A serial number on the back of the plate could survive, even if the display is destroyed.

Great name for a new SUV.

The polarization for passive glasses is circular, so alignment isn't an issue.

The question of active/passive glasses is generally a trade-off between display cost and glasses cost. Most passive technologies for the home also involve reduction in vertical resolution (where alternate lines are polarized differently). Active technologies involve a reduction in frame rate (or an effective doubling in frame rate to recover).

The OP did mention "Sweaty Tennis Socks", so we're covered.

From 2001-2003 my wife and I took a 2 year bike trip. While we could take more gear than a backpacker, we still tried to keep it light.

First was a Fujitsu P1000 micro-laptop (Transmeta Crusoe based, so there's your "linux/linus" reference, although it ran WinME). I used it for email, web browsing, updating a web page, managing finances, storage of digital photos, and as an MP3 player. It held up remarkably well in 15000 miles of on- and off-road riding, and did everything I needed it to do. No CD drive - the external one I used was left behind. The PCMCIA slot was used to mount the camera's memory card.

Next was a Kodak DC280 digital camera. It used AA batteries, and I used a small charger rather than buying new batteries. The weight of the charger was pretty low. The camera was beat up pretty well, but still works. Pictures were copied to the laptop as needed.

A couple of small earbud earphones with a splitter to let us listen to music in the tent, as well as an adapter to have RCA outputs to pipe audio to a hotel's TV or stereo when desired (music or webcasts).

Internet access was typically through dial-up, although I could use a local fast connection when available. You can either get a service with roaming support like iPass, or sign up for local service if you plan to be in a country for a while. We even used Net10's free service while in the USA; this was sufficient to connect, download/upload emails and cache a few web pages, and disconnect.

I had a cell phone - we'd get pre-paid SIM cards for use in local countries, and just tell friends our new phone number as needed. This was for emergencies, and for making travel arrangements and hotel bookings when needed.

No GPS receiver - although it might have been nice to have a log of our travels.

We used BOB trailers for most of the trip, and had a small daypack to carry the computer, camera, passports and cash with us at all times.