Assuming everything went according to plan, we arrived safely in Orlando. (I’m writing this on Friday, even though it’s scheduled for Sunday.) I thought I would take a moment to descibe the methods that I’m using (or attempting to use) to get info back to the blog for your consumption.
The easiest and most reliable line of blogging remotely is my phone. My Kyocera 7135 is a Palm-enabled handset, with the ability to send email via any number of email applications. My favorite email app for Palm so far is the Eudora suite, mostly because I am able to configure it to download mail only if it is not marked as spam. This saves a lot of time when retrieving messags.
Basically, to write posts via my phone, I can write them directly into an email message in Eudora, then send the email off to a secret address on the Asymptomatic server. A script on Asymptomatic checks this address every hour, and if it finds a message, it adds it to the blog using certain preset criteria. It’s pretty handy.
I’ve already used this method to produce a couple of articles, which you can find in the Moblog category. Mostly, these were produced while sitting in a restaurant at lunch time.
A second method of producing weblog entries is through Audioblog. I’ve signed up for an account with them, and I hope I remember how to use it. Basically, I call a number on my phone, dial a few secret codes, and then leave a message as if on an answering machine. When I’m done, the Audioblog service connects to Asymptomatic via an xml-rpc interface and adds a new post for that audio. The post is actually a Flash file with play and stop buttons that you listen o on your computer. You can see a couple of examples of these posts already on Asymptomatic.
I’m also going to cart my notebook computer down to Florida with us. I don’t know how that’s going to turn out yet. I have a retracting telephone cable (somewhere) that I can use to hook up my computer to a phone jack and dial in. I don’t know if I will be able to stand dialup speed, but it may be my only option since any information I can find online about our hotel doesn’t say anything about broadband or wi-fi. So I might be stuck there.
Anyhow, Verizon doesn’t seem to offer on-the-road dialup services to their DSL customers. At least, not that I can find. So I’ve signed up with this service called Toll Free ISP that provides nationwide dialup. Basically you pay for a fixed number of minutes that you can use for a year. I’ve got a reasonable number of minutes, and since I hope to arrange everything for posting before I actually go online, it shouldn’t use up too much of my time to complete my postings.
One thing that I would really like to figure out is how to connect my notebook to my phone so that I can use the wireless netowrking of the phone as a modem for the computer. It wouldn’t be any faster than using the modem that’s built into the computer, since we don’t pay for the high-speed services that Verizon offers, but it would allow me to connect from anywhere and stay online as long as I wanted, since using the internet is free in off-peak hours.
I hear that there is a USB cord that would allow me to connect my phone to the computer like this, but I have been unable to find it in the store. All of the Verizon sales guys I’ve met are idiots, and insist that what I want to do is impossible. But 1) I can do it with my full sync cradle (I just don’t want to lug that thing around) and 2) I’ve seen this device on Ebay.
It’s just a matter of time until I shell out the $30 to solve this problem. I only wish that I would have thought of it in time to receive the shipment. This seems to happen every time I travel - I wish I had the thing, I find it for sale online, a shipment won’t arrive before we’re scheduled to leave, I don’t bother ordering. Oh, well.
I also have read that there are internet kiosks around Disney World. Maybe we’ll run into one of those, and if so, I’ll try to blog from there. Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a webcam attached to one? I guess since I’ll be uploading pictures anyway a webcam wouldn’t be so novel. Hmm.
And of course, I’ll be writing more about the trip when I get home. Assuming there is stuff to tell. For all I know at this point, Berta could go into labor during the flight down, and we’d never see the theme park. Boy, that would suck on so many levels.
