
Ask HN: What do you take with you? - jason_tko
Whats in your utility belt when you leave home? Back in the day, I used to sport an SCOTTeVEST loaded with all sorts of PDAs, gadgets, and tools.<p>These days, I've consolidated to a cashclip, an iPhone 4, and a key chain (with an innocuous 19-in-one tool set).<p>How about you?
======
rdl
Glock 19, 2 extra mags with floor plate extension. Kershaw ao knife, novatac
edc 120 lumen flashlight. Blackberry 9700 with bes and free data roaming,
nexus one w local sim. Keys w led flashlight. Identity card holder w 4 id
cards and credit card and eagle cash card. Wristwatch. Hat w 100 bill inside,
sunglasses.

Usually also either a vest or one of two shoulder bags with first aid and
mags, sat phone, laptop and or iPad or kindle dx, some snacks, cisco console
cable. Bigger bag (3 day assault pack or one size bigger) for trips, and
spares in my car or the truck, and my trailer. I have a good point and shoot
in most bags or on armor, and I have etymotics or ultimate ears canal phones.
I also sometimes carry a canon in a dedicated d slr bag.

In civilization, largely the same, except sometimes ruger LCR 38 and or a sig
mix and match with the g19 in some combination, or just knife and flashlight
if carry is unadvised. Also I carry a wallet instead of ID holder.

~~~
jason_tko
From your bio : "Currently doing defense IT/medical contracting in the middle
east."

Holy crap.

Have you been in any firefights ?

~~~
rdl
Aside from people ineffectually shooting at my aircraft, not in years. I have
had mortars land vaguely nearby though.

Almost involved in 3 possibly fatal car accidents in Kuwait earlier this year
though, but luckily I am a fairly competent driver and swerved around or
braked ... Riding a motorcycle in the USA would he great preparation for
driving a car here.

~~~
bjonathan
Please do an AMA somewhere, I'm sure you have tons of stuff to say and that
should be pretty interesting imho

~~~
rdl
I think it would be super boring. I myself would not read a documentary
account of my life.

Technically, it's basically either "learning how to do increasingly advanced
satellite tech/eng work in the field, starting from a strong IP networking and
sort of college ee/rf background" at the same time the industry itself was
developing (late 1990s-mid 2000s). Also, political crap trying to deploy linux
based servers on windows/activedirectory centric networks, with multiple
layers of policymakers involved in every decision. Very very little worthwhile
technology. The only people in the overall government space doing
commercially-normal interesting tech seem to be TIGR, and for mostly-awesome
(but still inferior to b2c webapps, by a mile!), Palantir.

On top of that, the whole sealand thing from 2000-2002, and anon ecash stuff
in the caribbean from 1995 (mit) through 1999 or so.

Then, learning more about defense contracting and how the military works,
having zero background to start, from 2003 onward.

And the "going to iraq thinking it would just be reconstruction and a
technology land-grab, and it turns into a shooting war after the war itself is
done" thing.

Combine that with generic startup things with somewhat more fraud and
logistics problems than you'd face in the US, and living in a mix of crappy
(iraq, afghanistan) and boring (5-star hotels in dubai and kuwait).

If you're interested in the war part, actual soldiers have way more
interesting stories from iraq or afghanistan. For the tech part, the
technology itself is really boring. For the military psychology part, just
read catch-22 and slaughterhouse five.

Plus, writing it fully accurately would make me either look dumb or naive most
of the time, and there are OPSEC and liability concerns detailing what other
people have done or failed to do.

I think the most workable solution would be some kind of "techno-thriller" set
in relevant places, but fictionalized.

~~~
c1sc0
Seriously, you can skip the whole _tech_ part & just talk about your life. I'd
buy the book. A good story can be written by just artfully stringing anecdotes
together, just go ask Malcolm Gladwell ;-)

------
edanm
If you're really interested in this, the best place I've found is the
"Everyday Carry Forums", where they talk about this all day long:
<http://edcforums.com/>. Here's my list:

In pockets:

* Wallet. I looked around for a looong time for the perfect wallet, then I found these guys: <http://www.all-ett.com/>. I use one with leather lining, and it's an amazingly thin wallet, but which looks like a regular one. Has space for all my cards (not that many), plus some money.

* Cellphone (Samsung Touch, a terrible phone I'm stuck with)

* Keychain - An openable metal ring for easy removal of stuff, which right now include: Car keys, house keys, 8gb flash disk, and an old CPLD chip from my former job with a hole in the middle.

In back pockets:

* Coins, rarely. I almost never keep coins on me, but sometimes you get stuck with them after cash transactions (I prefer credit cards any chance I can use them).

* Extra keys, if I need (taking a different car than my regular one, etc.).

Used to have or want:

* Used to carry a small LED flashlight (don't remember which), but it lost its battery and hasn't been replaced (sadly).

* Wish I had a small pen.

* Have a Leatherman Squirt pocket everything, but don't usually carry it around.

~~~
almost
Thanks! That wallet looks like just what I've been looking for.

eBay would appear to be the place to get them. Cheaper and, more importantly
for me, international shipping.

------
jasonkester
I'm surprised at how many people carry a phone with them everywhere.

I treat my phone like a phone, and generally leave it at home. It has
voicemail, so if you leave a message I'll call you back in a day or so. Unless
I'm out of the country in which case you should probably just email me.

I mean sure, if I'm going to be meeting up with people it's nice to have along
in case plans change. But for the most part I just don't want people to be
able to break my concentration whenever they choose to.

~~~
mcknz
ah, to be single again....

------
GiraffeNecktie
Palm Tungsten C (yes, really!) for reading books and studying Chinese, really
crappy Windows phone, Sansa Fuze MP3 player (for listening to Chinese, not
music), Canon SD790 pocket camera, small notepad in a nice flip pad with
penholder, Harrap's Chinese Pocket Grammar, teeny wallet (basically just a
little leather pocket with a zipper), ID badge for work, keys, coins, lint. I
really need to either consolidate my electronics into one device or start
wearing suspenders.

~~~
Naga
The Palm Tungstens were great machines when they were new.

------
philwelch
Wallet, phone, knife, keychain with mini-maglite. A mini-maglite is an
eminently practical thing to have around--just as durable as a full sized
maglite, powerful enough for most uses, and easy to carry around. It also
makes a nice big keychain handle.

My bag traditionally carries more stuff: water bottle, MacBook, caffeine
pills, pens, note cards, power adapter, highlighter, calculators, post-it
notes, whatever paper I have accumulated since I last garbage-collected.

~~~
c1sc0
Caffeine pills? Please educate me on that.

~~~
rdl
OTC caffeine pills: 250-500mg caffeine (about 3-6 cups of coffee equivalent),
with the difference being it's much cheaper than coffee, and more deleterious
to your stomach. Less liquid, so it's much easier to dehydrate yourself, or
get to dangerous (2-3g) caffeine levels. You might actually notice minor-
league OD symptoms off 2 pills (500mg), and definitely at 1g.

Really, a bad idea. Modafinil (provigil) or ritalin (methylphenidate) or
adderall (d-amphetamine salts) are probably safer physically than caffeine
pills, but potentially more addictive.

~~~
philwelch
OTOH, pills psychologically enforce the idea that you are taking a drug,
whereas drinking coffee just feels like another beverage.

I only get generic caffeine pills, mostly because generic caffeine pills are
amusingly called "Stay Awake". I wish all drugs were named in this manner.

------
mrlyc
Wallet, keys, gym membership key fob, unironed handkerchief, coins, engine
immobiliser remote control, five year old Nokia 3315 phone and a PDA. The PDA
is usually a four year old Palm Pilot Tungsten E2 with a 1 Gig SD card full of
author intervews, biographies and management podcasts. I also take a spare 1
Gig card wth more podcasts in case the first one runs out. Occasionally the
PDA is a six year old Palm Pilot Tungsten E with music on its SD card.

Perhaps I'd better explain about the handkerchief. I discovered that, if I
fold an unironed one, put it in my pocket and pull it out later, it looks like
it's been ironed and is getting a bit crumpled whereas the truth is that it
started out really crumpled and is getting flatter. Saves ironing and ends up
looking the same.

------
pasbesoin
I've found a compact camera to be a decent "portable photocopier". I'll have
to sign something, or I'll see something I'd like to follow up on. "Snap" --
no problem.

Mine's a bit older but has (for the time) especially good light sensitivity,
so that in most settings I can take a decent picture without flash (which
would wash out a document): Fuji F31fd. I also had a Canon A640, until it was
stolen. Much better lens, but a generation prior to vibration dampening and so
the same shots were chancy at best. I guess anything with dampening would suit
the purpose, though the Fuji gets 500 odd shots on a single charge.

P.S. If the document has sensitive data, make sure you don't lose the camera!
(You might want to pop the storage card and carry it separately.)

------
JacobAldridge
I have my power-three: money clip, phone, keys. When my wife drives (and
leaves the keys in her handbag) I realise just how often I subconsciously
check myself for all three when out and about.

I like a clean handkerchief - useful for everything from an acute bout of the
common cold to the acutely embarrasing spillage of a colleagues coffee cup
while on the phone.

As a boy, I always wanted to be the one with the string and the buttons and
the matchbox full of interesting odds and ends in my pockets. It never
happened, so the fixation remains. Perhaps a smartphone will solve that for me
- Twine? They have an app for that!

------
dotBen
In my pockets: Wallet, keys (inc utili-knife key), HTC EVO, gerber pocket
knife, leatherman skeletool (carbon fiber edition), antihistamine tablets (due
to severe allergies).

In the bag: MBP, power adaptor, 20' extension cable with several sockets at
the end, belkin travel surge protector, spare battery (I have an old-gen MBP),
beats-by-dre studio headphones in protective case, two pairs of v-moda
bassfreq headphones, iPad, iPhone USB cable (for iPad), (paper) notebook +
pen, DVI-to-VGA adaptor, epi-pen + antihistamine drugs, emergency Cliff bar
for energy drops, business cards,.

------
thomas11
I make sure to always have a paper notebook with me. I use it for anything
from to-do lists to scribbling software designs and ideas. Often, I open it on
the bus and don't even write anything in it. It has become a kind of token or
reminder in that it makes me focus on ideas or planning my day instead of just
getting lost in random thoughts. Although the latter is also important from
time to time!

Also, the current Economist. It's small and light and ensures I always have
some good reading available.

------
harisenbon
I'm apparently pretty boring: Ipod Touch, 2 Cellphones (work, personal),
Thermos, lunchbox, and a bunch of papers for work. Small folding fan, three
train passes and my business cards. Used to carry a pocket electronic
dictionary with me until the clasp broke last week.

If I'm not going to work, I'm down to: Wallet, 1 cellphone, car keys. The ipod
comes if I'm going somewhere with internet, or I think I might be bored.

------
vollmond
* Keys (car, house x3 [handle/deadbolt/back door], work office, various cards [library/discount])

* Phone (HTC Droid Eris, was great until VZW botched the 2.1 update)

* Wallet (always too full; I tend to accumulate receipts in here)

* Pen (Charcoal black Lamy Safari fountain pen. Never go anywhere without it)

* Moleskine (if it wouldn't look too out of place. I nearly always throw it in the car and take it in to many places)

------
ambulatorybird
Wallet, keys, a few kleenexes, and a wristwatch. Sometimes coins, if I expect
to need them.

------
trouble
Wallet, keys, phone, pocketknife and lip balm in my bag or pockets. Notebook
(the paper kind) and MBP if I'm going to uni. I don't own a utility belt
(although I would very much like to some days) because I keep my tools at work
or in the car.

------
pavelludiq
A crappy cell phone i use to talk to other people, and a crappy Chinese mp3
player i use to listen to music. A fancy swiss army knife. A copy of K&R in my
back pack(just in case). A pack of cigarettes and a lighter, occasionally
matches.

------
elechi
Lunch bag: California innovations. It's big, so I carry inside that a water
bottle, knife for apples, and keys.

Inside pockets: wallet, crappy LG phone, and my ipod so I can ignore others on
the train.

I usually get the daily newspaper to occupy my time on the train otherwise.

------
catch404
Bike lock, clip on red bike light, camera (digital point and shoot) ipod, ipod
cable, headphones every now and then. Pen and notepad. Bike stuff just stays
in bag even though I commute by car/ walk to work.

------
ams1
There's a flickr group devoted to this: The Items We Carry
<http://www.flickr.com/groups/theitemswecarry/pool/>

------
csomar
Keys (obviously to get back home), Portfolio (With identity card, driving
license, credit card and some cash), Mobile Phone.

That's all, what do I need else? (Sometimes I bring a Usb Flash)

------
andrewtj
Cash, phone and keys with high odds of a camera or leatherman.

------
robertgaal
Be short to post pics too. My daily stuff is here:

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/blueace/3517491753/>

------
dzlobin
I'm surprised how much shit people carry.

I keep it limited to a wallet, which has my I'd two credit cards and cash.

My blackberry bold 9000

And my car key. Sometimes a lighter/cigarettes

------
olalonde
Wallet, small phone, cigarettes, lighter.

------
spcmnspff
N95, EeePC 1005PE, Pilot G207 Black, a wallet containing essential wallet
deelies and a towel.

------
pclark
in pocket: iPhone 4, keyring (2 keys + office door tag), suit wallet, business
cards.

in briefcase:

squared paper moleskine, car keys, pencil case (various 0.4mm pens,
toothbrush, felt pen, lighter), wayfarer sunglasses, passport, business cards,
15" MBP & display port to vga adapter.

------
chunkbot
I noticed that everyone here is using a MacBook Pro 15" laptop. Why is that?

~~~
kngspook
Can't speak for everyone else, but personally:

The 2" of extra screen real-estate doesn't give me a huge benefit usually (not
enough to put two windows side-by-side); but it does widen the laptop enough
to make it harder to use in tight spaces (ie. airplanes), and it does make the
laptop heavier.

On the other hand, at the time I bought my MBP, the 13" MacBook Pro was not a
Pro. I'm honestly not sure what I would get these days. I might go for the
13", and get a bunch of external stuff (display, mouse, keyboard, but mostly
the display).

~~~
rdl
I have a "seriously tore up" 15" MBP from spring 2008 which I carry with me
for really mobile use, and a 17" 2010 MBP which sits in my "base" location for
weeks at a time. I went that route, vs. the 15" HD, because I can't easily
have an external monitor while being mobile -- otherwise, the 15" HD seems to
be the best, coupled with an external 24, 27, or 30.

I am considering getting a 13" MBP or maybe an x301 or panasonic s9 whenever
they next get bumped. I don't care for netbooks (too weak), but a long battery
life small laptop would be a nice tool. The lack of a keyboard on the ipad
cripples me; often, the blackberry is more useful.

------
Sukotto
* two-currency wallet

* locking folding knife ($1 from Walmart so I don't care if the TSA steal it)

* Phone

* Car keys

------
ahlatimer
iPhone 4, wallet, bag of tobacco, lighter, keys, and a portable HDD.

------
jason_tko
No one is carrying around an iPad?

~~~
rdl
I have an iPad and carry it frequently, although usually also in the same bag
with a kindle dx and 15 inch mbp. iPad is better for use waiting for flights
for casual web browsing, or kindle app in unlit rooms.

~~~
c1sc0
Agree on the iPad for airport use. Most of the time my MBPro stays packed in
my bag & I just use the iPads on planes these days. One thing that is a bit
silly though is when you're reading an eBook & then during take-off/landing
you sit around twiddling your fingers while everyone else continues reading
their paper books.

