A typical norwegian easter activity is to bring the family to ski in the mountains. On these trips, you usually stay in a small cottage, and this cottage, if it’s the old fashioned type, has no water or electricity. This poses a few problems for a geek who usually spends most of the day in front of a computer. Luckily, our cottage has 12V current from a solar powered battery, meaning I can charge my phone and my Nintendo DS. I’ve tried bringing my laptop before, but I just end up trying to conserve it’s battery and hence barely using it, so this year, I’ve left it behind. My phone is a small computer anyway 😉
Another problem up here is the worse than bad reception I get from my cellphone carrier (Netcom). Outside (and if I hold my phone up to the window) I can get some GSM reception, giving me EDGE at the most. Inside the cottage, I get nothing. This is why, in addition to my work-payed SIM, I have an extra SIM with a data-only subscription from the other (large) cellphone carrier in Norway (Telenor). This lets me have perfect 3G inside the cabin, so I can check email, read some news and make a blog post or two 😉 Looks like I’ll be able to survive another trip to the mountains then 