Hello Carol.

04 Jul 06 13:01, you wrote to me:

 MvdV>> Ok, so I misunderstood. I was under the impression that you used
 MvdV>> the D for the main leg of your connection with your uplink.

 CS> BTW, forgive if this is a duplicate reply.  My laptop on the ship died

Laptops are still quite vulnerable and much more difficult to repair than
desktops. I hope you can get it fixed or replace it.

 CS> and I'm ¨not sure if the answer got out.

It did, but I don't mind commenting again.;-)

 MvdV>> Well... how about your connection when you are at sea? That *is*
 MvdV>> at taxpayer's cost isn't it?

 CS> That one is the spare excess bandwidth and considered allowable usage.
 CS> I'm ¨transiting some 50k at average a day for the BBSing habits.

*Very* modest....

 CS> I use more by far ¨when doing mandated surveys off the internet .mil
 CS> sites.  Neither one do I pay ¨directly for, but as a tax payer, I
 CS> 'pay' in a sort of way.  The bandwidth is ¨there for real live work
 CS> things like working out training classes for my crew ¨or transiting
 CS> data about current sea state and operations, message traffic and
 CS> ¨email on work things.

Of course. But every employer that I have worked for allows modest personal
use of facilities. Be it taking tools home for the weekend or communication
facilities...

 MvdV>> this not meant to paint you into a corner, I was just explaining
 MvdV>> that you are a special case. I think it is perfectly ok for
 MvdV>> someone in your situation to get compensation from your employer
 MvdV>> for odd hours and being away from home for extended periods.
 MvdV>> Communication facilities for those away from home are and should
 MvdV>> be part of the fringe benefits.

 CS> Grin, thanks and yes, they are allowable but you'll track possibly a
 CS> trend of ¨my responses that I keep it minimal for personal use.

Of course.

 CS> We all do.  That way, ¨there's enough to go around for all 1,200 of us
 CS> on the ship (3,000 or so when ¨the Marines are onboard).

I can see that with so many even an apparemntly "infinite"
resource can become scarce.

 MvdV>> When I had a job that often took me abroad I thought it was
 MvdV>> perfectly natural that my employer paid for the daily telephone
 MvdV>> calls I made wit my wife. Your employer is the US tax payer and
 MvdV>> so I find it perfectly ok when the tax payer foots at least part
 MvdV>> of your telecom bill when yo are away from home.

 CS> Phone calls home are not free, but we have calling cards we can use
 CS> and are ¨sold at the ship's store.  Email is free though!

Hmmm...

They are not as liberal with information as they used to be so I do not
know about the guys now going to Uruzgan, but the Dutch battalion that went
to some problem region in Africa a couple of years back had their own cell
phone cell on the camp that directly plugged into the Dutch telephone
system via a satellite link. So that the guys could make calls to their
family and friends with their own cell phone at the cost of a
"local" call. They could also be called on their own cell phones.

Cheers,

Michiel

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