4 posts tagged “wifi”

Since India has been extremely kind to me—the people here are amazing—I owe it to this nation to bust a few stereotypes.
   First, the food. It is excellent and in two days I have had no problems with my tummy. ‘Delhi belly’ is a cruel stereotype that I was given by some friends prior to my departure, though I knew instinctively it was cobblers. The same rule applies here as everywhere else: if you are careful about what you stick in your mouth, you are fine. People do know that in rural areas things can be tougher. Nevertheless, I can make this conclusion: Indian food is fab and way better than expat Indian restaurants.
   Secondly, this is certainly not a backward country, and anyone who has read books such as The World Is Flat would know that. Here I am, surfing on wifi, and at speeds and with connectivity better than what I might find in other parts of the world, and that includes New Zealand. There is a rich–poor gap and that does mean some poverty but that also generates invention. I saw booksellers yesterday with used books alongside new ones; we should be copying some of the recycling efforts that Indians undertake every day.
   If your impression of an Indian car park is old colonial hand-me-downs, think again: the Daewoo Lacetti (Chevrolet Optra) is newer than what many countries sell, including Australia and New Zealand:

Chevrolet Optra facelift

Don’t you hate it when the place you are staying at has dodgy wifi and no SMTP server? It’s probably the most troublesome wifi I’ve had ever: I can’t connect yet three viruses managed to come through via the wifi system. At least the weather is nice, as is my lovely 2008 Ford Focus 2·0 organized by the lovely Brie Elder of the Ford Motor Company.
   I’m also back at my regular haunt at the Cintra Lane apartments, where I always stayed at the beginning of the century. I went to other properties between 2005 and 2007 out of curiosity, journalistic duty and the Cintra’s owners’ decision not to upgrade to broadband. Now I am back, I notice that they at least have wifi installed, but it’s very patchy.
   Still, better patchy wifi than dial-up, my antivirus (AVG on this laptop) and spyware scanners are up-to-date, and I love having my familiar penthouse view (Richard Gere: ‘It’s the best’) again. Whomever runs the place now has upgraded or replaced the TV, TV channels, DVD player, curtains and carpet.
   Thanks today to Simon and Marie Young for letting me use their office’s server to send off emails today!

Auckland Airport wifi: $10 an hour, payable by Mastercard or Visa (which kind of sucks for a guy who uses American Express exclusively). But the food is pretty good, with a Japanese place having opened up there.
   Wellington Airport wifi, according to David Philpott: free. Wellington: keep it that way. I chose to wait till I got home yesterday before sending my emails than give $10 to an airport which was already making money from me via my air fare and my buying food there.

Wellington Airport now has wifi for us plebs not in a business lounge. Hooray!
   Up sides: I can type.
   Down sides: the terms and conditions say that they can use my email address to send me a bill. This violates the law on a few angles: (a) there is no way of confirming that my entered email address is genuine; (b) no price term has been agreed to. Finally, I can’t actually use my regular POP mail, only the webmail service.
   My flight was delayed. The plane has just come in and is taxiing toward the gate now. Might as well go through security, which should not be as heavy as it is in the US (let’s hope not).