01466: Sietch Still Offline

So we've been home at the Sietch whole day partly because Tobie still had work to deal with but primarily because we were waiting for the Bayantel technician to come by and figure out what's wrong with our DSL. Of course this being a local holiday, it seems they weren't able to drop by for one reason or another. Supposedly they made it as far as the building but there was something about the right people not being available - I suspect this as something to do with the building PMO. So we're still running off of the Smart Bro Pocket WiFi modem to keep us connected.

Considering this is the first 24 hours of owning this new Smart Bro WiFi unit, the service is decent but nothing too amazing. Upon first start-up it's slow as molasses since it seems to go up the hierarchy of internet options as it locates a better signal. It starts at 2G and goes as far as something that the indicator screen identifies to be "3G+" I doubt this is Smart's much-touted 4G network or anything remotely close to that, but at least the modem gets the job done. But as expected, the connection is prone to time-outs and seems to get mad when a new device connects to the modem after a period of inactivity. While it is advertised as being capable of supporting up to 5 devices, it already struggles with just our two computers.

If anything, this is still a lot more practical than just one of us using the prior SmartBro modem that we had purchased. The fact that we get to share our connection between us means slightly less cost when we're on the road despite the occasional frustration with internet speed. I don't see us switching to such mobile internet options as our primary broadband solution, but it'll be good for those times when we're out of the city or something like that.

As if we travel that much.

So while Tobie was working, I've been spending the day working through all the Secret Six comics that I had recently purchased through comiXology. And I've also spent time playing with the new LEGO Batman game that I had purchased. And while I'm not perfectly comfy with the fact that the game now features voices for the various LEGO versions of DC characters, it is certainly a very fun puzzle game. And I have to give them credit for the first ever depiction of Superman that felt, well accurate. He starts out as being invulnerable, so thugs aren't an issue, and he has his full power set of flight, heat vision, X-ray vision and freeze breath. Cool beans.

We originally had plans of gaming with friends tonight, but at the end of the day no one was available to play. So now we're trying to figure out what to do with our spare time. And then tomorrow we'll have to wait around again for Bayantel to make a repeat visit and hopefully get us up and running again.

Consolation item: the new router is pretty great and a surprisingly good deal for the price we paid for it. And I really like its menu options, even more than our past Cisco Linksys unit. Imagine that.

We're thinking of going out somewhere, but we have absolutely no idea where to go. Blast.

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