Tech on the Go: How to Carry an Arsenal of Gadgets

[Mercury]

After setting up camp near Mt. Rushmore, bMighty's "Tech on the Go" correspondent ponders the challenge of lugging a full suite of pocket-size personal technology and broadband data limitations

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[Lyte]

This is really cool!

Tech on the Go: How to Carry an Arsenal of Gadgets

After setting up camp near Mount Rushmore, bMighty's "Tech on the Go" correspondent ponders the challenge of lugging a full suite of pocket-size personal technology and broadband data limitations

Our "Tech on the Go" correspondent Scott Koegler will be filing his column from the road this summer as he crosses the country with his family over the next six weeks. Though there's bound to be some "vacationing" along the way, Scott will continue to operate his small business from the road. Throughout this adventure, he'll share tips, tricks, and insights about how to keep a business running smoothly when you're on the move while maintaining a virtual connection to his office network, server, desktop computer, and video surveillance system.

Scott and his wife, Donna Marie, are traveling in a Ford E-350 van, pulling a travel trailer, accompanied by their dogs Cody and Mac. They left their home in Wilkesboro, N.C., on June 16 bound for the Rocky Mountains. After crossing the Continental Divide, they'll stop off in Las Vegas, peek into the Grand Canyon, and visit family in New Mexico before heading for home along Route 66 (and more modern byways).

Custer, S.D. -- We have traveled from the flat country to the mountains. We'll be here for three nights, and expect to see Mount Rushmore (of course) and a few other interesting areas. But regardless, the area is beautiful.

Even better, my Sprint U727 modem connects nicely, even here in the middle of the woods. That's unexpected because the campground manager told me that there is no Sprint service in the area. In fact, I may be in roaming mode, but it's not easy to determine whether I am or not. For the moment, that's fine, because I just need to get my work done. As part of my work, I need to be able to upload video clips, so I asked Sprint about the bandwidth limitations on its accounts. I've heard horror stories reminiscent of a few years ago when folks (myself included) ran over their allotted talk minutes, finding huge invoices for service the next month. Here's the response from Sprint regarding bandwidth limits:

"Our Connection Plans for mobile broadband devices are $59.99/month with a two-year agreement or $79.99/month with a one-year agreement. These plans include a data limitation of 5GB/month total, or 300MB/month off-network roaming. Either limit represents a lot of data. For example, a music download of a 3-minute song is approximately 4 MB, so the customer could download more than 1,200 total songs per month, or more than 70 songs per month while roaming."

My choice seems to be either stay within the limits, or purchase multiple accounts. I would prefer having an option to buy additional bandwidth as needed, rather than commit to 12 or 24 months of service on multiple accounts.

In other news, I was able to get two items from Scottevest that have come in very handy on this trip. I'm not a fashionista in any regard, but I do wear shirts and jackets. Traveling with the range of gadgets that I carry presents some interesting choices and limitations. Most of my shirts have a single pocket, and my outdoor jackets generally have two pockets. That means my cell phone, digital cam, video cam, GPS unit, MP3 player, not to mention car keys, sunglasses, etc., are either stuffed into pants pockets, or left behind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PWIcXbb6iE

My Scottevest TEC Shirt is an amazing solution to the problem of carrying everything around without looking like a crazed gadget-geek (even though I am). It has pockets both on the outside, where you would expect them, and inside. It also has an ingenious system for routing cables for ear buds and other wires. It's made of microfiber material, so it's soft, and actually fits nicely, even with several of the pockets loaded.

For those times when I don't want to wear the shirt, but still need to carry stuff, I have the Essential Jacket. It has the same concept for inside and outside pockets, but doubles as a vest when the sleeves are removed. There are also lots more interior pockets in the jacket for more stuff.

One last item for today: Even though I left our home in the capable hands of our house sitters, I still want to be able to see what's going on there. In order to do that, I've installed a set of WiLife cameras. They are motion sensitive, and I've defined specific areas to monitor for each, so that they only trigger alerts when motion is detected there. I also have its "platinum" service that records the video to the company's servers. That means that even if someone is successful in getting into the house and steals the server, the videos that were taken are still available. At any rate, other than the occasional bird, and our house sitters, the videos that have been captured and sent to my cell phone have been (thankfully) pretty boring.

See you on the road!