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Check here often for a log of computing and telecom adventures. 1/29 I haven't been entering much into this log because I have been using Internet shops instead of my VSNL account to send information to MD Dundon, who is producing the site. The Internet shops range from a single computer attached to a telephone line upstairs over a shop in somebody's home to a modern office-type arrangement with a bank of computers in booths like the one here in Madurai, all attached to an ISDN line. The cost is about 60 rupees per hour though it can be as high as 100 in heavily touristy places like Mamallapuram. Power cuts and slow connection speeds make for a sometimes frustrating experience, but I've not experienced a lot of that. The interesting thing is that there's nowhere without the Internet here, and even people who don't know what it is can tell you where it is, because tourists all ask for "Internet." The Internet shop is also a great place to meet other foreigners on the trail, ask them where they've been, get advice on where to go and where not to go (Varkala, and not Kovalam, is the word now). The staff at the Internet shops are pretty hip, but one can tell that they are still in the process of getting used to the easy familiarity amongst foreign travelers. They regularly see people who don't know each other just starting conversations and going out together for lunch or dinner, beginning relationships, etc. This kind of informality is a foreign concept for Indians, polite to a fault and steeped in protocol. Some handle it more easily than others. January 08: Used adapters from TeleAdapt to plug in my PowerBook to the 240V wall plug. Will use the hotel's business center tomorrow to email the 1/8 dispatches to MD, the site designer. On Monday I will attempt to get an Indian ISP. Jan 09, Delhi: Business Center at hotel, at 300 rupees per hour. Jan 10, Delhi: NIIT PPP account, courtesy Jitender Verma, a typically harassed systems responsible. Jan 11, Delhi: Open private account with VSNL.
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