Warren Ellis single-handedly reignited my love of funny books with his seminal not-near-enough-future comic Transmetropolitan. Does he need any more introduction than that? Currently working on a novel (without pretty pictures!) and the conversion of the Global Frequency books into a TV series, Warren dashed out his choices for what he includes in his Gadget Bag in typical style:
You just caught me. I’m off to Atlanta in 36 hours or so; jumping from British Summer Time to Eastern Daylight Time for something called Dragon*Con, where I’m a special guest (and also cultivating the Freak Vote in prep for my first prose novel, published next summer).
I travel light. I’m the guy whose bag hits the luggage carousel last. I’m the guy who’s still there at three in the morning in an empty hall, with tumbleweed blowing past, sitting there next to horse skeletons and starving vultures, waiting for the airport workers to finish their smack break and grub around in the back of the airplane for my bag. Which usually comes out looking like they’ve been having group sex on it. So, five or six years ago, I decided that if it didn’t fit into a carry-on bag, I wasn’t taking it.
That was around the same time I started using PDAs. There was no way I was going to lug around that bloody laptop I had. People who look like me and carry laptops get rectal examinations in airports. I’ve seen it. But I wanted to be able to produce complete typescript on the move. And in any case, miniaturisation meant I should be able to carry a mobile office in my pocket, right? Like I say, I want to travel light. Started out with a big chunky Sharp “palmtop” WindowsCE machine, which was okay, but there was no way I was ever going to get the thing to go online, and the interface was frankly a pain in the arse. I then found the Handspring Visor, which I love. I even produced a book with one, using the Eyemodule camera plug-in and one of the fold-out full-size keyboards. The Visorphone sled got me online in a slow, basic but efficient way. I burned out three Visors over the years, and this year upgraded to the piece of kit that now goes into the bag first:
Treo 600: Haven’t had it too long. Picked it up for a song on a UK discount website. Screen isn’t as big as the old Visors, but that’s the only real count against it. This is my outboard brain and mobile office. I need to be able to work on the move — and, to be honest, I need my email and SMS streams. I’ve totally adapted to having that extra flow of information in the mobile context. For email I’m mostly using the “enterprise” version of Snappermail, which is just excellent — although, frankly, the onboard email application isn’t bad, either — and, (apparently) rarely among Palm email apps, will go off and get my email for me every five or ten minutes. For work I’m using BlueNomad Wordsmith, a word processor that works seamlessly with Word when I synch.
The Treo 600 gets onto the net with a GPRS connection, which so far has worked in the wilds of Britain and Vancouver. Looks like it should work in Atlanta too. GPRS lets me move around images and documents through email and FTP with, finally, some ease. I mean, sure, I could get a little laptop and use wi-fi — if people in my area of Britain didn’t think “wi-fi” meant a stolen stereo system. We only have ONE Starbucks in our town, and it’s tiny. I want a guaranteed connection on the street. That means GPRS.
Treo 600 portable keyboard: these things were the key to my being able to work on the road. The fold-out keyboard for the Treo isn’t as good as the old Visor models — doesn’t fold up as small, doesn’t fold out as big — but it does the job. And, crucially, I can shove it and the Treo in my pocket, walk up to the pub, and set the office up there for the afternoon.
PDAs are just the perfect miniature mobile solution for me. All I need is email, web, FTP, a word processor and a proper keyboard. I’ve written dozens of works, including a complete screenplay, in the most unlikely locations, all over the world — straight to typed draft with the tools in my pocket.
The Archos: Look at this. None of your weedy iPoddery here. This mp3 player is METAL. And it’s got RUGGEDY bits on it. This thing has been dropped on the pavement outside pubs, pushed off shelves onto wooden floors by cats that are just begging me to microwave them, had shit spilled on it, was once kind of accidentally exposed to fire, and it still works perfectly. It is immortal. This is a Man’s mp3 player. Archos — For Men. It’s shorter than an iPod, slips in the inside jacket pocket easily. Using a pair of general Sony street-style phones with it at the moment. It’s about half-full — ten gigs. Just loaded a bunch of Kinski, My Bloody Valentine, Mum, Young People, Secret Machines, Jillian Ann, DeathBoy, Chion Wolf and Curiosity Valentine on to it for the flight on Wednesday.
Nokia 3650: Triband cameraphone and moblogging device. Had it since it was released in the UK. I need to upgrade to the 7610 sometime this year — the screen’s fading on this one, and the white plastic is going a bit manky. The GPRS never configured properly on it — it’s easily the most cantankerous piece of kit to set up that I’ve ever laid hands on — but it dials up okay, and it’s what I used to cover the first London flash mob live to website. Where I was slashdotted by the BBC, thereby smoking my then site host’s server. Its audio recording function meant I could throw away the voice-recorder keychain thing for quick spoken memos, and a handy freeware hack to the movie function means that I can shoot video with it. Used to carry a pen-scanner, but these days I find it easier to just shoot a couple of photos of something and dump them into a website directory. My blog, diepunyhumans.com, is intended as a research dump — anything I drop in there I can then reach with web access, wherever I am. So I could sit in a hotel suite in Vancouver and call up the entry about testicular saline infusion as I was writing a scene using it in the novel.
I also have a cute little Canon Ixus that’s about three years old which I usually sling in the bag around this time, but it’s recently decided to be cranky and stop talking to the desktop machine. So it’s probably time to upgrade that, too. It’ll be another Canon. You’ve got to love a company that makes a camera in the same dimensions as a packet of cigarettes.
There’s a world plug converter stuffed in one of my boots in the bag — I jump between Britain, Europe and North America, so that’s three or four different plug standards to contend with. USB drive and a digital watch on the keychain — the watch’s memory holds a backup of the phone book on my Treo.
And a packet of cigarettes, a disposable lighter, and breath-freshening gelstrips.
Read – Warren’s Blog [DiePunyHumans]
Related
What’s In Your Gadget Bag, Glenn Fleishman? [Gizmodo]
What’s In Your Gadget Bag, Xeni? [Gizmodo]
Battlefield Reporting: What’s In Your Gadget Bag, Peter Maass? [Gizmodo]
Warren Ellis Answers [Slashdot]
https://gizmodo.com/whats-in-your-gadget-bag-glenn-fleishman-18067
