more e740 failures...this time at this Starbucks. I hate intermittent problems; they are the hardest to diagnose. The e740 would not log in here - despite re-starting, changing the config, etc. I'm beginning to think I was hallucinating when it worked. This post is from the laptop (which always works) and I believe I'm in denial about the e740...it may just suck (read: "it's less tolerable of older configurations") in some settings.

Well as a benchmark, I'm getting 1.144 Mbps on the old cnet speed test (I know about the inherent inaccuracy...is there a better way?) using this setup.

With the Verizon CDMA 1X card I'm getting a paltry 32 kbps. This is slow (recall the last time I got over 80 kbps). But I'm getting excatly "0" bars of coverage on my phone. Perhaps Verizon is provisioning the service differently depending on the local voice load. In many systems the data rate is directly related to S/N ration (like 1XEV-DO and most newer systems), but I'll have to look at the spec again to understand that effect here. Anyway...it's better than nothing.

As an aside, in this "social" starbucks there are about 15 people inside and out, of which I'm clearly the oldest. It's real loud and I don't see how you could concentrate on anything really tough, like quantum mechanics or legendre polynomials with all this racket. I'm outta here.

One more try tonight at a place I swear it worked before.