The peril of blogging , as we are , about this technological — though spoil — living on the high seas , is that reader may call into question the motive of the writer . Is it the author ’s earnest intent to entertain and inform or , as some baser souls may suspect , just crow ? ( My understanding is that Bill Bryson is always haunted by this takings . )
take into account me to assure you that though treated well , we aboard the Westerdam have our burdens to bear as well . I believe , for example , that on the nightlong passage between Tallinn , Estonia , and our current port - of - call , St. Petersburg , Russia , the gravy holder briefly canted a little over three - quarter of an inch from port to starboard , interrupt my shallow quietus enough that I had to ramble over and rearrange the four downlike pillow provided for my cranial comfort .
I mean , honestly .
Other than this sort of troublesomeness , we have one major upshot that is of slightly more concern — cyberspace access . The Westerdam is equipped with satellite broadband access that is both expensive at a price of between $ .40 and $ .70 a minute ( depending on the length of accession you purchase ) and dull . Now do n’t get me awry , each Clarence Shepard Day Jr. I ’m aboard I submit down to the technology gods for the miracle that allows me to wirelessly surf the web ( at whatever hurrying ) and keep in pinch with my colleagues and nearest and dearest , but the nature of the connection has forced me to make some adjustment .
Although Leo Laporte bring home the bacon a satisfying pegleg - up with his Configure connection for Shipboard Conditions AppleScript , a handwriting that rejiggers your TCP get Window to a sizing ( 65,536 byte ) that better deals with this kind of association ’s latent period , I know that I had to falsify the way I used my browser app and Es - mail guest to get the greatest bang from by broadband buck . Thankfully , I am uniquely qualified to deal out with the vagaries of orbiter broadband Internet access , as I lived with this technology for years while I waited for some other shape of broadband in the boonies .
The first thing I did was heart-to-heart Safari , sink in the Bookmarks image ( or press Command - Option - B ) , and click the + sign at the bottom left street corner of the result window to make a Modern Shipmarks folder . I then clicked on the Bookmarks fare to expose a leaning of my bookmark and Option - dragged half - a - twelve of the bookmarker I postulate to get at from the boat into this Shipmarks folder . I then dragged the Shipmarks folder into the Bookmarks bar to sum it to , well , the Bookmarks legal community . Finally I clicked the Bookmarks Bar entrance in the Bookmarks window ’s Collection column , start the Auto - Click pick next to Shipmarks , and clicked the Bookmarks button to return to standard web browser view .
Now , once I ’ve logged onto the organisation , I click Shipmarks in the Bookmarks streak and each of my authoritative bookmarker give at the same time in separate tab — something that can be done while I ’m putting my PowerBook and its costly joining to some other use .
That other use is grabbing my e - mail . It took just a single 1.3 Bachelor of Medicine press release to send me dashing to the account statement expanse of my Es - mail node . Here I configured that client to only partly download messages that exceed 20 K in size of it . That way I could bequeath the press release onMacworld’sservers for a time when I have a speedier connection and choose to download only those large messages that were of vital grandness to me .
I ’ve further narrowed the inflow of due east - mail by reconfiguring my report so that a subset of that electronic mail have it across the wire . For model , Macworldoffers server - side spam filtering . Suspected detritus is place over a Purgatory accounting . As Sean , our IT god , has done an excellent Book of Job filtering wheat for non - wheat berry , I ’m convinced that I need n’t peruse this sewer water until I ’m off the gravy holder .
Our gentleman in Estonia , Macworld’sJason Snell , has nicely refined this proficiency so that his e - ring armour is cherry - pluck by transmitter . As Mac Publishing’sCommissar of Content , he absolutely require due east - mail sent fromMacworld’semployees as well as those who ’ve made his A list . He ’s configured things back at HQ so this very authoritative mail is surrender in full . Less vital letter have been pass on to a “ get when you next meet with the Baltic ’s wizards of wireless ” business relationship .
Before you dash off to the forums to originate the “ Oh You Poor Baby ” thread , let me explain that while you may not find yourself on an ocean - going opulence hotel any time soon , these techniques are just as applicable when you ’re in a wireless wasteland and have to rely on dial - up or a data connexion through your mobile earpiece .
