This past week has been frustrating, as my access to the internet has been an on again, off again thing.

Since my ISP has fixed what it could, and I had even been given a new modem and went out and bought a new router, and we still couldn't keep the system up properly, I gave in yesterday and once again called tech support, this time of Linksys, the wireless system that I've been having so much trouble with.

I explained that all the wires leading to the house have been checked, and several times in the last months repaired, by AT&T. That since I also have indoor wire maintenance with AT&T, they had also sent someone out to check all of my indoor wiring (the house is over 50 years old, so heaven knows what he found, but apparently it is adequate and working right). As I said, I have a new modem, just in case that was the problem.

Now, it was down to the fact that if I ran the modem straight into my main computer, that computer would come online, first time, every time. When I added the step of sending the signal through the wireless router, it was hit or miss, and had finally just become miss. This was true in spite of the new router.

The nice tech support guy got it when I explained it that way. Something in my computer was not acting right with the router, and needed to be fixed. There were two ways to do that. He could talk me through it (free, because since I bought the router new the day before yesterday I was obviously still within the warranty and free help by phone period). Or I could pay ten bucks and let him remotely access my computer and fix it. I opted to save both of us tearing out our hair in frustration and let him have the con, so to speak.

I will never know what he did, but whatever it is, he told my computer to behave itself, and it is!

Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law states that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Well, to me it was technological magic, and so now maybe I can write a post without connection outages.

It has inspired me to write a poem, and a bad one at that, but since this is a boring blog, my boring poetry is one of the prices you have to pay to read it!


I have an intense admiration for people who unlike me
Are techies who can turn a computer into a tv
Or who can beam a signal anywhere, without care
While mouth agape, this Luddite does stare.
I call tech support, pay my fee, and then see
Someone remotely programs my Linksys for me.
I watch on the screen, buttons pressed, mouse moving
Which goes, once again, into really proving
That those of us who are barely computer literate
Had best be polite and extremely considerate.
Those techies control parts of my world, you know
If they decide that it is to be so
The next thing I know, they might be able
To see what I'm thinking while I cruise the net on their cable! :)


Today is:

Airborne Operations Day, Netherlands

Birthday of the Sun -- Inca

Eid al Fitr -- Islam, marks the end of Ramadan

Feast of Orlog, Finland, Norway, & Sweden (deity of destiny)

Feast of Zywie, Poland (goddess of longevity)

Gibberish Day

Italian National Feast

National Rum Punch Day

National Women's Friendship Day

St. Eustace's Day (patron of hunters, difficult Madrid situations; against family troubles)


Birthdays Today:

Taro Aso, 1940
Sophia Loren, 1934
Anne Meara, 1929
Dr. Joyce Brothers, 1928
Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, 1890
Upton Sinclair, 1878
Emperor Takakura of Japan, 1161


Today in History:

Atilla the Hun defeated at Chalons-sur-Marne by General Aetius, 451
Saladin begins the siege of Jerusalem, 1187
Maryland passes the first "anti-amalgamation" law to stop English women from marrying black men, 1664
The Negro Convention of Free Men agrees to boycott slave-produced goods, 1830
George Simpson patents an electric range, 1859