Yeah, I know. I should have dusted first.
I can put a wi-fi router in a 12X16 space if I want to, no matter how senseless that may seem. Because freedom.
Will Blog for ISP Time, Glaucoma Meds, or Cheap Booze.
Free! (and worth every penny)
Scary Manifesto that keeps getting pushed down on the sidebar by filthy capitalism!
They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means “The Ultimate Argument of Kings,” and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. “We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it’s about: You’ll do as I say or I’ll send my goons to kill you.”
I thought about that for a long time. If there’s an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I’ve got bullets – he’s got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that’s not going to happen. So if there’s an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain’t bullets.
It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug.
The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.
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Joel the techno-hermit
You are my libertarian-techie hero!
gfa
Old biddy here, starting to get concerned about Joel not posting for 2 days. Hope hes’ fine and just got computer glitches or something.
Joel will be returned unharmed when our demands are met.
Biddy here was also getting worried. 🙂 But I just got a text from Joel a few minutes ago. His Internet is down again (damn Wildblue). But he’s fine.
A neighbor is going to call Wildblue, but they’re terrible about service in Joel’s part of the boonies. Last time ‘Net wasn’t working well it took them weeks to get a tech out there. All we can do is hope for better service this time.
I’ll post another comment if I get any updates before Joel’s service returns.
“Joel will be returned unharmed when our demands are met.”
🙂
A war between the packrats and Wildblue over Joel’s future could get interesting. Frankly, I’m hoping the packrats win.
Thanks for the reassuring update! I hope Joel did check that the dish hadn’t fallen off the house again. 😉
Dish, he says, looks 100% fine. No idea what the problem is.
Me, I blame that router — and Joel posting about being so techie. It was the fates getting their revenge for his hubris.
Or the packrats. Possibly the packrats.
Thanks, Claire. I’ve been concerned, too . . . no response to email.
He’s likely plotting sweet revenge.
Things could get unpleasant as we all go into withdrawal. ;-}
Just as long as Joel’s favorite bull doesn’t engage the Wildblue tech whilst he’s enroute to the Fortress of Chickentude…
I would also like to say “thank you” for the update.
Thank you.
Okay, I am beginning to have withdrawal symptoms. I am having chocolate cravings, and an urge to go find a chicken to feed. Not to mention wanting to shoot a rat or spear a cow. Setting all that aside, I will go marinate a moose roast. Joel! Come back Joel!
Sorry guys. Wild Blue will not be out to check his satellite until SATURDAY. Yes, it’s killing me too. 🙁
Thank you Landlady!
So you seem to be saying that Wild Blue is coming on this SATURDAY, rather than on a day that’s some vague number of weeks away? I’ll take that as good news!
I’m with Ben that Saturday that’s not in the distant future is good news. As long as there’s no torrential rain and the wash is totally flooded. Thanks Landlady for the update.
Missing your posts,Joel Although reassured by comments by others(Thanks, Landlady!) still look forward to hearing how the new solar panels are working out. good luck with Wild Blue and we’ll be waiting for your next update.
So, Landlady, where will Joel’s favorite bull be on Saturday? Hopefully nowhere near the route that Wild Blue tech will have to take…
}:-]
Wow, posted one little comment.
Now kidnapping by packrats, ransom demands, not a post in days. Yeah, real time withdrawal and angst and and I hope to not encounter Wild Blue thanks ever…
No surprise, I guess. But first bit of bad news: Wildblue bumped Joel to Wednsday. Second bit of bad news: “That equipment’s pretty old; we don’t keep it in stock.”
So even Wednesday may not bring relief from our withdrawal symptoms.
Sure wish there was a way we could all help Joel get onto a better provider, but I get the impressions options are still nearly nil out where he is. It’s like Internet service provided by an Obamacare exchange. Sigh.
I could always pay them a visit. 200lb redneck with no hair and a bushy beard, not to mention an attitude problem. Let’s keep it going, uhh too many guns, a lifted truck (5.7 hemi 35″ tires) tattoos, the knowing of many things dangerous things . Did I mention my attitude problem. So find the equipment or upgrade it or………….
Claire, thanks for the update. From past experience, it would have been too much to ask for Wildblue to actually show up when scheduled, and then to actually repair Joel’s system in an efficient manner. Joel will eventually get himself reconnected to the world one way or another. In the grand scheme of things, this is a minor bump in the road. 🙂
“Did I mention my attitude problem”
If we’re getting withdrawal cranky out here, I can’t imagine how Joel is getting by. Although this might be a golden opportunity for him to finish chores and read books. I’ll bet his laundry is all caught up and the woodpile is full to the brim. 😉
PS. Thanks Claire for keeping us up to date.
Here’s a shiny while we wait for our hero’s return:
https://theintercept.com/2016/08/25/why-did-the-saudi-regime-and-other-gulf-tyrannies-donate-millions-to-the-clinton-foundation/
While reading it, just remember that “nobody is coming to take your guns”.
I just wonder, coloradohermit, if any of his chickens are still alive…
}:-]
Song comes to mind;
http://www.allmusicals.com/lyrics/annie/tomorrow.htm
Joel has become one of my favorite authors. Maybe he’s working on a novel?
Yet another update. Bad news and good.
Nobody will be surprised to learn — right? — that Wildblue once again canceled its planned service call. So Joel won’t be back today.
This time, though, enough was enough. Landlady is going to arrange for service via Verizon — better plan, same cost, says Joel in his text to me. It’s still unknown how decent Verizon’s service will be out there in the desert wayback. But anything’s got to beat Wildblue.
Finally another ray of good news. Joel will be back online at least temporarily this weekend.
WildBlue just postponed until next Monday. After a flurry of texts, I have a cellular hotspot en route, which should be in Joel’s hands (no doubt shaking with internet delirium tremens at this point) by tomorrow evening.
WildBlue can go hang.
Hah, Claire beat me to it!
As to how this might work, Joel thinks Verizon owns the nearest cellphone tower. But the signal’s week and will require a boosting antenna. So much is still unknown.
But Landlady, you can still give us a clue, if you want to, as to how the system will work. I don’t know anything about cellphone Internet!
“I have a cellular hotspot en route, which should be in Joel’s hands (no doubt shaking with internet delirium tremens at this point)”
🙂 Nice work, Landlady!
Sure! A hotspot is basically the love-child of a smartphone and a wireless router. It has an assigned telephone number (that you never see or use) and uses a cell tower to send/receive data just like a smart phone. Simultaneously it broadcasts that data signal locally just like a wifi router (about a 50′ radius more or less).
You can use it literally anywhere you can get 3G or better cell signal. Your computer has to be wifi enabled to use it; you can’t plug into it with an ethernet cable. And you can’t make phone calls with it in the traditional sense, since there’s no keypad, speaker or microphone.
I’ve used mine — albeit with the boosting antenna you mentioned, which acts as a repeater for the cell tower, making the signal stronger — at the Gulch. I am able to connect to my company network via VPN and comfortably surf, email, instant message, etc. It can drag a bit during webex meetings when I’m screensharing or sending video, but for Joel’s purposes I suspect it will be decent most of the time.
Weather can affect performance but not as much as it affects satellite performance. And of course if too many people are accessing that tower simultaneously, the bandwidth will drop. So there may be certain days or times of day when he notices it is not as fast.
Thanks, Landlady. Great explanation. The idea of wifi hotspots has mystified me for some time, and I was especially wondering how such a thing would work there in the middle of nowhere. You made everything much clearer.
Hey, Landlady, any chance you would give us the “assigned phone number” for that hotspot so we could give Joel some “entertainment” at random times?
}:-]
Maybe Joel can make and receive telephone calls on Skype? Other than a persistent echo, it works pretty well up here in Alaska if I am within reach of a decent ISP signal.
@Mark, nah, I need to stay on his good side. 🙂
@IM He probably could, but he’s got his normal phone for that. And there is a bandwidth cap for the hotspot.
Hope the hot spot will handle it because I’m guessing that Joel will have a whole lot to tell us about after all this time out of the conversation. 😉
Just think of all the work he got done this past week.
Are ye well lad? Worrying about the lack of posts.
Is this what can happen when you don’t dust???