For the first month, I kept a log of what I did with the modem, and how it worked for me. Overall, it worked great, but it wasn't perfect. Nor is it for everyone. But, if it fits your needs, I highly recommend it.
| Day 1: | The Arrival | July 3, 1996 |
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Got the modem early in the morning, and couldn't wait to get it open.
Ran upstairs and took it out of the packaging. Set it up, turned it
on, and watched the little LED that indicates its status. First a
solid red (power on), then a blinking red (found an antenna), then
blinking green (made a connection)! My home is a couple of miles from
S. F. State University, so I have to admit it was a bit of a gamble on
my part in hoping I could get a signal. But I did, clear as a
bell. Took the modem, documentation, and software to my client's office at the foot of California street, near Embarcadero Center, where I installed the software on my laptop, and tried logging in for the first time. The signal was clear as a bell, though I did notice a higher than usual number of network errors on occasion. Comparing the speed to the direct network connection on my client's desktop showed that although slower, the Ricochet modem's speed was definitely useable. At the end of the day, I packed up and headed to my girlfriend's house in the sunset. Unfortunately, I got on the wrong streetcar, and wound up at the wrong end of West Portal Avenue. So I got off the train and called my girlfriend on my cellular phone. We agreed that it would be faster for her to meet me in West Portal with her car (and thence go to dinner) than for me to walk back to the tunnel, and catch the correct streetcar to get to her house. So I parked myself on a brick bench by a parking lot, and whipped out my laptop and the modem. I was quite happy to see a nice strong signal, again from the antennas at S. F. State. I installed the Shareware Telnet client I had downloaded earlier, and telnetted to my shell account at CRL to check my e-mail. Mucking about with a laptop in generally gets a few stares or questions, and the addition of an antenna didn't make me any less conspicuous. I answered a number of questions about the modem before Rachel arrived. After dinner, we returned to Rachel's house, near Sunset and Taraval, where I was pleased to see the blinking green light on the modem. Unfortunately, when I later connected the modem to my laptop, I was unable to get a connection at all. Perhaps trying from the upstairs would help.
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| Day 2: | The fourth of July | July 4, 1996 |
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Didn't do much with the modem. Mostly just showed it off to everyone
at the barbeque (unconnected to the laptop.)
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| Day 4: | ABACUS | July 6, 1996 |
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Took the modem (sans computer) to the Abacus meeting on Potrero Hill,
to see if I could get a signal. No worries there, steady blinking
green. This is a great sign, as it means we can do Internet demos
right there at the library where we have our meetings. I must admit,
I was a bit surprised by this, as the Potrero branch library is a good
3 miles from the heart of downtown. It is, however, up on the side of
a hill, with nothing between it and downtown.
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| Day 5: | Jazz in the Grove | July 7, 1996 |
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Spent the day at Stern Grove enjoying the sounds of the Preservation
Hall Jazz Band, and wondering if I could get a signal from State (very
close by) down in the valley of the grove. Made a mental note to
bring the laptop and modem next Sunday. Hmmm... can I get a solar
panel between now and then?
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| Day 6 & 7: | Exploring the 'Net | July 8-9, 1996 |
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Mind you, I'm no newbie on the Internet. This is, however, the first
time I've had SLIP/PPP access of my very own. So I spent the day
searching the Internet for WinSock software. Spent a fair bit of time
at the TUCOWS (The Ultimate Collection Of Winsock Shareware) site. It
was also about now that I realized my old faithful sidekick, Procomm,
(in its Windows incarnation) could handle telnet sessions. So, out
the window goes the Shareware NetTerm -- why pay for new software when
you've already got something that works just as well, if not
better. Interestingly enough, I seem to get a better connection from home than from downtown. Perhaps it has something to do with the proliferation of tall buildings downtown, versus the relatively uncluttered Ingleside district. I also discover that Ricochet's news server isn't working. They're aware of the problem, and are working on it.
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| Day 8: | Working at home | July 10, 1996 |
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They sure don't make hard drives like they used to. In my day, most
people lucky enough to have a hard drive had 5mb drives, and 20mb was
more space than one could ever think of filling. Now I can barely
squeeze the bare necessities of life onto 520mb. I spend the day
dealing with the less glamorous parts of running a business, and
trying to clear off my hard drive for all this new software I'm
downloading. On the up side, the news server at Ricochet seems to be working, though intermittently. I've downloaded Free Agent, reportedly the best off-line news reader, and get it installed. So far it looks good, though all those usenet messages do take up a lot of disk space! Once I get used to it, I'll purchase the commercial version, Agent.
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| Day 9: | Another client site | July 11, 1996 |
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Took the modem to another client's office, this time near Levi Plaza.
A bit north of Downtown, it should still be in range. Unfortunately,
it was a rather frustrating experiment, as the signal kept dropping,
and even when I did get a blinking orange light, I got network errors.
I'm unsure if this is a problem with reception or if Metricom is
network problems. I did decide that the light on the modem is somewhat inconveniently placed. I the modem is attached to the back of the screen, as recommended, it's facing away from you. Even standing the modem on the desk, the LED is blocked by the screen. The best (and probably least possible) place for the indicator light would be at the very tip of the antenna.
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| Day 10: | A new day | July 12, 1996 |
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A second day at my second client's office. This time, I was able to
make a connection and keep it going for most of the day. I don't know
if it was because Ricochet was having less problems, or because I was
sitting 12 feet closer to the window. It still wasn't perfect,
though, with some occasional loss of signal, and higher than average
errors, especially downloading inline images in web pages.
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| Day 11: | Lots of BBQ, little Internet | July 13, 1996 |
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Not much going on, in terms of usage; a couple of hours of surfing the
net from home, whilst burning chicken and steak on the barbie.
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| Day 12: | Opera in the Grove, and Washington | July 14, 1996 |
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The Merola Opera program was performing the Elixir of Love at Stern
Grove, and we had reserved a table. All the meat and breads and wine
and crackers I had prepped the day before got loaded into the car
along with the laptop and ricochet modem. We zipped off to the Grove
early and staked our claim at the table. My dad pulled out the Sunday
Paper; I pulled out the computer. I waited with baited breath as I flipped on the modem. There's the red light, then the blinking red, then, lo and behold, a blinking green light. There in the middle of one of San Francisco's hidden treasures, I was able to log on to the Internet. So I called up Whitehouse.Gov, since I was still steamed about this marriage limitation nonsense, and set about finding the e-mail addresses of my congressional representatives. (I had already reminded Slippery Bill & Al who they work for and what they're paid to do.) Unfortunately, my poor abused laptop battery gave up the ghost after only an hour or so, so I had to pack it all up. I did, however, resolve to get a solar panel to power the laptop in the outdoors. I wasn't worried about the ricochet modem; it seems to get the promised 6 hours of use from its battery. All in all, I was very satisfied with the performance in the grove, both operatic and technical. (Although, I felt Dulcamara should have been played as much more of a con man -- rather akin to Robert Preston's performance in The Music Man. This may, however, be due to having seen my own brother in the role; he is a natural born huckster.)
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| Day 13: | Back in the saddle again | July 15, 1996 |
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Another day at client #2. Still higher than expected problems with
retrieving web pages in general and images in particular. Access
speed is less than thrilling, something I'd thought I'd noticed before
at this location, but wasn't sure. So the Levi Plaza area is definitely on my list of places to put up an antenna. I don't know what the status is of wiring San Francisco in general, but I hope the bloody politicians get off their backsides soon. (And if the folks at Metricom want to hang an antenna in the Ingleside district, they're welcome to put one on my roof.) My next dilemma, however, is whether or not to get a ricochet modem and account for my dad. The alternative is for him to use a landline phone line and a traditional modem. Installing and paying for another line (we've got six so far) is probably more expensive than getting a Ricochet setup. But, if he doesn't use it that much, then he could just use the regular household phone line. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
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| Day 14-16: | Work, Work, Work | July 16-18, 1996 |
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Nothing special, just the day to day work life of an independent
consultant. Using the modem at home definitely works better than the
Levi Plaza area. The addition of the ricochet modem, cable, and power
supply to my daily kit brings home the need for a bigger laptop
case.
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| Day 17: | Dog Law on the 'Net | July 19, 1996 |
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Spent the evening hunting around on the 'net for information about dog
bites and liability. My sister's dog bit a trespasser, and he decided
to sue. Not a lot out there about what to do if you're being sued,
but plenty about how to sue someone else. Shows what a sad state our
society is in.
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| Day 18: | Shopping for notebooks | July 20, 1996
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Took a client downtown to look at notebooks for her business, and got
to talking to the salesman. Seems one of the folks in his apartment
building has a ricochet modem. He lives in the Duboce triangle area,
and I was surprised he was able to get a signal at all there.
Apparently, however, there is an antenna on top of their building. Go
figure.
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| Day 19: | Mostly Mozart | July 21, 1996 |
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Another day at the grove, picnicking and surfing the web. Definitely,
I need a solar panel for the laptop.
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| Day 20: | Back to work | July 22, 1996 |
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Still need to put up an antenna in the Levi Plaza area. Spent the
evening surfing the web in search of information about what to do if
you're being sued. Interestingly, there's lots of information about
how to sue someone (both on the web and in print), but very little
about what to do when someone sues you. Says a lot about our society.
Like many subjects, there is some information available on the web,
but mostly what there is is the promise of what's to come. It's easy
to see how great the web will be, but it's not there yet.
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| Day 21: | I'd forget my head | July 23, 1996 |
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Packed up everything to go downtown -- except the data cable. This
highlights the need for a second data cable, and seeing as how I'm
incredibly lazy, a second power supply wouldn't be too bad either.
Leave one power supply and cable at home, and carry the other with me.
Or, if I'm going to be at one client for a while, leave the second
cable and power supply there.
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| Day 22: | Every dog has his day | July 24, 1996 |
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Took my sister to court. She was sued because her dog nipped the heel
of a trespasser. He was cutting across her yard to see the woman he
was cheating on his wife with, and the dog came out and barked at him.
He kicked at the dog, and it snapped at his heel. A minor abrasion
ended up costing my sister $500. Unfortunately, where she was living,
she needed a dog that would bite trespassers, as she was a young woman
living in a very bad neighborhood. What's our society coming to?
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| Day 23-24: | Ricochet passes PacTel | July 25-26, 1996 |
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It occurs to me that I'm using my ricochet far more than any land line
modem. Still need to get an antenna out near my girlfriend's place,
though, or else get a new girlfriend.
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| Day 25: | Ricochet at the Cow Palace | July 27, 1996 |
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Went to the "swap meet" at the Cow Palace, and ran into a Ricochet
reseller there. Interest didn't seem as high as the tables selling
16MB SIMM's for $95, but there was interest. The more users there
are, the more antennas get put up.
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| Day 26: | A visit to MOMA | July 28, 1996 |
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Used the ricochet modem to check the hours and prices of the new San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Went down to see the exhibit, "The
Dumb Box: Designing the Desktop CPU", which I found somewhat
disappointing, though it was good to see computers viewed as works of
art. How they could avoid including a Mindset 1000, however, is
beyond me.
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| Day 27-29: | It's off to work I go | July 29-31, 1996 |
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Just everyday working, and trying to get ready to go on holiday.
Perhaps I'm not as "mobile" as some ricochet users, but it seems to be
worth every penny to be able to go from client to client to office and
still have access to my own Internet account.
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| Day 30: | Customer Support | August 1, 1996 |
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Had my first occasion to call tech support today. Although the modem
was clearly connecting, (blinking orange light,) I kept getting weird
errors and was unable to log on. Luckily, it was something simple;
the cable was not plugged in to my laptop tightly. It was nothing
technical about my call to tech support that caught my interest,
however. In fact, I never did talk to a tech support person. I
talked, instead, to an operator who asked for my name and other
information so a techie could call me back. She was able to pull up
all my pertinent information from the database -- address, home phone,
etc., but you would think that a company whose business is equipping
mobile professionals with wireless access to the Internet would ask
for a phone number where you were at the time you were having the
problem. Amazingly, she didn't! She seemed to assume I would be at
the number she had on file in her database.
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| Epilogue: | ||
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In August, my girlfriend and I took a trip north through Oregon and
Washington to Vancouver, British Columbia and back. We spent a night
on the way up and on the way back in Eugene, home of the University of
Oregon and the Oregon Ducks (whose mascot, I might add, is none other
than Donald Duck). I was surprised and elated to find that my
ricochet modem worked flawlessly off the antennas located on the
nearby university campus. In September, I started a contract in Walnut Creek. The Ricochet modem works great in the east bay. It would be fantastic if there were antennas in the BART tunnels, though. Check out an extremely important experience I had in early 1999 with my Ricochet modem!
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