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 Post subject: Recently, in the tropical South West Pacific ...
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Joined: 20 Mar 2012, 13:32
Posts: 116
I had this little encounter shortly after arriving in Savusavu on Fiji about two months ago...

I was in one of those places where boat people hang out to check email, weather, the balance of their dwindling funds and whatever else you need Internet access for - all while enjoying a cold beer in a nice setting off the boat after a 2-week passage.

Fiji has good 3G coverage so everyone had a laptop in front of him or her and was juggling with one of those little 3G USB modems. Next to me was a lady with a sleek looking computer, branded with a half-eaten-fruit. She was furious because the 3G USB stick she had just bought apparently only came with Windows drivers and stubbornly refused to be recognized by her computer.

On my other side was a guy with a less sleek looking laptop, running under a widely used Seattle made operating system. First he got a kick out of being able to connect via his USB modem when the fruity laptop next to him wasn't (I understand that this usually works the other way around...). Then his smile turned into a frown when his computer informed him that it was now downloading and installing half a gigabyte of absolutely critical security updates - a process that was not to be interrupted under any circumstances and that quickly ate up the credit on his 3G stick.

Meanwhile I was booting up my old battered laptop under Navigatrix (20 seconds flat), plugged in the same USB modem that my neighbors were using, hit [ctrl]+[alt]+[3] and voila - I was connected (thanks to that brilliant sakis3g script that ships with Navigatrix) with unimpeded band width.

When both of my neighbors were wondering why I wasn't pulling my hair out (a scarce resource for me in any case) and I showed them my screen, mentioning that this was a Linux based system, their reaction was "Oh - I don't know enough about computers to use something like that". I then made the mistake to point out that the same was apparently the case with their current systems - after which I had to look for a new table quickly ...

Bottom-line: I have used the "Made in Seattle" system back in the corporate world for many years without significant complaints and I have always admired the fruity guys for their brilliant product design (and for getting away with murder...). But IMHO when you're on a boat away from home and from your employer's IT support there's simply nothing more robust and "fit for purpose" than Navigatrix...


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 Post subject: Re: Recently, in the tropical South West Pacific ...

Joined: 23 Dec 2015, 09:23
Posts: 1
What a laugh..yes move tables..unfortunately the 'made in Seattle' is everywhere and loaded on too many boxes. I shudder with the rollout of Windows 10 which that same company is pushing heavily for FREE. Nothing is FREE there are always obligations, like donations. Or should be. For Win10, the control likely is the reason for shipping out to win7 and older boxes..I just will not do it. Will put Ubuntu on first.

Am busy downloading the 2.5 G to my box right now..hope all goes well.but takes 9 hours to download..torrent or not..its 2.5 G. On a 3G network. Unlimited data however...


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