Work setup for traveling, 2/26/11

Since leaving LA in July 2010, Ken and I have been traveling nationally July 2010 - Jan 24th, and internationally Jan 25th - July/August 2011 (??). Ken has been blogging our trip every day at: kagetavan.blogspot.com .

I am still continuing five collaborations with folks at/from UCLA. As a result, it is important to have a good work set up that has decent computing power and is also light weight and portable.

Back in June 2010 I had a budget of $3,500 and unfortunately was under a bit of a time crunch because my first attempt at ordering a laptop through the MIMG department's I.T. group fell through. In order to load the necessary software before leaving UCLA, I needed to purchase something ASAP. With a budget of $3,500 I figured my best bet was to head to the sony store. I ended up with a pretty decent machine,a sony VPCZ11CGX, which ended up costing about $3,100 including the ~10% LA sales tax and the extra extended capacity battery.

Quick stats: Intel® Core™ i5-540M processor (2.53GHz) with Intel® Turbo Boost technology up to (3.06GHz), 4GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Wi-Fi : Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6200 (802.11a/b/g/n). 13.1" widescreen, backlit keyboard, 3.04lb (including standard battery).

I love this laptop! It is very light and runs decently fast. It generates minimal heat and it has a strong built-in wifi antenna. The 256GB hard drive is a bit small for laptops these days, but it has been fine for my work needs so far. (Movies and photos are kept on an external drive). Now you might think ok, but what about that small screen?

The small screen problem was easily fixed by purchasing a $180 20" LED LG flatron e2050T monitor from best buy. I spent a fair amount of time shopping around online for "ultra portable monitors" and had no luck. The way that I found this one was by visiting all the stores I could think of that sold monitors, and physically lifting each one! (Needless to say this elicited some confused and concerned looks from the sales staff.) This LG monitor weighs in at 5.3 lbs (without) and 5.7 lbs (with) the optional stand. Having used it for about 6 months now, I can attest to its hardiness. It is in like new condition after being setup/taken down and carried all over the place: restaurants, airports, bars and hotels. One nice feature is that it has a built-in kickstand that allows you to adjust the viewing angle (and allows for a more compact form when you pack it away). It also comes with a stand that can be easily screwed by hand onto the kickstand(see photo). I mostly use the kickstand for bars and restaurants to go for a slightly 'lower profile' :) work station.

The complete work station also includes a full keyboard, mouse and surge protector; and everything fits nicely in my Targus backpack (TXL617). I bought this backpack in 2004/2005 to carry a 17" laptop, and fortunately it manages to fit a 20" screen (just barely, but it fits!). I modified the backpack slightly by cutting off the front pouch that clips on, so the backpack fits under the seat in front of me on planes.

Photos of the work setup in action:

Laura, Ian and Ken took turns buying drinks to save my spot at a bar in the Miami airport during our 6 hour layover on the way to the Cayman islands.

(Photo by Ram)
Working at the Diamond Cave restaurant in East Railay, Thailand with Ram and Ken. The Thai folks were quite surprised when I pulled out my monitor. They were asking how much it costs, and estimated 20,000B ($653 US). They seemed surprised that it was only 5,000B, I guess they thought the monitor was a second computer?

After about 6 months, I am still convinced that this is the perfect work setup! Most of the time I crank out work using the full setup, but it is nice to have the small laptop for working on buses, planes, lying in bed, or other situations where it is nice to keep a low profile. Also, I think the sony looks a lot like a netbook, so it is probably less of a theft target than larger laptops (as long as I keep the LG in the pack that is :).

Got any work setup thoughts/ideas? Please post them here!