Poor me… I don’t have a keychain
Nice one. Just bought a Leatherman Squirt P4 on the back of this.
You would think data centre operators would have a such a thing as a screwdriver onsite, but no. Not in my experience anyway.
I will never again have to use a PCI blanking plate as a screwdriver. Sun rack kits will be no match for my keyring-attached pliers. Hazah!
A lot of people seem to wonder why you’d carry a USB thumb drive. I use one for backups of certain data. (Essentially everything except my media files because they are too big.) I use TrueCrypt to keep it secure. It has come in handy a number of times. USB drives aren’t just for moving files between two machines…
As martinD said, the http://images.google.com.au/images?q=utilikey Utili-Key is a damn fine addition.
I don’t know why you wouldn’t add one on there, 2 (flat-head) screwdrivers, a serrated/flat blade, bottle opener philips head screwdriver - and it looks just like any of your other keys!
I’ve just got 3 keys and a utili-ley, and that does the job for me.
Although I’m seriously considering grabbing one of those LED-lights.
I notice you lost your lid for your USB drive…
Make your own! See: http://ultra-dionysus.blogspot.com/2007/05/usb-memory-drive-lid-diy.html
What’s the point of having a 8/16GB memory stick - well, encrypt it (TrueCrypt) and you can have it as a backed up ‘central’ store of all your data/MyDocuments etc. ALWAYS with you (OK, maybe not your complete MP3,DivX collection but everything else).
I’ve written a small program to access the data that takes my password and kicks off a few RoboCopy scripts to back itself up to the host PC (if its my home PC/work PC). - I can’t access my data until it starts the backup script!!
The home pc and work pc are then both separate mirrors of my data in case I lose my USB drive.
just an electronic key for my prius. not even a key chain on my key chain, actually. everything else, including house key, is in my laptop bag.
I have a Leatherman tool as well, one of the double-folding ones, but I carry it in a holster. How many people would rather carry it in the holster vs on the keychain? (It just “drives” me crazy to hear the keys jingling and swinging when driving.) The only key I carry is for my car. I use a keypad to get into my house and other buildings. All hail Simplex keypads!
What a surprise… my keychain comprises of keys… but I will add that I D-link my keys to my wallet which all fits nicely into one pocket. Nice to have them attached as they can often be of equal importance.
Seven keys–one of which is the big-car-key-with-buttons–on a plain metal ring.
hahah, uncanny, thats almost exactly what i have on my chain. different brands of course, but the combination is there!.
Also a word of warning, i attribute the recent failure of my Cars ingnition lock to the weight of the dangling keychain - its quite heavy and i imagine the stress of it swinging around in my car eventually took its toll on the locking mechanism. 
beware of keychain overload!
I’m kinda minimalist on my keychain - only keys, no fob or other miscellany. I just don’t like the added bulk in my pocket.
But I do always carry my beloved trusty Squirt P4 in my left front pocket. And I have a tiny, tiny, little OCZ Mini Kart 1GB flash drive loaded with PortableApps that I keep in my wallet. (The pressure and/or heat have never seemed to bother it and I’ve carried it this way for nearly 2 years.)
I don’t usually carry a flashlight, but now that you’ve turned us on to the Fenix LED, I’m awfully tempted to start doing so…
"the Squirt is a far more versatile multitool in almost the same form factor and weight. "
Hmm… According to Amazon from the link you provided, the Squirt is 2 pounds.
Bad Motherf#$%er, indeed.
“So what’s on your keychain?”
Err… Keys?
“and why?”
So I can lock and unlock my appartment door?
Sometimes you people really scare me.
On my keychain: two keys, a St. Christopher medal and an elastic band for tying my hair back in windy conditions. USB drive is in my work bag. I used to carry a smallish Swiss Army knife in my pocket, but lately I’ve found little use for it, and I don’t want to have problems when I visit client offices with metal detectors (some NYC financial firms).
All I have on my key chain is a bottle opener (and some keys, obviously).
Thank you, you opened my eyes.
A few people mentioned not using multi-tools because of airline stuff. My girlfriend had this thing on her last key chain where she could press a button and take the car keys off of the rest of the chain. It was great for when she wanted to loan me the car. Anyway, if anyone knows where someone could get one of those, or even what they are called, that might fix that situation rather nicely.
I can’t live without a full size Leatherman though some of those little ones look cool. Beyond a few keys, I swap gear out so much there isn’t anything I’d call my “everyday” items.
“As Syd mentioned multi-tools, such a pain at airports now, would hate to lose one cause I forgot to check it.”
That happened to me once. I basically had to check my carry on bag.
“I don’t get the 4-8GB USB drives. How often do you stick 4GB onto it?”
Well, 8GB = 8 billion bytes or 7629 mega-binary bytes, minus space for the file system and random crap the OS puts on there, and minus that 100 MB of crap you’re not sure what it is but you’d rather not delete it just now… so, yeah, I’d rather have an 8 GB stick and know I’ve got enough space than a 512 MB stick and hope I’ve got enough.
Long time reader, first time writer (I might be a geek, but a geek with a finance degree working with mutual funds so very little to contribute to masters such as yourself)
Great article, I think I will get one of these multi-tools. That other reader is right I almost lost a small screwdriver that I used to open up laptops that was left in my bag on the way back from Toronto, lets just say it was fun at security (they did let me keep it thought).
Thanks for your great Blog, I find it very interesting and enjoyable.
I’m sorry, but I can’t stand all that stuff hanging off my keychain. I’m pretty aggressive when it comes to culling things out of the wallet as well. My solution is a man-purse. 8*) Call it a messenger bag if you like. My current bag is the JanSport Paris Messenger:
http://www.amazon.com/JanSport-Paris-Messenger-Backpack/dp/B000FOOX9U
which I picked up for about $30 from eBags.com. Unfortunately it appears they no longer carry it.
Just something worth noting:
Keep your car keys and your house keys/everything else separate. Either that, or make it so they can be easily disconnected from one another so a) when you take your car in to the repair shop, you’re not spending 10 minutes separating them, but more importantly, b) so you’re not putting all that weight on the ignition column of your car, having it bang around while you drive, scratching/scuffing things up, and having it still be of (easy) use to you should you need to use something IN your car while it’s on (usually the flashlight).