For the next week, I will be completely unwired as I embark on a camping trip with several friends (an electrical engineering student and three pre-law students) in the Middle of No Where, Texas (about 2-3 hours from Austin). According to AT&T's coverage map, I won't have much of a cell signal and paired with the iPhone 3G's horrid battery life, I won't be getting much use out of it. As far as geeky survival tools are concerned, I'm bringing the 150mW green laser I reviewed last year, a 12 gauge flare gun, a Solio solar charger, 5 or 6 LED flashlights, a propane-fueled lantern and white gasoline for starting a campfire in case we find an area not under a burn ban.
Should we ever get stranded on a day-long hike or rafting excursion (or more likely, encounter mountain lions), the charger would be used to power my iPhone to publish/Twitter GPS coordinates if there is a cell signal present. The laser could be used as a beacon for alerting rescuers (note: not pointed at aircraft, which is highly illegal in the U.S.) to our position at night, with the flare gun reserved for daytime use. Of course, I'm just playing out unlikely scenarios in my head. We'll have plenty of water, food and be sufficiently distanced from any sort of stress-inducing, information-overload-producing piece of technology.. real vacation.
What is the longest you have been completely without an Internet connection? The last I can remember was in 2004 when I was at my uncle's place Greece, couldn't get dial-up to work on my laptop and only found an Internet café every 3 or 4 days.