Monday, July 7, 2008

At Home Again - High Speed Internet is Working

It's been a long day, and now a late night, but I feel good about all that got accomplished today. One of the accomplishments was to finally get a satisfactory wireless signal delivered to the Mobile Hermitage. I used an Apple Airport Express wireless router to extend the existing network. As you might imagine, I documented the setup process along the way so others could do the same in less time. I'd tried this before, but the Airport Express was still out of range of the Mobile Hermitage, so the signal wasn't reliable and often it was too weak to deliver high speed Internet. When a wireless signal drops too low, your wireless device may still work and give you access to the Internet, but usually this is at significantly slower speeds.

In the past, to get a good connection, I would often sit outside closer to the main wireless router. Tonight it is raining very hard, and so having a quality connection inside makes it possible for me to easily post this update from home.

The photo above is of my notebook connected at high speed, with the benefit of an older lighting technology.

Still at my parent's home

I had a good visit this evening with my parents, from about 7:30 PM to 10:30 PM. We even solved some computer problems.

Riding Home, going up the spiral foot bridge

Riding Home, bike path south of the UI Main Library

Reviewing 32 voicemail messages

It took me a couple of hours this evening to follow-up on 32 voicemail messages from reporters, clients, and friends, all wanting me to get back to them. I finally responded to them all.

At my desk

Taking late lunch to meeting at UNA

After run snack

Running Coplete, 40 min., 4.27 km, 399 calories

This was basically the same run I went on yesterday. I've posted the pictures from today's run on Picasaweb so as not to overload the blogger system. I'll continue to refer to this gallery of photos when I go on this same run since the photos are basically the same.

Going running

Planning to follow mostly the same route as yesterday.

Susan Chehak Presentation on the Future of the Book

Susan Chehak. It's 11:45 AM, and I'm sitting in on a very interesting presentation by Susan Chehak. She's talking about the past, present, and future of books and publishing. Since she's written a number of books, it was interesting to get her insights on this topic. Susan's presentation today provided a holistic picture and context. Having just written a book myself, I listened to her presentation with trepidation, but her story had a happy ending.

The Super Book. A while ago, a friend sent me a link to a blog by Osha Gray Davidson titled TheBookIsDead. He had developed some really neat ideas about what he called "The Super Book" which described ways to use today's technology to create a modern version of the book.

The Book is Dead, Long Live the Book. Sherman Young recently published a book with the title The Book is Dead, Long Live the Book and started his own TheBookIsDead blog.

New Distribution of Books. The Sacred Texts Archive is an example of how books are being redistributed digitally either in DVD format or on the Internet for free. There are some advantages to the DVD, so I ordered one several years ago when the smaller collection fit on a CD ROM. Now, I can upgrade for a fraction of the $100 price.

Free Music. Susan gave an example of how some artists are providing free music to introduce people to their music. A while ago, I created a free music resources page, which is still a bit limited, but the idea has intrigued me. How many more things will be added to the list of items we can get for free?

Writer's Workshop Presentation on the Future of the Book

Finished International Video Call

After arriving at the office, I was on Skype for about 40 minutes.

Old Capitol

I'm at my office. This is a view of the Old Capitol from the stairway
landing between the 4th and 5th floors.

Burlington Street Bridge, riding east

Going to my office.

Morning Light

Time for Yoga and Meditation. I'm planning to get to the office today by 9:45 AM.