Swissgear messenger bag

http://www.conrad.com/ce/en/product/977572/Swissgear-Yukon-156-to-173-Laptop-Bag-Wenger-SwissGear-SWISSGEAR-173-Black (this link is to a newer version, closest I could find to my 7 year old bag)

This bag has been with me since 2009, and for about the last 3 years did double duty, carrying both of my laptops with other assorted gear, and has held up beautifully, No fabric wear, not a stitch or seam broken anywhere. Both zippers are intact and still pull smooth and easily, they haven't even lost the pull-tabs (usually my first issue with any zipper). The handle and the shoulder strap are reasonably comfortable (for a single shoulder strap) and show no signs of wear either. Can't recommend this bag enough if you are looking for a tough messenger bag. If you are going to haul 2 laptops around (plus gear) I would strongly recommend something with 2 shoulder straps though, if you're doing any serious walking about.

Toshiba Satellite P855-S5312

http://www.cnet.com/products/toshiba-satellite-p855-s5312-15-6-core-i5-3210m-windows-8-6-gb-ram-750-gb-hdd-series/specs/

I beefed up the ram to 16gb and removed the optical drive in order to install a second hard drive. I also replaced the original 750gb spinning HDD. The new drives were both samsung evo 500gb SSD's. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W02DV8166 My only real gripe about this laptop is the screen resolution, which maxes out at 1366x768. IMHO, this is a waste of real estate on a 15.6 inch screen. I am looking into this, but replacement with a higher resolution screen seems to be unfeasible, from what I am reading. ( IF YOU HAVE SUGGESTIONS OR KNOW OF A SOLUTION I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT IT!!)

The old HP Pavillion dv5-1235dx

http://www.cnet.com/products/hp-pavilion-dv5-1235dx-15-4-core-2-duo-t6400-vista-home-premium-64-bit-4-gb-ram-320-gb-hdd-series/specs/

(I dont presently haul this one around anymore) Got this one in '09. nice screen doing 1680x1050 , but I didn't care for the plastic housing. I like the metal case on the toshiba. - although older, I really liked this laptop, and still prefer the keyboard (although somewhat cramped) over the one on my Toshiba. The feel of the keys themselves and the distinctive stroke and light click as you press down through the detent, just feels better than the chiclet keyboard on my newer machine. Incidentally, I once spilled a rum and coke across this thing, keyboard and all, while it was powered down. After dry out and a good cleaning, it fired up and still works. I don't recommend trying to re create this experiment though. Dumb luck, I suppose. I was sure it would be a deader.

Wacom intuos cth480 pen/touch tablet

http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Intuos-Tablet-Certified-Refurbished/dp/B00Q7FU5YS

(this thing isn't available in this form anymore) these are very nice and work out of the box for me on debian, and mint, (cant speak for other distros). Getting the pen's pressure sensitivity settings in some drawing programs (krita, gimp, etc) can sometimes be a bit fiddly and sometimes hard to find. Overall works quite well, although I am not a professional artist. Trucker, remember? Fun to play with, and reasonably small so its good travel size.