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Cybercafè Travel Kit?
Xthlc asks: "I've been traveling in Europe this summer, and wanted to share photos and a journal with my friends and family as I went along. A laptop was out of the question, since I'm backpacking in some areas where the risk of loss is too great. So I'm limited to cybercafès. I thought I had everything I needed: a digital camera, a USB CF card reader, a universal AC adapter to recharge the camera, and a MovableType installation back home. However, I'm discovering that, in fact, there were a lot of things I forgot: a software CD with drivers and image editing programs, a cybercafè directory that lists things like prices and features, and a dictionary that has the Catalonian word for 'download'. So, for those experienced readers who weblog: what's your ultimate cybercafè survival kit? If you actually travel with a laptop, how do you deal with overseas connectivity? Also, where the heck do you find time to actually SEE stuff instead of just writing about it in your weblog?"
The cafes I've done work for had everything locked down so well you'd have no chance of installing any drivers or editing software. Then again, you shouldn't need any drivers as win2k & XP should support most card readers already.
Of course, other cafes may vary.
I'd say get a cheap used laptop with a floppy drive; a floppy gives you much greater odds that you can copy the pics, and you might even be able to use the laptop to connect online.
Nothing to see here; Move along.
My guess is that you'll be in the touristy cities, good luck finding cafe's that will let you install software, or for that mater, even getting to the desktop/filestructure of the machine. I'm a German living in the US, and from my travels I've learned that the smaller towns are going to be where your going to be able to do this sort of thing.
Carpe meam simiam!
If you dictate 2 minutes of travel notes onto your own machine, your friend can easily transcribe that onto your weblog for you. After all, you trust this person with keys to your house, you can certainly share your password, then change it when you return home.
If you must take a laptop along, make it an older model. Pick up a 486 for $30, spend $50 getting the battery rebuilt, and rent an acoustic coupler from your local phreak. Such a machine will easily run 98lite or any linux you choose, and if ill befalls it, you're only out a few bucks. If you can get a used Grid or Toughbook or any other rugged machine for a similarly cheap price, so much the better. USB cards require CardBus slots which aren't present on older laptops, so be sure to take a PCMCIA adapter for your flash media.
Nothing sucks like blowing up your partition table a thousand miles from home. Laptop drives are tiny and light, and old 400 meggers can be had for a song. Pack a spare preinstalled with your road warrior configuration.
Drip superglue into an rj45 end before sliding the wires in and crimping it. Ping -f and wiggle all connections before considering any cable finished.
Keychain LED lights make nice thank-yous for helpful people, or barter if money exchange is problematic. They can be had very cheap in quantity. Pack a dozen.
Tupperware-style containers are nearly as rugged as ammo boxes, just as waterproof, and they weigh mere ounces. Bake the moisture out of a few dessicant bags and throw 'em in.
Things that have saved my ass:
I've been using a Sharp Zaurus 5500 for a while, and I think that this would be the perfect device for you. You have both a Compact Flash and SD slot available, so you could have one of the new SD 802.11B cards + the CF from the camera mounted at once. You could also carry a card with a standard wired ethernet jack for Cafe's without wireless. Yes, the keyboard is small, but you can type surprisingly quickly once you get used to it, and besides this is a blog not a novel. Also, since it runs Linux you have a ton of apps to choose from for any other needs you might have on the road. Also nice is the fact that you can now find the 5500 for less than $200 if you shop around. I would however recommend getting some sort of case for it. I haven't had any problems with my unit, but I wouldn't want to drop it unprotected... It just sort of feels like it wouldn't hold up well.
\/\/oobie
the Catalan word for 'download' is 'descarregar'. Whether you get to pronounce it correctly is not my businness ;-)
As always, only blog when you have something to say. I posted once every few days. This gave me time to see things and made sure I had some news worth posting.
Tell your readers about the places you've been to but also what you thought of the places. If you found something was worth checking out, or if you wasted your time seeing something that turned out to be dull, say so. But keep it concise, and make sure that you've said everything you want to say in a few paragraphs.
Don't bore your readers with accounts and descriptions of the people that you met/hung out with/got drunk with/kissed/whatever! No-one really cares about Eddie's Personal Soap Opera except Eddie. Just keep your blog focused on your travels.
Always include links for places or areas of interest so that people can get more info. A quick set of Google searches will make your blog much more interesting and accessible.
Make sure you use a cybercafe that allows you to pay after you've used the machines (i.e. not one where you have to buy 'credits' and where your time is being counted down on the screen all the time). It sucks to be pressured to write because you're running out of time.
Perhaps an obvious one, but use weblog software that won't break. You may not be able to telnet into your box to rework the config files when you're travelling, and it's so frustrating when you're not able to post that all-important account of your experiences. I use Blogger which is an online weblog service and is free for the basic version.
If you're in a city for a while (e.g. a few days), don't use mainstream cybercafes. They often have software that restricts your use of the machine. Spend some time searching for a facility that may be off the high street or smaller, but that offers the same deal without the restrictions. The best places I found were not cybercafes at all - they were travel shops that had a few internet-connected PCs. The advantage is that, in these places, the owners are less tech-savvy and you'll have a machine that you can install things on (e.g. software for processing and uploading photos - see below). Plus you won't be restricted because of firewalls etc. (e.g. for FTP).
Photos: I uploaded my photos once every few weeks. I regularly dumped them to CD in a photo store, made a selection, processed each image in Photoshop, created thumbnails and HTML files with Express Thumbnail Creator and uploaded them to my site with WS FTP LE. Photoshop is obviously not free, and I had to find cybercafes that had it pre-installed (wasn't always easy). Express Thumbnail Creator is shareware, and WS FTP LE is free. The best thing would obviously be to have all this stuff on CD before you sit down at the PC.
Be aware that some cybercafes will charge you for upload bandwidth (never very much though).
COMMENT all your photos! It takes time but it's worth it. Express Thumbnail Creator has this feature built in. Nobody really wants to go through pages and pages of unlabelled thumbnails of sunsets and mountains. Also, commenting your photos is a good test for yourself to ensure that you're only putting interesting photos up.
As soon as your photos are up, announce it in your blog and send out a mail to everyone in your address book who may be interested (mail to yourself, BCC everyone you're sending to).
M.
---- scrm
Mod me a troll for using the 'AOL' word if you will, but on my trip around Europe I used a trusty old Palm Vx, ThinkOutside folding keyboard and a Nokia 8210 (GSM) phone with AOL's palm client to do all my email-list based comms...
:))
(I picked AOL at the time due to their number of POPs in Europe - and the fact that I got 3months free subscription
GSM is virtually ubiquitous in Europe, and the ability to write notes in the car, train, plane, cafe, piazza san marco etc was a major major benefit.
The fact that it's pocketable gets you out of the net cafes and into your holiday!
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