic band, paper quality, and back folding pocket are great.

Motorola T900 Timeport two-way text & email pager

Was my primary contact device before activating my mobile phone, and is still handy due to email capabilities.

Sanyo SCP-4000 Sprint PCS mobile phone with JABRA EarSet hands-free headset

I have the cheapest plan Sprint offers in San Francisco, which has been enough for me so far. The quality is usually pretty good, but doesn't hold a candle to my Motorola Timeport tri-band GSM phone, which is still in Toronto.

A pen of some sort, currently an inexpensive Parker Jotter loaded with a fine point, black ink refill

I'm a pen fanatic, so I'm always carrying something. Before the Jotter, which I just bought last week, it was a Pilot Explorer, and before that, I was actually carrying around my Rotring 600 Fountain Pen (I have a thing for fountain pens too). I decided to go with the more pedestrian Jotter because it's not too expensive to replace, it's a click-pen which is easier to deploy in quick just-in-time real world use, it's a ballpoint so I can press down on carbons, and it doesn't look too bad. My main complaint is just that it isn't always ready and wet to write (like most all ballpoints), and occasionally I need to go over my first letters to make them clear.

An inexpensive non-locking caribeaner with all of my keys on it (I have far too many)

Nothing special here. I had this lying around because I rock climb and although it is rated to bear load, I only used ever it to hang light things off of. It functions much better as a makeshift key chain

Small (5" by 3") brown Oxford lined memo book

Bought this when I bought the Jotter. It doesn't replace the Moleskine, but I'm using it for quick and dirty notes, whereas the Moleskine I hesitate to use for such trivia. I'm not sure why I stagger things like this.

Victornox Swiss Champ Army Knife

Somewhat bulky and heavy in my pocket, but very useful. My main complaint has been finding a way to keep lint out of it, which it attracts prodigiously.

I also usually wear a watch, taking if off if I'm typing for a long time. I have a HP 48 GX, like another poster in the QuickTopic mentioned, but I don't carry it around all the time. I have a Canon S100 which I used to take with me everywhere, but the focus system hasn't wanted to work correctly since June. I'm trying to get into the habit of taking my Yashica T4 SuperD with me, even though it's bigger, and people are surprised to see me using an actual film camera.

I carry way too many things. I know this. I envy friends of mine who carry less, and I often try to pare down to "bare essentials", but usually I find myself without something critical or handy. I wear jackets when the weather doesn't really dictate in order to have enough pockets in a load bearing configuration across my body. Because all these things are stuffed into my jacket, I rarely check it at restaurants or clubs, which is annoying.