Following on from a previous post on my journey to Seattle (Sleeplessness in Seattle) for the SQL Skills Immersion Event on Performance Tuning (IE2), last week, I thought, I’d share my experiences of travelling with Gadgets.
To allow me to have access to everything I needed while I’d be away, I took the following with me:
- Apple iPhone 4s – My personal mobile
- Blackberry Bold 9700 – Work mobile
- Apple iPad 2
- Amazon Kindle (currently reading SnowCrash by Neil Stephenson)
- Acer Aspire 3810TZ laptop
- North Face Borealis rucksack
- Logitech M510 Wireless mouse
- Noice Cancelling earphones and iPod Nano
- Chargers, US Adapters…
Out of all these items, I’d have to give a special shout out to the iPhone and iPad. They surpassed themselves, by giving me perfect access to the internet through numerous WiFi access points, and also by allowing me to speak to my family through Skype, over these devices.
Also, and this is a surprise to me, I have to mention the Acer Laptop. For a very long time, I’ve always found Acer laptops to be somewhat shoddy. However, this one has carried out a sterling job, with 8+ hours of battery life, and no issues with responsiveness. Having said that, I did improve it’s performance with a Crucial M4 SSD and a memory upgrade (to 8Gb, from 4Gb), just to ensure that it would be bearable running SQL Server on it.
I’ve been impressed with the quality of the WiFi access in the US (I was in Seattle). All the Starbucks I’ve been to had free WiFi, as did the hotel I stayed in (Courtyard Marriott in Downtown Bellevue).
While I could have taken notes on the course on the iPad, or typed them into the Laptop, I prefer to use a Moleskine to take notes. Yes, it may be a little old-school, but if it was good enough for Picasso, Van Gogh and Hemingway, then it’s good enough for me. 
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