Posting issues

[aadler]

Months ago, when minor damage had progressed to the point where the LCD screen on my son’s phone was all but unreadable, he persuaded me to buy him a new one, on the understanding that he’d be moving to China soon and then the phone would revert to me. So we went shopping for a phone. I had decided while I was on my second Iraq deployment that I wanted to buy an i-Phone on my return … but, while occupied in the search for a job, I put that off, and had meanwhile come to the conclusion that i-Phones, however nifty, had a bunch of things that I didn’t really need and so would probably be better off not paying for. As a result, we looked through the Android-based models, and my own preferences were limited and realistic: I wanted to be able to have Internet access if I needed it, and I wanted to be able to track my location for route planning.

We got both. Now he’s in China, as planned, and I love my new phone.

I didn’t realize how quickly it would change the way I go about things. I can consult on the move; I can check the ’Net anytime I take a break; I’m not limited to location as I was before. I may not be paying him a penny, but I owe Steve Jobs a LOT.

I said that so I can say this:

In my current duty, I’m working in a secure office. In the Army, ‘secure office’ means there are certain things you can’t do. Logging into LiveJournal (or FaceBook)? among the things you can’t do. There’s no Internet access at the barracks, and I wasn’t about to try to do any kind of decent post by using the phone’s on-screen type-pad (I am not a fan of touchscreen typing, especially a tiny screen). If I wanted to make LJ posts, I pretty much had to drive to the base library every few days, where I could get wireless access.

Well, turns out there’s another way.

Maybe I can’t log in to LiveJournal. I can, however, send myself e-mails. That means I can write up just the kind of post I want, put in such codes as I want, and mail it to myself. Then, using my phone, I can access the e-mail (outside the facility, since cell phones aren’t allowed inside), copy the content, and paste it into a LiveJournal posting window.

Which is what I did with this entry.

I LOVE my new phone.