Went to my local Vodafone store to pick up the new Huawei E220 HSDPA USB modem, which with a 49 Euro monthly contract gives you 1GB of transfer at 1Mbps maximum, and free mobile to fixed landline calls – pretty good deal if you ask me. For 59 Euro you get 5GB of transfer, at the full 3.8Mbps that HSDPA offers. These are theoretical rates, as they will depend on a number of factors, such as how many people are also using the same cell, your coverage and the quality of the link.
We can argue all we want about how convenient WiFi is, being omnipresent et al, but in reality, it’s rather hard to get connected while on the road. Let’s examine the following scenarios, and you tell me the chances of getting connected over WiFi:

• Riding the train or bus home.
• Getting a lift from a friend in his/her car.
• Opening your laptop at a random location (cafeteria, bar, etc. that you haven’t before scouted for open WiFi).
• On a plane, waiting for the next free takeoff slot that you hope the pilot won’t miss because he was checking the fatness of his wallet.

Let’s be honest – free open WiFi is great once you have identified the locations where you can get connected, such as a friend’s house or the local coffee shop. Other solid commercial alternatives make it easier to find WiFi, as they tend to be present at well-known locations. Walk into any Starbucks or hotel, and you’re bound to find at least for-pay wireless.
For me, on the 30 minutes to 1 hour it takes to get home on the train or bus, being able to get connected is great. The convenience of simply opening the Mac and getting online beats the guesswork of WiFi. I tried getting the Mac working with my Nokia N93 over Bluetooth, but it was just too unstable – one day it worked, the next simply refused to even connect. A more in-depth review of the device is coming, once I get a chance to roam about with it for a while.

So far, installation on the Mac was pretty straightforward, download the setup package from Vodafone’s site (they don’t tell you this in the manual), which then enables the modem as a networking device. If you don’t follow this step, it can get recognized as a storage device, which is not particularly useful for a modem. The one thing I don’t understand is why it comes with a miniUSB cable that ends in two USB connectors, my guess is it’s power-related (some USB ports don’t provide the full 500mA they are supposed to provide).

Robert Scoble writes about whether having a decent WiFi connection at a conference is something that important, and concludes that if you can afford the $3500 price tag to get in, you can also afford a $80 a month Verizon mobile data plan. Ethan Kaplan thinks it is important, and I agree, but for different motives.
What Robert fails to appreciate is, that while Web 2.0 may be more US-centered in terms of visitor origin, there are many conferences where the bulk of atendees come from abroad. In this case, it makes little sense to get into a Verizon plan just for the few days when you are visiting. Roaming data charges (when roaming data connections such as GPRS even work, which I found impossible around California) are astronomical.

I am in favor of event organizers providing a good quality, solid and stable WiFi connection, even though it can be very expensive. An example was the WOMMA conference at the San Francisco Hilton, which didn’t provide WiFi, as the hotel wanted $20.000 to put a router in the hall. However, a compromise between the two postulates would be for Verizon to offer a rent-a-card service. Just like I pick up my car at Hertz for a week at SFO, I could also pick up a Verizon card, use it while moving about, and return it at the airport before leaving the country. I can already hear critics saying “but people would just keep the cards” – maybe, but what good would they be to them? Additionally, just like you have a retainer placed on your credit card when you rent a car, the same could apply to the card, if you don’t return it, Verizon actually could make more money!

This Christmas, we should be receiving a gift we have been waiting for over 20 years. Our volunteer Fire Department started with a 4-wheel-drive and a cart-mounted 100 gallon water tank, and has since progressed to become the proud owners of two large all-terrain pumpers and one 4-wheel-drive with a small tank & pump for fast response. For the last seven years, we have been housed in a small portion of the basement of the town’s sports hall, sharing the space with many other organizations and groups, including the Police depot. It was simple, very dusty, no showers, toilets, changing or sleeping facilities, and barely space to sit around and be comfortable during a tour.

Before

These are some pictures of what the old house looked like.

The entrance. Bombers in Catalan can be translated as ‘pumpers’, from the word ‘bomba’ which means pump. As a matter of fact, the French call themselves Pompiers, so it ties in. Nothing to do with bombs, believe me!

This is the “control room”. Yeah, stop laughing. It looks real ugly now, as we have not really used the place much in the last two months, as construction work all around it have made it unbearably dusty.

Truck 202 and the 4-wheel, sleeping in a cold, humid and ugly place. The will soon have a much more comfortable stay.

Our mini-museum, showing some glass beer and perfume bottles, recovered from a house fire a few years ago. The heat was intense enough to deform the bottles into the shape you see, but not intense enough to turn them into glass blobs. Underneath are some very old nozzles.

More photos here.

The new firehouse

Here are some pictures of the construction work going on. It is still rough and unfinished, but it definitely has a shape now. All should be done by Christmas, when we will move in and provide the finishing touches.

Truck 202′s new sleeping quarters. In this space we could actually fit two trucks, it’s really amazing that after so many years, we are getting so much room!

This is the view from where the kitchen will be, towards the entrance, on the left. The Flickr photo has some comment notes. The doors on the left lead to the sleeping quarters and changing rooms & showers. We will keep the high ceiling, it makes the place look roomier.

This is a reverse look, towards the kitchen, which will go against the wall at the back.

In all, we are really happy that finally, after many years of only asking for a decent place to stay during tours, in return for our time spent fighting fires, rescuing cats, horses (don’t ask!) and other animals from the most unlikely places, pumping out water during floods, rescuing people and delivering food during heavy snowfalls, we will get a very decent firehouse.