August 2008 – Page 5

Limited Net Access :(

Having a roaming Internet data deal is all very well but is unhelpful when you’re not in range of a transmitter. Mobile telephone calls can be routed through the onboard mobile network (at some pretty outrageous costs) but in truth unless there is an emergency there is little incentive to use your own mobile. Data … Continue reading “Limited Net Access :(“

Having a roaming Internet data deal is all very well but is unhelpful when you’re not in range of a transmitter.

Mobile telephone calls can be routed through the onboard mobile network (at some pretty outrageous costs) but in truth unless there is an emergency there is little incentive to use your own mobile.

Data can also be routed through a WiiFi network limited to the area around the Internet cafÃ© because it uses the same system. At a minimum cost of 16 pence per minute it’s not badly priced though the excessive latency of the satellite data link lengthens any operation which forces you to burn through minutes. Plus – the upload speed of a satellite connection is nowhere near broadband speeds (last time I checked it was 33kbps).

This leaves me with very limited access to email and the like. Some people have said I should take the time off from computers and blogging. Great idea – now how about you go on a holiday and not do some of the things you enjoy the most? Hmm?

Hopefully I’ll get a decent connection when we hit Stockholm.

Mobile Shell

Back a hundred years ago I used to use my trusty Newton MessagePad 2000 for network support. Armed with a serial cable and a Farallon Ethernet card, I was able to telnet into switches, routers and servers. Add in a modem and it was a mobile email solution for wherever I was. It lightened my load considerably and was considerably easier to use than the company-provided Dell Latitude. The battery life difference (8 hours versus the Dell’s 45 minutes) also made it an easy decision. I also had the external keyboard and, placing it behind the screen on a flight made for an extremely ergonomic writing position. On a 3 hour flight, it was possible to be working for almost the duration of the flight. Not possible with the Dell.

I was therefore somewhat delighted to try out Mocha Telnet Lite, from the guys who brought the first VNC app to the App Store. It bright back a lot if memories considering my iPhone is more powerful than my Dell laptop was (and has more RAM, more storage) while being about a third of the size if the MessagePad.

The UI is easy to pick up and is as good looking as you could expect from an application designed to provide telnet/command line access to a computer.

Sadly all of my servers but one have switched off telnet access so I’ve only really had the chance to use it to test some SMTP server settings.

Looking forward to Mocha SSH!

Wicked

Just about to start. photo posted from my iPhone Related posts: Movember update, Week 3 you want to start something? iPhone. 4. Movember update

Just about to start.

photo posted from my iPhone

Noodles

The first sit-down meal since the wedding. Wagamama rocks! photo posted from my iPhone Related posts: Why SyncBridge Rocks (not shameless self-promotion) Worst Videographer in the World Movember update, Week 3 Working on reducing numbers (specifically, waist)

The first sit-down meal since the wedding.

Wagamama rocks!

photo posted from my iPhone

Few and far between

I’m off on my honeymoon so updates will be intermittent. I’ll be sending in photos and attempting to use this WordPress fir iPhone app on the move (along with iPhoneSlide). Hope it’s an interesting diversion from my usual rants. Related posts: The Broadband Blueprint (re DETI Telecoms Consultation) Vote for Transformational Change Stop critiquing the … Continue reading “Few and far between”

I’m off on my honeymoon so updates will be intermittent. I’ll be sending in photos and attempting to use this WordPress fir iPhone app on the move (along with iPhoneSlide).

Hope it’s an interesting diversion from my usual rants.