14 years ago, I made the move from a desktop computing environment to a mobile computing environment. The lure of always having my complete work environment available to me at any location. It had me hooked and over the years I would continue to purchase faster, smaller, and lighter machines. The ideal consumer, I spend hours researching and many thousands of dollars buying the latest and greatest in mobile computing. Staying productive was the name of the game and there wasn't a place on earth where I felt without my creative tools.

My computing "habit" over the years required more connectivity, more memory and storage, and all these dimensions hit a critical point for me in July of 2006. My mobile computing timeline from 1992 to the present:

Apple PB 100
Apple Newton 110
Apple Emate
Apple Powerbook 140
NEC Ultralite Versa V50
DEC HiNote Ultra II
DEC Hinote Ultra 2000
Toshiba Tecra
SparcBook
HP200 LX
HP320 LX
Palm Pilot
ThinkPad A22
ThinkPad T40
Apple Ti-Book (400, 667, and 1.2M)
Danger Sidekick I (black/white)
Danger Sidekick II
Danger Sidekick 3
Apple MacBook Pro 2.16G dual core

I thought that my last purchase, the Apple Macbook Pro would propel me to the next level that I needed in computing. This was my first multi-CPU mobile computer: 2G of memory, 120G of storage, and all the connectivity options available. I thought I had once again satisfied my needs and concurred the requirement to be tied to a powerful desktop computer chaining me to my office. I was wrong.

The MacBook Pro is hot (literally and figuratively). Sure, it was the first revision and I am a demanding user with compilers going in the background, lectures or music going via mp3 or mpgs, MS Office applications open, multiple browser windows, IRC, IM, and H.264 video conference clients, ssh sessions to remote servers, skype, to name a few but that is just who I am and how I remain productive. The main obstacle now is screen real estate, heat, and runtime with the latter two being my biggest concern.

I was in a downward spiral. My computing needs ran the unit hot, Lithium-Ion batteries hate being hot (shortens their life), and like my batteries, my hands hate being on a hot surface typing for hours. Either I needed to change my computing behavior or I would have to ask mother nature to change the laws of physics. I thought long and hard about the total system and all of the cybernetics circuits: the human, the CTO, the computer and subsystems, the applications and services I required, and all of the infrastructure that make up the larger system. I mapped it all out and came up with a plan that would requires change on all parts of the system but would yield results that could not be achieved with the prior strategy.

With this new strategy, I travel with less weight doing from a pack that averaged 20 pounds down to 10 pounds. The biggest and more welcomed change was that of runtime. My full-size keyboard computing device gets 500+ hours on 3 AA's -- I am no longer a slave to power-outlets! When I am not mobile, I am a part of several desktop environments which have no problem bring well resourced.

My mobile arsenal consists of:
Danger Sidekick 3
Iomega Mini Flash Drive
AlphaSmart NEO

The Sidekick 3 offers me the always on connection and has an ssh client as well as all the main apps for IMAP-SSL, IM and a browser;
the Iomega Flash Drive has my presentations for when I am speaking at a customer's site or a conference;
the AlphaSmart NEO gives me a full-size keyboard text processor that weights less than 2 pounds and runs 700 hours on 3 AA's. If you see my blogging rate go up, it is because of this wonderful device. This device is completely zen.

This is my new setup and it seems to be working out well. I need another 3 to 4 months before I can claim victory.

--tk