The other day I was reading the book World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. Though I already read it once when I was in India, I thought of opening it up again to understand how the US credit crisis turned into a global phenomena. It is a really good book to understand confusing things like why real estate prices in your home place went down when Lehman Brothers filed bankruptcy and why Satyam Computer Services is worried when Goldman Sachs is bought by Bank of America.
In one of the chapters in it, describing about the tenth flattener I think Thomas Friedman is impressed by the wireless connectivity present in Japan. He is worried that when he can have seamless connectivity anywhere in Japan, his mobile phone goes out of range when he travels between two suburbs back home in Washington DC, United States.
As I was reading this it suddenly struck to me, that though I have all the necessary things to enjoy the wireless connectivity, I am not using it to the full potential. I have a wireless enabled notebook and a USB powered wireless connection. However I use it only at home. I never used it anywhere else when it is actually designed to be used for travel. The next day I took my personal notebook with me to browse the internet while I travel to office in the City Rail. It takes around forty minutes for me to reach office and I thought of using it to the most. Once I got into the train, I switched on my notebook and plugged in the USB Internet Connection. The switching on and the connectivity ate up around ten minutes. I logged into orkut and found that a friend whom I am dying to meet and sent a friend request did not yet approve my request. Just as I logged out of orkut and opened my yahoo, the train passed the Harbour Bridge and entered the tunnel to Wynyard. The moment it entered the tunnel the connection is gone. As the train passed Wynyard, Town Hall and came out of the tunnel to reach Central, the connection is up again. But, I cannot enjoy browsing here as I have to change here for a train to Domestic Airport (that’s where my office is). However I found that the connectivity is quite good between Central and the airport. Later I came to know that it is because it is a privately managed line and customers are made to pay extra for this excellent connectivity. Moral of the post is, it takes some time for rest of the world to have the same kind of connectivity Japan enjoys today. For the time being, I stopped opening up my laptop in the train and started using my already worn-out IPod again.
In one of the chapters in it, describing about the tenth flattener I think Thomas Friedman is impressed by the wireless connectivity present in Japan. He is worried that when he can have seamless connectivity anywhere in Japan, his mobile phone goes out of range when he travels between two suburbs back home in Washington DC, United States.
As I was reading this it suddenly struck to me, that though I have all the necessary things to enjoy the wireless connectivity, I am not using it to the full potential. I have a wireless enabled notebook and a USB powered wireless connection. However I use it only at home. I never used it anywhere else when it is actually designed to be used for travel. The next day I took my personal notebook with me to browse the internet while I travel to office in the City Rail. It takes around forty minutes for me to reach office and I thought of using it to the most. Once I got into the train, I switched on my notebook and plugged in the USB Internet Connection. The switching on and the connectivity ate up around ten minutes. I logged into orkut and found that a friend whom I am dying to meet and sent a friend request did not yet approve my request. Just as I logged out of orkut and opened my yahoo, the train passed the Harbour Bridge and entered the tunnel to Wynyard. The moment it entered the tunnel the connection is gone. As the train passed Wynyard, Town Hall and came out of the tunnel to reach Central, the connection is up again. But, I cannot enjoy browsing here as I have to change here for a train to Domestic Airport (that’s where my office is). However I found that the connectivity is quite good between Central and the airport. Later I came to know that it is because it is a privately managed line and customers are made to pay extra for this excellent connectivity. Moral of the post is, it takes some time for rest of the world to have the same kind of connectivity Japan enjoys today. For the time being, I stopped opening up my laptop in the train and started using my already worn-out IPod again.
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