I'm well into week four stuck in my little box across the highway from the hospital. Beyond an occasional visit from friends my time is spent with family, Mom, keeping nurses "in check", and in the cafeteria. This has meant being largely disconnected, which is okay at first, but damnit I need distractions!
The hospital has filtered wifi in the visitor waiting room, but the hordes of sick visitors trying to kill off ICU patients motivates me to leave quickly. The hotel has access, if you call mutant Citrix terminals access. Write one message then take a 30minute relaxation break while the Flash refreshes. Think streaming video through a 110bps pipe. (Web designers, yes, Flash-free alternative views will get you into webbie-heaven.)
<img src="http://www.macromedia.com/images/shared/product_logos/48x32/flash.gif"> = <img src="http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:yQtneTtFQa8J:home.snu.edu/~hculbert.fs/turtle.gif"> = <img src="http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:yHnJ6QSNZQ4J:gag.host.sk/images/ksicht.jpg">
Then I realize my hotel room window is on a plane that intersects the waiting room. It's 1/4mi away, but I'm up high. Why not? A quick
hang-the-Pavilion-out-the-window test is no joy. Stumbler barely picks up anything. My wifi card has no external antenna provision, I have none of my tools nor the desire to round up cantenna parts in unknown territory. What to do?
Fry's Wilsonville is 15miles south so I make the trip. While they have a wall of networking stuff, they have squat in the way of USB or Cardbus wifi adapters with ports for external antennas. (WTF, is this some kind of attack on War Driving?) They do however have those TI chipset Airlink cards for $9.99. Your choice of USB, PCI, or Cardbus. I pick up one of each, a Hawking sector antenna, a cheap soldering iron & basic tools, and double-sided mounting tape. Now back to my $59/night box.
Time to make a mess. Dump the stuff out. The PCI card version has the SMA connector I'll need to connect to my Hawking antenna. It's the first victim. Pull off the RFI shield and suspicions are confirmed, it's a miniPCI card on a PCI adapter, for $9.99. Insane. If Fry's carried RP SMA connectors & cable it'd be $9.99 alone.
<img src="http://www.airlink101.com/products/images/awlh4030.jpg"> = <img src="http://www-132.ibm.com/content/product_images/en_US/IMG1352_MKT_IMG_FILENAME_1.gif"> + <img src="http://www.solwise.co.uk/images/mpci-slot.gif">
Drop my Pavilion's miniPCI cover, plug in the card. Loosen the window screen, stick the Hawking antenna out on the a/c and run its cable inside to the desk. Boot my junk, install the driver, and I'm online. Woohoo! After the other parts go back I'm out $45 for the antenna, $10 for the card. Tittie board, prepare!
<img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/img/63/926/400/000_1662da%20grin.jpg">
(The above gent is not yours truly, but he does capture the spirit beautifully.)
(As does his cat, whose image I'm compelled to post...)
<img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/img/63/926/400/000_0932.jpg">