Life in the tall timbers; party line dsl
Living out in the tall timbers has its advantages, the wildlife, the peace and quiet, the isolation.
The isolation is a double edged sword though, in that it is a technology isolation as well. Take the Internet .. please. As a starving student, imagine my excitement after checking ATT's website to find digital subscriber line service was available?
photo by Gary d. Brune copyright (c) 2008
I ordered the equipment, and after three service calls, I discovered my residence was an estimated 0.000 linear feet from the central station. That means service with the consistency of a party line, and a need to use my road tools.
Road tools come from PortableApps.com, are free, legal, and run off a jump drive or any universal serial bus device. Last summer I ran both my weblog, An Internet Globetrotter and my jpgmag.com site from this improvisation,
A long bus ride to Chico State, and I could plug my jump drive into the college's network, use the bookmarks in Firefox for reference, and Thunderbird to collect my email.
When California was growing as a state, The Big Four set up the Southern Pacific Railroad and charged merchants whatever the traffic would bear to haul their goods. Comcast has the major transit service down the Information Superhighway, and they can again charge what the traffic will bear. Internet is still considered a luxury, so there are no lifeline provisions available for poor people.
In addition, contending with Microsoft's crap code in Windows is enough to turn a man bald. I can't afford the toll on the cable road. So it's time to improvise again.