The Technology

In sitting down to write this post, I expected to say that I have not changed much since last time.  But, in fact, almost everything is different. Starting with the laptop, I am now armed with an ASUS Ultrabook which is faster, shinier, lighter, and thinner, with a bigger screen and a longer battery life than the old Dell I carried in 2011.  The camera remains the same, the old and not so faithful Cannon EOS 350D.  Alert readers will recall that while I was in France waiting for the Tour de France to ride past my hard won vantage point, the 360D decided not to recognise its memory card. It has since been repaired, and since let me down again in Hawaii only the second time it was the lens and not the camera.  As a result I am also carrying a Cannon IXUS 115HS compact camera in case of emergencies.  The iPhone trip sim card and Netcom MyZone 3G modem was such a success last time that I stayed with that combination again.  This time I took the precaution of starting the activation period one day prior to departure so that I could resolve any connection issues before leaving. Alas, the modem refuses to connect automatically.  I hope that it was due to the use of the Vodafone network in Sydney and that all will magically correct itself on arrival in Berlin, but that is a surprise waiting to happen. 

One addition to the technology this time is the iPad. I was almost tempted to leave the laptop behind except for the difficulty in typing and the inability to load photographs from my cameras to the iPad for editing, loading up to this blog and providing a backup to protect against loss of photographs.  Another difference is the lack of DVD player / writer on the Ultrabook.  In the past I have downloaded photographs to the laptop and written a DVD to provide two sources of security.  The response to that loss has been to buy a bigger memory card for the camera – 16 GB – and to use a 32 GB flash memory stick as a replacement for DVD backup.  This has the twin advantages of providing an extra level of security by holding all the photos on camera, on laptop and on flash drive.  In addition, the elimination of a stack of DVDs from the luggage is one small step in the drive to more efficient travel.

Overall, life would be easier if the world’s telcos did not charge stupid amounts for global data roaming, but I am reasonably happy with the efficiency and security of my current arrangements.

I have added Dropbox and MegaCloud services to my backup and my email is now on a hosted Microsoft Exchange server, so communications should appear seamless to anyone who is trying to deal with me over the period of the trip.

Let’s see how it all goes.  I am already planning some radical changes for the next time.