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Thursday, September 11, 2003

Regrets...
I've had a few.
But then again,
Too few to mention!
--"My Way",
written by Paul Anka
When I hear that song, I think of Frank Sinatra, and sometimes Elvis or Sid Vicious -- all of whom have been known to perform, in their own unique manner, that wonderful song. Wonderful because -- though I don't always enjoy hearing it, I've heard it so much -- the song is a wonderful personal anthem. That's something we all need: a personal anthem. A song that praises our individuality; a mark of devotion to oneself. After all, they say you're going to have a helluva time loving anyone else unless you've first learned to love yourself, right?

This is not to replace your love for your God, or your spouse, or your family. I'm simply saying that we all need to give ourselves a bit more self-love at this time of year. (No, not that type of self-love !) Too many of us beat up on ourselves throughout the year, and then nearly destroy ourselves at year's end. No wonder there are so many suicides during the Holidays; the messages bombarding us are to Buy Buy Buy and to Give Give Give -- but what if you have nothing to give but love? If you have a dearth of that good stuff, then you'll have a bitch of a time spreading it around to your neighbors.

So be good to yourself, whether you're Christian, Pagan, Wiccan, Athiest, Hindu, Islamic, Mormon, Podcastin, or otherwise. Don't take the pills, they won't do you or anyone else any good; you'll simply miss out on the Next Big Thing (which may turn out to be Your Next Big Thing). Just do things your own way, singing that little hymn as you do so:
For what is a man,
What has he got?
If not himself,
Then he has naught.
To say the things,
He truly feels,
And not the words,
Of one who kneels.
The record shows,
I took the blows
And did it my way!

Friday, April 27, 2007

One thing about working from a public WiFi hotspot: You never know what (performance) you're going to get. I signed up for AT&T's WiFi service at a local Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf location yesterday and let me tell you, between the time it's takes for me to finally connect and the moment I really get going -- you know, checking my email, firing up my Instant Messenger apps, surfing the web & stuff -- by the time I'm able to get past AT&T's login screens and on to the real Internet, I'm ready for a second cup of coffee and a cigarette. (And I'm not a smoker, so that should tell you something.)



Hopefully I haven't lost you yet; I'm posting about this particular geekery today because it is what is foremost on my mind at the moment (besides my inability to be generally satisfied with life, the universe, and everything -- but that's another matter and we'll reserve it for a future post). The problem, if you haven't figured it out yet, is with AT&T's WiFi service is the login screen -- the entire login process, really. Truth be told, I use a rather old PowerBook, and my web surfing takes a bit more time using this machine than your typical recent laptop or MacBook. But still -- the length of time it takes to get through an AT&T WiFi connection is ridiculous. It shouldn't take 30 minutes to get logged in and on to a real website! In comparison, it only took 3 minutes to boot and log into an IM client, open my Gmail and open up a website using my mobile phone's Internet service! Yet truly, that's how long it took -- 30 minutes or so -- using AT&T WiFi this morning.



This isn't my typical experience with public WiFi. Using T-Mobile's WiFi at Starbuck's, it usually takes me no longer than 20 minutes to get up and running. (I jest; it usually takes about 5 to 10 minutes -- but a great deal of that time is spent booting up my old PowerBook, a 3-boot/step process I will spare you the details of.) T-Mobile's login process feels like a Porsche in comparison to the 1972 Volkswagen Beetle of AT&T's login screens. It seems that T-Mobile simply has a lighter interface; perhaps it's using a great deal less AJAX-inspired communication between its servers than AT&T. (Okay, if I haven't lost you yet, now I've really lost you.) It is my (Not So) Humble Opinion that AT&T WiFi would serve its customers well by putting its login screen(s) on a diet, leaning up the size of its data transmissions (or something). That way I can get to the information I want, as quickly as possible, without having to check my watch my daily dose of video podcasts using my phone.

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posted by Harold  4/27/2007 12:50:00 PM
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I once posted, in this space (this right column), the following:

If I had friends they would be listed here

That particular bit o' text, that silly and idiotic phrase, was repeated a dozen or two dozen or so times and was intended to be temporary. I had been working on a project -- a new layout for this blog -- and had intended for that text to be placeholder content. That is, the text was supposed to temporarily replace the content that had previously occupied this column (which was a list of links to friends -- that is, other blogs and web sites I linked to). I didn't know what content I was going to place into that (this) space, so I placed a bunch of duplicate phrases here as a placeholder so that I would remember to fill in this space again later.

At the same time, I thought I was being cute with the heading:

NEW & IMPROVED FRIENDS!

The fact remains: I still don't know what content to put here, in this column. Links again? Pictures? Video? Audio? Ads? Oh, hell no! It hasn't come to me yet, but I'm sure it will eventually, and when it does it'll come quick and (as usual) with consequences.