Peter Mayle spent a year in a farmhouse between Menerbes and Bonnieux, wrote about it, became famous, and inflated the real estate market for kilometers around.

Having just finished a week near Cavaillon, I figure I should be able to get at least a column out of the deal. Random thoughts that might have at least some remote bearing on IT:

Traveling with nothing but an iPad

In many respects, an iPad makes an excellent traveling companion. It’s compact, does triple duty as both a Kindle reader and iPod along with providing e-mail, calendar, and browser, greatly cutting down on the device count.

Not quite so much as might be imagined, though: If you do any serious writing (serious being defined as more than 200 words at one sitting) an external keyboard is the only alternative to high blood pressure. Still, the combination packs well … well enough to have made the difference between carry-on only and checked luggage.

So far as utility is concerned, though …