Digital preparations

You know what keeps me up late before trips? It's not last minute booking, trying to stuff clothes in a suitcase or finishing last minute tasks for work. No, it's all the digital preparation that needs to be done.

It used to be a matter of ripping a few CD's of music as mp3's. Fortunately, I already have my complete music library conveniently stored on my phone and other devices. Now it's about converting reams of movies and television shows to formats suitable for mobile players, then getting them on to those players. Ripping and converting a couple of DVD's from our collection can take a whole night.

That's the nice thing about decent inflight entertainment systems on airlines, you don't need to worry about something to watch on a long overnight flight. But we are flying Jetstar...

Then there's Alex, the main beneficiary of the digital conversions. They usually don't have enough ABC/BBC kids programs on flights (No, No, No Nickelodeon or non Pixar Disney) and anyway, we need this stuff for the trains as well.

There are book and toys in our bags, lots of walking and running to be done outside and my eyes are going to be glued on the view out of the window anyway, but for those times when you and everyone else wants some peace and quiet, portable media players are a godsend.

One day, when everything is stored in the cloud, geographical restrictions on content disappear and there is ubiquitous (and cheap) wireless communications then maybe I'll be able to have a good sleep before we leave.

Somehow, I don't think so.

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