Thanks for time to do this for us, dude! Love these new additions / ideas to play with.

Excited to have another ultralight warrior in the tribe! Stoked for you for the AT hike, r/ultralight is a good resource although I'm biased as a mod of r/MYOG (making your own gear is the best and frankly, I think you'd REALLY enjoy it).

Love the projector esp on a van trip, sounds amazing (my kiddos snuggled in blankets on BLM land watching a movie while they fall asleep under the stars).

Re the monitor, how do you prop it up? I've also done extended travel with a secondary monitor (when I had to work a lot more) and ended up doing the monitor above the laptop screen but it required a fairly large stand that didn't elegantly fit in my 18"-tall bag.

Re Dex: The Pixel Fold does have a Dex-like "OS" mode with USBC video out but it's not nearly as good as Dex. I suspect it'll improve, if not surpass, Dex soon, though, and I'm here for it. Dunno if you've tried it but potentially worth looking into (yt vid or w/e).

Question: SteamDeck? Unsure if you're into games enough to justify it but I've enjoyed mine every time I've brought it; although these days with young kids, I'm def less mobile so YMMV. It's a wonderful device, though, and curious if you've tried it (I vaguely recall you considering it in one of the past posts). Currently playing Baldur's Gate 3 and it's stunning on the deck.

My favorite part of this year's post is the USBC cables. You're a legend man, I love it. Taking things to that level of optimization is pure joy in my book, one of the most satisfying parts of mastery.

Thanks again for the write up!