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misc06 – about communigation
Here’s another post from the “misc” series. This one is basically about how to stay connected and do navigation.
First of all, I think it was a good choice to carry a computer that weighed only a little more than 2 pounds and had a battery-life of 6 hours:
It was a little expensive at the time, but I needed to be able to store pictures on DVDs and use the Internet on a daily basis. I also packed an external hard-drive and a small GPRS-adapter, which worked totally fine almost everywhere around China:
Needless to say, the only major downside to the computer was the operating system. I hated it, I hated it, I hated it. You can probably guess which one it was…
I didn’t want any additional batteries for the computer, because I was planning to recharge at least once a week. A travel adapter and a multiplug were important though, because power outlets were usually scarce, and I was pressed for time when it came to charging all my batteries at once:
(I hate using touchpads, so I got a mouse on the way.)
Of course, I always had my cellphone with me. I got one that had a card slot, so I could listen to music and save the extra weight of an MP3-player. The cellphone called itself “outdoor” but was very feeble. I have always felt cheated by the people who manufacture those things.
…
The single best item I had with me was this one:
Seriously, I don’t think there is any more comfortable way to navigate. The GPS-unit I was using was sturdy like a rock and could go about 15 hours on one set of 2 AA batteries. I always kept 5 sets of charged batteries with me. There were no detailed maps installed, but I used Google Earth to plan ahead on my route.
Maps are heavy and you have to read ‘em.
Long live indolence!
Soundtrack: Reinhard Mey – “Über Den Wolken”
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November 17th, 2009 at 15:21
[...] course i was. i had a cell phone, a computer, internet in every major and minor settlement along the [...]
November 17th, 2009 at 17:43
i saw your pictures before you posted them^^ holy shit piscasa is nice! love them :) nice pictures
November 18th, 2009 at 00:31
Oh, dumm, I love the first picture…
November 18th, 2009 at 01:20
Babel: Haha, I gotta be careful about that Picasa-thing!
Minye: :)
November 18th, 2009 at 02:58
Hi, my name is Lidia, i`m from Russia. I`m 22, now I`m study in China, in a province Shandong, the city of Linyi. I wish to start to travel after Christmas across a China.
I admire with you! You inspire me, man!
Good luck!
November 18th, 2009 at 03:26
Lidia: Большое спасибо! Hope you are having an excellent time in China!
November 18th, 2009 at 18:44
Love the site, Christoph. I'm glad to see it is back up. I'm sure you've had a lot of visitors! I own the Garmin 60csx and love it. Is that the same one you used? A GPS unit is one of the best travel tools I've ever purchased. I never leave home without it.
November 19th, 2009 at 01:57
Kolby: I agree dude. Btw I just checked out your site, and I gotta say it's a cool idea, looks very interesting! :)
November 19th, 2009 at 20:27
it 's very cool to share your experience about travel. i most insteresting to your digital camera, lens. those self-shots photoS is taken by 5D or your mobile phone camera ?
November 20th, 2009 at 20:20
Why it is "communigation" ???
german….?
November 20th, 2009 at 22:09
guess it's his creation by combining communication and navigation?
anyways, the gps receiver really looks, um, funny? I would have guessed anything but gps.
and yes, vista is a pain in the a**. get rid of it!
November 21st, 2009 at 03:08
ricksung: I'll get to the camera part later on! :)
Steven: Haha, German is even more weird than that!
ZMH: 1, 2, 3, you got it all right.
November 22nd, 2009 at 22:29
hi dude, no picasa pics shown in china….
good list. if plus those pics would be way too better.
how heavy is your camera set?
btw,went for a weekend trip to Huangshan, fabulous
!
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:14
My favorite German word is the one for DMV, where you register your car. Kraftfahrzeugzulassungsstelle, which literally breaks down to "place to allow out your powered driving thing."
It's hard to choose a useful OS. Windoze has many problems, but Linux doesn't work well for anything advanced like video or sound. Right now I have a combination, but what would I get for a portable laptop? Hard choice… maybe win7, but Ubuntu could work too if I didn't need video editing (which I would).
November 24th, 2009 at 01:06
I would still recommend doing a usual Windows XP installation and creating an Image using Acronis True Image. This one could reside on one or more lightweight USB-Stick. All I do is keep up2date with Windows Updates and Virus Definition and never had a situation where I was unable to recover my working machine.
Thats basically what I do beside the fact that I am truecrypting the whole harddisc because when the Notebook gets lost or stolen any third person is unable to reveal any data from it. It makes the restoring though at some point.
On the other hand – any MacBook ist cacable of booting from a firewire harddisk and its easy to clone the internal one to the external. So in Case of an Crash there one is still able to work on an external clone. Having to extra Backup-Discs would make it a no-brainer if one could get used to MacOS. Maybe I will swap my NC10-Anynet with integrated UMTS to one of those 13 inch mac book pros when they finally manage to integrate UMTS into the houseing.
Dont let the Orkanböen blow you away and enjoy some tasty food from bavaria :)
Ingo
November 24th, 2009 at 02:58
anita: too bad the pics don't show up in China, I really hope the administration will change this back to normal some day soon! About the cameras: I'll try to come up with another Misc-post about that as soon as I can!
Dave: How about "Geschlechtsverkehr" or "Brustwarze" – those are some pretty weird German words as well! :)
Ingo: Makes sense, I had a similar back-up solution as well. I feel so tired thinking about how much time I have wasted with an OS that was total crap to begin with, argh…
November 24th, 2009 at 05:37
I am sitting in the IT department of an insurance company all day. You need a clever workaround or mindtrick not to feel like your life is a complete waste of time and you are just passing away slowly.
XP is ok beside a few bug left by Microsoft to cause me some headache in an enterprise enviroment. Vista has been a step ahead with good intension but totally useless in the end because its so horrible slow and the windows explorer sucks in my eyes together with all these useless popups and questions. I think Windows 7 is basicaly Vista without the crap but I wait for Service Pack 1 which will surely adress all those Kinderkrankheiten included with every new OS.
BTW: vorgestern… übermorgen… this is where I mostly get stuck on a english converstation. I dont do english conversations frequently enough to think in english. On the other hand I like how the german language uniquely burdens all non-native speakers with endless long words. Donaudampfschiffahrts… ;)