I’m organizing my electronics, clothing, and sundries for our trip to Nova Scotia. The plane leaves at around 7:30 PM tomorrow, and we arrive in Halifax at about 6:30 am or some similar ungodly hour- I’m only vaguely aware of the actual itinerary.
The actual details of the travel are not that interesting to me at the moment. The important stuff, of course, is what to take and what to do when we get there.
What have I got on my inventory list? It starts with my cameras. Yes, two cameras: the 35 mm Canon Rebel for when I feel like lugging it out, and my pocket-size Sony Cybershot DSC-T300 [1] digital for the rest of the time. These are accompanied, of course, by various chargers and cables, plus the extra lens for the Canon. Thankfully, I haven’t gotten into video, so the camera collection ends there.
My Macbook Pro is coming along, so I can download photos from the cameras and, should internet access be available, upload them to share as well as keep up with my email. Also in the gear category is my Sony PRS 700 eBook reader [2], pre-loaded with two books I haven’t read yet. And I have the eLibrary software installed on my Mac so I can download another book or two if I run out of stuff to read. The final gadget in the collection is a new Garmin Nuvi 855 GPS [3].
I also bought a camera/computer backpack to load all this stuff in, and my BlackBerry Bold [4] to keep me connected. There is no question in my mind that I am taking more stuff these days than I ever would have imagined a decade or two ago.
Where is all that “digital convergence” crap people keep telling me about? Yes, I could cover all of the basic functionality here in one device: my BlackBerry or a similar smartphone. But a smartphone is “barely adequate” at a lot of things- an iPhone or BlackBerry takes crappy pictures, does a hardly passable job as a GPS, and makes a crummy eBook. These convergence devices are okay in a pinch, but they are full of unacceptable compromises for anyone who is even moderately picky. The displays are too small, the keyboards cramped or non-existant, the lenses and image sensors pathetically blurry and poorly engineered, the GPS maps and antennas iffy.
And I hate compromise when it comes to technology. So, here I am packing a backpack that would probably cause a hardened soldier to grunt with effort when heaving it to their shoulder. As for what we are doing when we get there… we have an itinerary, it involves lots of driving around, a sailing tour on the Bluenose II [5], and I am hoping plenty of “down time”. Who wants to bet I will only get a handful of pictures and won’t log in more than a couple of times with my MacBook… oh well, at least I’ll be prepared.