I'm debating whether I should travel with my laptop this summer, when I am going to Canada and later France this summer. I already have the different travel plugs, and bringing it will definitely make life easier in communicating and making sure the travel plans I make are good. But then it is always inconvienet carrying a laptop. You have to take it out at the checkpoint at the airports, and it's also delicate and people might steal it.
So what are you guys' take on traveling with laptop? Maybe I should just leave it at home instead?
Just bring your laptop with you.
lol wuts a raptup? ^_^
thanks for the lack of help, you couple of jackasses. you know if you don't reply, it's all right. why do you feel you need to reply with stupid shits for answers?
Its probably not worth it. If I were you, I'd use internet cafes. It might cost more, but theres a 0% chance of your laptop being stolen.
If you're taking it solely to communicate with people, don't bother. Just take your cellphone and use net cafes. Stick your plans on Google Calendars or on your phone, or in a small notepad. Extra weight, extra bother, extra shit you don't need.
Before you go, use something like truecrypt so those TSA fucks do not get ahold of your data. They have been demanding passwords and copying data of off laptops.
Also, hid any icons and remove the menus from the start bar and hide the folders from regular view of where the truecrypt software is. You also can create "fake" encryption drives to throw the dumb bastards off.
Good luck and FUCK the TSA.
Get an EEE PC. No problem carrying that around.
You'll enjoy yourself more if you don't take it.
Probably not worth it to bring it. It's just another thing to lug around. Get a USB drive and install some apps from http://www.portableapps.org
The internet cafe is your friend. Just don't do any banking.
I always bring my laptop while travelling, it's a great convenience. Open wlans are available virtually everywhere and even public ones are fairly popular.
Even at $3000 I'm not afraid of people stealing it, as anyone can't just walk away with it, and should the worst happen it should still be covered by my traveller's insurance.
The steep price is partly because it's a business model, rugged enough for travel, so I don't worry about breaking it either.
I think it's been with me on about 25 plane trips so far.
The only downside is walking around with a 3kg laptop all day gets heavy, especially when also lugging around a heavy DSLR and possibly some extra lenses and a flash unit.
For that reason, the laptop usually stays behind at the room if I don't need it. I've considered getting an ultraportable to leviate this.
Taking it out at the checkpoints at the airport is a no-brainer. I usually carry it in a messenger style laptop bag so slipping it out and back in is not time consuming, I always slip it out right before I reach the end of the queue.
I've got no experience with the TSA, as I haven't been to USA lately, but I went to Britain last year and Japan this year, and neither even offered my laptop any tought.
And no, I'm not a business traveller. I travel for money out of my own pocket, to experience new places. The internet is a great source of information when you need to know something, especially when you're not fluent in the local language. Internet cafes are not readily available anywhere at any time, but with your own laptop, the internet mostly still is.
Ipod touch, your hotel or a cafe may have wifi.
Laptop confiscations are rare, only people which are suspected, or have past history of either smuggling sensitive data, or carrying child pornography of anything similar have they laptops confiscated.
I haven't heard about TSA confiscating laptops, but I have heard about Customs taking laptops. The two organizations are not the same; TSA is often run by private companies under license by DHS. Also TSA a shit, people sleep on the job, steal shit, sell stuff; all sorts of abuse. CBP is far stricter about conduct.
I can tell you never had your computer confiscated, because we already know about those tricks. Or you didn't come in at my POE.
If you're going some place boring and safe, say like most places in Europe, and you're a boring person, you'll probably won't be bothered.
>>14
Dear Anonymous Enthusiast,
The "boring most places in Europe" are glad to invite you to go fuck yourself.
Thanks for your attention.
I used to travel with a heavyass laptop and all the junk that goes with it. Now all I lug around is a USB drive and some spare change for the internet cafe (it depends where you're headed - some places are devoid of em). Just watch out for all those nasty viruses that sit in cafes and infect removable media!