Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Ahead of the curve?

Since moving to Indy, my wife and I have been internet nomads. We go next door to use the wireless at PCCC - often resorting to borrowing one of the neighbors' waves when our first choice thwarts our attempts; we go to the public library; I've even wandered throughout the backyard hoping that some signal would come floating by so we could connect without leaving the general vicinity. Because we have our own cell phones and don't plan on staying in one place very long, we've been reluctant to get DSL or dial-up access in our home.

The problem with this nomadic lifestyle is that we are rarely able to look at the internet at the same time. If we're at the library together, Amanda or I need to be watching "@". Sure, we could take him next door but do you know how many places there are to hide in a building that seats 1200 on a Sunday?

So after much stalling, we broke down and decided to get an aircard that would allow us to use the internet from our laptops anywhere. Verizon had a nicely priced plan and since we were already customers, we decided to byte the bullet. After a day of frustration spent calling tech support with both Dell and Verizon, it became clear that it wasn't going to work.

In our attempt to get newest, most cutting-edge computer we could - knowing that in three years even that would be obsolete - we actually bought a computer that uses a newbe "express card" drive. They don't even make aircards for it yet.

Thankfully, Dell reassured us that someone, somewhere, would be coming out with one...sometime.

Note: This seems eerily similar to the time Dad purchased a Texas Instruments 99 4a computer for the family just before the computer division of that company went bankrupt. Gosh I miss Munchman.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"newest, most cutting-edge computer"??

Unless there was a picture of an apple somewhere on it, you were WAY off. Nice try, though.

And Munchman over Parsec? Interesting.