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Cybercafè Travel Kit?
Xthlc asks: "I've been traveling in Europe this summer, and wanted to share photos and a journal with my friends and family as I went along. A laptop was out of the question, since I'm backpacking in some areas where the risk of loss is too great. So I'm limited to cybercafès. I thought I had everything I needed: a digital camera, a USB CF card reader, a universal AC adapter to recharge the camera, and a MovableType installation back home. However, I'm discovering that, in fact, there were a lot of things I forgot: a software CD with drivers and image editing programs, a cybercafè directory that lists things like prices and features, and a dictionary that has the Catalonian word for 'download'. So, for those experienced readers who weblog: what's your ultimate cybercafè survival kit? If you actually travel with a laptop, how do you deal with overseas connectivity? Also, where the heck do you find time to actually SEE stuff instead of just writing about it in your weblog?"
Shouldn't your question be, how can I write in my weblog when I have so much to see? Personally, I'd call my vacation hell at the point when I become the travel channel narrator for my audience back home. Enjoy yourself, plus, if you keep your comments down to the bare peaks of the experience, your writing will be more concise, and more entertaining without the tedious details. No matter how interesting details seem when you're experiencing them, they are boring when watching someone else describe them. Its not what happened, but how you tell it of course. I've nearly fallen asleep during slide shows of african safaris.
Photos.
I went to Berlin last summer for two weeks and took my iBook along with me. More than anything else it turned out to be deadweight that I almost never used. I wrote one letter on it, which I burned to a CD to send at an internet cafe. Mostly, I was too busy *doing stuff* to be reflecting on anything. Visiting museums, eating at cafes, exploring the city--the time for writing about the journey is *afterwards*. The entire thing was burned into my memory so well I can still remember what I did each day of the trip, and I was able to make a pretty good set of web pages afterwards for family and friends to look at. You can spend your time in Europe however you want, but I hope (for your sake) that your memories of Europe are focused more on eating croissants at little streetside cafes than they are installing drivers on a PIII-500.
I would suggest an old fashioned journal: pen and paper. Transcribe that when you get back if you like. If you're insistent on updating your friends back home, then still use pen and paper to write your journal entries. This way you can write them late at night before bed when the cafes and sights are closed anyways. Then quickly transcribe your entries during the day into your weblog. This also helps cut down on the per minute/hour cost of your cybercafe visit since you don't spend time dawdling on what to say while precious minutes and sunlight disappear.
Getting digital photos online through cybercafes can be a little more difficult. First off, buy a few large memory sticks/flashcards for your camera. This way you can continue to shoot photos until you find a cybercafe with a computer open enough to allow you to transfer your photos. Also, note that I said a FEW. Despite thinking that one massive stick/card is enough, you're better off with a few that way you can rotate through them so if you lose one (or have your camera stolen) you don't lose everything.
Most cafes that don't allow driver updates probably aren't going to let you plug in your USB device anyways. But despite what people here say even cybercafes in the larger cities (like Toronto) don't always have their computers completely locked down.
Things to prepare for photos:
1) Put the drivers online, try to pare down the file as small as you can - for each version of windows, and mac.
2) Carry the drivers for your memory reader on cd.
3) Know where the drivers are located online from the official site, the cybercafe dude might not let you install random software on the machine, but with some coercion you can probably get them to install stuff from official looking websites when you've got your camera in front of them.
One final thing to note, uploading pictures from a cybercafe can be a terror on your budget if they have a slow connection. 2 ideas to pare down upload time:
1) Leave the ftp open with a server based idle timeout.
- log on, start the upload, put the ftp client in the background and tell the cybercafe dude that you're done. hopefully he won't kill the ftp client.
- risky, someone could delete your stuff; consider an ftp account with write only, but no delete access.
- definitely don't delete your originals when trying this.
2) Burn to CD!
- Lots of cybercafes have cd burners. buy a couple blank cds and burn your pictures onto a cd so that you can clear out your memory sticks/compactflash until you find a faster connection somewhere else.
As far as photo editing software. Look into server based solutions, like Gallery for posting. And I'm sure there's some php or perl ImageMagick (server based) frontend. Or better yet, edit them when you get back.
joe.