In good spirit of the old and warm memories of Uncle Traveling Mack, I decided to write a post on how “Geek of the Year” packs his bag when he’s going to a conference. This time it’s the Professional Developer Conference (PDC08) in Los Angeles, USA.
For once I decided to start packing a few days a head, just to get my brain started. I’ve always been a poor planner and when I saw the evening news tonight – some scientists had found that the brain in certain male monkeys change when they become a parent. I guess I feel like I have to show that it’s possible to be a geek and have good order. Naaah.. screw that, I’ll wait for our first child to appear, then I can change.
Computer
The main device a geek takes with him when going traveling is of course the computer. In my case, it’s a slate tablet PC, one that has no keyboard at all. Have had an eye on the small Eee PCs and maybe for my next trip I’ll bring two computers, but right now I’m happy with my TabletKiosk Sahara.
TabletKiosk Sahara i440D
Gadgets
There is one thing a man can never get enough of, and that’s gadgets! My first 4 gadgets (+ my computer) all supports going online on wireless networks. Here is the list of stuff I’m packing in my bags:
Microsoft Zune
Microsoft NX-6000 webcam
Apple iPod Touch
Sony Playstation Portable
Sony HDR-HC5
HTC TyTN II mobile phone
HTC MTeoR (backup mobile)
Bose noise-canceling headphones
Zune, iPod Touch, PSP, TyTN II, HDR-HC5, Bose headset, NX-6000
Books and Games
During take-off and landing it’s always hard to be a real geek. Your fingers starts twitching and it’s hard to keep your gadgets turned off. You start to think conspiracy theories and there is no way anyone can fool us into believing their lies. There’s no way my puny little Zune or PSP can bring the airplane down. Dell laptop’s with rouge batteries on the other hand…
On the Zune I only have the two games that comes with 3.0 upgrade, Hexix and Texas Hold’em. My iPod touch only has NES emulator, and for my PSP, I have purchased some games to keep me entertained. It was Scott Hanselman that told me to get PSP and God of War, and who can say no to Scott? So PSP games are as followed: God of War: Chains of Olympus, Killzone: Liberation, Burnout Dominator, LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Triology, Tekken Dark Resurrection. If you love some PSP games, please leave a comment and I will check them out.
Books I brought with me is Evolution by Edward J. Larson, Microtrends by Mark J. Penn and Visions of Technology edited by Richard Rhodes.
Recharging, Updating and Patching
So this evening I figured I should recharge, update and patch my devices. The iPod touch is rarely used, so I figured I should install the latest iTunes and upgrade. To my big surprise, Apple wants me to pay money for the upgrade. What’s up with that? I realize that Apple have been mean to desktop users and charging money for every single “Service Pack”, but come on! And I had some songs that I purchased, they couldn’t be “authorized” to be played on my new computer. DRM never gets funny. My Sony Playstation Portable was upgraded with the latest firmware as well, which of course was free (would you expect anything else?). It now comes with Sony online store right on the device, so I used it to download a couple of demos which I can enjoy on the flight to Los Angeles. My Zune was upgraded earlier as I wrote here.
Hollywood here I come
This is my first time traveling to PDC and Los Angeles. PDC is a geek-fest where Microsoft is showing of their future technologies, I will try to update my blog with some details as I attend sessions. There will be a lot of sessions on Visual Studio 2010, Windows 7, Windows Mobile 7, Windows “Cloud”, Microsoft Surface, Codename “Oslo” and a whole lot of other cool stuff!
Which reminds, I’m a Connected Technologies Advisor for the product group that is working on the “Oslo” project, which I think is a fitting name (as I’m a norwegian and I live in Oslo). And it was here in Oslo where Steve Ballmer “announced” Windows “Cloud”. How about that? And how about this photos of me with other NNUG leaders and Steve Ballmer?
Back from left: Edgar Stokka (NNUG Stavanger), Sondre Bjellås (NNUG Oslo), Tor Einar Solli (NNUG-leder), Karl-Heinz Fiegl (NNUG Kristiansand), Fredrik Kalseth (NNUG Vestfold), Gøran Hansen (NNUG Trondheim), Jan Ove Halvorsen (NNUG Haugesund) Front from left: Lars Wilhelmsen (NNUG Oslo), Anders Norås (NNUG Oslo), Jon Arild Tørresdal (NNUG Bergen), Steve Ballmer (CEO Microsoft Corporation), Joar Øyen (NNUG Trondheim), Einar Ingebrigtsen (NNUG Vestfold), Rune Grothaug (Microsoft Norge)
Are you going to PDC? Please hook up with me, leave a comment here on the blog or send me a quick e-mail.
Copyright notice: Hollywood photo taken by “Shanty” Cheryl Groff, original link.