I have been using the personal hotspot feature on my iPhone for about two months now, and it’s one of the “greatest things since sliced bread.” 🙂 I’m sitting in a hotel in Charlotte right now at the Southeast Regional Educause meeting, doing a bit of email and general web surfing. Downstairs the conference provides nice WiFi, but it doesn’t reach the 9th floor. I could go down to the meeting room floor, but it’s much more comfortable to have a desk and a regular chair to sit and type. I fired up the iPhone, opened up the MacBook (and authenticated WPA2), and it’s good to go. Yes, I brought my MacBook instead of just bringing the iPad, since I thought I was going to have to work on some slides, but one of my co-presenters is doing that. The iPad is here, tho, and it a great conference device due to the form factor and battery life…anyway, this post is about the hotspot, and the thing to say about it is that it just works, and gets decent thruput.

We’ve also used the hotspot for traveling to the beach, for getting traffic reports and for general web surfing (by Jan, while I drive!). My iPad is the AT&T 3G iPad1, and I had a data plan since May 1 of 2010, but have dropped that now in favor of the iPhone. There’s not a time when I have my iPad with me and don’t have my iPhone, so it just made sense. I can say that the Verizon iPhone hotspot connectivity is far superior to the AT&T connection on I40 between Chapel Hill and eastern NC. I’d lose 3G in several spots, going to Edge on the iPad, and now with the iPhone and Verizon, solid rockin’ 3G all the way. It’s very empowering to know that you can set up connectivity like this, virtually wherever you want.

I’ve not had more than two devices connected simultaneously, but I don’t anticipate problems going up to the limit of five. Also, I’ve not found the battery consumption to be horrible in hotspot mode. It does go down faster, but no more so than if you have other active data-hungry apps running in the background. The bottom line is a big “thumbs up” from me. Try it on your iPhone or your Droid…it’s a cool feature.

The state of broadband connectivity is the US is pretty weak. When I look at the bandwidth available to folks in Europe and Asia, I wonder about the policy decisions that have gotten us in the non-competitive mess we have. I’m fortunate to have two providers available, Time Warner Roadrunner and AT&T U-Verse. U-Verse has just instituted a 250GB/mo. cap on bandwidth, and while I’m not coming close to that, it’s pretty aggravating to have that in place. I’ve generally been pleased with U-Verse, as the performance is significantly better than what I had with TWC, especially on the upstream bandwidth, and reliability has been good. I’d still like to have what a friend in Jamestown, NC; a DSL connection with 30Mb up and 30Mb down for $70/mo. I have to be satisfied with my 1.5Mb up and 18Mb down…it’s progress, but now what I’d like to see. Upstream bandwidth is critical for things like videoconferencing.

Since the beginning of the year (mid-January) I’ve had a probe from SamKnows measuring my bandwidth. It’s a part of a project with the FCC to help determine if we are getting the bandwidth we’re paying for. I’m pleased to report that it seems that I generally do get good throughput of approximately the metered rate. Here’s my graph for the last week:

Here’s hoping that we all have more competition in the broadband marketplace, and that we can all see our available speeds increase.

Save the Internet! Support Network Neutrality!

Many people think of flyfishing as it’s shown in “A River Runs Through It,” with trout, snow-capped peaks, and improbable demonstrations of casting. In fact, ARRTI is a great flick, and it’s pretty good in its treatment of the sport, as well as being a good story. But I digress…flyfishing is something that’s at home in many different locales from the coast to the mountains and all points in between. Yesterday I met friend, fellow scouter and expert flyfisherman Terry Hackett to fish a couple stretches of the Eno River in Orange County, NC.

The Eno is a warmwater stream that’s a part of the Neuse River drainage. As such, it’s home to a wide variety of sunfish, largemouth bass, and Roanoke Bass. The latter, Roanoke Bass, were the target quarry for the day.

The Eno tumbles through the piedmont on its way to meet the Little and Flat Rivers to form the Neuse, and is characterized by small rapids and riffles interspersed with slow, languid pools. One of the nice things is that miles of the Eno are accessible through the Eno River State Park. Created in 1975 and expanded since to encompass both more river miles and adjoining lands, the park provides a wonderful oasis from the bustle of life in the Research Triangle area.

I met Terry at his house at 9:30, after a quick stop to buy insect repellent. It’s always nice to fish at a civilized hour. It’s tick season, and we’d be crashing through a lot of brush, and that DEET would come in handy. We drove to a nearby park access and hiked to the river. Each of us carried a 5wt since we’d want to throw weighted flies. Terry had recently caught a few very nice Roanoke Bass, so I was really looking forward to this.

The stream was a bit high and slightly off-color due to recent rains. Standing in knee-deep water, I could see where my bare leg met the wool socks in my wading shoes, but that was about it. We worked one of Terry’s favorite spots but it was slow. I caught a couple of hand-sized sunfish on an olive bead-eye bugger (with a pair of rubber legs tied in an “X” on the back). We worked downstream, catching an occasional sunfish. It was a magnificent day, with temps rising slowly toward 70F, blue sky, and the drone of cicadas in the distance. We knew it was slow when I tossed a cicada in a pool and it fluttered, uneaten, for 50 yards down a pool 🙂 . We decided to go to another area, but walked upstream to the first pool to give it another try before leaving. Terry caught a redhorse sucker, and then a nice Roanoke Bass!

We drove through through the Eno valley to our second destination. Beautiful, rocky pools. I just knew I’d hook that Roanoke Bass. But, while I caught several sunfish, no bass for me, as my bass mojo let me down. Terry picked up a few more bass, and we decided it was time to pack it in. I picked several good tips from Terry on Roanoke Bass; always good to learn at the feet of the master!

A great day, and it reminded me of why I like to fish the Eno. It’s convenient and a lot of fun. I’m going to make sure I spend some more time there this summer.

I saw a sign of the technology times today, the passing of era. Columbia University will no longer maintain the Kermit program suite. Frankly, I’m surprised that they actually were supporting it, but now that I know it’s being dropped, it’s time for a moment of reflection. I have a warm place in my heart for Kermit.

In the mid 1980’s I was working at UNC-Chapel Hill, and we deployed several hundred Convergent Technologies workstations for office automation functions. This was before the PC and Ethernet won in the marketplace, and the CTOS operating system from Convergent had a true multi-user networked environment that was easy to use and very capable. We did a lot of good work around campus with these computers, both with the native apps and by developing custom code. I wrote, for example, an “instant messaging” program with pop-up alerts that was quite popular.

A challenge, however, was getting data from other systems onto these workstations. I looked around at options, but didn’t have a good tool. Then, I found C-Kermit. It worked on most every system in the world except CTOS. I downloaded the distribution (circuitously!) and started to geek out some code. I rewrote the comm line (modem) I/O, disk I/O, screen I/O, and damned if it didn’t work!

I told the folks at Columbia, and it became an official distribution. I sent copies to folks all around the world, and was surprised at the interest! I guess that was my 15 minutes of Internet fame. Anyway, I look at the formal passing of Kermit with a twinge of sadness…that was back in the day when I wrote code instead of going to meetings 😉

A quick shout out for iOS 4.3. I’ve upgraded my iPad now (my Verizon iPhone doesn’t yet have 4.3 available. One of the best features for me will be the speed improvement in the browser. So far, it does seem noticeably snappier. I’m a big fan of AirPlay, and there are several improvements there I’m looking forward to trying. Personal hotspot doesn’t excite me, but I’m sure it will be very useful to some folks. For a good summary, see this link from Network World.

I am a happy camper! The only issue I had with my phone, FaceTime activation, has been resolved. I’ve not actually called anyone yet with FaceTime yet, but will do so soon, hopefully. The problem was indeed related to my status as a former Alltel customer, and was apparently related to routing of the SMS/MMS messages used for activation. It was resolved by Verizon pushing a PRL to affected phones. See this for a writeup.

Otherwise, it’s been exactly what I expected. A great smartphone that works well as a phone! I’ve made a number of calls this week, and the iPhone has outstanding sound quality and “lots of bars.” I’ve not experienced the “grip of death” but I do have a Belkin silicone case on the iPhone. I’ve got my contacts synched with Google, my favorite apps installed, and rolling along. WiFi connectivity works well. I’ve done a Skype videoconference which worked well with the front-facing camera. I’m now looking into various camera-enabled apps that I didn’t explore on the iPad — “Scan to PDF” is an example, an interesting app that let’s you use the camera as a document scanner which outputs PDF files.

Thanks, Verizon, for combining the handset and the network! Can you hear me now? And see me, with FaceTime working!

My iPhone arrived on Monday 2/7, since I’d set my clock for 3AM on Thursday 2/3 and put in my order as soon as possible. I had a meeting Monday evening, but I had a few minutes to activate the phone. Unboxed it, hooked it up to my iMac, and poof, a live iPhone. Synched the apps and headed out. My first call worked, and it didn’t even drop the call 😉 . Came home, set up the apps, logging into all the myriad services and tools. Everything working perfectly. Headed to work today, used the iPhone rather than the iPad for listening to my regular Podcasts. Made several calls throughout the day, with excellent quality and clarity. As a longtime iOS user (iPod Touch and iPad, since May), I was familiar with iOS and the apps, and things worked as expected. The camera(s) are fine and the “feel” of the phone is nice.

There’s only one issue right now, and that’s activation of FaceTime. That’s not working, and I have Googled enough to know it’s not just me. I have an open support case with both Apple and Verizon. I think, based on my reading, that it has to do with the SMS-based initial setup messages and the routing of those messages. I got good support at both companies and they are both escalating to the engineers. I was very impressed with Apple, as their rep first sent me a direct email (to which I responded) and then a followup call. Unheard of in tech support! I’m slightly disappointed, but I’m confident it will eventually get fixed, and I’m just tickled to have an iPhone (on a network where the calls work and it’s a phone 😉 ).

I’ve been using Nudgemail since it came out in November. If you are not familiar with it, you should take a look. I use it for both work and personal email, and was prompted to write this as I sat down this morning to respond to several ticklers I’d set on my work email, and to set up new ones. I manage my much of my immediate “todo” queue through email (putting longer term things in Google Tasks) and while I don’t try to get to “inbox zero” I do strive to keep a manageable number of conversations in my Gmail inbox(s), under 100, and I find Nudgemail invaluable in being my “memory” to do followups. I will commonly put a “bcc” to Nudgemail on a message I send which will prompt me to take action or follow up at a future point. I’ve noticed now that Nudgemail has added recurring reminders, and I’m now beginning to use those. This is one of those services that you need to try to really appreciate, but when you do, you’ll have one of those “aha” moments, and you’ll most like jump to make it a part of your email strategy. Try it!

Oh what a time sink…need I say more?