When it comes to Internet Technology, McMurdo
definitely isn't Third World, but it's way behind
Anywhere USA. The IT guys down here do a great
job so the fault doesn't lie with them. The fault
lies with a very narrow pipe of information that
we're able to receive via our satellite connection
out at Black Island. When the population of McMurdo
reached critical mass this summer, iTunes was shut
off. Understandable considering that we are really
here to support science and the scientists need the
bandwidth before we do. Even if they might be using
the bandwidth to access iTunes
even though there are only a small amount of science
projects going on here this winter and only 119 people,
iTunes remained disabled until a few weeks ago.
Thankfully the powers that be in Denver decided to turn
it back on, albeit at a pretty slow rate. I don't
download movies and even though I'm not a big downloader
of music, Lynn bought me two $25 iTunes gift certificates
in December that I haven't been able to use. My favorite
iTunes features however are Podcasts. These take little
time and bandwidth to download and the best part...are
free! So now I can listen to my favorite radio programs
and as I type this am listening to the Podcast of a couple
travelling for a year through Europe:
A Year In Europe
Helpful in planning our upcoming travels. All this
will unfortunately end at WINFLY when the switch gets
set in the "off" position again and we return to the
Internet Stone Age. But for now, I'm going to enjoy
my iTunes and pretend I'm living in Anywhere USA.
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