Keeping in Touch

On Wed, 6 May 2009 14:26:03 -0700, "John Sisker"
wrote:

This could make for an interesting discussion, but when you're on a
cruise/vacation, do you bring along your laptop, keep up to date with
e-mails at the Internet Cafe, or hay, you're on vacation... you want to
leave all business behind!

Happy sailing...
John Sisker - SHIP-TO-SHORE CRUISE AGENCY®
(714) 536-3850 or toll-free at (800) 724-6644 & (Agency ID: 714.536.3850)
www.shiptoshorecruise.com

On our last cruise I took my netbook [an ASUS eeePC 1000HE] and bought
the 250 minute package. As I use Agent [ForteInc.com] for my email, I
easily downloaded my email either late at night or early in the
morning, when the load on the link was minimal, and had time left at
the end of the 14 days. Using Agent, after the email is downloaded and
uploaded, one goes totally off-line and logs off while reading the
email or responding... [As for the Internet package, I had to get it
due to the budget being finalized while I was away from our Condo, as
I am on the board.]

Anyway, the main use I have is to transfer photos from the cameras
daily, and transfer the GPX file from the GPS daily, and then geocode
the photos with the precise location each was taken using software I
have on the netbook. When at sea for a day, other than eating, doing
the arts and crafts and the trivia, I could sit on the balcony and
work on the geocoding, time adjustment between the GPX file and the
digital camera times [which are always off from each other grin] and
so on. The closer in time to when the photos are taken this effort is
put in, the better the match...

I also have a number of ebooks on the netbook that I can read when I
want to read, as well as thousands of WMA files that I have created
from midi files I've downloaded. So I can always do that conversion
for new midi files I download while getting my email [again offline]
and then listen to them in full stereo via the earphones, or play any
of the thousands I already have installed, by year or type, and so on.
So the netbook is my full entertainment centre as well as toy for
other things.

Do I need the internet link? Not really... Next cruise I may well NOT
have it... but I would still take the netbook for all the other things
I do with it. And with a battery that will last up to 9.5 hours on a
charge, and a weight that is minimal, it is even easy to take along
grin... I have the GPX file for our flight home from LAX to YYZ, our
track through the Panama Canal, our excursion in Cartegena, and so
on... there are even better memories [in my view] that way.

FWIW

RsH

RsH wrote:
On Wed, 6 May 2009 14:26:03 -0700, "John Sisker"
wrote:

This could make for an interesting discussion, but when you're on a
cruise/vacation, do you bring along your laptop, keep up to date with
e-mails at the Internet Cafe, or hay, you're on vacation... you want to
leave all business behind!

Happy sailing...
John Sisker - SHIP-TO-SHORE CRUISE AGENCY®
(714) 536-3850 or toll-free at (800) 724-6644 & (Agency ID: 714.536.3850)
www.shiptoshorecruise.com

On our last cruise I took my netbook [an ASUS eeePC 1000HE] and bought
the 250 minute package.

My daughter wanted the Fjuitsu U810 ultracompact I had purchased last
year, so I purchased a U820, the next version, about a month ago and
took it on a recent trip. Unlike most netbooks, the U820 includes not
only WiFi, but also AT&T's 3G network and also built-in GPS with Garmin
software. Surprisingly, I cannot use it with Google's Mobile Maps, yet,
probably because its too new or there aren't enough Vista machines out
there yet with GPS and 3g connectivity.

Still, we were driving to a different city over the weekend when a storm
knocked down some power lines, blocking the highway. With the U820 and
its GPS, we could easily navigate around the traffic jam. Of course,
email, browsing and all the other online things are available in a car
or anywhere else, thanks to the 3G connectivity.

While this would work out of the country, the cost would be prohibitive.
However, for our upcoming Alaskan cruise, I won't have to pay the
cruise line those expensive fees to connect in a US port or along the US
coastline (if available).

As you do, I use the SD slot for downloading and consolidating photos.

The U820 is a really nice little machine for reading eBooks as well.
The built in fingerprint reader has improved as well, and swiping a
finger across it in up, down, left or right is the equivalent of the
scroll wheel on a mouse. It's great with large web pages, spreadsheets,
email or reading an eBook.



--
Nonny
If you think health care is expensive now,
wait until you see what it costs when it's free!

- P.J. O'Rourke