On the Road Again

It's time to pack up the laptop computer, the handheld computer, the wireless modem, my USB jump drives, a digital camera, the GPS, and a host of other gadgets and hit the road. Oh yes, if there's room left over in the suitcase, I may throw in a change of clothes!

I am starting a two-week road trip. I guess I should say, "land, sea, and air trip" as I will be using all three modes of transportation. I will spend the first week in southern California and the second week on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship. The first week is on my own business but on the second week I will be attending the 2006 Genealogy Conference and Cruise sponsored by Wholly Genes Software.

While my suitcase will be stuffed with a variety of communications gadgets, writing and posting newsletter articles while traveling is always a high-risk operation. You should not be surprised if you do not see new articles for a few days at a time. In fact, my wireless modem will not operate while at sea or in seaside villages in Mexico. I may be posting new articles from Internet cafes in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, or Cabo San Lucas, Mexico!

The 2006 Genealogy Conference and Cruise looks like it will be a gala affair. In short, it is structured in a similar manner to most genealogy conferences. I don't have the final number of attendees at my fingertips, but I believe it is around 400 or 500 people. These folks will attend seminars and workshops in the same manner as at most other genealogy conferences. The speakers will include some of the best-known genealogy lecturers of today. The only differences are:

• The food will be better than that of most convention centers.
• We have a cruise director.
• There will be a lot more non-genealogy entertainment.
• There are plenty of activities to choose from in addition to those of the genealogy conference.
• A masseuse is on call.
• A lot of sunshine is promised.
• The captain holds a reception.
• For three days of the week, we will take time out to visit exotic ports of call. (There are no lectures planned when the ship is in port; all conference activities take place while the ship is at sea.)
• The lecture hall occasionally moves up and down in heavy seas. (Hey, lecturers: Did you every deliver your talk in a room that is moving?)
• Everyone will be dressed informally. The dress code includes Hawaiian shirts, shorts, and sandals.

You can read my review of last year's cruise at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2005/11/wholly_genes_so.html.

The speakers at this year's cruise/conference include: Robert Charles Anderson, Tony Burroughs, Jim Byram, John Cardinal, Tim Cook, Dick Eastman, Barbara Grempler, Lee Hoffman, Hank Jones, Dick Pence, Kent Riggins, Marsha Hoffman Rising, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, Dorothy Turner, and Bob Velke. Whew! That's quite a line-up!

While this year's conference/cruise is sold out, you might like to read more about it at http://www.whollygenes.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?screen=CRUISE. There's no word yet on a possible cruise in 2007.

Hmmm, do I have any room left in my suitcase for the suntan lotion?

Comments

[Jim Ward]

When will cruise ships offer afordable internet and email access? It seems like they look at these items as a cash cow and soak the user for fees far in excess of the costs. Good luck on using internet cafes to do your work. While on vacation in Italy in September, the employees of the cafes (called "internet points") freaked out at the sight of a USB thumb drive and I could not use my U3-enabled SanDisk Cruzer drive. Shameful!

[Dick Eastman]

I took a 7-day cruise last year and sent/received e-mails 2 or 3 times a day. The total Internet bill for the week was about $25.00.

Of course, I used a dedicated e-mail program, not webmail. I'd connect (at the cruise ship's outrageous prices) and download all the mail to my PC. Then I'd disconnect. The total online time was 2 or 3 minutes.

Then I would go back to my cabin, read the messages, type replies or new messages at my leisure, all while disconnected. All my replies/new messages were stored on my laptop's hard drive.

Later that day or perhaps the next day, I'd go back, connect online and send the e-mails I had composed. I then downloaded the next batch of new e-mail messages. Again, I was connected 2 or 3 minutes. The result was a very cheap online bill. I was also surprised at how fast the satellite Internet connection performed.

Almost any standard e-mail program can do that. I used to do the same a few years ago when I used my cell phone as a wireless modem while traveling and cell phone connections were still expensive in those days.

Surfing the web and reading and writing e-mail via a web browser on a cruise ship would be outrageously expensive, however. Web mail (HotMail, MSN Mail, Yahoo Mail, AOL mail, etc.) would be a bad idea.

- Dick Eastman

[jtaubman]

One way around the thumb drive problem is to use a compact flash card for your data, although it does not have U3, most cafes assume the card has photos on it, these days. For myself I use gmail when away, over the last few years I have had no problems connecting where ever I have been, I have checked my mail and my web site, in the lighthouse at Cape Point in South Africa, a beach Cafe in Phi Phi, Thailand, and a cafe in Cusco.

Although ship internet is expensive, on most cruises its unusual to be more than 48hours from a cafe.