Do you have a link problem?
I'm sorry I've been so silent for a couple of days. I've been filming with the Blueprint natural history team in Newry, Omagh, Derry and the Sperrins more generally since Monday. Ordinarily, I'd write a daily post about our progress, but the hotels we stayed in had no internet access. You'd think, in the year 2007, that every hotel would have a business centre and wifi in each of their rooms -- or even a hot spot in the lobby. But no. Mid-Ulster hotels seem not to have heard of the internet yet. Enough of my complaining.
I gave off about Tyrone's cyber-desert so much this week that Natalie Maynes, our long-suffering series producer, became convinced that I was displaying signs of internet addiction. I explained that I am not "e-dicted", since I merely wanted to check my e-mails and write a post of my blog. She was not convinced. Apparently, alcoholics are always the last to wake up and smell the vodka.
In any case, I think we should launch a campaign to encourage every hotel across Northern Ireland to join the wifi revolution. If you've had trouble getting online in a hotel here, feel free to share your horror stories below. Let the revolution begin! Hiccup.
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~42~RS~)
Comments
Couldn't agree more.
If technophobic hoteliers were made aware of how easy and cheap it is to set up a wifi hotspot for guests, much of the deterrent would disappear. Besides, an internet connection is important to many people for much more than surfing the latest sports results. I am a heavy internet user daily, and almost everywhere I go I need a connection.
For my job I need FTP, VNC, email and intranet access, whether I'm on the road or in the studio. For my blog I need the web, RSS and blogging upload capability. For friends and family I use full-screen videoconferencing and IM daily. For other purposes I use iTunes (which connects to Apple), Quicken (which connects to my banks), and a whole lot of web time on other sites like this one.
Sometimes a little nosing around the hotel room can pay off. I was at a conference last week in Las Vegas for 5 days, and it's the first Vegas hotel I've ever stayed at which had dialup only (no broadband). About 3 days into the conference, another attendee who was staying at the hotel informed me that he got bored and pulled his bed out from the wall, revealing a CAT5 outlet (ethernet). He plugged into the socket and found himself online with a fast broadband internet connection that the hotel denied they had.
By the way, dialup is always a low-quality option for emergencies like Will describes. Assuming your laptop has a built-in 56k modem, bring along a phone cable and jack into the phone line in your hotel room. It may not allow you to do most of what you want, but it was a lifesaver for me last week and at least allowed me to get online and attempt to pound some sense into PB. :-)
Dialup was "a lifesaver" for John Wright! Now if ever there was a description of internet addiction, there it is! Sad thing is, I know exactly what you mean John!
David- I probably qualify as internet-addicted. According to George W. Bush, I'm oil-addicted too, so I guess I'm really in trouble. What a generation!
I always thought vodka was odourless?! Wake up and spell your blog addiction William!