release

Having a newborn generally requires a hospital stay of at least 48 hours for basic observation. Of course, for Mommy and Daddy, cabin fever comes quickly.

For me, about the only thing preventing me from going flat-out stir crazy has been my ability to get online via my cell phone connection. Non geeks, brace yourselves: Bluetooth DUN via my Treo 650 on Sprint Vision PCS.

When there’s no other online option available, the Bluetooth connection can be a really good last resort. On the downside, the data transfer is much slower than your typical cable/DSL connection, and at least here in the hospital, the signal drops out as often as every 45 seconds. I’ve not been able to stay on for more than 5 minutes straight without reconnecting.

So, I can’t exactly listen to streaming podcasts online, but I am able to compose emails offline and shoot them out in bursts. I’m curious whether signal strength is any better outside of the hospital. I imagine there’s heavy interference here from various hospital equipment, and our window here faces a multi-story inner atrium and the building itself seems to be impervious much of the electromagnetic spectrum.

I’ll have to test it out sometime where I’ve got a known good signal.