Pocket Profiles: A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words!

As a consultant I am required to travel one to two weeks a month. A lot of my work centers on how servers, routers, and switches are organized. I pack a variety of equipment for these trips, including a small hub, a variety of cables, a laptop, and projector. I also bring along my HP Jornada 567 Pocket PC, HP Pocket Camera, CompactFlash memory card, and Pretec 56K CompactFlash modem. Carrying this set of equipment allows me to exploit opportunities that would otherwise be lost.

Bob uses a Jornada 567 Pocket PC equipped with an HP Pocket Camera and a Pocket Keyboard. The pen-type PDA stylus is shown for comparison.

During my travels I use the HP Pocket Camera to enable my family and co-workers to "see" what I see while I am on the road. Since I have started using the Pocket Camera, telephone conversations and e-mail are much more lively and entertaining. I have found Pocket Camera photos can boost my co-worker's enthusiasm for visiting a particular site. For example, it is one thing to send an e-mail that says "the weather was nice." It is another thing entirely to attach a picture of the lagoon next to my hotel in Waikiki (Screen 1).

Screen 1: A picture of the lagoon next to the Hilton Hawaiian Village Rainbow Tower (right) in Waikiki is worth a thousand words.

Landmarks, places of interest, TV screens, and even restaurant menus can be captured and sent back home to friends, relatives, and co-workers. The Pocket Camera also provides me with some very practical capabilities as a business traveler. For example, with the Pocket Camera I can document the extent of damage to my rental car before I accept it, or after an unforeseen accident. I can also document plumbing or general appearance problems in hotel rooms. I have even started taking photos of receipts and storing them in the PDA to use with my travel claims. I snap photos of my luggage (interior and exterior), laptop, and any other valuables I take with me, as a record. I likewise document gifts and other items I purchase while on the road. If I ever have to provide a description of my luggage, its contents, or materials that are missing, damaged, or stolen to the authorities, that task is much easier when I can recall the image on the Pocket PC.

Traveling with my Pocket PC and HP digital camera

I work in Washington state. Recently a client called a meeting in a city on the East Coast. Because of the precarious financial situation of so many air carriers, the travel agent recommended a change from our usual carrier. I was the first person in my organization to take a nonstop 5+ hour flight to and from the city on the recommended carrier. Three other co-workers were scheduled to follow at a later date. Prior to departure I told my co-workers that in addition to the usual trip report and travel claim, I would send back to the office a quip or two about the flight.

But first I had to get onto the plane.

Going through security screening at North American airports requires the traveler to remove his or her laptop from its carry-on bag so it can be screened separately. Fortunately, PDA's and their accessories do not have to be removed from carry-on baggage. Considering this, I bought a laptop carry-on bag that has a large compartment for the laptop and a large compartment for my PDA and its accessories. Before the screening I remove the laptop from the carry-on so that I can hand it to the security person. I drop my Pocket PC and associated accessories into a plastic toolbox I purchased from Sears (Screen 2) and toss the toolbox into a large pocket of the carry-on. Once or twice after the carry-on was X-rayed the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) operators have asked me to open the plastic tool box for inspection, but most of the time they leave it alone.

Screen 2: When I travel, my Pocket PC and its accessories are safely stored in a plastic toolbox I got from Sears.