Keeping up with Tom
Is you've probably noticed I've a powerful desire to tell people where I am and what I'm up to. Also despite my friends protestations how and why as well. I do this frequently. Originally it was done by postcard and e-mail.The "oceanhippie" was chosen when setting up my e-mail address in the Rent-a-car office and Internet cafe in St lucia. Then I got a website, now social networking as well.
My Website https://www.oceanhippie.net
This is the hub of my activities. If your really interested go there.
Key bits:
- Blog, latest post appears on the front page, archives at https://www.oceanhippie.net/blog.php
- Tom's Travels, more in depth articles end up here, along with videos and wallpapers downloads etc. https://www.oceanhippie.net/categorg/14/TomTravels
- Mobile Version, if your on a raspberry or Jesus Phone then you should be diverted automatically to a small screen version.
- Photos these are Galleries. The latest is always linked from the front page. https://www.oceanhippie.net/photos
- Is your tropical island geography dodgy? Can't find Nuie with both hands and a Philips Modern School Atlas? Then try this handy google maps page with my last known whereabouts on. https://www.oceanhippie.net/chart positions are also displayed in latitude and longitude. You don't get that on Twitter or facebook.
During long passages multiple items can back up before I can upload them.
Comentards will be pleased to not that you can put comments on my website now, though I'd avoid the letters n and p in photos at present though as this causes wierd things to happen. Trying to fix.
RSS Feeds.
RSS is a geeky way of making content available easily to other people. Most of you will have an RSS reader, you can subscribe to them and whenever new items appear then you'll get notified. I have 2 feeds:
- http://www.oceanhippie.net/feed.php which will give you my full blog posts.
- http://www.oceanhippie.net/ updateFeed.php which merely notifies you when new galleries blogs or other articals are added to my site.
Twitter
You can follow me on twitter, http://twitter.com/oceanhippie this will tell you when I update my website as well as other missives or one liners I may have come across that day.
Right Twitter is in the name of oceanhippie. Facebook is in your real name, or supposed to be. I lied. I'm proud and glad I did, having some dumb drone from and HR dept finding me would not do. I am according to Facebook a 56 year old Pastafarian from Bognor Regis named suspiciously after the famous cross dressing former head of the FBI. So you don't find me on facebook I find you let me know if you want ot be my friend.....
YouTube
youtube is unique in that its the only website that wouldn't let me have oceanhippie. Unique in my experiance. Thanks to Kieran's loverly fast server I usually upload videos to my website, if I've time and bandwidth to youtube as well. In case you can't handle my sites video's.
Skype
Skype is a free piece of software for making phone calls over the net. Its free to call other computers and cheap to use as a call phones in other countries system. I'm on it look for oceanhippie.
Other Sources.
- Steve and Katrin have a blog hosted http:// blog.mailasail.com/everett/
- The Blue Water Rally website tracks the fleet as well. Look out for Island Kea II.
Communications (Maritime)
Mostly this is uploaded from Internet cafes or WiFi. I.E. when I'm on land. I have my beloved iPod touch which can Facebook and twitter. That's how it works not very sophisticated really.
However, the boat has SSB (single side band radio) capable of punching not inconsiderable distances. It can't handle computer traffic but it can communicate with other yachts who in then communicate with rally organizers.
Island Kea II also now has Immarsat Fleet Broadband. I believe a whole 128kbps of Internet. Since its pay per meg I can't see much facebook going on but Steve and Katrin's blog's likly to get updated at sea, if I go near it its likely to be twitter or ultra low data only. Don't worry my tweets appear on the website at the top.
Communications (auto Internet glue) - WARNING may contain Jargon
- My website's RSS feed appears on Twitter - to tell you I've posted something.
- My Tweets are re-published on facebook as status updates, inducing the updates from the website.
- Facebook has an app that reads and re-publishes blog posts. So when I write a blog it tends to turn up on facebook, without formating or pictures shortly afterwards. I recommend using it to link to the original on oceanhippie.net
I update the website on my laptop and upload it when and where I can. Sometimes I will upload the same photos to Facebook sometimes I won't. My GPS comunicates with my laptop and can tell my blog my latitude and longitude. Or I can enter it manually.
Snail Mail
I do send postcards if I've the right addess, usnally their not terribly informative but the're a picture on one side and usually a beer bottle label and an address on the other. Let me know if you want one.