Notebook for a long trip?

Don't take it to the Sahara or any desert! Especially during the windy season; dust will kill it deader than... well, dead.

If you do bring it, make sure you're confident with its security and safety or you'll spend too much time worrying about it. Make sure it has a padded sleeve if you don't like bags that look like they contain a laptop, (I like my "waterproof" timbuktu) and a waterproof backpack/carrier- its protection against the elements is easier to feel confident about than its protection from the dodgy guy in the bus station. (I'm dealing with my laptop in an unusually wet season abroad.)

You will also have to take it everywhere with you if you are staying in budget hotels with questionable door locks or a hostel with multiple-bed rooms.

Also, if the country doesn't have ATMs, it's not going to have hotspots, but you might find it useful and cost effective to write out long emails on your laptop and then sending them from an internet cafe via a portable USB harddrive (do you know what I mean- I momentarily forget what they are called).

Good luck!

I have a softback paper journal (though I should have taken two) where I stick in things of interest, postcards, recommendations for accommodation, books Ive read etc as well as write what Ive done, how Im feeling etc. then I have my online diary on this site, where I download photos from my camera.

I also download onto Yahoo photos, I have downloaded some onto disk and sent home, but the majority is online. Also I found the most invaluable item was a memory card reader which plugs directly into the USB and the memory card slots in - it saves valuable time downloading the disk and then all the other bumph which goes with downloading pics.

The less expensive gear you take the better I feel. Then you wont feel obliged to carry the laptop everywhere with you, when there isnt a safe for it to be locked into. Its a bummer when you're down the beach, dying for a dip, but you cant leave your kit....