Internet in Hawaii

We have a unique opportunity in time right now. Those of us that can work from home can actually work from anywhere. Rather than stay in Utah and endure a blistering heatwave, my wife and I rented a place in Hawaii for 5 weeks this summer. We have been here almost 2 weeks and have enjoyed every minute of it. Don't worry, we have someone staying in our home back in Utah. We have to keep the lawn mowed and make sure the place doesn't burn to the ground on the 4th of July because of negligent neighbors.

In order for me to be able to work from Hawaii, I need a good Internet connection. So far I have not been disappointed. One of the first things I did when I got here was set up a PS4 and use it to remote into my PS5 at home. The PS4 is much easier to travel with and I actually did have a spare one that I could bring with me. The two consoles connected easily and I could play games easily.

A decade or so ago, the State of Hawaii wanted to reduce its economic reliance on tourism and so they helped build out their digital infrastructure. My Internet connection on the island of Kauai is significantly better than mine back in Utah. I don't have nearly the number of slow-downs that I do back home nor do I have the same latency issues. Basically things are working very well.

If you decide you also want to work from the Islands, rest assured that the Internet works very well over here.

More Monitors or More Screen Real Estate

This morning as I rode my bicycle, I thought back to an experience I had with one of my Electrical Engineering professors. A group of us were talking about the rapid advancements of computers and a new interface had just been announced that allowed you to watch television in a window on your computer. I thought it was great as you could work on your computer and watch TV at the same time. My professor remarked, "Why? Just get a TV and put it next to your computer."

He was right as this was back in the days when most computer monitors could only display 640x480 pixels, which is about the size of a regular NTSC television picture. While I had a more advanced computer that could display 1024x768, it could only do so with 16 colors per pixel. To get more colors, I would have to reduce the screen resolution. Furthermore the price of card for the computer came in at around $500 while a new television only cost around $300.

Fast forward a few years and I remember attending one of the last COMDEX shows in Las Vegas. I stopped by one of the Linux booths and they had 3 monitors built into a single unit. Of course it required that you have 3 VGA outputs on your computer to run all of the monitors but I thought it was spectacular and wanted one badly. Unfortunately it was cheaper just to get 3 monitors and I could not justify the extra cost. Consequently I never added the necessary hardware to my computer and continued running with a single monitor. By this time, resolution had increased to 1280x800.

At around this time, my primary computer became a laptop as I spent a lot of time traveling. The standard laptop resolutions seemed to be fine and I didn't really worry about needing more screen real estate as there is only so much space on an airplane. During this time you can guess that I traveled a lot.

Eventually I moved into more of a development role and worked on a project that needed a second monitor. Rather than fall back to the default monitor size of the day, I splurged and picked up two 1920x1080 monitors and put them side-by-side on my desk. I really had to clean a lot off so they would both fit. I also had to get a new computer with dual monitor outputs to drive both displays. I enjoyed having all the extra space.

My dual monitors lasted for quite a few years. They worked well and I discovered that I could keep them both filled with information to help me in my work. Of course technology continued to progress and so when the price of 4K (3840x2160 pixels) monitors dropped to where everyone could afford them, I jumped at the chance to get one. They are the equivalent of having four 1920x1080 monitors grouped together. It is the monitor I am using right now and guess what? I have the entire screen filled with 10 different windows. I also have a second computer with the laptop screen and a third 1920x1080 monitor. Both of those screens are also filled.

I guess the whole point of this post is that the answer to the question posed in the title is, "Yes," for both. You can always use more monitors and more screen real estate. At least I can.