Wholly crap.

Who would have guessed that an internet connection could be so bad? When we were looking for places to live in Costa Rica, I knew that connecting to the internet would be a necessity. For communications and entertainment.

Usually the internet connection was included in the real estate listing.

Internet: Yes.

When we got very serious about this house, I asked the question:
Is there internet?

Yes.

Unasked: what is the download speed?

Costa Rica has gone wireless across the entire country. Almost. Every place we visited had better internet connections than most of the US countryside – either via DSL or the monopoly phone/electric company’s wireless network. There are even competitive wireless internet providers.

We get our connection through what’s called a data card. It’s a USB with phone SIM card. The only thing missing with the connection is the modem squeal.

This connection is so crappy that animated gifs won’t play! Video? Pfffbbt. Only if you like to watch vids in 6 second jerks.

Streaming music ain’t bad.

iTunes does OK. I download stuff overnight to listen to during the day. I’ll also sometimes live stream news/talk radio from the states. But even those have to buffer and rebuffer from time to time. Especially if I’m trying to load another page.

Today I found a great music streaming site: Sound Cloud. The clips load quick and play straight through. I’ve been a big fan of Pandora.com and this is right up there.

I love the serendipity of just letting tracks play. Not sure how often the tracks change, so SoundCloud.com won’t be a “go-to” site everyday. But it’s playing in background now.

I like it. If you like music online – free – check it out. Now get up and dance:
01 – ‘Immo’ – July 27 on BEATPORT (BugEyed Records) by sirsirmusic