The WIFI at the resort is slooooow. It takes about a half hour per photograph if it works at all. And the security is a pain in the ass. The login expires after three hours and transmission stops randomly. Then it's back downstairs for another login/password combo. This morning after breakfast, the guy at the desk gave me a handful of them so maybe I'll be able to get all my photos off my iPhone an into the cloud this time.
I really needed a decent connection though, because Xmas week I've got a newsletter deadline to deliver on back in Austin. Folks are counting on me, and more importantly if I don't deliver then why did I spend a couple grand on a MacBook Air and Adobe Creative Suite? So on day two, the first order of business was to find a 3G aircard mobile hotspot for the MacBook. And where to get it? At the shopping mall, of course.
In no time at all the local shopping mall came through. I've got something called a truemove H 3G+ aircard. It's a little keydrive sized dongle that plugs into the USB port and according to the box, supports Mac OS 10.5 and 10.6. It also seems to support 10.7 which is a good thing. It was the equivalent of $35 to walk out of the store with it, Dang's sister in-law filled out the paperwork in her name, which made things really easy for me. I guess she'll return it to the store after I'm gone.
The mall was something of a surprise. Much more western hemisphere branding than I expected. Then there was the parking garage which had a huge section off for motorbikes, (The airport had special gates and ticket takers for motorbikes) and an interesting overflow protocol. We Americans are used to the concept of parking spaces, and so too are the Thais. We arrived to a half-empty garage just minutes before the mall opened and found a space easily. (Dang's brother has rented a nice full-size Isuzu pickup truck to shuttle us around.) When we returned to the parking spot, the parking spaces had been blocked up with cars parallel parked in front of the parking spaces. What to do? Before I knew it, Dang and the entourage were pushing cars around. The parallel parked cars were left in neutral with the steering straight ahead. You simply push a few cars forward or back until your egress is a possibility.
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| Pushing someone's truck out of the way. |
In true Mac plug and play tradition, the thing just plugged in, downloaded the necessary software (in English, thank you) and just worked. I was hoping I could create a private network with it that would connect my iPhone as well, but no dice. So I'll still need to get fresh login/password cards from the front desk every day. (they expire after 3 hours and never work again)
Then there's the issue with my primary email account at Time Warner's RoadRunner. After using the iPhone about town, with it's mobile email pop server, I'd forgotten that RoadRunner doesn't normally allow me to send email unless the connection is a Time Warner broadband connection. And normally I can connect and read emails via any WIFI connection on any Mac product. But for some reason, I am unable to connect to ANY Time Warner email interface -- whether sending or receiving -- and I cannot even use a browser to access the email via the web. Very strange.
Thank GOD for Mail2Web.com which somehow allows me to connect when Time Warner won't. A true road warrior's savior in a pinch. It'll require some workarounds but I'll be able to get the newsletter done.
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