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I really recommend them, the gear they offer is worth checking! (Now if they made some armored luggage for my camera, I would be really happy.)

A: Bring an Ace Bandage. Ok, so it doesn't really count as technology, but you can fix everything from broken bike racks to ripping bags to actual (gasp!) cuts and bruises with an Ace bandage. More useful than Duct Tape, and easier to work with.

B: A cheap candybar cellphone. It should be relatively new, so that it has good battery life, but it should be cheap because these days cheap=durable in a phone. Be sure to switch to a nationwide plan before leaving.

C: Spare LED blinkers. Never run out of night-riding LED blinkers. However, forgo headlights on the bike. They just destroy your night vision while adding a ton of weight. Use more LED blinkers if necessary. Bring a spare set of AA's, and expect to replenish on the road.

D: Platapus bag. Don't leave home without a silly, expensive hydration system that happens to work really well. Bring purifying tablets if you can't find a reasonable water source, but don't be that guy who assumes anything less than bottled water is toxic. I recommend two additional water bottles for backup.

E: An old PDA, like a Sony Clie N360. Even though the batteries are wearing out, they should still get about 20 days to a charge. Plus they're dirt cheap.

F: Anything that charges will be the bane of your existence. I tend to lean against a lot of GPS systems for that reason. However, if you do carry a few charging things, try having a rest at every starbucks you see. The food is overpriced, but they've got outlets that anyone can use. College Campus food courts also tend to have outlets. Otherwise, expect to spend a lot on motels.

G: A bar of soap, a second set of clothes, the heaviest-duty sunblock you can find, a toothbrush / paste, a sleeping bag... and that's about it. Don't bring anything you can live without, and expect to get really dirty. I recommend a tent as a luxury. I always feel the need to find an enclosed space when I travel without a tent. Oh, and lots of Vitamins, Powdered Gatoraid, Tiger's Milk bars, and Ramen (bulky but light!), for those times when you just can't find food. Eat raw... no cooking. No pots / pans.

H: For your bike, take two saddle-bags and NOTHING MORE. No stove, no fire, no pads, nothing. If it can't be strapped to the back of the bike, it ain't coming. Use puncture-resistant tires with Puncture-resistant tubes and puncture-resistant tire liners. Stuff will get through that too, but at least it will be less stuff. Go with 25mm tires. Your bike will be laden with junk anyway, so the handling difference will be minimal for a lot more comfort. Bring about one to two spare tubes for every day between bike shops. You shouldn't need that many, but every now and then you get into a bad patch that eats through four tubes. These should be the normal, lighter kind, and buy more as you go. "Tire Slime" is useless and should be avoided at all costs. Beyond that, bring two patch kits, a slimline pump, a chain wrench, a spoke wrench for your size spokes, pliers, a set of torque wrenches, a good phillips head, a pocket knife, a spare brake cable, a spare shift cable, tin shears, a solid cable lock that can weave between your frame, both wheels, and the seat. Also, a split saddle. A comfortable saddle on a long trip is worth more than all of the rest of your gear combined. Take aerobars of some sort so that you can change to a few different random seating positions as you go.

I: Quick on / off should be a priority for your bags and packing, because you will be doing this A LOT.

J: A hidden Money Belt. I recommend a few hundred in emergency money, plus all of the contact / account info you can write down and stuff in there.

K: Pen, paper, your thoughts.

My first recommendation is to only carry small and where possibile, hybrid gear.

Secondly purge your bag weekly.

Thirdly, a small bag with a well padded single shoulder strap seems to put less pressure on joints, nerves, etc. The older you get the more you will appreciate this. It is counter-intuitive but backpacks easily cause me more discomfort, even with a good belt.

I am currently carrying an Eagle Creek Travel Gear shoulder bag. In it I carry:
Sony Clie UX40 in an aluminum case
crap Cell phone (if work didn't pay for this it would be a Treo 650)
Bandana (almost as good as a towel)
2 pens
business cards
Mini flash light
usb ROM stick
mini tape measure
Leatherman Squirt mini-multi-tool
spare stylus
A small Moleskin notebook
earplugs
Sony noise reducing earbuds(passive)
Motorola HS820 BT headset (crap)
2.5 lb convertible Fujitsu Lappy w/extended battery(I fuckin dig this thing!)
Caselogic neoprene DVD Player Case for the laptop.

On the laptop there is easily 500 ebooks including textbooks for school, reference books for work and fiction for downtime. The whole enchilada weighs only 5.5 lbs!

And as soon as I figure out how to get Outlook to wake my laptop out of standby I'll ebay the PDA.

My sister carries a "healthy back bag" from LL Bean that is even more comfortable. I'll try that next.

Take care of your body before it turns on you!

BillyBob

I have one of these bags made by Eagle Creek.
It easily holds two laptops, or one laptop and several books, maps, accessories, lunch, etc. It has one padded laptop compartment, you'd need a padded sleeve for the other one. You can carry it by the handle on top, the shoulder strap, or pull out two concealed straps that clip on to make a backpack.
I use it for hauling stuff to places where my usual Karrimor 30l backpack just won't look so good. I don't like carrying heavy things with my hands, so the make-a-backpack feature gets used until I'm round the corner from where I have to look businesslike, then I turn it back into a briefcase-a-like and walk in carrying it.

I have a bag from Eagle Creek. It's not a backpack, but it will fit inside any normal backpack easily. It's well padded (I've dropped it with the laptop inside without a problem), and it has a pocket on the outside for whatever accessories you want to bring with you. It's also got rings on either side of the bag which allow you to attach a strap using clips. They don't actually make my model anymore (or at least I can't find it), but they have some similar things.

My advice would be to go with something like this, since most laptop backpacks I've seen are basically a regular backpack with an object similar (but inferior) to this inside, and tend to have a lot less room in them than a good regular backpack. This way, you've got something more independent of the backpack too, so if you want to just take the laptop around at some point, you can do that more easily than you would be able to if you had a complete laptop backpack setup.

I have a bag from Eagle Creek. It's not a backpack, but it will fit inside any normal backpack easily. It's well padded (I've dropped it with the laptop inside without a problem), and it has a pocket on the outside for whatever accessories you want to bring with you. It's also got rings on either side of the bag which allow you to attach a strap using clips. They don't actually make my model anymore (or at least I can't find it), but they have some similar things.

My advice would be to go with something like this, since most laptop backpacks I've seen are basically a regular backpack with an object similar (but inferior) to this inside, and tend to have a lot less room in them than a good regular backpack. This way, you've got something more independent of the backpack too, so if you want to just take the laptop around at some point, you can do that more easily than you would be able to if you had a complete laptop backpack setup.

back in the 70's and 80's, I used nothing but Jan Sport equipment. Then they got cheap. I found that a bag that was useable for 5 years suddenly went to 1 year lif time. I moved on and looked around. I replaced the briefcase with an Eagle creek backpack 5 years ago. Still holding up. Looking through there stuff, I see a few that should do you.

I'm a strong proponent of a messenger bag with a laptop sleeve inside. The laptop sleeve is more efficient than a laptop bag, and keeps your bag flexible.

The sleeve I have also straps nicely onto a rollerboard's hook thing, making airport security check-in a breeze!

If you really want some thing that will stand up to impact, Timbuk2 makes a laptop sleeve that has 1/2" padding. Wrong application, but... it works. I still prefer the Eagle Creek!

I've got an Eagle Creek bum bag that I got at Eastern Mountain Sports, and it's pretty good. It's good room for my cell phone, my wallet, my PDA, my keys, my passports and green card, my checkbook, my blood sugar tester, my mini-maglight and my bucktool. It can be worn as a bumbag, or you can zipper away the waist band and carry it over your shoulder with an included strap (which I unfortunately lost).

I'm not 100% sure, but I think this one is the one I have.
This one is bigger, but it looks pretty good too.

If I was designing my own, I'd do something very much like what I have now, except I'd put the cell phone and the PDA in separate pockets with velcro'ed flaps so I could get them out without digging through the rest of the junk.

One disadvantage, though, is that one of my former cow orkers used to call it my "man purse".
If you can stand the shame and humiliation, go for it. It's certainly better than having all that stuff in your trouser pockets.
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I've got an Eagle Creek bum bag that I got at Eastern Mountain Sports, and it's pretty good. It's good room for my cell phone, my wallet, my PDA, my keys, my passports and green card, my checkbook, my blood sugar tester, my mini-maglight and my bucktool. It can be worn as a bumbag, or you can zipper away the waist band and carry it over your shoulder with an included strap (which I unfortunately lost).

I'm not 100% sure, but I think this one is the one I have.
This one is bigger, but it looks pretty good too.

If I was designing my own, I'd do something very much like what I have now, except I'd put the cell phone and the PDA in separate pockets with velcro'ed flaps so I could get them out without digging through the rest of the junk.

One disadvantage, though, is that one of my former cow orkers used to call it my "man purse".
If you can stand the shame and humiliation, go for it. It's certainly better than having all that stuff in your trouser pockets.
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Eagle Creek makes a great line of bags that are tough and very casual looking. I don't want to look like a corporate drone with a laptop either and I just bought a "Data Port" bag by EC. It will hold the new OmniBook 900 with tons of room to spare and I can even squeeze the old Inspiron 7000 into it with millimeters to spare. It was even relatively inexpensive at $55. I got the black one but it comes in green and something called "Berry" as well.