Technology Is The Cat's ass!

[spinr]

I treated myself to a new laptop today.  I agonized over the deep discount laptops from Dell that mtnbkr posted about last week, and ultimately didn't get one.  I've been kicking myself over that ever since.  So, I set out searching for something with decent specs and reasonably priced.  Now I've got myself a neat little Toshiba Satellite.  

It'll sure be handy on my little jaunts out and about whilst taking pictures, particularly so when I go on vacation back out to the NC coast next month.  During my trip last year, I took somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 total photos.  One of my coworkers was gracious enough to let me borrow her laptop for that trip and it sure did make life easier.


Anyhoo, this thing's got a wireless network card and as luck would have it, my DSL router from Verizon is wireless capable.  So with a little work, and a lot of cursing, I finally got it configured to connect wirelessly to my DSL router.

And thus, I'm now posting this from the comfort of my big, cushy couch in my den.  I feel like a kid at Christmas.  This is just so cool!

Is it wrong that I'm considering taking this thing into the Head with me for my next extended visit?



On a more serious note, do any of you folks have any experience using a wireless connection in a public location.  I know that some are available for free and others on a pay per use basis.  How's that work, typically?  I think the hotel I'm staying at during my trip to Dallas next week has something like this available, and I may consider trying it out if for no other reason than just doing it.

I'd appreciate any of y'alls personal experiences or input.

And one other thing...  Some time back, I saw this neat little wireless trackball, that was made such that it slid onto your index finger (I presume?) and the ball was operated with your thumb.  I think it was made by Logitech.  It was in most every store, but now I can't find it and I want one for my new computer.  I can't find it online or even listed on Logitech's website.  Are any of y'all familiar with this thing or know where I can find one now?

Thanks!

Now, off for some more couch-surfing.

[mtnbkr]

Is it wrong that I'm considering taking this thing into the Head with me for my next extended visit?

If you do, don't tell us about it.

I've never used publicly available wireless other than Verizon's "Broadband" service.  When the Dell gets here, maybe I'll drag it to Panera Bread and give it a try.  My other laptop is for work, so I tend not to do much recreational stuff with it.

What NC Beach?

Chris

[280plus]

I used to have a boss First thing he did at 0800 was go in the can, get on the shitter, get on the phone he had installed in there and conduct business like that for 15 minutes while 3 of us waited for our instructions for the day. I lasted there 6 weeks. :evil:

Congrats on the new toy. We got our kid a dell for christmas and the computer wiz wifey is not totally happy with it for some reason. I'll try to remember to ask.

[K Frame]

"Is it wrong that I'm considering taking this thing into the Head with me for my next extended visit?"

Some months ago I was in the men's room when this moron came in chatting on his cell phone. He stood at the urinal next to me, and proceeded to take care of two types of business at the same time.

Things were fine until he flushed and went to zip up, at which point he dropped his phone right in to the well-used pisser WHILE still connected to the person on the other end!

"Uh, Gerry? Gerry? What sounds like a waterfall? Did a pipe break or something?"

I laughed for the rest of the day and most of the night.

[grampster]

What is that echo I see in your post?

[garrettwc]

Be careful with public wireless connections. They are huge virus factories. They typically don't have the same security on their servers and routers that you or your ISP would set up. Make sure you're running good virus protection and a firewall on your laptop before you use a public connection.

My son had one of those little thumb mice on his laptop. It lasted about a week, then he went back to a regular mouse. I don't think the one he had was Logitech, but not sure.

I'd stick with the built in trackpad, or get one of the wireless laptop mice from MS or Logitech. They are just like a regular mouse only about 1/2 the size.

[K Frame]

I tried one a "ring mouse" a year or so ago.

I HATED IT.

[Harold Tuttle]

we were driving across Ohio headding to chicago when one of our team wanted a weather report for the hurricane heading towards florida

nothing was on the radio so we pulled into the rest stop pulled up to Panera bakery and opened up our mac laptops
from the parking lot we logged on, hit the weather.com website
downloaded the latest satellite tracking and exited the rest stop

[mtnbkr]

I can beat that HT...

With Verizon Wireless' "broadband" service, I can do that without stopping (assuming someone else is driving).

When I'm not driving during longer trips, I frequently surf the web.  

Chris

[Azrael256]

Toshiba = good.  You'll be happy with it, and their service is spectacular if you need it.

Public wireless is like casual sex.  As Garrettwc said, you'll need a digital rubber.  I like ZoneAlarm for a firewall.

You might also want to download a copy of net stumbler.  It's a neato little wireless detection program that will help you find hotspots.

[spinr]

What NC Beach?

Chris

Wilmington and surrounding areas for a while, then on to the Atlantic Beach area for a bit.  Kind of playing nomad with this trip.

The Cat's ass...this is good?

Yes, very good.

What is that echo I see in your post?

Me?  What echo?

Public wireless is like casual sex.  As Garrettwc said, you'll need a digital rubber.  I like ZoneAlarm for a firewall.

You might also want to download a copy of net stumbler.  It's a neato little wireless detection program that will help you find hotspots.

I've actually just put ZoneAlarm on it, have been using it at home for while now too; seems to work quite well.

Any other cool & good utilities / programs that you guys like?


Entering my second day with it, I've been trying the wireless out all over the house.  I've got a good signal in most every area, even a good portion of the yard.  I've also found one of my neighbors' wireless signals.  It's pretty weak, but I can connect to it... it's unsecured.  Wonder if they know, or even care...

Oh, well. :/

Thanks again peoples!
Steve

[Jamisjockey]

Is it wrong that I'm considering taking this thing into the Head with me for my next extended visit?

Got ya beat on that one already....I broke my wife's laptop in pretty quickly in the crapper.
I'm actually posting from it now.  We've got the basement in tatters, as we're getting the carpet replaced tomorrow, so I had to unhook the computer.  Put the router(s) in upstairs, and voila.....I can use the laptop.

Not to hijack your thread....but I grew up partly near Atlantic beach.  Be sure to go to Fort Macon State Park (just go to the North end of the beach, can't miss it).  There is a nice little beach there at the Fort, too, where you get a great view of the boats coming and going from the area.  Spent alot of time there fishing, actually....
Go into Morehead city and eat at El's Drive-In.
Fisherman's pier is another hotspot.  You can see a good ways down the beach from there, plus you can see some of the fishing action.  
Don't pass up the Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.

Did I mention that area is home?

[280plus]

broke my wife's laptop in pretty quickly in the crapper.
I'm actually posting from it now.

Now there's a piece of info I didn't really need.

[DrAmazon]

I use public wifi pretty frequently.  I use a Mac, and I keep the firewall turned up all the way all the time, I also keep the virus stuff very up to date.  

Since I've got a Mac, I just turn on airport and it generally just works.  Sometimes I've had to wander around my hotel room to find a good signal, but eventually I find it.  Most places, you will agree to the policies of the place when you first open your browser.  

There's a lot of websites with free wifi lists by zip code-just google free wifi and you'll find it. I can't tell you how many times having wireless saved me when I was on job interviews.  

I'm very careful of where I go when I'm on public wifi.  I don't log onto my bank or any of my financial stuff and I try not to buy stuff online when I'm on the public wifi.

I know that Panera has network filters.  I can't read sites with bullseye in the name or any gun manufacturers websites, but I have no problem reading this board or THR.

[grampster]

Spin180:
Bathroom + tile + porcelain + small quarters = echo when you talk.  Using a laptop is a form of "talking".

The rest of the comment was an obtuse attempt at humor.  I guess it did not "move" you in that way.  

[spinr]

Spin180:
Bathroom + tile + porcelain + small quarters = echo when you talk.  Using a laptop is a form of "talking".

The rest of the comment was an obtuse attempt at humor.  I guess it did not "move" you in that way.  

Ooohhhh, so that's what the gust of wind I felt on the top of my head was!  Ddduuuurrr...

You know, my bathrooms don't really resonate that well.

Still haven't done the Deuce yet, though.  I know, T.M.I...

[doczinn]

taking pictures, particularly so when I go on vacation back out to the NC coast next month.

Take lots of pictures of Wilmington, and post them.

Visit the Cotton Exchange, Paddy's Hollow, and a little bar downstairs from Second Street. Longstreet's, it was called a while back, and there's a good pool hall too.

Carolina Beach is a little more low-rent, and more to my taste, while Wrightsville Beach is more touristy.

See Fort Fisher, the USS North Carolina, and the Ft Fisher aquarium, and take the nature walk from the aquarium down to the river. Beautiful area.

Walk all the way around Greenfield Lake, and don't be afraid to leave the path and get into the swampy cypress area closer to the water. Even better, rent a canoe and you can really get into some great areas.

See a play at Thalian Hall if there's anything good playing, or otherwise just walk in and have a look around. Very historic theatre.

At that, there's a lot of history all over, and a lot of great pics.

Take a tour if you must, or just take a bike (or rent one) and see all of the historic district. It's not that big.

Some great dives in the area, if you like I'll try to remember them, 'though when I was there I couldn't go into any. Legally.

Interesting story on the origin of Paddy's Hollow. Paddy was a lady of the evening, y'see, and her "Hollow" was where she would take the British sailors way back when. Now it's a damn good pub. Or was, anyway.

On Carolina Beach Road near the lake there's an old-fashioned barber shop. Stop in and say hi to good ol' Harry Pope, if he's still there.

Oh, and find Jackson's Big Oak Barbecue and have a pulled-pork sandwich. It'll show you what good Eastern NC barbecue is.

That's all I can think of for now. Have fun.

[Sindawe]

Technology Is The Cat's ass

Hmmmm...would that be the happy cat full of tuna and cat-mint, snoozing by the fireplace?  Or would that be the unhappy cat with impacted anal sacs scooting on the carpet to get rid of cling-ons?

Cool utilities/programs:

Process Explorer: http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html
Trillain IM client: http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/  (talks to Y!, MSN, IRC, AOL)
PuTTY free telnet/ssh client: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
Med text editor: http://www.pfersdorff.de/indexus.html
Chuck's Planted Aquarium Calculator: http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_aquacalc.htm

[zahc]

Technology is indeed great. You need to take it to the next level and do like I did.

Build small form factor media center PC, stuff it full of hard drives,  park it in the living room, and use it like a TIVO to record all your selected tv shows. Rip and store all your music and movies on it. Leave it on 24/7.

Then network it with your laptop, so you can wirelessly access all your media wherever you happen to be in the house. Right now I'm lying on my bed in my bedroom with my laptop with well over a terabyte of music, movies and comic books available at the touch of a button.

When I want to listen to music I take my laptop over to my stereo system and plug the USB DAC in, and have my whole music library on tap. If I want to watch something upstairs I just take the laptop up there and plug the Svideo into the TV.