(The Joker to Batman - paraphrased)

The Internet: Like having the Library of Congress at your fingertips. For an information addict such as myself, this stuff is great. The community is good too, no?

Cell phone: I remember the first time I got a business call while sitting on top of a mountain while doing geo-mapping. My mapping partner laughed his head off: "That's why we go in the field, to get away from the phone!" The terrane was rugged enough that I wouldn't have gotten the call unless I was at the top of the mountain. At camp, I had to park the truck next to the trailer to create a sort of dish, then stand at the focal point to call home and check in with my wife. If I moved six inches...signal gone. Took some experimenting to find this out. I never use up my minutes now, but I carry it everywhere. We've rescued a couple of stray dogs on our walks because I've had the phone on me. And when you are traveling, which I do a lot, they are priceless (even with roaming charges!). Otherwise, it is turned off.

GPS: Have two, want newer ones. Love 'em. As a geologist and cartographer, nearly instant Lat-Longs and maps are my joy. They don't replace maps, but I think they are one of the greatest things ever made. I've got one I can import air photos into. It drives my wife nuts. They don't always work in the places I go (cliff faces can really bounce a signal) but it is now almost as indispensible to me as my Brunton Compass. (which does things a GPS cannot - without batteries!)

Tivo. Don't have one, don't want one. TV I like, and there are a few times I wish I had one, but I don't really need it. I also don't like adding to their database about my viewing habits.

I-pod. I got a DELL DJ very cheap when I got my new 'puter. Oh my Gawd is that cool! I've loaded all of our favorite CDs into it, and there is still a lot of room for more. A 20 gig memory? That's insane. It is so nice to use it in the car on long trips, on airplanes, in the yard, on the ski slopes, backpacking - you don't need to decide what disks to carry, it's all right there. Amazing. And we have only just started to put books on it.

Digital Cameras. A few months ago, my digital camera informed me that we had taken 10,000 pictures over the life of the card. 10K. I'm serious. (I do take a lot of stereo photos) Most of those were crap. Some of them were great. We burn the really great ones to a disk and get slides made for longevity. It is fun to take just pictures and not care about wasting film. And it is so quick to see the results and 86 the bad ones. And then to improve the pictures on the computer, a gamma adjust here, red-eye removal there, get rid of the guy picking his nose in the background... A wonderful invention. It's always out on the counter, just in case there is backyard wildlife that needs documenting.

You forgot DVD's, which I enjoy so much more than video tape!