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Sprint Wireless Cards / Dell Laptop / Field Connectivity

December 11, 2007

Recently we tried out the internal EVDO cards from Sprint in Dell Laptop computers. I have used many of these wireless cards in the past and the service has always been shakey. We have really been trying to test these out in the field to see if they would be a good product for ourselves and our clients who need to connect to their IT networks remotely.

Today I was driving from San Jose to Atascadero in CA. I took Highway 101 which has poor cell phone reception.

Leaving San Jose I sat the laptop on the seat and connected to the internet through the Sprint card. From there I established a VPN connection and started a log of the connection.

Throughout the 150+ mile drive it only missed a total of (4) pings to the server via the VPN tunnel and NEVER dropped the VPN connection!

This is just plain amazing - I couldn't even get the GPS on my AT&T powered Blackberry to work for part of the trip due to no signal.

I'm sure that this has partly to do with the internal antenna built into the Dell laptops but the end result was fantastic. I would recommend this solution to any company that needs to connect from the field.

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Estimating Cost Data

December 01, 2007

Having some good standard references when it comes to cost data will help you develop and evaluate estimates, conceptual budgets and change orders. Every construction professional should have a set of these books that are relevant to their discipline.

RS Means just released their 2008 cost data books:

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