2 posts tagged “technology”

It's pretty amazing in my opinion to be able to call the US from Europe so cheaply with skype.  Inexpensive phone calls, along with the unprecedented scope & power of the internet, are helping us big-time with our efforts to live internationally.

In the last few days from here in Budapest we:  reserved a rental car, found a good dentist in Portland and set up an appointment, reserved a Uhaul truck, called Tech Support for our website a couple times and of course emailed friends and family.  Also, Agi's boss simply calls her on the "skype in" number we've set up (a Portland number that is forwarded to her cell phone here) when they need to talk.  Overall, the sound quality is pretty good with skype.

Something else that I recently signed up for--and am excited about--is "Earth Class Mail."  It's basically a high-tech address and mailbox, perfect for Agi and me.  We've been having my wonderful parents and sister check our mail when it comes in.  This is kind of cumbersome for them and we can't see the important mail ourselves (e.g. those nasty tax forms).  With this new "Earth Class Mail" service, all our mail is now being sent to an address in Oregon and it's scanned for us.  I can now view it all online, have it recycled or shredded or forwarded if necessary.  The founders of the company are robotics experts so that explains how they do it efficiently.

Finally, I read last week on the BBC website about "The Grid."  I hadn't heard of this before--it's basically a bunch of high-powered computers connected with fiber-optic cables that is much faster than the internet.  Apparently The Grid may one day actually replace the internet.  Scientists at universities are already using it a lot.  The article said it takes 1.5 seconds to download a movie over The Grid.  Amazing.

(The post below was written three days ago.  Currently we're staying up in El Dorado Hills near Sacremento for Christmas with my parents)

Ivy and I are staying for two nights at the Strawberry Lodge which everyone sees on the way to Tahoe.  It’s about 5 miles south of the Sierra at Tahoe ski resort and I’m sitting in front of a nice fire in the lodge on Thursday afternoon while some slushy/rainy “snow” is coming down pretty heavily.  Not many people are here mid-week and it’s very peaceful to sit here with a laptop and do some writing and reading.

The younger generation is going to wonder what people did before the days of portable computers.  We’ve been taking a laptop on most of our trips these days and have been loving it.  It’s a great tool for finding out information (if you have internet access—we don’t here), but also of course it’s fabulous for watching dvds and avoiding watching tv in your room with all those commercials.  Also, laptops are fantastic for saving digital pictures from your camera after spending a day shooting to your heart’s content at wherever you’re visiting.  The first big trip we brought our laptop on was to Paris this past April and we unloaded pictures and videos we took with it each night.  It was fun too to see the pictures displayed on a bigger screen and immediately re-live the beautiful sights of the day.

Also, being able to watch a dvd while on the road is a very satisfying way to unwind and get away mentally from the occasional hassles of travel.  Ivy and I have become huge fans of Alias (tv show starring Jennifer Garner as a CIA agent) and in the last year and a half, have gotten through nearly all 5 seasons.  We like that each show is 45 minutes long and fits in well on “school nights” unlike 2-hour long movies.  The international locations featured on each show are a lot of fun and we think it’s well-acted and intelligently written.  We obviously became very drawn in to the story-line and the characters and are going to be sad when we’ve gotten through it all.  The show “24” is apparently also highly regarded and we may check that out next.

Merry Christmas!