Jim Plumb

I recently picked up a new laptop computer, my first one actually. I’ve been building my own desktop computers at home & office for years now, but laptops don’t seem to have that option. So I went whole hog and picked up a centrino-powered HP Pavilion at BestBuy. The purpose for the laptop is to be able to stay on top of business while I’m away from the office. Being self-employed, I’d love to be able to take a real vacation, that’s just not possible right now.

In any case, I need to find out how to use wireless networking. A great tool I found is from Boingo. Boing has a free software download which you can use to find wireless hotspots around the country. These hotspots are part of the Boingo wireless network or are free. Most of the free places are in cafes and hotels. So I’m going on a few field trips this week to test out my notebook’s wireless function as well as enjoy a few cups of joe, I’m sure.

Couple more resources

Free wireless directory from Wififreespot. “The Wi-Fi-FreeSpot™ Directory is a listing of Wi-Fi locations that offer Free Wireless Internet Access - Wi-Fi - utilizing 802.11 technology.”

Wireless news and resources at Netstumbler.

I read in a Wired story as well as the referenced blog about the guy with the underperforming Civic Hybrid. He’s not getting very good mileage and is understandably pissed. So I wanted to get another side of the story out here and hence this blog.

My wife and I bought a 2003 hybrid late last summer and have been pretty happy with it so far. Our mileage is consistently in the high 40s to low 50s and now that the weather’s better (warmer anyways), we have been in the low 50s. See photo for current tank of gas showing us at 51.4 mpg after 368.3 miles. So we should be getting around 600 miles to this tank.

This photo was taken a couple of days ago. Today we are at 50.7 mpg.
Probably because I drove into Boston and averaged 75-80 on the Pike (we live about 30 miles west of Boston, in Hopkinton).

Hopefully I’ll remember to take another photo of the instrument panel the next time we’re at the gas pump.

UPDATE

Here’s a photo of the instrument panel just before we filled up the tank. This was taken on 6-03-2004.
At the pump the mpg showed 51.0 and the total mileage on this tank of gas was 608.3.