At 8pm last night my ISP's LTE servers went down. Reader, believe me, the anxiety was acute. They're still down but I've reactivated an old PAYG LTE cube from a different ISP - so now must catch up before another post.
Whilst the crisis lasts I'm keeping both - and even considering a backup-backup satellite subscription and dish. Since both routers are Huawei, you can imagine some of the thoughts that went through my mind. I don't have a TV either - so have been reliant on local radio. I've got an old marine SSB set out in the barn and at one point seriously considered rigging it up with a car battery and makeshift aerial.
It really brought home to me just how utterly dependent on our internet connections we've become.
10 comments:
if you know which way the wind is blowing, etc.)
Internet and electricity Raedwald. Imagine an accident/sabotage at one of our electricity plants..."It's the end of the world as we know it"...
Don't watch the news, it's bad for your health; the panic and chaos is 100% media originated, despite about 10% being fair and sensible most people prefer to watch tosh that they KNOW is shite but still react as if it were Gospel.
Anyway, I had to be in Heathrow today, hundreds of flights - if the baords are accurate - arriving and expected. OK, 80-90% less than usual but they're still arriving.
...and yet when I was a lad the family had no phone and used the newspaper, radio, and TV (one channel originally!) to learn important news.
Are we any better off now knowing so much more yet being able to do no more?
Having said that I rely on t'internet for diversion during social distancing, but I still have plenty of books to read.
I'm into restoration of vintage radios and keep at least one transistorised (no ICs) receiver (all-band, including shortwave) plus a couple of valve sets in my workshop at all times.
As for t'internet, I still have an old telephone modem (2400 baud!) that could be pushed into service - assuming there are any bulletin boards still left running!
Ah, the good old days......
We must take our pleasures where we find them. In the Fanzine, Jemima Lewis has a nice piece on the sadness slebs are feeling nowadays. No one wants to photograph them, no red carpets, no opening nights. No one cares about them at all. And all the time their sell by date is clicking away. One would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.
So Madge, Jug Ears and Johnson etc are now all MIA. Anyone seen/heard from celebs/elite? We have the army on the streets, Gestapo in our faces and we're under effective curfew.
When else in previous times have we seen/heard of this action?
Given BoJo's now 'hidden' for the next two weeks then whatever is about to happen WILL happen in these next two weeks.
Best get back to the 6K8s, 6K7s, 6SR7s, 6V6s and 5Z4s, Dave.
More like HK416s, AK103s, M16s, G36s, TAR21s and an AS50 for that extra 'bandwidth'.
So are you saying that my Windows 3.1 on a 350mb HD Packard Bell machine isn't going to do the job I expected?
Paaaah!
Just watching 'House of Cards' again, Matty's old PC does seem a bit like a Psion picture on the back of a spoon...
As an engineer I love to tell arts grads how close they are to armageddon. If we engineers switched the power off, all the pumps would stop - no water and no sewage disposal. "Where would you be then bozo?" "Up to your neck in ess aitch one tee, that's where."
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