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Back to the Forum Archives On Monday, January 19, I posted the following message on our home page. Now it's time to explain. Please Notice! The simple fact is, I became very ill a couple of weeks ago. After bullheadedly fighting what I thought was a cold for several days, I finally ended up in a hospital emergency room. The diagnosis was pneumonia in the right lobe of my lungs. Thanks to my wife, I got treatment in time and recovery is now matter of time. The crisis was over on Monday and I got home in time to post my website updates just a bit late. I was very tired, but somewhat more effective. I believe the e-mail errors were also a result of my loss of coherence due to that same infection. I was, in fact, dysfunctional for a time. By Monday, I was not well, but I was at least coherent. That was good, because I was able to post the updates in my regular way. I had first expected to try posting them using a notebook computer from a hospital room. I am not at all convinced I could have brought that off. I thought I was prepared for this kind of contingency, but I was not. There were some glaring holes in my plan that quickly became apparent in the real life situation. I had all of the pieces of the puzzle, but I had overlooked two important things. First, was my failure to properly identify (label) the pieces needed. I discovered this when I was unable to describe them to my wife. Second, was my failure to realize I might need help from other people. That was a somewhat natural oversight, because my plan was for being on the road somewhere, not in a hospital and incapacitated. Now, I have some work to do. First is to check and properly identify each part of my road warrior kit. there are many parts, depending on the situation. The basic system consists of a cell phone with a built in modem and a notebook computer. With that I can log onto the internet anywhere that the cell phone will work. The only other piece needed is the cable to connect the two together. That was just one item I had not properly labeled. It was in the notebook bag along with many other cables and things. I am sure they all looked like garbage to my wife. So, if she could carry it, she would end up bringing a large heavy bag full of stuff to the hospital. Most of that stuff, I would not have needed. In the case where the cell phone will not work, I do have a backup plan. I am not a complete fool. One case where the cell phone would fail is in a hospital situation where cell phones are not allowed. Of course, another case would be where I was in a phone tower dead zone. In either case, my plan was to find and use a telephone land line. For that, there is a built in modem in my notebook computer. Now I get to another contingency. In many large buildings, including hospitals and hotels, the existing phone system is digitally based rather than analog based. The danger is the phones and jacks look exactly the same. It's the electronics that are different. The bottom line is, if I were to plug an analog modem into a digital phone jack, I would get a puff of smoke and a sinking feeling in my heart. My modem would be destroyed. To defend against that, I have another device. It is a black box converter. Don't ask me how it works. All I know is it's an all purpose device. It will work as an analog device, but will convert the signal from digital to analog when necessary. So that is another piece of stuff with cables in that bag. As I said, there are many other parts and pieces to this road warrior kit. There is the notebook ac adaptor and charger. Without that, the battery would last about three hours at best. There is also a vehicle power point charger to do the same thing in a vehicle or airplane. Th cables are different for each case. There is also a spare notebook battery which has not been recharged in over a year. It is most probably dead. There are also the cell phone adaptors and chargers for normal home power and or vehicular power. That bag is getting crowded, but we are not done. We have a switch out floppy drive to switch with the CD drive when needed. There is a visor for the notebook in case I have to work outside in sunlight. Regardless of all the cutesy BS ads you see, sunlight will wash out the display so you cannot see it. The visor is necessary. There are also two software disks in case something goes wrong with the cell phone software. Don't ask me why it happens, but it does. Add a regular mouse, some spare 9 volt batteries (for the black box converter), and a few small tools and that bag is really full and heavy. That does not even include any kind of printer. I don't see the need for one, but many road warriors feel they are necessary. This is the gag of notebook computers don't you see. They sell you a computer that is very sleek and light. It's a great gimmick. The problem occurs when we try to use that notebook on the road. By the time we include all of the crap we need to actually make it useful it weighs in at a whopping 21 pounds. No wonder road warriors complain. Now I'm sure it has occurred to you, as it has to me, that a friend or my son could have done the updates for me. All I needed was to hand them the upload procedure and they could have come to my desk in my home and managed it. You guessed it. I don't have that procedure. That is another failure of my plan. It did not occur to me that I might need to very carefully explain this to someone else. That is another piece of work I must do within a few days, for sure before I get sick again. I need to write out the step by step procedure for updating my website. It will start with, on the desk there is a red switch on a power strip behind the monitor. Turn that on. It will go on from there and end with. Turn the red switch on the power strip behind the monitor off. I will write a similar procedure for the notebook computer taking account, I hope, of all the possible scenarios. When I think about it, I will need to write similar procedures
for everything I do as concerns the website. For example, how
to build the next weeks updates on the local computer. I have
only statistical evidence, but that convinces me I shall not
live forever. I have put a lot of myself into Wesoomi Publishing
and I do not intend it to go down with me. It may, but my hope
is it will continue. There must be someone somewhere who will
pick up the reins, perhaps even my son. He don't owe me nuthin,
but perhaps he owes himself something. I could hope for that.
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