So I had one at one time. Oh those crazy geology days where I figured if I had at least one clean pair of socks, a swiss army knife, and three MREs I could conquer the world. That was all I needed…well and a blanket..and the remote control…and the paddle ball game….and this lamp.
Anyway – I’m travelling and a GIS person. I’ve had this day long internal argument about what I need to “survive” as a GIS person. If someone screams “go” what do I need to have with me. So I made a list – and I share the list with you of what I should have (in bold) and what I do have (in italics).
Bug Out bag for the GIS Professional or at least a Randy Hale
- Laptop – A decent laptop. I have several but my favorite for size is the HP Pavilion G. 4 GB of RAM and about an 350GB hard drive. 3 USB, 1 HDMI, and 1 SD slot. Battery life is a pain at just over two and a half hours if I’m not doing anything.
- Operating system – xubuntu 12.10 and Windows 7. I’ve got two operating systems on the laptop. Why? Linux is stable enough to run as my operating system and I don’t need to worry about viruses. Windows 7 in a virtual machine because it is a windows world out there and if I need it I don’t have to look for it.
- USB Flash Drives – I’ve got 4 ranging from 2 gb to 16 gb.
- USB Hard drive – 1 terabyte seagate drive that runs off the USB port.
- 1 mini USB cable
- 1 recreation grade GPS
- Batteries for GPS
- 1 regular USB Cable
- 10 feet of Cat 5 Cable
- Twisted Cat 5 cable – great for networking two computers together.
- QGIS/FOSS4G – No licensing and if you know what you are doing you can get things done. Most importantly – no licensing. So if something bombs you don’t have to request a license file and you aren’t waiting on someone. Did I mention licensing?
- Power Strip/Something that will allow multiple cords to be plugged into it. Right now I’ve got a 5 plugin power strip shoved in my bag. I need one of these . Go to an airport and look for a plugin. Better yet stay in a 100 year old building and look for a convenient power outlet.
- Extension cord – See above.
- ArcGIS – I’m torn about this one. I have lived an ArcGIS free life for the last three weeks. Today I received my first File Based geodatabase. I’m compiling support for FGDB into gdal tonight. Plus you have to deal with licensing if something happens.
- FME – I’ve been debating purchasing FME for a while. I see the need more and more this week. I’m not sure how it’s licensed – that could be a problem.
- Comfortable bag to carry all this stuff in. Right now I have a messenger style bag I bought on sale. I need a backpack of some sort with lots of compartments and places to stick things.
- Power Inverter – to charge electronic equipment in the field (from a car) or Solar!
- Compass – I walked out and forgot it.
- Paper Maps small enough for a notebook.
- 1 Sharpie Marker
- Ink pens
Is this enough? I have no clue. When I got here I made a run to the local K-Mart for things. That made me wonder what I would have done with no shopping area. I have almost everything I need as of right now to work – except ESRI software….but that was a choice. I should be competent enough to live without it. If I need it I can remote back into the office and run ArcGIS.
