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A Face Only a Mother Could Love
We’re thinking of physically reconfiguring our network equipment here at the house. Currently, the DSL modem and router are upstairs in my office — at the far end of the house — where they’ve been since we moved here ten years ago. Since then, things have changed: The Missus no longer has a desktop computer. [...]
Net-Blind
Fun situation: a crash-bang-thumper of a thunderstorm blew through our neighborhood the other night. No animate casualties, gratifyingly. But among the inanimate ones: The Missus’s computer. our network router the base station of our cordless phone set our phone service, briefly, and either our DSL modem… or my computer’s network card… or both. Not a [...]
Rigged — Involuntarily — for Silent Running
Grrrrr. …Grrrrr… …oh, and in case I haven’t said recently: Grrrr. As a good number of you already know, ’cause I’ve already told you: I cannot comment on your blogs during the work day. (I’ll detail some technical reasons for this at the end.) This post is to let you know that during those eight-ish [...]
Remotely Running After My Hat
[Image of 18th-century dowser from Wikipedia... Wonder if it's sized to fit?] I’m going to be computerless much of this week. Which presents me with a convenient dilemma — to wit, how to do a whiskey river Friday post? You may be thinking: How, exactly, will this be “convenient”? Sounds rather like a pain, in [...]
Uncomfortable Numbers
From whiskey river: A Word on Statistics Out of every hundred people, those who always know better: fifty-two. Unsure of every step: almost all the rest. Ready to help, if it doesn’t take long: forty-nine. Always good, because they cannot be otherwise: four — well, maybe five. Able to admire without envy: eighteen. Led to [...]
Voice Tech Follies
I’m really not a fan of the telephone: give me good-old when-I-get-to-it email any day, y’know? (People at work long ago got used to the idea that I intentionally sit with my back to the phone — so I never even have to see the red “voicemail message waiting” light. They all email me, even [...]
Department of Unintended Consequences
(Animals & Technology Division)
The Missus and I are not alone in having a dog who barks rabidly during thunderstorms. But alone or not, we do. She may be little, and her bark may be a mere yip! compared to the more conventional woof! of full-size hounds, but she is determined to scare the storm away. (And you know [...]
Bars on Every Corner
I worked for AT&T, late 1970s through sometime in the early 1990s (depending on where you want to place the marker). And I was a loyal customer, too. When less costly competing services came along, from MCI and Sprint, I never gave them a glance. I never considered buying a phone or answering machine that [...]
