Personal Dork Assistant

強人

Now, I like to have my creature comforts when I travel. I never got into the whole hostel-and-backpack style of on-the-road living. Soft bed, clean pillows, and Internet access, please. Small room we can live with, for now.

Used to be that I could skimp a bit on the luggage and carry-on everything. But now with wife and a kid on the way, I've resigned myself to at least one checked suitcase to go with the carry-on rollers in the future. On the other hand, it's kinda nice to be able to check the chargers and wires instead of lugging the secondary accessories with me onto the plane. Ever since I picked up the DSLR camera, though, even the basics make for quite a load, since there's no way I'd subject camera and lenses to airport baggage handling. Very happy with Lowepro's Fastpack 250, far as that goes.

Nevertheless, no matter how much I love my toys on the road, there's no way I'd come close to what this gentleman is packing for his travels.

More impressive than the sheer volume is the redundant redundancy of it all. Three different cell phones (Gigabyte MS-800, Nokia N70, Sharp W-Zero3) running three different smartphone operating systems, covering GSM, WCDMA, and HSPDA duties. PSP+GPS for gaming/navigation double-duty, but then also carry a Sony UX UMPC paired with a bluetooth GPS track-recorder. In case the PDA functions in his smartphones are insufficient, there's a Sony Clie to keep the schedule (syncing amongst them must be a nightmare?!). A DSLR plus a pocket-cam is practically de rigueur for the M01 crowd, but the man adds on the HD camcorder on top to really fill out that backpack. I can't even begin to count how many pieces of gear is capable of playing an MP3. Obviously not enough since he has a Sony Walkman dedicated to that duty, too. And because that's still not enough toys, there's the Nintendo DS for the purely frivolous entertainment.

The scary thing is that the guy's actually happily married. But it make sense as he must need an assistant to carry all the other non-electronic necessities of travel like... clothes, for example. I'm just surprised the toothbrush ain't electric, too. Although one might just detect a hint of marital restraint in the picture, in that his gear all carry a fine pedigree, but much of it is a generation or two behind the bleeding edge. On the other hand, it would be a budget-buster and a full-time job in and of itself to constantly upgrade all that gear, as if carrying it weren't enough already.

As for me, I'll keep lugging the DSLR camera because you can't beat the laws of optics with electronic wizardry. Far as everything else? iPhone, baby.