travel

Backpacks

First and foremost, you've got to be able to carry stuff with you and that means a backpack. Currently, there are two models I can recommend for different reasons:

Hard Disk Health

The first line of defense for hardware health, in my opinion, is Cocktail. This little piece of shareware is great for routine maintenance (especially for those of us who forget to *not* let their computer go to sleep, allowing Panther to run diagnostics on its own!). I sleep better knowing this is on my hard drive at all times.

Perched high atop this list is my .Mac account. I get so much out of this $99 per year that it's just unreal! Web-based email saves my rear when I lose the "I-can-receive-email-but-I-can't-freaking-send-email" battle with a hotel. File transfer via iDisk works great for sharing those big, honking files that are sure to choke most email accounts.

With the "Year of the PowerBook," and wireless connectivity everywhere, more and more users are opting for portable Macs and working from wherever they happen to be. This area will discuss information on what hardware, software and services are essential for the road warrior, how to make the choices, and how to do your best work out of the office.