I've got a Leatherman Super Tool, but I've opted recently to carry the Swiss Army Knife. The Leatherman is useful, but I found it too hard to pocket, and I don't always wear belts where it's convenient or fashionable to clip it on in its nylon holster.

In my pockets, i usually carry a variety of things, house keys, smallish wallet, hanky, some gum, coins, a sony ericsson t68i, which is alow, but bluetooth syncing is great. I used to carry my penknife, but i recently lost it.
In my backpack, I carry book to read, usually a photography or climbing magazine and my TiBook. A variety of cables, a palmIIIc, bluetooth adaptor and my iPod, securid token and a ragtag of different bits of paper. Finally I often carry my 35mm canon slr to take photos of London, though I do want a decent point and shoot digital camera

I find reading through these lists quite interesting, it reminds me of the
futureculture thread on
what are you wearing from 1993. Somewhat patchy archive, search in the link for "wearing" and you see people added it to their .sig file.

times have moved forward from then, many more gadgets in peoples pockets to add to the usual key money wallet. People comment on the amount of disposable items that we carry, I have nothing really that isn't disposable, but my knife had a longevity to it that made it more part of me that the mobile / cellphone I'll replace every year or so.

here's my gear list...

Currently in my pockets, I have a Sony Ericsson t68i. When I bought this phone, they were going to send me a free camera that supposedly I could take pictures of my three children in the Swiss Alps with. It never arrived, otherwise I could include it with my list of gadgets. I bought this phone because of its bluetooth capabilities.. oh and the camera that apparently takes photo realistic pictures .. or at least the poster seems to indicate that. ;-)

I have one Uniball pen. .03 milimeter fine point - black ink. Dan Moniz just told me that, because I actually didn't know.

Chapstick - Carmex.

One "currency unit" wallet. I actually only bought this wallet because it was called a currency unit. It's actually poorly designed. I make wallets out of duct tape that are better than this.

One Tampax, six spoons, workout pants, a book of some sort, cds, and my Visor.

Edited by author 03-11-2003 01:02 AM
A small notepad (paper, 3" x 4"). A pen.

Why is because it's what I need.

(Except, given our economy and government: a credit card and my driver's license, tucked into the same pocket as the notepad; some folding money, tucked into the same pocket as the pen.)

In left front pants pocket: Uniball pen, mechanical pencil, checkbook, business card case.

In right front pants pocket: keyring, Palm VII. (I usually wear pants with big cargo pockets...)

In right rear pants pocket: wallet.

On belt, right: Nokia 5160 phone, in belt-clip case. (I don't need a fancier phone, with the Palm VII to handle wireless-Internet needs.)

On belt, left: Leatherman Wave and Mini Mag-Lite, in combination belt holster. (Though I wouldn't wear that if I were going to be flying, of course.)

In shirt pocket: sunglasses (except at night...if I'm wearing a shirt without pockets, the glasses will often go in my inside jacket pocket)

And, of course, on my wrist, my ancient Casio Databank watch. Not that I need the Databank or calculator, with the power of a Palm VII at my disposal, but old habits die hard, and it has other useful things like a countdown timer, stopwatch, and multiple timezones. (I used to go through watchbands like nobody's business, until I replaced those cheap rubber/plastic watchbands with a Speidel expanding watchband. The paint's rubbing off it in places, but it's lasted far longer than any other watchband I've ever had and is still mechanically sound.)

moleskine notebook - totally rules. because I got fed up with the batteries dying in my old Visor, and I like writing with a pen on paper, and it is very hi-res, and I can doodle on it, and the cover is nice and stiff, and lots of brainy people like bruce chatwin used them, so maybe some magic will rub off, and of course, all the cool kids are using moleskines these days...

ipod (too heavy?) gah. with excellent sony fontopia headphones, which are way better than the supplied behemoths. because i love it.

bog-standard nokia phone (don't know what model, but everyone in UK seems to have one). because you have to, don't you?

(how the hell do you put up a fight with a metal pen?)

Please see #6 under 12 Areas of Kali

Also, I have a hand-cuff key on my key ring since they are universal. Might be something to consider if you use cuffs to secure your laptop...

Just for comparison's sake, the current king is Crazy Eric of Lyon. He carries 26 lbs of stuff daily, including a blow-up mattress, water-filtering unit and soldering iron. 1300 items integrated in what Guinness describes as the world's most practical suit.

I'm never without my HP 200LX - a real PC that fits in my pocket. It's got my phone directory, calendar, games, e-texts and many notes and databases.

On my belt I carry a Kershaw lock-back knife (but not when flying), Canon PowerShot S100 digital camera, and Motorola phone - I couldn't tell you the model but it's meant for use on the T-Mobile network. (And it's totally stupid that it gets dust inside the screen. I have had to pull the cover off it every week or two to clean it out.)

Pockets have the following:
ChapStick
spare pair of AA NiMH cells (for the 200LX)
keys to two cars
house and office keys
tiny LED flashlight
comb
Sakura pen (blue Micron 005 - .20 mm line width)
wallet full of credit cards, driver's license, bank cards
tiny Swiss Army knife (scissors, tweezer, nail file,...)
pocket money

A personal pocket computer is something I've found useful for
a long time. My original was purchased in 1991: a Sharp Wizard
Organizer, OZ-7000. A big hulking thing that was, with a full
keyboard, but not QWERTY (later models were), 32kB of RAM, an
expansion card that was PCMIA sized, but before that standard
came out. Powered by three lithium batteries (and sometimes
a fourth inside an expansion card), it still works when I
replace the batteries. As of 2001 it still had data I'd
entered into it seven years earlier. No Y2K problem, either.

These days is is a Palm VIIx, which is smaller, but still a
bit bulky.

I also carry a pen, a sharpie, a Leatherman (the original
configuration, which I find to be the best match of compact
and full-function), my keys (nothing fancy on the chain
these days, I used to keep a pin from a fire-extinguisher),
something to keep track of time (presently the pager my job
provides me), my wallet, and a hankerchief.

I may regret asking this, but, why a pin from a fire extinguisher, Eli?

Casio data bank watch for appointments/phone numbers.
Keys and wallet. I like technology to get down to watch size
before I carry it.

jleader asks me "Why a pin from a fire extinguisher?"

Well, I found it handy for a while as a hard thing to poke and
prod with, but small enough to fit in my pocket. Many years
ago -- to tie into another bb subject -- I used to keep a
model rocket engine clip in my wallet for similar reasons.

Off hand I can think of two things I did with the pin.

 1) Put the chain back on the sprocket of my bike without
    getting my fingers greasy.

 2) Insert it into a hole in a metal panel and use as a
    pry bar to pull the panel out.

After the panel was out I rewired some buttons to make it
easier to get to the basement of that building, but that's
a different story.

I was on vacation, so I'm arriving late at this party. I've listed my items here but in short I've found my everyday load is fairly light: wallet, keys, pill case, eyewear, and analog watch. Sometimes I add: ID/transit pass case, a book, my wonderful iPod, digicam, and my cell phone. Thanks for a really great thread!

I need help with the repair of a Fujifilm digital camera. I fixed crook On/Off switch but stuffed the functions of the little "L" shaped board around the LCD screen at the bck of the camera.

My symptoms are that only the "Back" button on the rear of the camera works, all else have failed. The ribbon cable connecting the rear board to the main board appears okay and all the switches seem to be functioning (multimeter test) but no response from the camera. If you have any idea what it may be, please email me at keith@cashmasters.com.au Thanks in anticipation.