Lifehacker Laptop Bags: Kevin Purdy Edition

Lifehacker's editors couldn't quite decide on what should be inside the Ultimate Laptop Bag. So I'm kicking things off with a look at my own laptop bag, which makes regular trips to a coworking spot, occasional coffee shop excursions, weekend jaunts to the parents or in-laws, and rare tech support tours. (Expect to see a few other editors open up their own bags soon.) Update: I added a few items I'd forgot to mention at first posting, such as headphones and, uh, the laptop bag itself. LaCie imaKey: It's way too easy to lose or damage USB drives if they're just hanging around your bag and getting plugged into things. The imaKey thumb drive feels like a splurge, and it's not exactly a laptop bag item, but for 8GB of space I really can't lose (by itself, at least), it's kind of a perfect laptop accessory. And keeping one or two really comfortable pens in a laptop bag ensures you've got something to jot with, and that a worthy pen doesn't get knocked under chairs or into heating vents by cats/kids/clumsy feet. I keep them in the bag using one of the best little techniques I ever saw on Lifehacker, the tangle-free "Devil Horns" wrapping method, and slipping the stereo plug into one of the Targus bag's pen slots. Serious "Extended Life" battery: I bought my first real laptop when I started at Lifehacker, and I soon after learned a lesson about the inevitable disappointment of a lithium-ion battery. As Battery University explains, "The worst condition is keeping a fully charged battery at elevated temperatures, which is the case with running laptop batteries." So I hit up Laptops For Less and laptop batteries Express, two sites I've read good reviews of, found a 12-cell battery for my ThinkPad, and keep it in the bag. The almost-useless 9-cell battery now serves as an emergency backup for saving and shutdown when the power's killed, while the serious battery is kept at around 80% power and fully charged when I know I'll need the full two hours of remote laptop time.