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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?"
i bought a really cheap laptop on ebay for $25. it is old; an ibm thinkpad 560e. it came with a pcmcia cf card and an ethernet card. i upgraded the ram to a whopping 80 MB. it had a 2 GB hdd. i got a voltage adapter for 220/240 b/c the battery didn't work, but they so rarely do with ibm. i reinstalled it with win98se and 98 lite micro option. i tried debian on it but just couldn't get xfree86 to configure. anyway, worked fine for connecting, uploading, and i didn't really have to worry about it b/c i spend more on getting drunk than what it cost to get the laptop ($40 inc. shipping.) yo5oy
a slut did tulsa
I was in South America and because I knew I had to fix a relative's computer, I brought my tool kit, a bunch of CDs with drivers on them (including a couple of OSes incase I needed to do a complete install). Later on I was in a Cyber Cafe in a tiny cafe two hours from no where. They had a broken computer and I offered to fix it. After success (some moron had installed some prgram that f@#ked it up), I had free internet access, free food and much gratitude.
IF you know what the hell you're doing, IF you're not worried about travel weight (I was in a jeep) and IF you don't mind blowing off afternoons of your travel time fixing computers you can really help out the locals, make friends and mooch a little.
I brought back six gig of pictures-- but I didn't bring a laptop. I built a storage brick out of my iPaq: http://www.tjotala.com/hardware/storagebrick/
I didn't have to worry about crunching a large laptop screen (a PDA seems to be easier to pack safely), and the laptop was also good for listening to tunes and jotting notes on.
And so instead I used cybercafes to waste my evenings without worrying about digital cameras and such. Some folks go out drinking in bars, I hit cybercafes. And since I didn't have to worry about anything else, my cybercafe travel kit consisted of:
It worked well for me. I highly recommend it. While I didn't get to put my pictures online instantly this way, I figured it was probably better not to-- I only get so much time on vacation. I should probably spend it being on vacation...