Satellite Internet

Well, I'm back working in the woods of Western Canada. From now until the beginning of August, I'll be working in northern British Columbia and northern Alberta.

This year, a number of positive improvements have taken place within our company. The most exciting for me is Satellite Internet! No, not because I can check my email frequently - to be honest, it's nice to get away from it for most of the summer. However, this will be a big time saver in submitting payroll data for my camp to the home office. No more four hour drives on inconvenient mornings, trying to find an internet cafe that lets me email attachments. The internet connection is pretty decent. It took me a while to set up the dish, because aiming it is particularly tricky (I had help from my compass and a satellite directional finder), but now that I have it working, it is a decently fast broadband connection, with downloads averaging about 120KB/sec tonight. I also have a VoIP satellite phone attached to the dish, which significantly increases the safety factor due to improved communications for emergencies.

On an unrelated note, I saw a sign this week that said "for sale by owner." Those signs always bothered me due to the wording. I'm looking forward to the day when I see a particular ugly house for sale with a sign on the front lawn that says, "for sale by neighbour."