
Eric building new Loft.
Catchy title, huh? What kind of communications doesn’t require electricity of some kind? Phones, radios, flashing lights and Morse code? No. What about yelling really loud, or smoke signals? They qualify but leave you either hoarse or coughing! The answer: homing pigeons! Yup, recently we have added to the menagerie of animals we keep here with my son’s homing pigeons.
How we started
Late last summer Eric spotted a pigeon on our roof. This was an unusual sight up here in the mountains miles from any city. It seemed a little tame and had a numbered band around its leg. With a little coaxing and food Eric captured the bird.
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Why consider using or purchasing a Netbook style computer for your off grid move? There are many advantages including size, weight, and battery life that make this attractive over other computing choices. There are some down sides too, but with proper planning you can have the best of both computing worlds size and power. At least I think I’ve found a good arrangement.
What got me thinking about my choice was the last 10 or 12 hours I spent with my machine the past day and a half. I upgraded my operating system from the original one I installed two years ago.
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After 11 years on the mountain, we have gone through 3 uniquely different kinds of phone systems. Our current phone choice is already covered at our-real-life-internet-phone-experience. With a chuckle and a reminiscent twinkle in my eye, I’ll go way back and describe our first “phone” system.
Whenever you consider moving to a remote off grid location, the communications question pops up rather quickly. How will friends and family contact you? Will it be via bicycle messenger service, or homing pigeons, maybe by some kind of telephone?
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All too often in life we go along doing what we do, and rarely think much of it. We pour our heart and soul into a project that should be really big, and some positive attention only to find it doesn’t. The rule I found in the corporate engineering cubicles was the 10 / 90 rule. That is 90% of what you do goes unnoticed, even though you’re good. Its the 10% that didn’t take much effort, that gets the great reviews!
I enjoy using WordPress in operating the genverters.com site, and
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ESR 1221
Off grid or not, sometimes your wireless router doesn’t make it far enough on your property. Yes, the signal works in your house, but not your outbuilding or shop. Some vendors charge extra, and re-brand their wireless routers as “wireless repeaters”. Now, with the right ordinary router that supports this mode, you can quickly configure your own and get those distant parts of your shop!
In the old days, the only way to get your router to talk with another was using
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Getting Internet in remote locations used to have one solution, satellite service. Now you can have quality cellular and broadband service in many surprising places. The Off Grid Internet Booster system describes the best way to investigate, test, measure, and purchase the right equipment for this option.
Finally there is help for those who would like to set up broadband Internet service in their remote home or cabin. Instructions and guidance on using and installing cellular boosters has been either too technical for the average consumer, or overly optimistic to sell
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Part of the ‘”energy efficient” involves saving and using power resources wisely. When using your PC saving time is saving energy. We all have a fixed budget of 24 hours a day and can’t buy anymore, so saving time is what today’s tip is all about. I shared this tip with a new ISP customer who was relatively
new to the Internet. She was so delighted with this tip, she insisted on paying a little extra! Ding! I’ll bet you may like it too.
For our Internet experience to have any value we need a map. The Internet is a big place and being able to quickly return to important sites is very useful. Search engines like Google are helpful, but having your own personal map or bookmarks is most valuable. I enjoy using Mozilla Firefox as my primary Internet browser and
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virtual speed to information? Its a term I use for a higher level measurement of how quickly you can discover and use new information.. How quickly can you go to your top 20 websites and digest/save/use the new information that is relevant to your world? Yes, the faster your Internet connection the better chance you have of winning the info digesting contest. However, there are a set of tools that have been around a long time and are under utilized by many people. These tools give you the ability to skim a ton of information, to drill down quickly into relevant articles.
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When it comes to computers, everyone seems to think “their” program, Operating System, or hardware is the best. These ideas are often formed from years of experience. Not being one to shy away from and occasional
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