You Know You've Gotten Too Used to WiFi When....
The power blinked off at home around 7 last night, and my first instinctive thought was "no problem, the uninterruptible power supply can keep my DSL modem running for a little while, and when that runs out I can just hop on a neighbor's WiFi signal."
And then the realization: "Wait... the neighbors... are on... the same power lines... as me!"
(If only one of them had thought to invest in a backyard nuclear reactor or some rooftop solar panels!)
A look at my laptop's display of wireless networks--for the first time ever, listing only my own--confirmed that "duh" realization.
At that point, I realized I might as well enjoy a pleasant evening out on the front porch, perhaps with a glass of bourbon. And just as I was about to pour myself some--the power blinked back on. Drat! Back to work...
By Rob Pegoraro |
April 25, 2007; 9:43 AM ET
| Category:
The business we have chosen
Previous: How Do You Fix Your Photos? |
Next: Vonage Vexed By Verizon. And You?
Posted by: Tom T. | April 25, 2007 12:23 PM
@ times like this you realized how much tethered we are to work and by extension to the net.
Blackberry is probably a worse case example of this scenario. On the go and always connected 24x7.
i came to that realization when i was on vacation in the Caribbean and was itching to find a wifi to check email and the web. I ended up settling for a dial-up connection. Oh the horror!
Posted by: TransplantMD in TX | April 25, 2007 12:49 PM
That's why you need to buy one of the mobile broadband cards you reviewed. Hopefully they have backup power on their network.
Posted by: David | April 25, 2007 2:03 PM
You know, you could have always gone out onto the front porch with your laptop (maybe not the bourbon) since you aren't tied down by ethernet cables to do work. And if you're wifi doesn't reach outside very well, THEN you could have hopped onto your neighbors' networks!
Posted by: taupecat | April 25, 2007 2:29 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
They make emergency radios that one can charge with a hand crank. Maybe something like that can be made for a laptop.