I’m travelling overseas at present on a much needed and well earned break. Getting connected to the Internet while travelling is way, way easier than 5+ years back, but even still it isn’t anywhere near as easy as I’d like.
In some places we had a 24/7 broadband connection just like back home, but unfortunately this has been the exception not the rule. And of course the best laid plans don’t always work out as they are supposed to.
Our priority while we are away is to try and keep up our usual level of prompt customer service and support. Some days we haven’t been able to connect at all, but fortunately this is the exception and I feel we’ve done a reasonable job, all things considered.
This was also a lead in to explain why there haven’t been any blog posts recently. I could write at length about our travels, but as interesting as that may be to some, it isn’t what this blog is about.
We are carrying a fair bit of (too much) technology with us and I’m very pleased to say that to date it is all working very well. This includes a GPS Receiver with Bluetooth and an iPaq Pocket PC with maps of all of Western Europe, two Notebook PC’s, a 60G 2.5″ portable USB hard drive for backups, a new Canon Powershot Pro S2 Digital Camera and more.
I purchased the GPS Receiver and mapping software just before we left home. I’m a terrible navigator and when you add to this the facts that we are driving on the opposite side of the road to what we are used to and we are in places we’ve never ever been to before, this seemed like a smart move. I’ve never used a GPS before, let alone a combination with a Pocket PC and I really had no idea how well it would work for us, if at all. I’m very pleased to say it was money very well spent indeed and it has prevented many heated debates about what direction to head in or turn to make. It isn’t perfect by any means and has a nasty habit of bombing out when you need it the most, but these problems aside it would be very hard to imagine doing a trip like this without a GPS. Bottom line, I’m sold.
During our travels I’ve had some interesting experiences with PC’s and Software, along with the challenges of using Windows and Keyboards in foreign languages. I hope to write about these in a short while.