Agonizing efforts

Can you imagine having to work with a 45 Kbps dial up connection? This is unfortunately what I have to deal, and put up with while in Tirana. The service that I use while here is one of several available, but I can vouch that it’s a real pain to have this type of connection with Internet (how did we ever live with 28K modems only a few years ago?).

Any click, or command, takes forever to respond; what can one do, but stare at the ceiling meanwhile? When I dared mention my frustration to either other users or even the manager of the providing server I was calmly told that this is what they are supplied with here and they just resign themselves to it! Even all the state offices, which now do try to use email in their daily routines, have the same type of service. Only exception may be some special high-speed lines used only by very large businesses, which can afford the related high costs.

Compared to last year, however, there is some improvement. Now, thanks goodness, there is at least electricity available to keep operating for many hours at a stretch, although it’s interesting to notice that the energy output (totally lacking last year for many - 8 to 10 - hours a day) is quite weak! A simple chore such hair drying takes much longer than we are used to in the States. The same goes for cooking with the stoves being electrically operated since there is no gas city wide distribution yet.

Going back to computing, based on my experience of this week, it’s no wonder that a lot of the software used here is unlicensed. The slow connections may not be the only excuse, but it’s certainly easier to just copy one master package rather than spend days to install software onto several machines.

This week I duly purchased online a noted antivirus package only to discover that I was unable to download it via Internet due to the slowness of the connection and the unforeseen, and frequent dropping of the phone line. It tried 3 times unsuccessfully (even in the middle of the night), and lost more than 4 hours in the process! The ISP provider kindly obliged me when I complained. I had, however, to move myself to their premises, where I finally got hold of my purchase, by using 2 different workstations there: one to download the software, and the second one to burn the CD I provided so that I could carry it at home.

However, my anguish was not over!! It took another 2 hours to install the package and update it, as routinely necessary, online, by downloading the latest additions and the virus definition file. Whew!

What it may take 15 minutes in the US to accomplish, here it took most of one day. Bottom line: how can anyone be efficiently working in such an environment? The locals are used to this slow pace, but for me these and similar undertakings are agonizing and exasperating experiences!