Geek Gestalt

ASPEN, Colo.--One thing I love is finding uses for things that perhaps no one has thought of before.

I'd already been on Road Trip 2009 for several days when I arrived in this tony Colorado mountain town known best as a playground for the rich and famous. I was hoping to go for a walk and find something good to eat.

It had been a long day of driving, starting in Colorado Springs, and traveling over Independence Pass, a 12,095 "Top of the Rockies" spot just on the Continental Divide. I had planned to stroll around Aspen for a bit and then use my iPhone to get online and find something inexpensive for dinner.

But I had neglected to charge the iPhone, and by the time I got to town, the battery was more or less dead. This is Road Trip, however, and as someone carting around a car full of high-tech gear, I was determined to find a workaround.

Though it is designed to provide a hot-spot for as many as five people in one place, the Verizon MiFi 2200 allowed CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman to create a mobile Wi-Fi connection for an iPod Touch as he walked around Aspen, Colo.

(Credit: Verizon)

One of the gadgets I am road-testing is a 32GB iPod Touch, a device that, if it has access to a Wi-Fi connection, can do much of what the iPhone can do. But on a walk around a town you don't know, it's hard to count on finding such a connection, especially these days when most people password-protect their Wi-Fi.

However, I also am carrying Verizon's MiFi 2200 mobile hot spot, which converts the carrier's EV-DO signal into a Wi-Fi connection that up to five people can share. I had already used the MiFi to provide a signal for the iPod Touch at the very beginning of the trip so that, while sitting on a boarding airplane, I could download a large file from iTunes.

Now, I realized that by turning the MiFi on and sticking it in my back pocket, I could become, in essence, a walking hot spot, allowing me to get online on the iPod Touch, no matter where I was in town. That meant that I could use the Skype app to make a phone call, run several other apps for one reason or another, and look up good places to eat using the device's browser.

Of course, this is the kind of workaround that isn't going to make sense for most people. If you're going to bother paying for an iPod Touch and a MiFi, you might as well just get an iPhone. But if you're road-testing a number of tech gadgets and you see a way to jerry-rig something to solve a problem, why not do it?

It turns out that it's hard to find decent, inexpensive food in Aspen. But thanks to being able to get online while I walked around, I did end up at a terrific place where I had a good, moderately healthy meal for under $20.

And, since I became a walking hot spot, I was also able to get online on my computer, as well, meaning that I was able to actually do some work while I ate, despite the fact that the restaurant where I found that inexpensive meal didn't offer Wi-Fi.

In the end, one thing puzzled me, though. When I first linked the iPod Touch to the MiFi connection, I tried to locate myself using the device's map feature. But instead of pinpointing where I was in Aspen, it told me I was somewhere in Virginia. I thought that was odd, but I chalked it up to the fact that without a GPS chip, it figures out its location relative to the Wi-Fi signals it finds. Given that the MiFi is a loaner, I thought that maybe it had come from Virginia.

Later, however, when I returned to my car and got ready to head out, I plugged in my iPhone and again, with some power, tried to see if it, with GPS, it could locate me. Oddly, though, the iPhone also told me I was in Virginia.

My only conclusion for the fact that both devices told me this: that the folks in Aspen have figured out some way to trick Google Maps so as to keep out the hoi-polloi. But maybe it was something else. If you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.

OAKLAND INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT--When I wrote to Verizon, asking for a MiFi 2200 mobile hotspot review unit for my upcoming Road Trip 2009 project, the response I got back was, basically, "Why would you want that?"

The MiFi operates on Verizon's EV-DO network, and converts that mobile broadband signal into a Wi-Fi signal that up to five people can use. So the question really was, Why would I, one person, find useful an Internet connectivity technology designed for multiple people?

I've just started using the device, so I've hardly scratched the surface of its potential, but here's one reason why.

Using a Verizon MiFi 2200 makes it possible to download large audio files on an iPhone via Wi-Fi.

(Credit: Verizon)

I boarded my flight to Denver to begin Road Trip--my annual journey through a region of the United States in search of the most interesting destinations there to write about and photograph--and decided I wanted to use my iPhone to download one of the terrific TED talks to listen to during the flight.

The problem was that the file was more than 10 megabytes, and the iPhone will only let you download files that big if you're on a Wi-Fi network. Now, I've been using Verizon's EV-DO technology for some time, and I love it, but the plug-in EV-DO cards only provide connectivity to your computer. Technically, I suppose, you could turn on Internet sharing on the computer and create a Wi-Fi signal that way, but that's an awful big hassle.

Instead, because I had a MiFi with me--an amazingly small device that looks much more like a thin piece of chocolate than a great new technology--I was able to quickly create a Wi-Fi hotspot and satisfy the iPhone's needs.

Next thing I knew, as the plane prepared to depart our gate, I was in a race against time, trying to download the entire 55 megabytes before they closed the door and required everyone to turn off their phones.

Well, let's just say that I was able to get the entire file onto the phone. I won't comment on whether the door had already closed.

To me, this is very big leap forward. Being able to turn on a personal hot spot like that, without needing to pull out the computer, opens up a ton of possibilities. I love my EV-DO card, but it's unwieldy to the point of being annoying. It sticks out of the side of my computer, works only with the laptop and on some machines, requires Verizon's VZAcess Manager software. The MiFi, by comparison, can fit in your shirt pocket and offer up Wi-Fi at the push of a button.

Frankly, I don't think its utility depends in any way on multiple people using it. Here, by myself on a plane about to take off for Denver, I've already proved--to myself at least--that MiFi is a technology perfectly suitable for one.

For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.

Earlier this year, when I was preparing to head out on Road Trip 2008, my journey around the American South, I arranged for a loaner iPhone because I was curious how it would perform deep in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and the like.

Having watched friends and colleagues jump on the iPhone bandwagon, I was of course curious about the device, but given that I was still deep in my Verizon Wireless contract--due to whatever funny look I happened to give my phone that caused a re-up of the two-year contract--and because I already had an iPod and way more music than would fit on an iPhone, I was determined not be lured into the cult.

(Credit: Apple Inc.)

But my colleague Stefanie Olsen, herself an iPhone convert, didn't believe I would have the discipline to use the device for a month and not come home desperate to get one of my own. And with that in mind, she bet me five bucks that I couldn't resist the temptation upon my return.

Certain in my ability to withstand the peer pressure and the lure of a shiny and admittedly cool new gadget--and determined not to have to pay Verizon its extortionate early-termination fee (sorry, Declan)--I walked away from our handshake thinking of the many things I could buy with the five dollars I knew I'd be winning.

Shortly thereafter, I set on on Road Trip for what turned out to be 30 days driving nearly 4,600 miles through nine Southern states. All along the way, I toted my loaner iPhone, using it in as many ways as I could, and depending on it as my full-time cell phone.

What struck me right away was how nice the iPhone's user-interface is. The voice mail was so easy and intuitive, and it was little things like the phone's alarm clock feature, which is so simple and elegant--and frankly, pleasing--to use.

I had thought that the iPhone's larger size would deter me, but over time, I got used to it. And, yes, the mapping and easy Web surfing were very compelling.

Suffice it to say, by the time I arrived home, I knew I was won over. But by now, the iPhone 3G had come out, and so my only hope for not losing the bet was to hide behind my refusal to wait in long lines to buy consumer electronics. That seemed to be a winning strategy, as the lines stayed long for the first few weeks.

But this last weekend, I will confess, I finally crumbled. I drove to my nearest Apple Store, found that the line was only about 20 minutes, and I did it: I bought an iPhone.

I must say, however, that Apple's clever marketing of the phone as inexpensive (with AT&T's subsidy) didn't quite play out when I saw the bottom line. While the phone's retail price was indeed just $299 (for the 16 GB model), when tax, the $69 cost of AppleCare, and the $110 Verizon termination fee were all added up, I saw my bank account take a $518 hit.

Plus, of course, the $5 I had to pay Stefanie when I got to work this morning.

On Road Trip 2006, I traveled through the U.S. Pacific Northwest, stopping at destinations such as Grand Coulee Dam, Google's Columbia River server farm, and the McMinnville, Ore., home of Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose. During Road Trip 2008, I will journey through the Deep South.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

SAN FRANCISCO--Over the 8,260 miles I've driven on Road Trip 2006 and Road Trip 2007, I've visited, written about, and photographed some of the most interesting destinations in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

I've also gotten to road-test some really cool gadgets and drive the spiffy and comfortable Infiniti QX56 over some long and very hot distances.

Now I'm getting ready to depart on Road Trip 2008. This year, rather than leaving from my home base in San Francisco, I'll be flying east and starting a grand tour of the Deep South in Orlando, Fla., on June 10.

Last year's trip through the U.S. Southwest was hot, but at least it was dry. This time around, as I meander through Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, it's going to be both hot and humid. But at least it will be early summer--as opposed to the middle--and the review 2008 Outback 2.5 XT Subaru is providing will be properly air-conditioned.

Last year, I had the good fortune to indulge my inner geek and drop in on some sights and sites I'd long wanted to visit. Among them were the Grand Canyon Skywalk; the incomparable Hoover Dam; the gargantuan meteor crater near Winslow, Ariz.; an amazing collection of vintage commercial and military airplanes in Tucson, Ariz.; the only existing Titan Missile museum in the world; the Top Gun school; a community of off-the-grid sustainable living houses called Earthships; and majestic canyons in Arizona and Utah.

In Las Vegas, I got to walk under the Strip while slogging through a series of graffiti-filled tunnels. I also went on backstage tours of two Cirque du Soleil shows, Ka and Love.

One great thing about my road trips is that I often get behind-the-scenes tours not generally available to the public. An example was a tour last summer through parts of Hoover Dam that have been off-limits to the public since September 11.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

This time around, I'll be making the Cirque part of the experience once again when I go backstage at La Nouba, Cirque du Soleil's long-running Disney World show.

Being in Orlando, of course, no trip would be complete without a lengthy journey through Disney World, and I'll certainly be doing my part.

I'll also be on hand--if the stars align--for the landing of the Space Shuttle Discovery after its trip to the International Space Station.

I haven't finalized my itinerary yet--I will likely be turning to you, dear readers, for some suggestions--but other destinations I know I'll be hitting will be Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala.; UPS' world distribution center and the Louisville Slugger bat factory, both in Louisville, Ky.; the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky.; Graceland, in Memphis, Tenn.; Johnson Space Center, in Houston; Fort Benning, in Columbus, Ga.; New Orleans, for a look at the city's post-Katrina recovery, or lack thereof; the Everglades; and more.

As in the previous two years, I will also be carrying around a passel of high-tech gadgetry to test on the road.

The Grand Canyon Skywalk, which juts out over the Colorado River, was a destination on Road Trip 2007.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

One goal of the trip is going to be seeing which cell network has the best 3G Internet service. As such, I'll be using Verizon's USB727 and Sprint's Compass 597 EVDO cards. I'll also have an Apple iPhone, which, of course, features AT&T's Edge network service. While I won't be able to do it every day, I intend to try tests of each network's service in several selected locations to see which one is best.

Apple has also lent me a MacBook Air to try. I'm already well-versed with Macs, as I use a MacBook Pro every day for work. But the Air will be my first test of a computer that relies almost entirely on the Internet--with the exception of input via USB--for its incoming information. Whether this will be a successful test is unclear, but I know I will be happy to be carrying a much lighter machine with me.

Another device I'm looking forward to trying is the Dash Express car navigation system. This is car GPS geekery at its best, a truly interactive system that allows users to send addresses and other data to the device from their computers, and to share data with other users.

At the end of long days of driving, writing, and processing photos, I'll need downtime, and Showtime and HBO have given me DVD sets of Weeds and Oz, respectively. I expect to spend many late-evening hours in front of the MacBook Air--with its external SuperDrive--watching them.

The Titan Missile Museum, near Tucson, Ariz., is the only restored Titan missile silo in the world. I visited the site during Road Trip 2007.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

Last year, I carried my personal Canon Rebel XT and used a couple of lenses Canon lent me. This time around, I'm going to use a loaner Nikon D60 digital SLR and several lenses, including the stock 18-55mm, as well as a 16-85mm and a 70-300mm.

That's for still images. For video, I'm going to be using two systems. The first is the Flip Ultra, the latest model from Flip Video. This gadget will allow me to shoot quick footage and upload it quickly to the Internet and this blog.

In addition, I'll be using Qik's new service. This is live, streaming video from a Nokia smartphone. Qik will allow me to broadcast streaming video from just about anywhere, and then make it possible for viewers to send instant messages while the video is playing. This will be very useful, as it will make it possible for some of the interviews I do during the trip to be interactive. You will be able to view my Qik channel both on the Road Trip package main page, and on my personal Qik page.

By using service from Qik, I'll be able to stream live video to the Internet and make it possible for viewers to interact with me.

(Credit: Qik)

Using technology like Qik's is key this year, as one of my goals is to make the trip much more interactive than it's been the past two years. Exactly how that will manifest is still not entirely clear, but there are definitely a few things I know will make it more user-friendly than in the past.

First, I'll be Twittering constantly. You can follow my Twitter feed here.

Another thing I'll do at least a couple of times, if not more, is organize meet-ups along the way. I'll likely announce them on this blog and on Twitter.

I also have some gifts to give away--DVDs from Showtime, video games, one or two iTunes gift cards, and possibly some CNET swag. I'm still working out precisely how I will give this stuff away, but much of it will be based on reader interactivity. As I mentioned above, I'll be asking for some suggestions on things to visit during the trip, and I will likely reward those with the best advice.

Further, I'll be trying out reader-submitted photo galleries. After a week of the trip, I will likely post a blog entry going back over the places I've visited and ask for readers' photos of those places. Then I'll put up a gallery of the best of those images, giving the photographers credit, of course.

To top it off, I may simply ask readers for ideas for adding even more interactivity. I want to bring you along with me, if not in my car, then at least on the Internet.

I'll also be podcasting from the road, blogging constantly of course, and in general, trying to document the trip in as many ways as I can.

All told, I expect to cover nearly 5,000 miles in a large loop out of Orlando. The past two years, I drove almost 200 miles per day, and I don't expect that to be much different this time. I hope you'll come along for the ride.

One of my last stops on Road Trip 2007 was a visit to the Fallon Naval Air Station, in Fallon, Nev., home to the famous Top Gun school.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

The Y.M. Wealth, a container ship flagged in Liberia goes under the Golden Gate Bridge on its way from Los Angeles to the Port of Oakland.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

MARIN HEADLANDS, Calif.--This is very surreal.

I'm sitting on a bench on top of a cliff here, overlooking the Pacific Ocean and looking straight at the Golden Gate Bridge.

For the last 15 minutes, there has been a steady stream of sirens from emergency vehicles, and I can see that all traffic on the bridge is completely stopped. I Twittered what I was seeing, and almost immediately, one of my followers replied with details of what seems to be a multiple-vehicle accident blocking most of the lanes on the bridge.

Before this happened, I was planning on starting this blog entry by writing that life is very good because here I am sitting in such a magical place, and I'm getting to do work from here.

But seeing and hearing what I know is some sort of tragedy has dampened my spirits a bit.

Still, it is a truly magnificent place to be, and I'm able to sit here and blog because I'm road testing a bunch of gadgets for my upcoming Road Trip 2008.

That trip, which will begin on June 10 in Orlando, Fla., is this year's version of Road Trip 2007, my journey around the U.S. Southwest. This year's voyage will take me around the American South, visiting a series of destinations and attractions, such as Disney World, the Corvette Factory, Space Camp, the Kennedy Space Center, and more. I'll also be carrying a bunch of gadgets with me.

On Wednesday, I spent most of the afternoon at the only restored Nike missile site in the United States.

A Nike Hercules surface-to-air missile at the only restored Nike missile site in the United States. The site is in the Marin Headlands, near Sausalito, Calif. The missile could carry a nuclear warhead of up to 40 kilotons.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

I will be posting a full story and photo gallery on this, most likely on Friday, so stay tuned for that.

Suffice it to say, it's quite a thing to realize that just a few miles from San Francisco there were several active sites capable of firing nuclear-tipped missiles at incoming bombers or other threats.

As my tour guide mentioned, many people from San Francisco had no idea that the site even existed, and being from the city myself, I can attest to the truth of that statement.

After I finished my tour, I pulled out my gadgets--an Apple iPhone and two EVDO modems, a Verizon USB727, and a Sprint Compass 597. The idea was to test which had the best connectivity out here in the middle of one of the most spectacular pieces of land in the world.

Sprint's Compass 597, an EVDO modem that I will be using on Road Trip 2008

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

At first, just above the Nike site, only the iPhone got any kind of signal. It was spotty, but I was able to load a Web site containing information on Nike missiles. The Sprint and Verizon modems had no signal at all.

So I decided to move on and drove over the hill until I ended up where I am now. I stopped here because it was the first place with an open view of San Francisco, but which was still very much in the Headlands.

After getting the Apple MacBook Air I'm also using on Road Trip out, I processed some photos and began plugging and unplugging the EVDO modems into the computer. It quickly turned out that, because I am in plain view of San Francisco, both are producing high-speed connectivity.

The iPhone, however, seems to be performing rather sluggishly.

Another thing I wanted to do while I was here was see if I could use the Internet to figure out the provenance of a huge container ship that was sailing under the bridge.

Seeing the name of the shipping company emblazoned on its side, Yang Ming, I figured I could do a quick Google search to discover shipping traffic information.

What I ended up finding out is that in order to get that kind of information, you have to be a member of the Maritime Exchange of the San Francisco Bay Region.

But, pulling out my reporter card, I called the exchange and the nice man on the other end of the phone told me that the ship is called the Y.M. Wealth, is flagged in Liberia, and was on its way into the Port of Oakland after sailing from Los Angeles. He couldn't tell me the cargo, other than that it was carrying a lot of containers--duh--or where it would be heading next.

The Verizon USB727, another EVDO modem I will be using on Road Trip 2008.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

Anyway, the bridge is still totally blocked, the view is still otherwordly, and the technology that is allowing me to share that all with you is rather impressive.

Please keep watching this space for both my story on the Nike missile site and for the entire Road Trip.

Using Wi-Fi, I was able to download software needed to run the Verizon USB727 EVDO modem on loan for Road Trip 2008.

(Credit: Verizon Wireless)

SAN FRANCISCO--One of the cool things about going on road trips for CNET News.com, as I've done in both 2006 and 2007, is that I get to test out a bunch of cool tech.

For the trip I'll be embarking on next month, that is very much the case, and one of the gadgets I've been looking to get going is the USB727 EVDO modem Verizon lent me for the trip.

The only problem has been that until today, I had been unable to get the modem to work properly. I had been told it was essentially plug and play on Macs, like the USB720 modem I bought myself, but that wasn't proving to be true.

I got back in touch with Verizon, hoping it was a simple fix, and after waiting a few days for the right tech person to get ahold of the question, I was finally told that the USB727, unlike the USB720, doesn't natively support Macs.

This struck me as a problem, since the computer I'm going to be using on the trip is a MacBook Air that Apple has lent me.

So I was sitting in my car here in San Francisco, waiting for the annual Xbox 360 games showcase event to start, trying to figure out what to do. I had my personal MacBook Pro connected to the Internet with the USB720, and in came an e-mail from Verizon suggesting that to get the USB727 running on the MacBook Air, I needed to download some driver software.

How to do it, I thought. Well, it turned out there is an open Wi-Fi network where I'm sitting, so I quickly logged the MacBook Air on to that and, a few fits and starts later, downloaded the driver software.

Then, shutting down the Wi-Fi, I ran the activation software for the USB727. At first it failed, and I was just about to send a message back to Verizon complaining that they still didn't have it right when I decided to make one more try. And suddenly, voila! The MacBook Air was on the Internet.

So here I am, still sitting in the car, pounding out this blog entry on the MacBook Air using the USB727 modem.

And the point, I guess, is that despite worrying that I was going to have to wait until I got home to connect an external Superdrive to the MacBook Air and try to load the software off the CD Verizon sent me with the modem, I didn't end up having to do so at all.

That proves to me, for the moment at least, that Apple's claims that the MacBook Air can be used without the need for an internal optical drive are valid.

On June 10, Geek Gestalt hits the highways for Road Trip 2008. I'll start in Orlando, Fla., and visit many of the South's most interesting destinations. Stay tuned, and be sure to keep up, both now and during the trip, with what I'm doing on Twitter.

The world's largest corn maze is open to the public in Dixon, Calif., through at least November 5. It is estimated to take an hour to work your way though it. If you don't get lost, that is.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

DIXON, Calif.--I'm sitting on a stairway in the middle of the world's-largest corn maze and blogging the experience. Literally.

I like to say I'm the first to do things, and of course, you never really know if it's true. But I have to say I think the odds that someone else has been blogging inside this maze, which comprises 40 acres of healthy cornfield in this small farming town near Sacramento, are pretty small. But you never know.

I'm doing it thanks to the Verizon EV-DO card I've been using, and the ability to log on, get e-mail, upload pictures, and blog from inside a huge cornfield is kind of strange. Probably not what the maze was intended for. But, hey, the signal is fantastic. What could I do but get online and blog?

At some points, the pathways seem like they never end. But it's important, if you're following the provided map, that you can tell the difference between the official paths and ones visitors have cut themselves.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

So here I am. I entered the maze awhile ago intent on finding my way through without getting lost, even though I knew that my chances of that were pretty slim. After all, while you get a very detailed map when you start, people have cut a lot of illegitimate paths through the maze. And so just when you think you know where you are, the map tells you something different from what you see.

This maze is very, very cool. From inside it, you can't see out at all. The stalks are 8 to 12 feet high, and so there's no visibility to the exits. Matt Cooley, who along with his brother Mark, created this maze, say that often, lost people just push their way out, ending up nowhere near where they're supposed to be. But that's better than being forever trapped in the middle of 40 acres of corn.

I am determined not to get irrevocably lost, however, and so I am marking my map religiously as I go. I've only been sure I was screwing up at least four times in the first quarter of the maze. I think that means I'm doing well.

I'm going to stop writing now and get back to the maze. I'll file a longer story and a full gallery later. Stay tuned. And if you don't hear from me, can you call someone? I may still be in the middle, trying desperately to find my way out.

I'm sitting in a tent at 4,000 feet, surrounded on all sides by national forest. And I'm online.

It's astounding.

This is where my in-laws live, on top of a mountain, a 45 minute drive to the nearest town. I've never been able to get online here before. In fact, when I was first coming here, in 2000 or so, we could barely get a cell signal.

But here I am, connected--albeit, certainly not at high-speed--via Verizon's EV-DO network. Doing Google searches. I even got into Second Life for a moment.

I mean, I'm online. It's the weirdest thing, and totally great.

Though it's a slow connection today, I bet that within a year, I'll be able to get high-speed via the EV-DO network here. And with that comes the ability to work up here. With views to die for, the cleanest air and fresh vegetables every day.

Hmm. I might not ever return to the office. But don't tell my editor that.