Thursday, August 24, 2006

Movin' on up

One of the biggest drawbacks to living waaay out in the boondocks is the complete lack of access to any kind of technological advances. We're talking tin cans and strings or bonfires and blankets as the most modern forms of communication in most cases.

Ok, maybe I exaggerate, a little bit. But copper lines are merely a step up from tin cans and strings.

Top internet speeds at my house tend to be a blazing 24.4k. Yup, you read that right, 24.4k, and that's on a clear, sunny, breezeless day when all the planets are aligned and the sunspots are quiet. There is no access to cable or DSL. Uploading pictures takes hours, literally. Any graphic intensive website or site that utilizes movie clips or Flash, impossible to get to. We've tried satellite and it's iffy at best, with it's bandwidth usage limits. It is no fun getting knocked offline in the middle of a song download because you've reached your daily limit.

On Tuesday we stepped into the 21st century. We are the proud new owners of a wireless internet antenna (damn that thing is UGLY!) and a frighteningly fast internet connection on my desktop PC. I may actually be able to do a little online gaming again! Yay! And upload pictures! Double yay! The next step is getting a wireless hub something-or-another into my laptop so I can sit on the deck without being encumbered by wires and whatnot.

Oh, the marvels of modern day inventions. Who woulda thunk it...all that information, all those pictures and music and words, flying through the sky from one antenna to another and right into my lil' ole computer. How. Very. Cool.

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