Tag Archive for 'Technology'

Ft. Collins, CO morning

Published on February 17, 2010 in Pets, RV Trips and Technology. 8 Comments Tags: , , .

Sunrise through the windshield…

This morning at what is now Ft. Collins Lakeside KOA. I stayed here for a month in March-April 2006 before it was a KOA. It was Heron Lake RV Resort. The link in the right sidebar and 2006 RV Trip take you to a “before blog” page that chronicles that trip. The first section with Ft. Caspar and Heron Lake coincide with this trip. Tiger Run is the RV park in Breckenridge, CO where I met up with my folks who live in South Fork, CO. They often make the trip to Breckenridge or vicinity and ski on their Colorado ski pass at the several spots in the area. It was the same time of year – a week later although I used President’s Day weekend for travel on that trip also. Also on that link is a link: Motorhome Interior for any who are interested in seeing how Wild Thing is set up inside, including my office space.

Now, the dual computer set up, i.e. the front office and the rear office. Currently we are both working off the KOA wi-fi, but when park wi-fi is not available we get internet via Verizon air card and a Cradlepoint router. The printer that travels with us is a wi-fi printer so we can both print without a multitude of cords or cord swapping…cool!

Bob cares nothing for the technology of life on the road as long as a cushy place to nap is available and his food bowl is accessible and full.

Router and DSL upgrade

Published on May 1, 2009 in Technology and Work. 5 Comments Tags: .

**I back timed this post so it appears before the MayDay flower. Not everyone is fascinated by routers…

I made a change in my DSL service and as I was doing that my 4 year old router “gave up the ghost” so I ordered a new one to be delivered toute suite.

The new baby was supposed to arrive Wednesday – after a Tuesday internet meeting and before a Thursday internet meeting. Mother Nature decided differently. The spring snowstorm that didn’t dump much snow on me, but DID on areas around, shut down the mountain passes and with them our FedEx service for Wednesday. Big Mike, my FedEx guy, was happy to have had Wednesday off with pay, but had no time for chit-chat on Thursday as his truck was full of 2 days worth of stuff. Karl did get his treat, though!

The bad news for me is that I had an extra day to worry about the installation. Routers and I have not gotten along well in the past and twice I’ve had to call for help. It has been 4 years since the last and I hoped that they were now “plug and play”. I mentioned this to one of the people on my programming team and he just laughed nervously…

I was encouraged by the “Start Here” – and also by 2 other labels that cautioned to insert the CD before plugging ANYTHING in to ANYTHING else. To me, that boded well for automatic configuration vs having to delve into IP and DNS and other acronyms I have only a passing knowledge of.

Things went pretty well! The main trick, which was one I DID know, but I think they could have been more explicit about is that anytime a setting is changed on the router, everything: DSL modem and router (and to be “safe”, I also cold boot my computer) has to be shut down and the order of restart is modem, router, computer.

But the CD did all of the configuration as well as leading me through adding the security for the wireless part.

Kind of cool looking…internal antenna instead of the directional “rods”. I’m getting the same strength signal everywhere with this router that I was with the old AND getting my new DSL speed.

Router and DSL modem live discreetly in a corner of the living room behind an antique dry sink. Everyone is happy, wires are hidden (I have a thing about wires and cords) and we get wireless internet like magic all over the house, yard and out to the motorhome.

AcerBaby

Published on March 25, 2009 in Technology. 9 Comments Tags: .

AcerBaby …. you sing that like Santa Baby (Eartha Kitt, 1953)… Anyway, fair warning, this is a technology post because I R a technology professional and general gadget afficiando.

My story, and I’m sticking to it, is that my backup laptop computer was having fits keeping up with my production laptop – not enough oomph and it has a loud and annoying fan. I didn’t want to get a new production machine. Not only is my current one fine, but Vista v2.0 aka Windows 7 or whatever they decide to call it is due sometime not too far off and I want to make sure to get something configured ok for that. I had been pricing inexpensive laptops for a backup machine and suddenly found out about “netbooks”. They have been around for a bit, but first I knew of them was several weeks ago. They are $500-$700 less than the “inexpensive” backup laptops I was pricing.

Called netbooks as the original idea was a very small laptop or a very large PDA – something for email and internet. But now, the netbooks are full fledged laptops in a very small footprint. After reading, and looking and dithering ad nauseum, I ordered an Acer Aspire One 10 inch with a 2 gb RAM upgrade. It comes with a 160 gb hard drive, Wi-fi, RJ45 (hard wire network connection), a multi-function card reader. No CD/DVD. It runs on an Atom processor which is fast, but low power consumption and low heat. The 6 cell battery reputed to go 8-10 hours. It will drive an external monitor.

Many are tired of hauling around 15 and 17 inch laptops – I would be one. I often take mine when on errands during “office hours” so I can check in.

As of today, the Acer, aka AcerBaby (it is sooooo cute!) is fully loaded with everything I run on my production machine. The screen is bright and clear, albeit small. It jumps on the internet via my USB aircard or available wi-fi. Its footprint is smaller than a sheet of paper at about 10 x 7 x 1. It fits in my messenger bag styled purse. It is much easier to type on than a Blackberry or iPhone AND I can do anything on it that I can on my office machine. I am happy.

Sitting on a sheet of paper above for size reference.

AcerBaby!