January 11th, 2007
Coming up: Sprint EV-DO, THE major road test
CES is done.
AFT, and I don't mean the American Federation of Teachers.
After significant miles underfoot, the clamor, the clang, the commotion of 140,000 Type A souls, the hours waiting for convention shuttle buses, taxis- the FRIGGIN RACKET- man am I ready for downtime.
Over-stimmed. Decompression mandatory.
Some would fly to Kauai. Others would chill out with family. Some would curl up with a hot chocolate, box of chocolates or chocolate mochas.
I am gonna try something different.
Leaving Las Vegas tomorrow morning. No airport check-in lines. No baring my feet, taking out my laptop. Sorry Mr. Chertoff. After these four daze, can't go for that, no no can do.
Instead, here's my itinerary:
Amtrak shuttle bus from Las Vegas to Bakersfield, Cal. Six hours.
SprintNextel says they cover much of that ground via EV-DO. I do have that brand of broadband wireless on my HP laptop- the same one I am using to write you now.
And then there's a connecting Amtrak train from Bakersfield-Sacramento. Supposed to be EV-DO covered most of that way as well.
I am gonna try my EV-DO- in between long bouts of just staring out at the window at houses, farms and fields. (thanks Steve Goodman, writer of "City of New Orleans")
'Round midnight that train pulls into Ahnold town Sacramento and a little later (more maybe more than a little later) comes calling the Coast Starlight, my connection up to Portland.
I have sleeper car. I will sleep. Probably wake up in the morning south of Klamath Falls, Oregon just north of the California border.
I'll EV-DO, or try to. Then after about 40 more miles comes about 1.30 hrs of mountains, followed by a picturesque glide down to Eugene and the Willamette Valley.
Then up close to the I-5 corridor to Portland.
SprintNextel EV-DO is supposed to be enabled through much of that ride as well.
We'll see if the coverage maps match reality. (If there is such a thing as reality, but that's another discussion).
I'll let you know- not about reality but about reality and EV-DO.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
