[Paddlewise] Advances in Digital Devices

As an official "ol' guy" I'm more-or-less supposed to be computer
illiterate. Unfortunately for my kids I had kept up with the computer
revolution and kept ahead of my high-school-age children. My son, who works
with me now in our network engineering consulting firm, once went with me to
a talk I gave on network protocols and admitted on the way home that he had
barely understood a word. But things have just gotten out of hand lately.

Telephones and networking have been partners ever since the age of modems
(remember modems?) but it's gone to a whole new level over the past year.
The difference between a telephone and a computer has been blurred in so
many ways.

I'm sure you know about Skype which turns your computer into a conduit for a
telephone, and VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) which abandons the old
POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) system completely, and everyone has a
cell phone; even the seven-year-old across the street (who calls me
periodically to say "hi"). But now you can tie your laptop to your cell
phone in such a way as to use your cell phone as your Internet provider.
It's called "tethering".

We're about ready to launch the muthah-ship and if I have anything to say
about it I'll be spending a lot of my weekends aboard with the muthah
anchored safely in a quiet cove and me in a kayak a few miles away exploring
new waters. But part of my business is to keep track of my customers'
networks and it's just darned difficult to do that in the middle of Puget
Sound. For instance, I just used SSH to begin an update process of UCC
records in a customer's database. I have to do it on a Friday night because
it will take most of the weekend to do the update and will require me to log
in several times to ensure that the process is moving along nicely. When I
was at the Port Townsend kayak seminar last September I did this from a
table in Safeway's coffee shop where they provide free wi-fi. Unfortunately
there are no Safeway coffee shops at the marine parks of Sucia Island.

But by using my new Apple iPhone I can create a wireless network between the
iPhone and my notebook computer (which I also use as a navigational tool
loaded up with digital charts and the appropriate software) I can simply...
hang on a minute... gotta start the second of that database update... I can
simply use my computer tethered to the iPhone and get the process completed
anywhere I can get cell phone service.

Of course, I could use an SSH client on the iPhone itself but using my
notebook is easier with fewer typing mistakes.

There are two ways of looking at this. You can decry the loss of privacy and
moan about being connected 24/7/365 with no escape. Or you can think about
how you are no longer tied to an office desk and telephone or, in my case, a
server room. Because I'm tethered to a new device I'm no longer tied down
and I will be happily working (and charging for it) from a classic 25-foot
sport fishing boat anchored in a quiet cove in the San Juan Islands of
Washington State.

I can live with that.

-
Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
www.nwkayaking.net
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