Either Verizon Wireless are loser morons, or I am. Because it's still not working! I spent a long time on the phone with tech support this afternoon, and he did something to my account and I was able to dial in. But that was with the cell phone plugged directly into the laptop. But when I plug it into the USB hub, it says I have a bad password!
I have to use a hub, because I need to plug in the cams too, and there's only one USB port on the computer. It doesn't make any sense at all. I tested this setup extensively back in Durham, and it worked fine. And I really don't understand why the presence of a hub would affect the password. It is truly a "what the ???" experience. I am thinking about scrounging a dialup account from someone and just abandoning the Verizon account. It's just too problematic.
In brighter news, the art car ball was a blast. There were dozens of great cars there. I saw the Miss Liberty car from the artcarz mailing list, but did not see Miss Liberty herself. Actually I don't know what she looks like, so I'm not sure if I saw her or not. I did get to meet Chaigirl and her baby Toby, and saw her completely fabulous car. And I met Bryan the Santa car driver. Also saw the Tankgrrl car and Hope Springs Eternal, but didn't catch up with either of their drivers.
There was a huge crowd of people wearing crazy costumes and having a great time. Compared to some of the amazing cars there, mine was pretty tame, so it didn't get that much attention. Most people were drawn to the more impressive cars, as was I! But still, a few people came over and talked to me about it. And I was interviewed by a guy from the Detroit Free Press, but who knows if he'll actually quote me or not. The funniest comment was from two old ladies, who asked Georg if my grandmother knew what I had done to her mah jongg set!
I took over a hundred photos. I think I got at least one photo of every car there. I'm going to work on my cell modem problem and then get some photos uploaded. Here's hoping I can get the web cam thing working by tomorrow morning!
just wanted to add that I'm particularly fond of Bryan's Santa car as it's a red Geo Metro, very similar to my first-ever car (well, mine didn't have the giant Santa hat or xmas trees or anything else for that matter...)