July 12, 2011

Techie Vagabonds: Useful Gadgets


Arathi, of The Van Dweller blog, brought up a great subject yesterday. He said “Technology has really made a mobile life easier to do.”  The influence of technology on everyday life has been researched in detail for years, but there are very practical applications for vagabonds that are rarely explored. Here are some techie gadgets that can make your life in a van, car, or RV easier and less cluttered.

Flash Drives:

  • I have one flash drive (though I should have a backup) that holds every resume, school assignment, job application, and letter I’ve written in the past decade. I clean it out like I would a file cabinet and keep it organized but if it’s important, it’s on that drive. I currently also have small file box in my car which will be going away as soon as I scan the info (past leases, car repairs, medical stuff) onto the drive.
Laptops:

  • With the availability of library computers these are not necessary but wireless internet has made laptops so easy to use in a transient situation. I can lay in bed at night watching movies in the backseat or listening to music without storing hundreds of disks. Check out these sites for free libraries.
GPS:
  • Do you have any idea how many times I’ve been totally lost in the middle of nowhere? Traveling cross country is great because, as long as you head either east or west, you’ll get where you’re going. These days GPS can point out attractions, camping spots, road detours, even gas stations and the price per gallon. I feel like they make wondering into America more productive, if a little less adventurous.
eReaders:

  • If you look back a few weeks at my justification of a Kindle you’ll find that this is one of my best techie investments. I love books and this thing holds hundreds, many free, in the space of a notepad. Totally worth it and now they even surf the web so I’m sure even the laptop will be obsolete soon.
Cell Phones:
  • I've had the same phone for years. It’s a Verizon Juke and doubles as an iPod, which is awesome because I can hook it into the laptop and play my music out loud or put on earphones. I think it’s great that so many stick and brick dwellers only have a cell phone now; most jobs, companies, schools, etc don’t even ask for a home number anymore.

These are only a few of the awesome gadgets that make vehicle dwelling easy and manageable.You can hook up solar, get a coffee pot or a fridge that run off the car battery, or have a thermometer that tells you the weather and what clothes to wear that day! Keep your eyes open, there are hundreds of products that can make the vehicle dwelling experience very comfortable for very little money. Let me know what you find!

6 comments:

  1. I got a Google telephone number when they were still by invitation and even tough I have a fixed location I still live a rather mobile lifestyle. Old habits are hard to break. With a Google number (free) I can use any phone, change phone companies or have multiple phones and I still have the same number. No matter what the various phone companies offer Google covers what I need and I have an online record.
    I currently have three phone numbers none of which are land line unless you count the internet connection.
    Back your flash drives up. Like hard drives they don't last forever and they give no warning of failure. Like hard drives they have a finite number of cycles.

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  2. This little stove is cool. Check it out !


    http://www.roadtrucker.com/12-volt-cooking/12-volt-300-degree-lunchbox-stove.htm

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  3. Wolf, that is so much more compact than the ones I was looking at! It's on the wish list

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  4. this is really very nice i like it so very much thanks for this great post

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  5. Thanks for the mention! My laptop is indispensible to me because of the amount of movies I can watch, and my iPhone serves not only as a phone, and music player, but internet (both on the phone, and as a tether to the laptop), and GPS as well. Heck, even a compass, a very bright flashlight, and tells me the weather in my area for the day, as well as games. Those are just a couple simple things. I love it.

    I have a couple flashdrives myself. My most recent aquisition is a 16GB drive, which is a backup for my photo's, although, only the most important. The spare drive holds all the others as back up, and there's over 40GB of them.

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