(Risking hellbanning)... The Great Brain would make a fantastic movie, don't you think? Somebody like Walden Media should get right on that.

I used to carry a lot of that stuff, but now I have cut way back. What I don't carry anymore: Shopping cards - What barcode? Just give them your phone number. My wife has signed up for so many of those that I just give them my number and it always works. Leatherman - Lost a good one when forgetting about it at the airport. Don't carry mine anymore, because I rarely need tools outside the house anyway. A unique thing I do carry: Earphones - I carry a set of Sennheiser earphones that wind up into a flat circular case. I can plug them into my Android phone or the computer at work or a plane or wherever. Very useful. Also: USB drive - The real question is what is on your USB drive. I have found a ton of great utilities on PortableApps.com and PortableFreeware.com. These are the ones I use regularly: 7-zip - For unzipping. Especially 7z and rar files. AlternateStreamView - Remove that pesky "this file was downloaded" message. CDBurnerXP - For computers with burners but no install capability. CPUZ - Your friend/relative wants a memory upgrade. What should they buy? EjectUSB - Closes all programs related to the drive and readies it for removal. This is the greatest program ever. Ethereal - Network sniffer (guess I should update to WireShark) FileMon - Watch which files a program opens. FileZilla - FTP Firefox - duh Hexplorer - Hex editor IcoFX - Icon editor JKDefrag - Defragger KeePass - Password management MagicJellybeanKeyfinder - Get Windows install codes for current machine. OpenOffice - Mostly opening .docx and .xslx for people who don't have MS Office 2007+. Also, it's easy to turn docs into PDFs. PhotoFiltre - Great image editor. (Old free version.) ProcessExplorer - TaskManager on steroids. QueryExpress - Connect to Access, SQL or Oracle databases with no programs or drivers installed. Awesome. Recuva - Malware uninstaller. RoadKillUnstoppableCopier - Recover your friends' mangled CDs and DVDs. SIW - System Information for Windows TCPOptimizer - Sets the receive window, IE max connections, etc. to optimum values. WinDirStat - Fastest drive clutter finder. WinMD5Sum - Great for checking the latest Linux ISO. WinMerge - Source code diff tool.