How do you keep in touch?

You might also start looking at things like this:

http://www.option.com/products/overview.shtml

for using a sim in your PC, rather than using a mobile phone as a modem.

I have a Vodafone datacard which has been unlocked so I can use it with any sim. Got it off ebay, but had a few issues with loading the software.

This is just to make you aware... took me a while to find these things, work out how they work, and have the confidence to part with my money.
 
I know nothing about Blackberries - do they really cost nothing to stay in touch? How does it work, could you give us a few lines overview?
 
I asume you mean a usb extention cable, not an antenna cable ?, dont go the extended antenna cable route, at 2.4 Ghz the losses are tremendous. the adapter you list is good, use an amplified usb cable. We made a simple cantenna using a spaghetti tin, the data for antenna spacing (a small stub antenna in the tube- which then makes a circular wave guide) is freely available on the web. The pringles can antenna you may see are pretty rubish, the can is too small.
As for borrowing bandwidth, yep, all the time if available, and it usually is. with the cantenna (directional) we can usually reach wifi cafes on the front. I have just ordered a high gain vertical omni antenna for the Mizzen mast, but beware - it is 7 feet long !. We try not to use mobiles at all if possible, if you have a good connection on wifi use skype, beware of ringing mobiles on skype as it can be pretty expensive, but to a landline in the uk from here in spain its only around 1.7 cents per min. Even then we try to use email as I wanted to get away from bloody mobile phones lol... most of the time its off.

Download a small program called net stumbler for seeing whats out there and aiming the antenna if directional.
As for mac v pc, no contest, dont touch a mac with a spinny pole, great machine, but lack of software, no problem with xp on a pc clone, rock solid, as good or better than mac os. loads of free software out there too for the pc.. the people who tend to ´like´macs have bought one by mistake and are trying to justify it lol... seriously, no contest...
Joe n Jayne
 
[ QUOTE ]
Ithe people who tend to ´like´macs have bought one by mistake and are trying to justify it lol... seriously, no contest...

[/ QUOTE ]Macs are number one for professional graphics, etc.
 
Joe, Macbooks are not expensive and have brilliant screens. They make good chartplotters running GPSNavX and Maptech charts. They're also built quite robustly for the US student market and my old 12in IBook has survived several drops on board. The batt life is also good.
PC/Macagain have alarge stock of ex eductaion Powerbooks at great prices. I'm using one now.
Immunity to virus attack is great too. And they tend not too slow down with age.

iBooks
G3 500MHz, 64GB, 10GB, CD, OSX @ £125
G3 600MHz, 256MB, 20GB, CD, OSX @ £169
G3 700MHz, 256MB, 40GB, CD, OSX @ £175
G4 1GHz, 256MB, 30GB Combo Drive Airport Extreme @ £275

PowerBooks
1GHz, 512MB, 60GB, Combo Drive, Airport Extreme, Bluetooth @ £385 (Grade A)
1GHz, 512MB, 60GB, Combo Drive, Airport Extreme, Bluetooth @ £349 (Grade B)
1.25GHz, 512MB, 80GB, SuperDrive Airport Extreme Bluetooth @ £459 (Grade B)

Call 01494 460 600
 
Hi David
Absolutely nothing wrong with macs, but as said, limited software support in comparison to pc´s. No difference on price in comparison to performance with pc´s (laptops for example), Bit like Linux and the great unwashed following it has, for hackers, its great, for anything else, its pants, anyways back to macs.... If you are an upstanding, honest, god fearing member of some society and never ´try´a tad of software, to see if you like it and buy it of course /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif then kewl, I once heard of some down n out running cmap charts on a pc that someone had hacked, dastardly deed, also wefax software etc etc... I just dl´d a nice little seatalk reader routine for the pc.. free, some great wifi utils, Electronics design packages, free, not ripped, my Microprocessor compìler etc, PIC routines for usb encoding... lots n lots of stuff.
If someone only uses it for the odd thing then fine, but if you like actually using the pc for many things in a cost effective way and like to tap into resources from millions of others free, then the pc is the only way to go... And as for the other ref to high end graphics.. I think that one has done the rounds for too long... many companies hav e used macs since the days that they HAD to, now they dont, and many.. err well dont.... there are some incredible graphic design aps for the mac, long may it be so, also for the pc... as for slowing down with age ?? dont uderstand you really, the only reason a computer usually slows down is cos johnny gets a ripped copy of office 27.66 from his mate and tries to run it on a machine designed for office 97 lol....
Virus attack is a fair point, simply to do with lack of macs out there that hardly anyone bothers to write them, it is not due to better security in the OS for example. there is virtually no reason a pc should get a virus these days if the software and user are up to date and savvy.
Its not an I luv Bill G campaign and I hate Steve J, purely availability of software and add ons for an equally as good platform, the mac unfortunately has limited support in a very limited general user base.

Joe., ps, have to go, me uncle Bills on the blower..... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
We use Wi-Fi and ‘Skype’ all the time, but are almost exclusively on Inland waters and rarely out of range of a ‘Hot-Spot’.

In desperation, Internet Cafés but only if we can plug in our own Lap-Top, I don’t like paying bills by Internet banking on a multiuser public PC!

BTW:- one good reason to keep a PC onboard, I doubt we’ve been near our own bank in four years?

I have an ‘active’ 5m long USB cable and a USB W-Fi ‘stub’ that I can attach to our satellite dish rotator. Netstumbler finds the local signals and I can rotate this “Santennae” for the best signal. I once picked up a Dutch marina hot-spot about 1.5km across the water from where we were moored.

Of course we never piggy-back onto unsecured Wi-Fi’s, that would be illegal, wouldn’t it? /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Skype costs us €0.017 per minute to virtually anywhere in the world, we spend about €25 per three months on our total communications and Boy! Does UTB make a lot of long-distance calls! As a bonus, since the kids in New Zealand have both got Skype, we can have endless video-conferencing ‘chats’ with them absolutely free!

“Santennae”:-

Santennae.jpg
 
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