Re: OT: Wireless Internet

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

Wolfgang,
> It works on _planes_? I guess you must be talking domestic flights, and
> the rules must be different in the U.S.
Pretty much irrelevant to me, who rarely travel. But from my last
flight I recall that we were allowed to use our cell phones while
on the tarmac. And as much as half of flight time can be spent on
the tarmac.
> Aren't you conflating two things here, namely using the phone itself to
> browse the net and do computery things, and using the phone as a modem?
> For the former, WinCE or similar definitely is helpful, but for the
> latter, it is not required. I have used plain vanilla cell phones (with
> a dedicated USB cable)
Aha! That was what I thought. Thank you, that clarifies things. I
have no intention of trying to read e-mail or anything else on a
cell phone screen. Laptop screens are too small for my taste.
There are also things called air cards: PM cards that go in a
laptop's PC card slot and work as wireless modems. But to use
them with a desktop, you'd have to stick in one of those add on
cards that lets desktops read PC cards. Doable, but more hassle.

--
Patricia M. Godfrey
priscamg@xxxxxxxx