Inside the Mind of the Celtic Savage

You may remember my toying with cellular internet last year if not here is the article alltel cellular initial review

I got a cellular internet card to replace the sat dish. I decided to go with sprint as they offered the better business deal and actually called me back when I wanted to buy their product, unlike Alltel. With out an external antenna I get about 0-2 bars of service in the best position in the house with 95-102 -dBm signal strength. With an external antenna that signal increases to 2-3 bars with a solid -90dBm signal strength. Here is the best part I can connect to the internet at about 256kbps and I have no band with caps for about $60 a month. That is cheaper then dial up with the cost of a second phone line. and about $50 cheaper then I was paying for the Hughes crap.

My ping times are not spectacular by any means with 1xRTT service However they are still 300-500ns faster then Hughes net. And here is the best part when we travel I can take the Sprint Internet Card with us in the laptop for instant access to Maps GPS and local services. Suppose we are driving through TN and I got a hankering for BBQ punch up the GPS locator service and bam turn by turn directions to a BBQ shack.

When I am in a larger metro area like St. Louis Or Columbia I get almost bidirectional T1 speed of 1.5mbps+ So as they bring other towers online my internet service will only improve.

It is fast enough to play World of Warcraft and watch you tube crap so it is fast enough for me. w00t

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Well I have been playing around with teach yourself cobol in 21 days more or less just thumbing thorugh it. It seems that most cobol texts are public domain now and compilers are available for every computer made since 1965. In unrelated news

I picked up a spring moble broadband card to replace the laggy sat connection and I have to say that it is quite enjoyable when I am in an EVDO sector. Unfortunately for me my house only has 1xRTT. When and If I ever get my taxes back I plan on buying an antenna and an linier amplifier to try and get this thing conneted to the new tower coming online north of Booneville. But a basic review of their service is that it is pretty good. when in columbia or along the I-70 corridor I get mobile T1 speeds with low latency. However when I am at home I am piggy backing off of someone elses 1xRTT and am getting between 115 and 200kbps with ping times in the mid 400’s

That may sound slow but when the only other option is a sat dish that costs twice as much a month for only marginal improvements on bandwidth with a god forsaken lag. The cellular modem rocks. Not only that but It works in the car with the laptop also.

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You know what is odd? That my hand held PDA and my son are about the same age. Way back when My mom got me a Handspring Visor for my birthday and here it is almost 9 years later and this little Palm OS device is still trucking along and offering up my meeting information and functioning as an e book reader. Here is to you little hand spring visor with 8mb of ram you have been a true blue companion for all these years

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