Power pack
Last thing when buying a laptop: make sure that the power pack is small and light and that there is a decent length of low-voltage cable. Low voltage cable is smaller and lighter than the high-voltage main cable. One downside here for a UK-based European traveler is that the UK main plug is a truly enormous affair and gets even bigger when a European or US adapter is plugged in to it. I've thought of carrying a European cable with a UK adapter, but that's as far as I've gotten it.

One bit of personal discipline comes in when leaving home. Make sure that you actually have the right adapter. I've made that mistake quite a few times and had to buy yet another one at the airport. I must have at least half-a-dozen of the damn things at home.

Tool 2: Lotus Notes
Nobody carries a laptop for itself; you carry it for the installed software. My number one item here is Lotus Notes. In fact I use very little else. Now I know that you're reading DominoPower because you know Notes, so I just want to talk about a few pieces for Notes specific to the traveling user.

Start with location documents. My personal address book has a lot of these, as you can see from Figure A.

FIGURE A


My personal address book has a lot of location documents. Roll over picture for a larger image.

I use the Location documents to tell Notes not only where my mail file is, but also to switch IDs and servers when I connect to a customer's Notes system. They also manage my dialing information--whether I need a 9 or 0 for an outside line, for example, and also the time zone that I'm located in. One switch of location document, and I have the right ID file and Notes name, server connections, mail file, and dialing information.

The second piece of this is connection documents; or more specifically the connection document that enables me to dial my home server from wherever I happen to be. This works in conjunction with the dialing information on the location records to be able to dial the correct number. I also use the connection documents to manage passthru connections to multiple passthru servers more flexibly than can be done with the location record.

The last piece of the Notes jigsaw is the replication settings on the replicator page. There is a set of these specific to each location. The important one here is the truncation setting in the replication Options, as shown in Figure B.

FIGURE B


There is a set of replication settings specific to each location. Roll over picture for a larger image.

This enables me to replicate quickly on a dial-up connection by not pulling down attachments unless I need them. I also use the same capability for my mobile phone locations of not sending changes back to my home server, saving yet more phone time.

I'll talk more about setting up Notes for traveling connections, locations, and so on in a future DominoPower article.

Tool 3: NetSwitcher
I wrote about NetSwitcher in the March 2001 issue of DominoPower at http://www.dominopower.com/issues/issue200103/netswitcher001.html, so I'll be brief here. If you plan to plug into different networks while you travel, you must use NetSwitcher (at http://www.netswitcher.com). It's like location documents for Windows networks, and it will save you at least 10 minutes each time you attach to a different network. I attach to at least three different token ring networks and several Ethernet networks, including a wireless network, and I can do that easily and quickly with NetSwitcher.