Techno Geek Heaven

I have been having a running exchange with Jim Heverin and a few others as to what tech equipment we should bring to China. This is just the kind of topic that I enjoy delving into and thinking a lot about. Basically, we want to be connected to all manner of friends and family through e-mail, the blog, etc. But should we bring a laptop? Most of the big hotels have Internet access in them, but this may not be the case everywhere we will be. I have heard conflicting advice on this issue from friends who have traveled to China. Our friends Andrew and Michelle (check out their blog link in the "links" section) did bring a laptop and they had a good experience with that. But I believe that our friends Steve and Cathy did not bring a laptop and they did fine posting to their blog via the hotel business centers. After considering this one, R and I felt pretty good about bringing a laptop. The only question was which one.

After much research, and too much time on the Cnet and ZDnet websites, I opted to get the lightest Dell laptop that they sell. I just purchased it a few days ago and it should come in early July. It is called the XPS M-1210. (here's the C-Net review for you true geeks out there: http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/dell-xps-m1210-vista/4505-3121_7-32329097.html?tag=prod.txt.1 ). According to the reviews, it's got a lot in a small size and relatively low weight. We opted not to get the gaming and other fancy features. We just focused on the features that would allow us to easily access the Internet via wireless if possible. So everyone in our travel group can use our laptop if there is a problem getting computer access at the hotel business centers.

As a brief aside, I was not overly impressed with the Dell ordering process. This was the third Dell laptop I have purchased and the sales process seems to have gotten more complicated. When I finally got to the sales stage, I used their "chat with a sales agent online" feature to find out what kind of discounts they could provide. This ended up launching a bidding war of sorts between two different Dell sales agents competing against each other for my business. I guess it ended up being good for me in the end but it was a tad confusing. Also, Dell's process is so filled with tactics to upsell you on various extraneous items ("no thanks, I'm not interested in buying an extra television monitor with my laptop; thanks for offering me the latest educational software but no thanks; no I don't need extra storage; etc."). But I have yet to find a better deal than Dell and as much as I am tempted to make the leap to a Mac, I wasn't ready to do that for the China trip.

To cut down on weight, I went with a light but extremely cool (some would say too cool for my age and non-bike messinger status) "laptop messinger bag" carrying case from Timbuk2 that I custom built on their website (very cools site: check out the link here: http://www.timbuk2.com/tb2/retail/catalog.htm). If you haven't heard of Timbuk2, they have the most amazing concept in customer ordering via a web interface. The website allows you to custom select the colors, sizes, inserts, and all manner of techy heaven dudads. And you can see a 360 degree image of your bag as it's being built (you can turn it around and open it up, etc. After I used the webside to build a custom laptop bag, I actually called the customer service department because I couldn't believe that going with a custom-built bag would be the SAME price and the SAME amount of time as buying one of the already built ones. The customer service rep (of course in San Francisco) said (and I'm not making this up): "Dude - chill out. Your bag has already been built and shipped." Tell me how an old fashioned store can compete with that? That even kicks Dell's butt and they are the king of custom-designed online techno-geek purchasing.

The next question was: to bring a cellphone or not to bring a cellphone. We are leaning towards not bringing a cellphone unless we get one thrown in via our international airline ticket purchase (some of the travel agencies have a special that includes the phone rental). Elaine and Scott Sullivan (also in our travel group) will have a cellphone with them so we can use that if absolutely needed.

The next techno gadget question was: to bring a camcorder or not to bring a camcorder. I was pretty sceptical on the need for any type of video recording equipment on top of our small Canon digital camera. We don't know of anyone who has brought a camcorder with them to China. At the same time, I was thinking: how cool would it be to have streaming video of parts of this trip -- even if it is just streaming video of Jim and me pontificating on the pros and cons of deep fried versus steamed chicken or video or R, Debbie, and Elaine playing with our little girls at the White Swan Hotel. So once the laptop purchase was complete, I couldn't resist cheking out what the camcorder offerings were. After looking at the high-end options, I was leaning against going with a really fancy camcorder mainly for space and weight reasons (I didn't want to lug around the laptop, regular digital camera, and full-scale camcorder). This morning, I happened upon this review on the Cnet site for the RCA EZ 201 camcorder and was tempted to look into it: http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-camcorders/rca-small-wonder-ez201/4505-6500_7-32445372.html?tag=prod.txt.1

The above-mentioned Cnet site even has a streaming video review of the device in action and it is just the coolest little thing. And for a price (less than $120) and weight (3.5 ounces) that was just too tempting to pass up. The device is a very simple concept: it sacrifices everything for low weight and small size -- and assumes that the users are just looking to do up to 60 minutes of video to send to friends and family via e-mail or via a web page. It assumes that big camcorders are of no use of they are too big to bring with you and worry about. This was exactly what I was thinking. So I found a good deal on Amazon and quickly did the deed. This may end up being a really stupid purchase (or as Belushi said in Animal House "a really futile and stupid gesture"). If so, I'll give the device to my dad and he can put it the room in my parents' Menlo Park, CA house that is the graveyard of all of his no-longer-working but extremely cool looking Radio Shak telephones and other techy toys that he couldn't resist (I believe the Next machine is there somewhere next to the see-through telephone that never quite worked; both next to the electric leaf blower from Price Club). But for less than $120, if my new mini camcorder ends up being a stupid purchase, at least it's not such a costly stupid purchase.

While I was on the Amazon site, I also picked up an extra 2 GB SD Flash Memory card for $20 to get extra storage space (some of the consumer comments on the Cnet review site suggested doing this). And while I was at it, I picked up an extra 256 MB Compact Flash memory card for my digital camera so I won't run out of memory. Quick: someone fetch the dart gun and put me out of my misery! This is the just kind of damage that results when R leaves me alone in the house for an extended period of time on the weekend with too much coffee and a tech gadget shopping list. (She went to the Four Seasons health spa to get a massage with her friend Diana so I was justified).

So I have officially declared an end to the techno gadget buying season and will hope that I don't come to regret these purchases. Jim Heverin has cornered the market in all other manner of techy do-dads that we would need in China (including every possible outlet converter and all manner of card readers and other methods of storing, exchanging, and moving data around). And he's the one who actually understands this stuff and has backup-plan upon backup plan for ensuring that we can post to our blogs while in China (he even figured out a way to post to his blog via an e-mail which he showed me and I promptly forgot). I just know enough to be dangerous but Jim can show me how to undo my problems if I get into too much trouble.

You may wonder what I actually decided NOT to buy since I was not showing a lot of restraint on the above-mentioned items (with the exception of the cell phone). In my defense, there was one item I considered and decided not to get: noise-canceling headphones. One day when R and I were at the Tysons Corner shopping mall in VA, I checked these out at the Bose store and was TEMPTED. It's hard to resist technology that actually works. And I would have had no problem justifying a purchase of really nice headphones even if I didn't need to cancel out the sound of jet engines (or whatever the sales pitch is). So why didn't I get these? Because I can't picture the scenario on the way back from China with Jennifer Rose that I would WANT to cancel anything out even if R would let me. :) And on the way to China, I'm going to be so amped up that I really can't picture myself relaxing in noise-cancel mode with those airline black shade things over my eyes!

Ok - enough babbling for one day. This techno equipment pontification has been an interesting aspect of the adoption process -- probably something that we would have never considered if we weren't doing this in another country. I'll do another post when all this equipment comes and I have the pleasure of seeing whether any of it works. :)
J.