I use a scanner to bring home literature without the weight.
I also converted my three 5 drawer filing cabinets into PDF files that were OCR’d so I can search and find documents when I need them using Microsoft Desktop Search.
I can also carry those 33,458 pages of scanned documents on a pocket sized hard disk.
If I were still a salesman, I’d carry all my literature, technical support documents, manuals, etc. on the same drive. Our salesmen used to have a trunk full of paper to have the information they might need with them while they were on the road.
I also use that pocket sized hard disk to make daily backups of my notebook computer when I’m traveling.
That’s all possible with a hard drive that’s just a little larger than a deck of cards and connects to your computer via a USB cable (which also supplies its power).
Right now I’m using a Western Digital Passport (http://www.wdc.com/en/), which is frequently on sale for less than $100. My current one is the original black, but I’ve been tempted by either the red or blue ones.
In the past I’ve used other brands such as Fujitsu. One new pocket drive that looks really interesting is Seagate’s Free Agent (http://freeagent.seagate.com), which includes a docking station for your desktop computer and can still connect via a USB cable to your notebook.
While USB flash drives are available at 16 GB, it’s nice these pocket drives hold up to 500 GB.
You can even store a few movies on them to make waiting for that next delayed flight much more tolerable.
