The Longest Connection: The Shortest Route to Sanity

About 6 months ago I fell in love with a dog named Maddy. Maddy and her human friend Joe became regular fixtures in our home as they had plenty of time to loaf about after turning some coin in a dot-com flip 'n run. Maddy and Joe were drilling down and finding themselves. Two months ago I received an email from Joe. He had found himself and where he was included a mountain top view in Ecuador, a paragliding certificate, a leased hostel and plans to build a bar with his bare hands. I sat there staring into the beige oblivion of my cubicle and thought to myself, “My God. Inside I’m screaming.”

OFF THE GRID
My love for DIY off-the-grid culture has not wavered. Every time I see a recycled-material prefabricated home, a steam-powered toy or an 18-year-old basement programmer, my heart leaps with joy. I’ve decided that physical offices are unnecessary overhead. Telecommuting is cheaper, more flexible for the worker and more conducive to midnight “aha!” moments. I want a universe where dozens of little Maddys nuzzle my tanned legs, where brilliant brainstorms emanate from hammocks and where sand-proof laptops reign supreme.

KEEPING THE BRAIN SHARP
Remember that scene in The Beach where Leonardo DiCaprio goes apeshit in the jungle? Or that scene in The Shining where Jack Nicholson gets crazy-eyed wielding an ax in the snow?

A friend of mine was placed in a sensory deprivation chamber and lasted about 20 min. before he started singing The Ballad of Paladin at the top of his lungs.

The lesson from each of these stories is that isolation makes perfectly good people loony.

That is why Venezuelan Ermanno Pietrosemoli recently established the longest WiFi link setting a new record at 381 kilometers. The networking guru hacked together a wireless connection between a PC in El Aguila, Venezuela and one in Platillon Mountain. This DIY dish work is proof that adventure geeks can have their cake and eat it too.

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The Longest Connection: The Shortest Route to Sanity

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