A stream of thoughtsciousness
My name is Donovan Watts. I am the Founder of Getting Sites Built, a web design agency.. we plan, design and build websites. Donovan's thoughtStream is my weblog. For kicks, I hoop. 
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Jim on the Lazy Daze group says, "your ideal motorhome will eventually turn out to be three feet longer than whatever you buy." Ha! 
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Gas prices are of concern, right? So The Go! Team downloaded the latest version of the fab Mac OS X widget, Gas. This ties into the site GasPriceWatch.com, a wonderful resource for drivers with the most up to date gas prices available. With this widget, all I do is press the F12 key on my Mac and then I enter the zip code where I'm at. The lowest priced gas station around will appear. Click on that and I'm taken to a Google map page showing me where the gas station is located. Free. Get it. Now. Don't have a mac? Hmph. I don't know what to say. Perhaps you could purchase a Mac, install Gas on it and call it your 'Cheap gas locator machine', or CGLM for short. Continue using your PC as you were.
And speaking of widgets, Sprocket said his favorite new widget is Mercury Retrograde. He's been beta testing it for Canton. It should be ready to go before Mercury is in Retrograde once again. We'll speak more of it here in the journal once it is released.
Today's outing revealed an active Farmer's market. Daisy pulled over and out we scrambled. It's was beautiful weather and all the townsfolk were out. There was a band and food and lots of vendors.
Internet Access on the go
We've been researching the Kyocera KR1 Broadband EVDO Router with WiFi. Looks like EVDOinfo.com has the best support and deal. They'll sell you a Kyocera KPC 650 PC card, Kyocera KR1 router, a Verizon data plan, and they'll also sell you a booster antenna and an evdo amplifier if you really want to beef up your connection range and speed. If you bought all the parts, you'd still come in under the cost of an Internet In Motion system. Cheaper but I still don't know for sure if the speed and robustness would be similar. More research will tell.
Some people are purchasing external batteries and solar powered laptop bags to use all this equipment. Mind you, this means some geeks out there are toting around all this hardware, creating their own truly mobile hotspots. No auto needed. My mind is racing.
Vector batteries might be a good way to go. And they can help jump-start your car.
Some people are purchasing Bix Computers Multi-Purpose Mini External Battery Pack to power the KR1.
And then there is my favorite. A solar power laptop bag called Voltaic. Very, very cool.
The Team is doing some speed tests today here in San Dimas, California, Keanu Reeves style. We got a free account on DSL Reports and are using the Tools to compare our wi-fi connection with using Sprocket as a bluetooth cellular modem.
Using wi-fi here are our speeds:
1428 kbps or 178.5 KB/sec download speed
367 kbps or 45.9 KB/sec upload speed
And using Sprocket, we get:
52 kbps or 6.6 KB/sec download speed
32 kpbs or 4 KB/sec upload speed
That's not very good. Sprocket as modem works but it's kinda slow and moreover, the connection is somewhat flakey. It disconnects far too easily for my taste. I keep looking to the Internet In Motion system as a good solution but it's about $2100 or so and a dealer has to install it. Supposedly you get better and stronger reception with this unit so it's better than simply using a Verizon PC card in your laptop. But at what cost? A few thousand bucks? At this point, I think I'd rather make due with a PC card for $60, and unlimited data plan separate from the one Sprocket has right now (perhaps transferring Sprocket's data plan over to a PC card instead), and call it a day, saving my pennies for a satellite solution instead.
I NEED this PAD! Thanks to George for pointing it out. The PAD is a futuristic motor home - part apartment, part vehicle and part telecommunications center. Awesome! GMC calls it a Living Activity Vehicle, or LAV. It doesn't exist but one can dream, right?
Daisy asked me what I was planning on improving today. It seems that Daisy, though she is up for sale, still wants or expects me to make some kind of improvement to her on a daily basis, even if that improvement is simply cleaning or washing her. Well, I've got news for Daisy. Last night I went through her manual page by page and created an outline of all the suggested maintenance procedures. I now have a much better idea of what it takes to keep Daisy running smooth for years to come. She's overdue for some tasks such as changing the oil, checking the fluids, fixing some things like her broken horn, mirror and windshield wiper sprayer. "I'll prioritize the list today and take a stab, Daisy."
Giant L.A. RV Show is going on at the Fairplex right around the corner from our basecamp.
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