What’s the point (EVDO)?

Here in Atlantic Canada we have limited options for cellular data packages. The local players are Aliant (Bell), Telus (who uses Aliant’s towers here in Atlantic Canada) and Rogers.

Until a few months ago there were several data plans that would get you so called unlimited data packages. With Rogers this actually meant 25mb, with Aliant this was truely unlimited.

Now all the companies have moved away from this pricing plan and have moved to starting at $15.00/mb and move up to package prices of 10mb for $50.00. More details can be found here.

The funny thing is that they are advertising that they have new high speed EVDO networks (in the Halifax to Truro corridor) with speeds of up to 400 – 700 kbps. What does this mean? It means that you can chew through your $50.00 dollar monthly plan in 120 seconds! Just think of it, with 2 minutes of data transfer on your phone, you would have spent $50.00, isn’t that great!

With today’s handhelds there are not very many safe gaurds against unplanned data transfer. If on mistake you click to download an attachment from an e-mail, or click a link to a webpage that has a large number of photos, you will very quickly, and on mistake, chew through your data.

Untill they offer unlimited data packages again, what’s the point of high speed EVDO networks?

Last ride of the year?

Today Brittany went on her first ride with me on the ZR-7S. Today also marked my first time riding with a passenger. The ride went very well, despite some light drizzle and, at times, cold coastal air. Being late November, I am expecting that the weather will turn cold some time in the near future. But the past two weeks have been unbelievable and record breaking (warmest low temperature for Nov 15th etc).

Scott and I have had the opportunity to ride the Lahave River (Highway 332 from Riverport to Bridgewater) four times on the good side and twice on the bad side. From this map you can see the North East side of the river is the one with the twisties and the South West is more straight. Though I haven’t toured all of Nova Scotia yet, I think the highlights are the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton, and the combination of the Lahave River Road and the Blanford Lighthouse Route (Highway 339).

Riding a motorcycle here in Nova Scotia this fall has given me a new appreciation for the province and its beauty. I hope that in the spring Brittany and I can continue to tour and see more of this province on the bike.

This is what YouTube is for!

I’m impressed with the following video. I don’t know if there are corporate motivations behind it, but either way it shows what creative people can do with very little equipment or infrastructure. Watch the first video, then click the more link below it and watch the second video.

Read more …

An even beter idea! (GPS related)

Treo 700W
After some thought, and also after buying the cable required to easily get the Casio connected in the car, I think that my direction will shift to using a Palm Treo 700 with a Bluetooth GPS. This solution is better for the bike because

  • I bring my cell phone with me on the motorcycle anyways
  • The Treo can be used as an MP3 player
  • The treo has a webcam, I should be able to take snapshots of the road/view and tag them to the my GPS route on the motorcycle?

That last one will probably be a bit ambitious, but it’s been a consideration of mine for a while now.

I currently have a Blackberry 7100 but won’t be able to use it for this purpose because it only allows headset Bluetooth for security reasons (as far as I can tell) and also moving map GPS applications are a lot harder to come by.