Where does he get those wonderful toys?

Unlimited access. Its freeing, really. No more RJ45 wired networks, no being tethered to infrequent wi-fi hotspots. No sir, all that's behind me now. Sprint's new Broadband Mobile Aircards provide DSL speeds anywhere there's a cell phone tower. These cards come in PCMCIA for last-millenia technology such as laptops (even my ultra-sleek X1 seems outdated now) to CF cards for truncated operating systems such as found on Palm & PocketPC devices. Mating the Novatel Ovation U720 USB modem with the Sony Vaio UX280P, however, provided me limitless connectivity wherever I happened to find myself adjacent photogoot this past weekend. A full-version O/S with Broadband, anywhere. Of course his most extraordinary home was equipped with wireless throughout, mitigating the necessity of such a device indoors, I was able to check emails, blogs, whatever no matter where we were. In the car, in the country, in the store, or even on Solomon Island, where the majority of our picture-taking took place this visit. Freedom isn't by any means free, but if you have the ways and means, I highly suggest this combination if your inner technogeek is screaming for release from the ties which bind you.





Limitations: As I've mentioned here before lack of solid tactile response on the keyboard is unsettling. It includes a stylus & touch-screen functionality if you're into that sort of thing, but for hard-core, several-hour-long-blogging sessions (such as this one done entirely on the UX280P) becomes tedious, and I found that lengthy responses weren't really comfortable. Certain framed sites (such as Yahoo! Mail Beta) lack full functionality in framed view (as the widescreen display is only 1024x600) but the video quality & widescreen layout more than makes up for this inconvenience.

I threw it in my backpack, brought only it, the USB modem and power supply, and was able to access web-versions of my business Outlook & Lotus Notes, and compete work-capable environment without carrying a laptop bag or anything else. In a word, ideal.

More pictures of our Solomon Island visit can be found here:
http://darkvoyager.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=8269