We live in a very richly rewarding and mobile lifestyle. Our smart phones do more and we’ve seen unmatched explosion in how we can address files, data, and social networks from the comfort of a phone or tablet. The new Nexus phones and tablets don’t come with expandable memory which leaves some wishing they did and others investing in cloud resources. It really does not matter what cloud you push data or music into does it? Its the same with operating systems and computers you may use. If you can use a 5 year old laptop and perhaps it runs a libre operating system or the latest running Windows 8 but you can reach the desired portals and install the software which makes you a tool user; that’s truly okay. My choice is to still use an older laptop and run Linux on it.

The work laptop runs Windows 7 but I never use it for non work type stuff. I just don’t like Windows all that much. I can open a terminal, type some basic scripts into the terminal and have my Debian laptop connect, transfer, mount, copy, look at directories and then save the list of files into a buffer or text file for later. In the past, I ran this virtual manager called screen which let me do tasks which required time, push the session into the background and then re-join when I got home and the thing was either finished or still going. Very handy for doing database things on a remote mySQL DB server at a data center which I really did not want to just sit and wait for.

Another indicator of how mobile our lives are is in how our preferred devices have changed so dramatically. I went from bigger desktops to smaller desktops to bigger laptops to smaller laptops to tablets in the past 2 years. As my divorce finalized, I saw the need to really divest and modernize and take advantage of the cloud solutions which would let me travel, work, socialize with less. I traveled Asia for almost three weeks with only a Xoom Android wifi tablet. Tablet traveling really wins out when you are hitting the road and want to travel light. Not sure about how the myriad work tasks would end up with no laptop but traveling through Japan, Singapore, and India was a breeze. Every place had wifi and i got great battery life.

The next iteration of tablets will be smaller by all accounts. We’re settling for 7 inch devices with ultra high resolution screens, better memory, updated bluetooth, but still no SD cards on Nexus devices. I personally think people will rebel against that but I also understand that  things like the controllers, the bays, the cards themselves are rich with failure.

Whether you use a surface, a iPad, an android tablet consider how you can positively move through your environments and how you can store your life, moments, friends, contacts, social sites all within a very portable device. In the end we’re seeing the true convergence of devices and people across social and technological landscapes. I’ll peacefully advocate something open versus a walled-in garden for this. With open standards come the ability to extend, enhance, make use of. With walled gardens comes dependency. You must wait for your provider to enhance. Who’s to say that they will?

I plan on hitting the road again and not in some far flung date. I’ll go even lighter the next time and for longer. It perhaps will be the trip of a decade and I’ll learn even more about light travel, smaller converged devices, with cloud systems which all integrate because of their open nature. My Android tablet will bridge the divides for me. I’ll blog, create stories, write and record. Perhaps integrate my pictures into streams which reflect the where and when of my travels. All on a sleek and slim device which mere years ago was a concept design.

I’ll always opt for more open standards over closed silos. We get further and farther with standards others can embrace and build on. Don’t travel with the rollerbag! Its great for that old legacy laptop; but reduce the impact and don’t hit other travels in the knees on the plane.

I read a few blogs these days and only a few. One of them is Jonas’ which has this great mix of his life events, travels, cooking, stories which seem to me so enjoyable. Another is my friend Setuid. Although Dave does not update his blog at any set pace, his posts have always been a well of information on a myriad of categories from Windows configuration to travel to hints on how to get a thing setup on Debian. I also have been reading my friend Hank’s blog on his pending return to Japan. I don’t queue these up in some RSS or Atom or whatever reader. For some reason, I enjoy the act of visiting the sites and not just scraping them for the content. Perhaps its the format of the weblog I enjoy and how its presented.

So what is there to gain from these perambulations? Well, each person brings a set of things to consider, to cogitate, to reason with or to fantasize about. Truth be told, I have this fantasy trip in my ideal and perhaps real state some day. I wish to tour Asia starting again in Japan and taking the Shinkansen down to Hiroshima. Then flying over to Bangkok and catching the 23 hour marathon train to Singapore. I’ll spend time in Singapore until I’m done and perhaps head to KL to go to a cheaper place. Chennai will want me to return as well but I would like to reach other places in India. Places I have not been to and there are many in my EverNote note. Places that either are mysterious in their history or beautiful in their present. A friend asked me at work whether i felt travel was this drug which kept the nasty world at bay. Perhaps it is to me. Maybe I can find the way to not be connected to life events when everything I own is in a RedOxx AirBoss and my entire connectivity option is a Android Tablet like the Nexus 10.

In my last sojourn I discovered that tablet travel is so doable for me. It makes the whole laptop which weighs in a 3 pounds and all the cables so easily replaced. No cell phone is needed either. I can skype or Google Chat so easily.

So one day I’ll venture forth and not look back. Looking back is for chickens when you can look to the day or even to the next. I’ll write more blogposts and perhaps a story or two about how I touch things and how they touch me.

Most of all thanks to those folks which write the things I love to read. I visit and read and learn with each of the posts you all do and its appreciated. There is no real point to this blog and never has been. Its been the experiment of one which keeps on creating and installing new variables. For each thing that I thought was an end there was always a beginning which was around the corner. Marriage, divorce, jobs. All are ends and beginnings.

That’s a good thing BTW. Cheers!