i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

Soooo...once again I have to mention how HAPPY I am with the Cradlepoint hotspot device.  I thought this relatively minor change would not be a big deal.

...

I go to these hearings where I have to get my netbook online to access my data server really quickly in order to take the necessary hearing notes.  Starting up Vista (fail).  Tethering the Blackberry?  Well, not precisely "fail," but frustrating, especially as there are a lot of quirks, so getting the system running is a bit finicky and not the sort of thing I wish to be messing with prior to my hearings.

But, plug in the Cradlepoint -- in a few seconds, instant wireless!  Wireless is easy to connect, whether in Linux, in Vista or Windows 7, or simply on my iPod Touch.  Also, if I suspend the computer, I know it will  reconnect when I restart it!  It is just ... awesomely cool.

It's funny, also, how one tool segues to another.  I've just realized I could access my office MS Exchange server through Evolution in Linux.  (Caveat, it may be that you have to have 2003 Exchange and not 2007 or 2010).  In any event, it's nice to have all the email in one place.  I have my own email, gmail, runbox (as a super spam killer) and then my office email on Exchange.

For a long time I've had all this consolidated on my Blackberry -- but not on my computers, where I normally use Thunderbird.  I guess it never really hit me that the office was running an Exchange server, due to the fact that my connection was via Blackberry BIS, which is particularly proprietary (and a pain to connect).  So, on my computer I use a remote connection to my office Windows server.  But the problem there is that I have to go to a complete different login/screen/system just to read my office email.

Then I got the Cradlepoint, which allowed me to use the iPod Touch I  inherited from my daughter.  The Touch consolidates all email accounts INCLUDING MICROSOFT EXCHANGE into one nice consolidated inbox.  But, to do this I had to contact the IT for our office and find out how to connect to the Exchange server -- which actually was much simpler than connecting the Blackberry.  With Exchange on the iPod and push for my calendar and email, what do I need Blackberry for -- especially since they DO NOT have the best hardware, IMHO.  I originally got the Blackberry because I am not allowed to take a camera phone to some courts.  So, I and two other people somewhere have Blackberry Tours without a camera.  I actually can't use a cell phone at court, either -- so a portable wireless hotspot and the Touch (or something, iPad? aPad?) is my dream connection.

Which brings us around to politics and all that blathering about "free enterprise," which of course is anything but.  In the free world (as in free beer), we can do things efficiently because IT IS THE BEST WAY TO DO IT.  Whereas "free enterprise" and "freedom" find it necessary to strangle anything approaching creativity or intelligence in order to squeeze a few more dollars out of its victims customers (and otherwise protect against the imagnary figments of  insane paranoia).  In other words, the very best technology for my daily work would be something roughly described as an android with a hotspot in it -- say (at the moment) a Droid X or a Droid 2.

However, because governments in the "free world" are deathly afraid of the public actually having access to what goes on in its courtrooms, I can't take a camera phone to court and I can't turn a cell phone on at court.  Is this what Thomas Jefferson had in mind (I think not ...)  (And anyway, it's not like the rules make any difference, since they only impact people who actually follow rules and not anyone else, sort of like speed limits.)  Moreover, since the best tools for the job come with data plans that are insanely over-priced, I have to make due with a rube goldberg set of portable contraptions so my equipment will be cost effective for my job.

That, of course, gives a serious advantage to my competitors from the high rent district (but fortunately, not as large an advantage as they may have expected.)  We learned in law school that what you cannot do with one piece of paper, you can usually do with two -- and I guess the corrollary is that what you cannot do with one piece of hardware you can perhaps do with two pieces of hardware (and a few lines of code).

Enough rant, let's retire to Karl Strauss's place where the beer is nearly free, especially if I buy the first round...

Thank you for visiting, have a pleasant tomorrow (and see you at Strauss's...)