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.
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!