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Getting off the grid

Posted on July 9, 2006 by Jeremy Toeman

JT with a beer and a steakI spend about 12-16 hours a day connected/online.  That time is spent doing email, surfing the Web, researching various topics for work, browsing products, blogging, and the rare game of Hearts or Spades (okay, very rare).  I’ve spent 4 of the last 7 days totally off the grid, and it’s an interesting dichotomy with my regular life. 

Normally I get frustrated when I can’t use my PPC-6700 to get an EVDO connection and am stuck at 1x.  I had no signal of any kind at either Lake Sonoma (loved it) or Costanoa (nice time, but it was very windy and totally overpriced).

I tend to check email at worst every 10 or so minutes (and that’s without owning a blackberry, which I refuse to use when in North America).  I came home to hundreds of emails to read through.  Been 2 days, still deleting the ones I don’t need to respond to.

While traveling, I always use my Slingbox to watch something (recently lots of World Cup soccer), typically from my DVR, before going to bed.  I watched no TV whatsoever, even though Costanoa actually had wifi access in their main cabin, but I didn’t even have the laptop with me!  Funny thing was the Costanoa camping areas even offered power outlets at each ‘site’.  I’m proud to say I didn’t use em.

I used exactly three gadgets this week:

  1. My digital camera (lowly Canon SD100 – anyone have a spare SD450?) – here are the pix we took (including our visiting friends, the Arnowitz family).
  2. My PPC-6700 to play solitaire before going to sleep (in between good books right now)
  3. My Nuvi 350 GPS receiver (review coming soon!) to help find a few spots along the way

Bottom line: get yourself off the grid for a few days this summer, it’s a good feeling.  No matter how many emails you have to sort through when you are done.

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Posted in General, No/Low-tech, Travel | 3 Comments
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3 thoughts on “Getting off the grid”

  1. Dave Zatz says:
    July 9, 2006 at 12:05 pm

    I was mostly off the grid while in Montreal for 4 days. (For relationship harmony I left the laptop at home.) The first 36 hours were pretty difficult, but after that I was OK. I did check email twice (and try to upload some photos from my Panasonic Lumix FX9 — which will be ebayed soon and possibly replaced with a Fuji F11) – once in the hotel busness center and once at a coffee shop that had a PC. I think the fact that I scheduled three blog posts to run while I was away made it more bearable. Sad, I guess. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Avi Greengart says:
    July 9, 2006 at 2:32 pm

    Jeremy,

    Good topic!

    Like you, I’m frighteningly connected at home (I keep a BlackBerry 8700 or Nokia 770 near the bed so that I don’t have to get out of bed and walk four feet to the PC) and on the road (I’m usually testing two or three mobile devices even when I go to buy groceries). But for our family vacation a week ago (in CT – didn’t want to go any farther than we can drive with the kids) I promised Leah I’d check email only once a day. To further ensure that I’d be mostly offline I deliberately took a phone without email capability. Definitely changed the focus of the week to family/relaxation.

    Of course, I also disconnect completely from email, the Internet, telecommunications, TV, and active use of anything electronic for 25 hours once a week every Friday – Saturday night.

    -avi

    Reply
  3. tivoboy says:
    July 10, 2006 at 7:59 am

    hhhmm, red stripe!

    Disconnecting is good, I like to get five days in up in the high sierras outside of yosemite valley. Truly, one of the most beautiful places on earth. It is fun to get more than 2 miles in, and the crowd is just GONE!

    for that reason, I DO take a phone but rarely use it.

    The think I miss though, is not so much the emails but the information! that is the one thing that takes the most time to catch up on, and the to digest and understand and put into perspective and then put to work.

    for that, there are EA’s but the last one moved up and on 🙁

    waiting to see the Nuvi review, I am thinking of either that or the tomtom750

    Reply

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About

Jeremy Toeman is a seasoned Product leader with over 20 years experience in the convergence of digital media, mobile entertainment, social entertainment, smart TV and consumer technology. Prior ventures and projects include CNET, Viggle/Dijit/Nextguide, Sling Media, VUDU, Clicker, DivX, Rovi, Mediabolic, Boxee, and many other consumer technology companies. This blog represents his personal opinion and outlook on things.

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