Ive carried my beltline kit just about everywhere. It has been the most useful thing I have ever had! I carry a Leatherman Surge, a leatherman knife with screwdriver/bottle opener/D-ring, butane and zippo lighters, jewlers screwdriver set, battery pouch, Garmin eTrex GPS, GMRS radio with NOAA, and a very basic cell phone.
I carry with me a Maxpedition Gearslinger which could be the best daypack for me with food, clothes, medkit, and my additional tools.
I can just about accomplish anything in the real world and I have felt massively more self dependent anywhere I go.
A big lacking in my kit is that while PDAs might be small, they really dont do all that I want. Laptops do but they can be bulky or awkward to whip out in some situations. Phone data plans suck with the pricing and the backstabbing and you only get in the more expensive phones pay to play GPS even though the functionality is already built in and PDA like internet experience.
I believe that knowledge is the best kit to carry with you and the easiest way of gaining that is the internet. I wont go into why I believe this but its obvious.
START
Belt line internet tablet
The device I have chosen is the Nokia N800. It has 2 full size SD card slots, bluetooth, b/g wifi, 800x600 res, touchscreen, good battery life, and runs linux. Can support up to 16G of data and with a mod, can run the USB in Host mode, Add on 500GB drives, etc.
The N810 Had a keyboard and GPS built in, plus they have a WiMax version. But it has only one mini SD card slot instead of the 2 full size SDs of the n800.
Hardware
Belt line holster with room for other kit
http://www.niteize.com/bb_40_sizing.phpCarman OBDII scanner open source
http://openbossa.indt.org/carman/Elmscan OBDII Bluetooth scanner
http://tunertools.com/proddetail.asp?prod=ST-422000Solar powered Bluetooth GPS plus data logger
http://store.canadagps.com/i757prosoblg.htmlRechargeable AA batteries, modded
Run 6 AA batteries in series with a power regulator or unregulated to a power plug for recharging. Device handles 820 mA at 5-9 VDC for charging
Shapelock mold able plastic
graft AA batteries and plug into custom holster insert with charger plug. Put into belt line holster. When device is inserted, the device draws power from the AA batteries, recharging the unit.
Something like this but more of a holster that would sit in the belt pouch, enabling sliding in and out.
http://blog.russnelson.com/770/N800-external-battery.htmlFold able solar panel
Recharge your electronics on the go, Exploring pack mount options.
Extras
Sprint data only plan for the Deaf.
40 something a month for unlimited data plus free tethering. No voice. 5GB month max
PAN or DUN Bluetooth Phone
Wireless pairing for data on the go. Use with skype on the device for voice.
Airocrack suite
For security auditing of wifi networks
Device supports tons of software. Make it your own.
All in all this solution seems perfect for me.
What does it do?
Internet
Car troubleshooting
Book reading
Media
Camcorder
GPS and Datalogger
RSS, Internet radio, flash
Security auditing
Open source linux
400mhz 128 DDR
How does it do it?
Small form factor for functions
Belt line mountable
Cheap $200 or so
Device rating 4/5 for not having a factory USB hub interface but you can soft mod one.
