Hello world! You are receiving this missive from the Greensborough Plaza Shopping Centre in lovely downtown Greensborough, an outer-ish suburb of Melbourne, Australia.
For the first time ever, I’m composing this post on my new laptop via a free wi-fi connection that would make dialup cringe in shame.
It’s taken me half an hour to connect and get this far. ๐ฆ
To be fair, this is the second week of the school holidays and the centre is quite full, but I can’t see anyone else madly trying to use the wi-fi connection. So either a lot of hidden people are hogging the wi-fi, or the wi-fi connection is terrible.
Forgive me if I sound bitter, but I bought this laptop in the hope of being able to work on the great Australian sci-fi novel while out and about. Unfortunately, I’m using sync.com to connect to Innerscape [so I don’t have multiple versions of the story floating around], and sync.com requires a functional internet connection to work. And this isn’t it.
The one good thing about sitting in a great big shopping centre, bitching about the wi-fi connection is that the latte is excellent. It’s so good, in fact, that I haven’t completely given up all hope of one day being able to work while sipping lattes. All I have to do is wait for the NBN to come Greensborough.
For those not familiar with Australian abbreviations, NBN stands for National Broadband Network and was the Rudd Labor government’s brainchild to drag Australia into line with the rest of the developed world [we have terrible broadband and it’s horribly expensive].
Originally, the NBN was supposed to be bleeding edge technology that would bring fibre optic cables right into the home. Had this gone ahead, it would have meant blisteringly fast broadband. For once, we would have been ahead of the game and our broadband would have become the envy of the modern world.
Then politics raised its ugly head and we got NBN mark 2. We would still get fibre optics, but no longer right into the home. Instead, old school copper would connect the fibre optic cable to the house.
Apparently, NBN mark 2 would save a lot of government money that could then be spent on Naura and Manus Island, turning refugee maltreatment into an artform. The downside, however, would be a reduction in that blistering speed I mentioned. A bit like taking the water from a high pressure hose and funneling it through an ordinary garden hose.
You get the picture.
Speaking of which, I don’t dare post a pic because I have no idea how long it will take for text to be uploaded, much less graphics. But fear not, picture me sitting here, sipping a latte and snarling at all the kiddies running by. I’m not breathing fire yet, but a few smoke alarms have gone off in reaction to the smoke coming from my ears.
Have a wonderful day and may your internet connection be nothing like mine.
Meeks
p.s. the upload went surprisingly quickly. I guess only downloads are awful.
February 28th, 2017 at 4:31 am
I think that mobile web browsing in particular is not at its best, yet. Websites can often freeze and some features may not work at all. This applies to most phones apart from top of the range phones which excel at displaying websites. If anyone is interested in technology blogging, please have a look at my blog! I upload a new post nearly every day.
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February 28th, 2017 at 8:39 pm
Hi Joel. ๐ You’re right about the websites. Admittedly I have a very old Galaxy SII, but while I could watch a Youtube video, 2 attempts to read blog posts failed because they simply wouldn’t load.
Always happy to find another good tech site. ๐
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February 28th, 2017 at 8:42 pm
Just had a quick look, Joel and I couldn’t see anything in English. Do you have another link by any chance?
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September 29th, 2016 at 11:59 pm
The lattes sound wonderful, the internet connection not so much. I live in a place where the internet is s…l…o…w. We’re on satellite as the actual cables haven’t’ gotten this far yet. Hopefully, you’ll come up with a routine that works and find a few spots that are faster. In the meantime, time for another latte ๐
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September 30th, 2016 at 9:03 am
I shouldn’t complain, my internet at home is pretty good [by Australian standards] so yeah, all I need to do is fine a few decent hotspots outside and I’ll be fine. And as you say, can always sample another latte while I’m looking. ๐
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September 29th, 2016 at 5:18 am
I love your posts, Meeka. ๐ In the U.S. broadband is good in many areas. I also used to write by hand and type into the computer later. It took a while for me to learn to think while typing.
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September 29th, 2016 at 8:01 am
Welcome Ellen! And yes, I agree about the ‘think while you type’ thing. Once it happens though it’s hard to go back. I don’t even like writing shopping lists by hand any more.
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September 29th, 2016 at 4:01 am
LOL – nice post! ๐
Here in Poland the broadband is pretty good. But that’s mainly because most Poles with half a brain flee to another European country so there aren’t so many people ๐
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September 29th, 2016 at 8:03 am
rofl – oh you are so bad! I’m sure you’ve got more than half a brain. :p
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September 28th, 2016 at 10:44 pm
Sounds tough!
I’m going to tell you the secret of my writing when out and about (when I travel, when I go up to the roof of my building, when I simply sit in a coffee bar and write). When I’m writing in these places I go OFF-LINE. Yes, I simply write in WORD and if there’s something I need to double checkโthe spelling of a name of a real person, a historic date, etc. I just make a note in my draft and fill it in later.
I know you are working in a writing program that is helping you organize the plotting, etc. and what I’m doing is just one step up from a notebook and pen, but… it works. Being disconnected when writing fiction has been very helpful. Maybe you can do something similar, sketch it out in a word processing program that doesn’t require a connection and then go home to your wifi and plug the text in?
I’m relatively low tech. I admit that. But maybe this is a good way to be out in the sunshine (or shade) while writing?
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September 28th, 2016 at 11:05 pm
Interesting you should talk about writing offline. Back when I first started writing fiction – 2001-ish? – I used to scribble ‘notes’ to myself on scraps of paper and go home and transpose. These days my handwriting is atrocious and so is my memory! I literally need to re-read what I’ve written to get back into the flow. ๐ฆ Not sure if it’s a sign of encroaching senility or simply that the whole thing has become too complex to hold in memory but..yeah. ๐ฆ
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September 29th, 2016 at 6:14 am
The super light laptop as almostโbut not quiteโreplaced my scribbles in notebooks. Since my handwriting was always terrible, I’m crediting computers with its further demise. Still, I scribble and I jot and I sometimes take the computer out and WRITE without the assistance of anything online. Try it. You may like it!
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September 29th, 2016 at 7:57 am
-grin- okay, next time I take the Lenovo for an outing I’ll give it a try. ๐
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September 28th, 2016 at 10:01 pm
I’m sorry about some of the problems you’ve been having, but typing while drinking lattes sounds wonderful. I hope one day it does become possible–for me as well as for you! ๐
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September 28th, 2016 at 11:07 pm
lol – I’m half way there! I managed the latte and a blog post so it could be worse. ๐
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September 29th, 2016 at 1:43 am
That’s a fine start! ๐
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September 29th, 2016 at 8:03 am
-grin- now that I’m not feeling so put upon, I think so too!
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September 28th, 2016 at 6:07 pm
Oh i love it when i go to a coffee shop -who i shall not name drop- to work on modeling or programming. But that damn wifi… dropping at the worst time. Though i can’t complain for it. It’s free.
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September 28th, 2016 at 11:14 pm
lol – yeah, that’s the problem – it’s free! What’s that old saying? ‘You get what you pay for.’
One day, though, we may pay for free wifi by having commercials pushed to us every 5 minutes like on commercial tv. ๐ฆ
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September 28th, 2016 at 4:11 pm
Yep… and here I was thinking I could travel the country and avail myself of free wifi… that mythical beast. Although I must say Telstra Air is good if you in a CBD [ generally] and want to surf the ‘net. It should be because to access it I am paying a hefty monthly internet plan fee. Meanwhile I continue to fork out good $$$ for mobile data. If you have mobile phone data you too can hotspot your laptop ๐ธ
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September 28th, 2016 at 4:36 pm
lol – I have 1.5 GB of mobile data. I think the only time I’ve used it was to create a hotspot for the Kindle – so I could register it. Sobering to find that there are those worse off…by a country mile. ๐ฆ
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September 28th, 2016 at 3:40 pm
Such bitter latte, from the centre of Melbourne – Greensborough.
Wish I was there …
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September 28th, 2016 at 4:37 pm
-grin- yeah, I was feeling just a tad…BITTER AND SNARKY! -cough- All better now. ๐
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September 28th, 2016 at 4:39 pm
Glad to hear.
I’m learning the limitations of Wi-Fi, similar to yourself, I think. Better than a boot in the bum, but limited.
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September 28th, 2016 at 4:49 pm
lmao – nicely put. May I quote you?
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September 28th, 2016 at 4:53 pm
Sure, if you think it’s quotable, quote away.
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September 28th, 2016 at 4:58 pm
๐
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September 28th, 2016 at 2:52 pm
Lest you get jealous of the broadband service you hear of in the UK, the promises here talk of great speeds via either a BT (British Telecom) Infinity Box or via the fibre from other companies.
In actual fact, very few houses have a fibre optic capability yet and so the promised cables are taken to the box that serves the neighbourhood but from the box to the house we’re served by standard telephone cable.
There is supposed to be Government money set aside for improving the Broadband service, especially to rural areas so I guess eventually we’ll all get the promised speeds but I’m not holding my breath.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
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September 28th, 2016 at 4:15 pm
It’s pretty good here in Exeter. But pricey having to bundle everything up with Branson ๐
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September 28th, 2016 at 4:34 pm
Branson as in Richard Branson? Virgin Mobile here in Australia isn’t bad, but then I only have the mobile phones with them.
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September 28th, 2016 at 4:52 pm
Yup. Virgin are the only cable option. I think they are the only phone/bband provider that bypasses BT. Shouldn’t complain really, out in the sticks there is often no broadband or mobile signal at all still. We’ve visited pals in WA quite often, and there is better signal there than in mid Devon!
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September 28th, 2016 at 4:59 pm
Wow…and I thought we were bad. ๐ฆ
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September 28th, 2016 at 2:32 pm
Oh what a disappointment! Like you say, everyone must be on it at the same time, except they’re invisible (maybe because they’re hiding?) Lol
Had to laugh about “snarling at the children, tho I know you did no such thing.)
I’ve done some of my best writing whilst drinking a latte. There must be magic in that stuff!
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September 28th, 2016 at 4:52 pm
-blush- I do actually quite like kids, I was just in a bad, bad mood, and yes, I love working with a latte as well; I find the white noise of the cafe strangely conducive to concentration. Magic indeed. ๐
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