The Compass DeRose Guide to Road Warrioring

Written by Steven J. DeRose, November, 2002. Last updated 2003-05-20.

This is a guide to things I find useful to have along on the road. They are meant to make it easier to get online, to network local computers, to exchange data, and to be prepared for the inevitable surprises of travel.

Tricks of the trade

There is a general collection of ideas, tricks, and things it's good to know. As with all my Guides, I welcome your feedback and suggestions for enhancements.

It's a good idea to label all your stuff with your name and contact information; if you lose it someone may mail it back to you. Also, pick 2 or 3 colors and put strips of tape on cords or other things you may need to find your stuff quickly at the end of a meeting. I use yellow and black, so pick something different. Getting an electric engraver (under $20) and using it is great, especially for identifying keys; return-address labels work on all sorts of things, like inside the battery cover on your cell phone.

Moving information between machines:
Connecting to the Internet, local nets, and on-the-fly nets

There is a lot of detail in how to do this, so I've split it into a separate document. The main idea is to have the resources to connect and to transfer data in multiple ways, because no one way will work in all situations.

Telephone

Cord

The kind that is spring-loaded to wind itself up into a little box is great, for example ones by Targus, Compaq, and others.

Coupler

A 1-to-2 socket adaptor such as Radio Shack number 279-357, so you can leave your hotel phone plugged in and still plug in your modem if they haven't been kind enough to provide a separate data port.

Guerilla kit

Some hotels don't have modular connectors at all, but have the phone wired straight into the wall. To connect in such cases, you want a phone cord that is wired to two alligator clips, and small screwdrivers to remove the cover plate so you can clip it on. Be careful of several things: There's substantial voltage on the wires when the phone is ringing; also be sure you're not plugging into a digital phone system, as you'll probably toast either your modem or the phone system; neither of which will make your stay enjoyable.

Digital/analog tester or convertor

I don't carry one of these, but if you often find yourself in places with digital local phone systems ("PBXs"), it might be worth it. Tecratools offers the Patch Check, item 37130.

Foreign adaptors

Cheaper bought in your destination country, but hang on to it for the next time. A good selection is also available at TravelArts,

ISP information

Access codes and phone numbers to reach your ISP from all countries. If they don't provide international access, get an iPass account.

A local phone-card

(watch for expiration, or use as a gift when leaving)

A touch-tone dialer

Some countries have a lot of pulse-dialed phones left, and there are many systems (like voice-mail retrieval, and even some home answering machines) that you can't control without touch-tones. Touch-tones really do work by the sound, and you can get a little box with a keypad and a speaker: hold it up to the phone and when it says "press 1", you do. If you don't have one, you can try turning the volume all the way up on your cell phone (even if it's a cell phone that doesn't work in that country), and try using it to generate the tones. It might work.

Power

• An extra laptop battery. Expensive but well worth it. Also, rechargeable batteries lose capacity with time, so replacement is needed. With 2 batteries my Mac PowerBook G4 goes nearly 10 hours; and since you can swap batteries during sleep, and OS X wakes up in about 1 second, this works great.

• Extension cord: outlets are rare in airports and conference rooms, so a longer cord is valuable, as is one with 3 outlets on the end so you can share. If someone is already plugged in to the only plug in sight, they probably won't mind letting you join in if you bring your own 3-way cord.

  On many cords there is a small plastic tab sticking out the end which seems to have no purpose except to keep you from plugging a 3-prong plug into the cord. On many such cords you can safely cut off that tab and then plug in a 3-prong plug with the ground prong simply sitting where the tab was. Don't try cutting the tab off with the power on, and do make sure you don't expose any metal or create any other hazard. If you want to be extra helpful, you can add outlets along the cord too; some hardware stores carry simple ones that simply snap onto the cord anywhere you want.

• Foreign power adaptors: A small set good for many countries is available at Radio Shack and similar stores for several dollars. Targus has a nicely packaged set. Some good information about power and modem connectors in many countries can be found here.

• The only viable option I see for a power supply for the road is an adjustable/universal one. The Targus ChargeSource™ is the only commercial one I know of, though you may want to read my Guide to universal power supplies on how to build yourself a more flexible one. It is a bit pricey at around $100, but it is small and light, and has adapters that will adjust it to work with almost any laptop or cell phone. This saves you from carrying a separate supply for each. You'll probably get several extra "PowerTips" when you buy the supply -- don't throw them away. One might fit a laptop for you later.

  The value of the Targus device increases greatly as you obtain tips for your other devices. If you can find tips that fit your laptop, palmtop, cell phone, mp3 player, voice recorder, digital camera, rechargeable flashlight, or whatever else you may carry, you can save an awful lot. The bad news is that I have been dissatisfied with Targus' responsiveness to questions about tips other than for laptops and cell phones; and they do not appear to provide a list of all available tips, with connector type, polarity, and voltage. Some of their tips are documented here, and I am gradually collecting information on those and others here. If you have any tips other than the ones I've already got listed, please send me the tip number, connector size and shape (or even a small scanned image of it), voltage, and polarity so I can add it to the list.

  If you want to get in really good with your colleagues, keep any extra PowerTips in a little bag in your laptop bag, and you'll be ready to rescue them when they forget their power supply. Be sure to clip and include the list of which PowerTips fit which laptops that came in the package.

  I find it best to have 3 power supplies: one at work, one at home, and one (the Targus) that always lives in the computer bag. Otherwise it's too easy to not have one where you need it.

• If you can't find a PowerTip™ for your handheld, you may be able to find a USB cord for it instead. For example, Targus doesn't appear to make a tip for my Handspring Visor Pro (shame on them), but inCipio makes a USB "Charge & Sync" cable that I can use to sync with my laptop, and to charge it at the same time. Very smart idea.

Reference information

All of the following should be in your organizer, organized so you can find it fast.

• Kinko's locations. A booklet of them is commonly available at Kinko's.

• Hotel 800 numbers

• Airline 800 numbers

• Taxi company phone numbers for many cities (as well as airport shuttles and the like). I haven't been able to locate an online list, but am starting one here. Do remember 1-800-taxi-cab; they'll forward you to a local cab company for no extra charge.

  Whenever you visit a new city, jot one or two down (ask the concierge for recommendatins). Feel free to send me numbers for additional cities and I'll add them to this list here (if you're a cab company, don't bother unless I have fewer than 3 for your city). Since it's hard to remember which company names go with which cities, you may want to:

  • File them all in your address book under last name "Cab", and first name company + city.
  • Make an address book category just for "Cabs", or for cabs, airlines, and other services.
  • Creeate a memo like the ones I have provided for airlines and rental cars.
• Your airline frequent flyer numbers, and similar numbers for hotels, rental cars, and other useful agencies.

• Local-access numbers for your long-distance phone provider.

• Membership numbers:

  • Professional societies
  • Driver and other licenses
  • AAA or other organizations

• The local modem dial-up numbers for your ISP. Pointers to the lists for some common ISPs are listed below. If you know where the lists are for other ones, send them and I'll eventually paste the URLs in. Also be sure you've successfully gotten connected to your ISP by modem from home, so the only thing changing when you're on the road is the phone number.

  • Speakeasy dial-up
  • Earthlink provides dial-up software that I think includes the number list internally; I don't know how to get the list independently.

• A list of all your credit cards, with their PINs and the 800 numbers for service. However, do not place this information where someone who steals your organizer can get it. Either:

  • Get an encryption program like Secret! or Gnu Keyring for PalmOS that automatically locks them back up after a couple minutes or a power-off. See PalmOS Security Programs for a more complete list.
  • Or write the numbers and/or pins in some code people aren't likely to guess (example codes).

CDs and Reference e-books

Because CDs and DVDs hold a lot of information, you might as well bring a lot.

My friend and colleague Jon Bosak was once on a plane, talking to another friend via the passenger phone system. A question came up that any good encyclopedia could answer. Much to the other friend's surprise, a moment later Jon had the answer, because he carries a couple CD encyclopedias along.

I think the most critical information should also be on your palmtop. This probably means you want a palmtop with some kind of removable mass storage: compactflash or smartmedia are my preferences, though MemoryStick™ and SD/MM are ok if you don't mind their proprietary aspects and often greater cost. Another great solution is the Apple iPod (compatible with both Macs and Windows machines), which is an MP3 player and a big hard drive in one.

• First among your CDs should be a bootable system repair/reinstall CD. Preferably including a disk repair facility such as Norton Utilities.

• Some general references such as an electronic encyclopedia, national CD white pages; map data for relevant areas.

• An off-computer copy(s) of any presentations you have to make. I usually put a copy on a USB flashcard, a Zip disk, or a CD; and also email a copy to someone else going to the meeting or conference.

• If you have a palmtop, choose a nice document reader and make versions of your relevant books. Since I work largely in standards, I keep about 600 MB of W3C, IETF, OSIS, and other standards documents on my laptop, and a selected several MB also on my Visor (the standards I work on, plus anything they critically ("normatively", as we say in the trade) depend on. For PalmOS I like the iSilo reader, especially because you can teach it a list of URLs and have it update and rebuild all of them on demand; sadly, at this point nearly every such reader has a different document format.

• Any other ebooks you want to read. I carry a couple English Bibles, a Greek New Testament, and a short Greek lexicon on my Visor. Plenty of fiction and non-fiction works are available; be aware that some are poorly proofread scans of out-of-copyright texts, while some are far better, quality editions. Caveat Emptor.

• If your laptop has a DVD player, it is becoming de rigeur to have some DVD movies along to watch on the plane. But I see this as a "hotdogging" factor rather than a true road warrior tool.

Money

• Split your cash and credit cards into at least two places, in case you lose one or are robbed.

• Have ATM cards that will work on international networks

• Remember that if you take a cash advance against a credit card, you will probably pay a higher interest rate on it, and it will be the last charge your payments will apply to -- thus you'll have to pay the card off entirely to get rid of it.

First aid

More important than any equipment you carry, is knowing what to do. Take a Red Cross or similar first-aid course; preferably advanced. Get certified in CPR. Know how to use the automatic defribrillators that are now showing up in lots of public places.

• OTC medications: These are best kept in a pill organizer, available at most any drugstore (or see Apothecary Products) for a huge selection. Be sure to get one where the covers latch down tightly or lock. Be sure to label every compartment with what is in it, what strength, and the expiration date (this is required by law in some places, and smart anywhere). Some drugs I consider including (I'm not a medical doctor; consult one if you want advice about medicine):

  • Aspirin, Acetominophen, Ibuprofin
  • Dramamine, Melatonin
  • Antihistamines, Cold/Flu tablets
  • Vitamins
  • Cough drops
  • Glucose tabs
  • If you have kids, remember them when making your list

• Prescription medications: Be sure to take enough of these for your trip, and some extra in case of delays or losses. Divide them into 2 places so if you lose one, you have time to find a local doctor and get replacements (obviously the importance of this depends on how time-critical your medications are). Don't put them in checked baggage. It may be helpful to bring along a written prescription or a letter from your physician -- either to speed up getting local medical help, or to prove to local police that those little pills are not illegal.

• Band-aids, antiseptic, antibiotic, etc. Pre-loaded antiseptic and anesthetic swabs are great: CVS carries "Q-tips Treat and Go Swabs": Q-tip swabs with hollow handles pre-loaded with antiseptic, anaesthetic, and antibiotic. Come in a nice flat case.

• Maybe it's just from my old EMT days, but I throw in a larger sterile dressing, some tape (generally useful anyway), and some butterflies or steri-strips (the last two are excellent ways of closing some wounds in the field -- I impressed the heck out of people when someone split her chin open during a freestyle skating practice and her coach and I had the bleeding pretty well controlled long before the ambulance arrived.

• Snake-bite kits: Don't bother. I just list them here to help spread the word that they are no longer considered helpful. As I understand it, the venom spreads too quickly for you to have much chance of getting it out by the cut-and-suction approach. Just don't get bitten in the first place.

• Contact information for your doctor, dentist, and other professionals.

• Easily-findable information about any important medical history, drug, food, or other allergies, blood type, medications you are using, or other special medical information. Don't make this information hard to find -- you might be unconscious when it is most needed.

• If you have a serious allergy, have adrenalin and know when and how to use it.

• If traveling in or near countries with special vaccination requirements or recommendations, be sure to have records (the yellow WHO booklets) of them.

• If traveling in countries with poor health facilities, you may want to carry much more; consult a physician or department of health that is expert in the particular area.

Of course if you have some form of medical training you may want to carry more; but in that case you also know what you want to carry.

Other handy gadgets

• A gooseneck light that takes power from your USB port. If you're in the dark and want to light up your keyboard, this is great. The same thing is available for Game Boys, which could be very useful so you can keep the dome light off while driving and still let your kids enjoy their games on trips.

• A swiss army knife (not on airplanes these days, though)

• A flashlight. I prefer a 2 AA or 2 AAA battery MagLite

• Spare batteries as needed (camera, phone, laptop, flashlight, palmtop...). Someone needs to make a battery pack that takes standard AA/C/D batteries and can provide anything from 1.5 to 24 volts on demand. This is not hard with an adjustable voltage regulator and a handful of resistors -- but see my Guide to Universal Power) for instructions on making your own.

A few handy links and sources

• iGo sells a lot of useful Road Warrior eqquipment, mainly batteries, power supplies, and cases.
• Some useful information and links on international travel procedures, etiquette, and more is available here.
• There is a very easy to use set of subway maps here. Also, Robert Reynolds provides a huge set of worldwide subway maps, guide, and related information.
• Remember 1-800-taxi-cab (1-800-829-4222). Also, there's a lot of cab info here, and you can get to phone number from a lot of it.
• Pam Pohly's Net Guide has a helpful page on "Links for the Road Warrior", but many links there are broken.
• A page specifically for the Apple Powerbook Road Warrior, from MacGalaxy.
• A [yikes!] wood-pulp guide titled The Unofficial Business Traveler's Pocket Guide, by Christopher J. McGinnis. This has gotten great reviews at Amazon, and seems to have a lot of good information on handling airline snafus, persuading them to upgrade, you, etc.

How to carry it all?

I've spent a lot of time and money the last few years trying to find a good way to carry all the electronics and other stuff I want with me. One fundamental snag is that the "on the road" pack and the hometown pack are quite different.

As I have it now, the road warrior pack contain basically all the computer stuff (laptop, universal power and tips, palm sync&charge, ethernet cables, CD-Rs, Imation flash memory adaptor, etc.

Some options I've tried for carrying stuff include:

Standard pockets

No way. Not enough room. Pointy things like keys eventually dig into your legs. You have to move everything everytime you change clothes.

Dockers™ Cargo Pants

Nope. A lot more room, but it's not really handy, and you have the same move-everything-every-day problem. I'm also dissatisfied with their range of sizes and styles.

Fanny packs

Generally they have too few compartments, so you end up with one big disorganized pile of stuff. They also tend to zip, making them hard to get into.

Photographer-style vests

There are great as far as capacity, organization, and quick access. One of the best solutions I've found (actually, David Durand suggested it). Orvis makes a line of such vests, including my favorite, the Zambezi, for about $125. The main problem I had with this solution was weather conditions or style constraints that prevented using it.

Millitary-style ammunition belts

These are available in army surplus stores. Typical ones have 10 snap-close pockets around the perimiter. My Pilot was too big, so I just took out the stitching separating 2 pockets, and had a double pocket that was just right. The pockets are a great size for most stuff; I assigned them to cell phone, pilot, MP3 player, MP3 headphones, cell headset (can we say "standards"? I knew we couldn't), first aid stuff, wallet, and keys. The main problem with this solution: you sort of "look military" and a lot of people look at you really funny. Especially security guards (though it never seemed to bother airport security). One policeman also told me that carrying a lot of equipment that way may wear on your hips eventually. I tried contacting one manufacturer of such, and they didn't even respond to my asking if they would consider custom work in any quantity, or add the same item in colors other than black.

Flat shoulder bags

Too small and too few compartments. You can put the cell phone on the shoulder strap, which is nice.

Portfolios, briefcases, and the like

No thanks. I thoght I had a workable portfolio once, but having to zip it open and closed, and worry about which way was up, made it a pain.

Typical computer and business style shoulder bags.

I use one of these for my computer and all its related stuff. But look hard and long, because most of them are so badly designed they're almost useless. Some of my requirements:

• Handles and a shoulder strap. You'll probably want to buy a high-quality shoulder strap separately; almost no bags seem to come with decent ones. Also look closely at how the handles are attached: they should be sewn, but also riveted to a solid insert that spreads the weight out; otherwise they'll just rip off.
• Some quick-access outer place to stuff things in a hurry.
• If it's got a flip-over top flap, make sure you don't have to snap it down before you can use the carrying handle decently.
• An umbrella holder on the outside
• One side with extra padding, or a place to put some (a mouse pad works well), so you don't have odd-shaped objects hitting you in the side with every step.
• Internal pockets that will really do what you want. This is unlikely, because most of these bags seem to think that sewing 2 pieces of fabric together on 3 sides makes a pocket. Technically it does, but since that arrangement makes no space, as soon as you use such pockets you mes up the whole geometry of the bag.

Ahhhhhhhhh

Finally, I found just what I wanted. I was in a hardware store and saw an over-the-shoulder tool-bag! The key, critical difference this brought is that all the internal compartments had 4 sides, not just 2 picees of cloth sewn together with no actual space. this keeps things from falling out all over the place, and makes it much easier to organize.

The bag I got is this one from CLC ToolWorks. It's the 25 pocket BriefBag™, item 1122 (16"W x 12 1/2"H x 1 1/2"D). This picture is not that great a view -- the main cover flap is everything above the top of the manila folder you can see sticking out. About $30. Here's why I think this bag is great:

• Real pockets, with actual space in them. Using a pocket doesn't make everything near it unusable.
• An ok shoulder strap, plus a decent carry handle very solidly attached (presumably because it's designed for a heavy load of tools, duh).
• It's very easy to get at things. The bag has a flip-over top, but you can carry it without fastening it down. I glued on a little velcro to improve this.
• 4 main outside pockets covered only by the flap, just the right size for checkbooks, a long-style wallet, a palmtop, and something else. The pockets were just a little too tall for me to get my Pilot in and out easily, so I stuffed a little foam in the bottom of one to shorten it, and now it's fine.
• One of those 4 pockets also has 3 pen (or screwdriver?) holders, and another has a thin back section good for a notepad, checkbook, etc.
• Two thin but large pockets right behind those, perfect for headsets and CDs.
• The main compartment has two rows of varied-size compartments, one above the other (except at one end, where there's a larger, deeper one instead of 2). Additional pen/pointer holders; keyring clip. One holder is just right for a mini maglite.
• A long interior velcro'd compartment that's out of the way -- I reserved that for fist aid and medical stuff, but it would do as well for cords or other things.
• Another velcro'd compartment about the same size, on the inside of the main flap. This one is mesh so you can see into it. I don't actually use this often.
• There's enough additional space in the main compartment for several extra items. I have a tin whistle in there so I can practice (only when I'm out of earshot of anyone friendly).
• The main compartment has zippers all the way down both sides, so you can lay it out like a portfolio if you want, and easily get to everything. I don't use this often, but when I do, I really like having it. Warning: If you're running with the bag and the cover isn't snapped down, the zippers can work their way down and then dump everything on the ground. The solution is to clip the pull-cords on the zippers into the same clips that hold the shoulder strap on. It only happened to me once, but zero would have been better.
• A business card holder handy inside the main flap, that can hold at least a dozen cards.
• A pair of umbrella loops on the outside. These aren't quite secure enough for my taste, but if you get an umbrella with a wrist strap, you can earily clip the wrist strap into the shoulder strap of the bag, so if the umbrella gets knocked loose you'll still have it.
• A final separate compartment with its own (short) velcro flap cover on the other side. This is just big enough for a small laptop (say, a PowerBook G4 with less than a 17-inch display), or a small stack of papers (say, a bit over an inch thick). Since I have a completely separate bag I use for the laptop and its stuff, I use this for ephemeral papers.

They have a huge selection of other bags:

#1130 (14"W x 16"H x 4"D)

is a toolbag designed as a small backpack. 20 inside and 6 outside pockets. Worth a look.

#1115 (18"L x 6"W x 9"H)

is a much larger bag with 9 inside and 41 (!) outside pockets -- probably just big enough for me to combine my road and home bags, which would be nicer than carrying 2, though when I'm home it would wear out my shoulder unless I pulled out all the computer stuff.

#1113 (# 18"L x 7"W x 9"H)

is even a little larger, but with a less dizzying number of outside pockets (only 17). This might have just enough room to add in a change of clothes, toothbrush, etc. for an overnight trip.

#PK3370

is a nice combination tool bag and tool belt -- very practical for tools, though for computer stuff you'd look overly geeky.

IMHO, this bag or something very similar is the way to go. It never occurred to me to look among tool bags instead of computer or business bags; but it seems to me that's where the designers with the most clue must be working. Just as I didn't think to look in the costume jexelry industry for links from which to make chainmail armor -- but that, and not industrial chain, was where to go.