Job Discussion Forums

[seanie]

Not to worry, Scott. There are loads of places in just about every city. If you avoid airports, posh neighbourhoods, or touristy places, you can expect to pay between 10 and 15 pesos an hour. If you're truly broke, and you just need to check your messages quickly, there's free Internet at Telmex offices.

[MELEE]

[Punter]

[Olivia]

Thanks everyone for your great responses!

They were very informative.

But will my laptop really be stolen????????????????

I'm going to be living in an apartment/house with iron bars in the windows. I'm planning on bringing it in a backpack that doesn't look like a laptop carrier.

Only one person, and that's the person that is living in my apartment in Monterrey, has told me my laptop won't get stolen and that it is safe to bring it. Other than her, everyone (people from this board) have told me that it will be stolen.

Has everyone gotten their laptop stolen in Mexico? Or are there lucky people who don't have that happen to them?

[MELEE]

I've been a laptop owner in Mexico for the last five years and never had my laptop stolen. First thing to consider is that I live in a small town that has very low crime levels. The second thing to consider is that most of that time the laptop lived in my office. I kept it in a locked drawer, in my locked office, in a locked building on a realitivly small fenced-in campus patrolled by guards.

But in any situation there are a few tips to help keep your laptop safe.

1) Don't carry it around in one of those black look-everyone-I-have-a-laptop bags. Get a laptop backpack or other non-descript looking bag to carry it in.

2) Get dark cutains, and try not to use the laptop in sight of the windows. The fewer people who know you have it the better.

3) Treat is with upmost care and respect, so that people who do know you have it see that you value it. If you act like computers are a dime a dozen to you, someone will be more likely to think--I need this a heck of a lot more than they do--and steal it from you.

4) USE A VOLTAGE REGULATOR--not a serge protector--a regulator, okay that one's not related to crime, but you need to keep it safe from dodgy wiring as well.

[Olivia]

Melee --- thank you!

[ls650]

[Ben Round de Bloc]

I have a PC with Internet connection in my home. It's a luxury I wouldn't want to give up. Much of the work I am required to do for my job must be done on a computer (exam writing and revising, materials development, etc.) We have to turn in floppy disks and backup disks with exams and materials on them. With my teaching schedule and very few computers for too many people to use at school, it would be extremely difficult for me to depend solely on school computers. They are available at limited times due to the number of teachers and students wanting to use them at the same time as well as the enforced security policies. I can't get to a school computer whenever I want, 24/7, because either the campus gates are locked and/or the rooms are locked where the computers are kept during much of my "free time." There are Internet cafes in many parts of the city -- lots of them downtown -- but none within miles of my neighborhood. The few times when my computer has been on the blink, it has been a real hassle trying to keep up with the computer-produced things I'm required to do as part of my job. Although the university provides computers for each administrator's office, such is not the case for its teachers. I don't have an office, cubicle, desk, storage space, or computer at school.

[saraswati]

[magpie]

[scott wilhelm]

I would like to thank all of you who responded to my inquiry about cell phone and internet service. Unless I get a job that requires me to have my own computer, I think I will just use the ones in the internet cafes. Glad to hear there are still a lot of them in Mexico and that they are still cheap.
I'll make sure that I get a cell phone that works well all over the area I'm living in (as well as cell phones can work anyway). I would like to have one that works well not just in the town I'm living in but also out in the countryside. I found out in the Missouri Ozarks on Christmas night just how helpful they can be if your car breaks down. I used to have a bad attitude about cell phones but after having one for a couple of years here in St. Louis, I've come to see how beneficial they can be, not just for ones self but if you happen to see an accident or non-working traffic controls, etc. It has proven especially helpful for Berlitz to reach me quickly in case there is a last minute change in my teaching schedule. The reception is not always great. But usually, it is good enough.
Thanks again for all the info.

[amelie]

Is anyone aware of a cell phone campany that allows free local calls between members of the same family? Also, are there any good companies for high-speed or cable internet connections?

Thanks for your guidance

[MELEE]

amelie,

IUSACEL has a plan where you can make a circle of up to five IUSACEL phones and get free calls between them---not just locally, but nationally. However, (there is always a however ) this is a monthly fee plan (rather than a prepay plan) and its not really cheap. Depending on how much you are going to call and for how long you talk, it may well be cheaper to go with the prepay Amigo plan from TELCEL which allows you to register five local TELCEL numbers to call for 1 peso a minute if your calls are mostly going to be like, "Could you pick up some bread on the way home?"

[moonraven]

Magpie: Very sweet and polite and ooooh so friendly to call me a bitter OLD crone--you couldn't miss getting in your age prejudice, could you? I am entitled to give my opinions on this forum the same as the rest of you--and I am not unconscious enough to demand polite behavior from someone in the same moment as I am insulting him or her. And, although it's absolutely none of your business, one of the reasons I work in the university system where I work is because not only do they support my research and my writing, but they manage to give me some paid leave time to do research out of the country and provide a forum for me to present my work.

I think you know what you can do with that rasp you mentioned....

[ls650]