Why Must the World Stop in December??

As I age, I notice more and more the cycles of business. Not the economic cycles as reported by the various news outlets, but the holiday cycles. Work slows to a crawl, proposals needed and projects in process get milestones pushed, phonecalls/emails not returned, and getting things done with resources outside of my direct control become increasingly difficult. I certainly don't remember it being this way or this bad when I started working some thirty (ugh!) years ago. Perhaps because I was a peon then (some might argue that I still am), others were still getting stuff done.

It appears to be generally accepted that the business holiday season starts the Friday before Thanksgiving, and ends the Monday after New Years. 6+ weeks. What is everyone doing? Cyber Monday (or by the volume of packages in our mailroom) Cyber Monday-Friday, planning vacations, or using otherwise forfeited vacation days. Holiday Parties - not so much anymore. But after summer being over, and spending fall budgeting/planning for the new year, the business world (retailers excluded) take a collective breather. I use it to re-charge a bit, clear the current year out of my brain, and start thinking about what to accomplish in the new year.

Now some might say that this work slowdown also exists the week before Labor Day, Fridays in the summer, or from the Fourth of July until Labor Day. That equates to "real work" from January through June, and Sept to Mid November. 8½ Months. No wonder things are the way they are...

What works, what doesn't.....

At any given point in time, something in my life is not functioning as designed.

It could be something with my electronics, my car, my body, etc. Fortunately not the latter these days.

Usually, a software upgrade will fix (again, except for the latter). Items 3. and 4. from my Oct. 20 post did just that - a software upgrade fixed the problem.

But right now, another software upgrade has killed the PS3. Which means no DVDs or games (the latter has had a profound positive effect on junior's grades). The latest software upgrade "bricked" it (I am fascinated the clever jargon that's created these days).

And something called a tuning adapter has caused issues with the TiVo. Nothing major, but an annoyance nonetheless.

Hopefully the good folks at Cablevision can push a software upgrade to fix this.

Powerline Networking - A Real Alternative to Wireless

Unless your home was built in the last five years, and/or you spent to have CAT5/6 wiring in every room, you probably know about wireless networking. I think I mentioned that we have 8 wireless devices in the house. Some of them are pretty well landlocked. Linksys, D-Link, Netgear all make various forms of wireless routers and adapters. Sorry, but at one time or another, they all suck. At one time or another, a device, whether it be a laptop, PS3, the kids PC in the basement, the TiVo, will not be able to connect. At my house. At my neighbors' houses. Especially at the houses of the senior execs I work with. And only on Saturday mornings.

After years of suffering with this, I read a recent article about powerline networking, which uses home electrical wiring to carry the internet/network traffic. The recent 2.0 standard is supposedly faster, and more secure. Simply, you run a network cable from your cable modem or router to one of these boxes (about the size of a pack of Marlboros), and plug it into the wall. Take the other box(es) and plug them into the wall by the remote equipment and run another network cable from this box into the laptop, XBox, etc.

I tried a unit from Belkin (click here for more info), and it put the wireless to shame. Rock solid connection, and speed was 2-3 times faster than wireless. It's really great for the high bandwidth applications like video, and game consoles - and when both are near each other, this model is extremely useful with three inputs.

First Game of the World Series - Challenges for a Met Fan

I've been Met Fan for my entire baseball life. Perhaps it was because from the time I was 14, I could take the LIRR (that's the Long Island Rail Road) to Shea Stadium with my friends. Or because my Uncle Julie was pissed that the Giants left for Cally, and the Mets were the next best thing. In those days the cost of a trip to the ballpark didn't rival the GNP of some Third World countries.

As a Met fan, I haven't been a Yankee fan. Especially after Clements beaned Piazza. At that time, the only team hated more were the Braves - perennial NL East contenders. With Chipper and John (I don't do subways) Rocker, they were despised. Now with the Phillies and the Yankees, what's a Met fan to do?

I've decided that the Phils are the new Braves - with Jimmy (not the Greek) Rollins, and his big mouth; and Shane Victorino, who looks like the Steve Buscemi character from the Sopranos. And I don't hate the Yankees any more. Jeter, Posada and Mo are players to be admired - it's not these Yankees I dislike, it's their obnoxious fans with their "Got Rings" T-Shirts.

So let's go Yankees, plus with Fox covering instead of YES, I won't have to hear about A-Bombs from A-Rod or "The Yankees Win, ttttthhhhhheee Yankees Win".

Windows 7 Launch

Today is the official launch of Windows 7. I've been using it since May, and if you have a Vista computer, an upgrade is a must. My boot time from power up to loading a web page went from seven minutes to under two. And I firmly believe that junking Norton and McAfee Anti-Virus/Spam/etc. in favor of Avast and malwarebytes also helped.

Why does software f#ck everything up?

I ended yesterday's post with this erudite statement.

Little did I know that this very fact would rear its ugly head tonight. I put a DVD in the drive on my PC tonight and nothing happened. The light on the drive lit for a few seconds and went out. The PC 'saw' the drive on boot up. But no disc - DVD Vid, data, CD Redbook would read. Checked the connections. Thought I had a dead drive, and was plotting a stop at Best Buy to pick up a replacement.

Then, old habits kicked in. Took a peek at Device Manager, and something was a foot. Yellow '!' for the DVD, and my two memory sticks. All had the same error. Bad or corrupt driver. I cut and pasted the error into my trusty google toolbar and viola the solution. What happened?? Don't know - I really use the DVD rarely, except to install software. Is tooling around in the Registry for the faint of heart - no. But thanks to the world of information on the internet, I was spared the expense of a new drive, and a phonecall to some support line.

One of my all-time Favorite Things...

I've had a TiVo for eight years. Actually I've had two. I can watch a 30 minute sitcom in 19 minutes. The current one is an HD model and kicks the snot out of Cablevision's HD-DVR. Why?

1. I can 30 second skip through commercials.
2. I can watch in slow motion, just like NFL refs.
3. I can stream my iTunes collection from a PC in my home office over the home theather equipment in our den (No I don't have a 'Home Theater' - the kind with big leather chairs with cup holders).
4. I can view my thousands of digital pics from my PC on the TV. Great for showing the in-laws pictures of the kids (they don't do Facebook).
5. I can stream movies from Amazon, Netflix and Blockbuster, and watch YouTube.
6. I can transfer stuff directly to my iPod.
7. I can (but probably never will) order Domino's through it.

And when it breaks, I can put a new software image on a fresh drive and I'm almost good as new.

Actually, I can't do 3. and 4. above. TiVo software doesn't work properly with Windows7. I've been waiting for an update for six months.

Which leads me to a topic for another day... Why does software f#ck everything up???