being un-wired

I am unwired at home now...
a long time wish to have a wireless connection for my laptop at home finally bore fruit today.

while the technology was available, it was not challenging enough to just take a solution out of the box - or as provided by bsnl - and use it.

i wanted to do it at zero or minimal cost - which was the catch.

a router received as a gift helped achieve that goal.

getting the settings right on the ADSL router connected to BSNL, this wireless router and also on the laptop - seemed to defy logic, as the most reasonable combinations did not work.

having misplaced the CD [documentation], i decided to use the online documents and started following the instructions step-by-step.
after four attempts and a couple of hours - which required multiple reboots of the system, i could just not get anything to work.

as i was about to give up, my son found the CD and the installation program gave me a different set of instructions - which took just about 10 minutes and the router was all set to work in the wired mode.

wireless was still a challenge.

after generous guidance from a friend - and some trial and error - mail started working a short while ago.

net access was still a problem.

then decided to use the old-fashioned approach of mimicking other settings that worked.

manual configuration and overrides on the router + laptop finally got me connected..

now i am free to move around home and also relocate the base stations .. while being connected.

i am sure that this will evoke some [strong] comments and responses from others at home.
will keep you posted of any interesting developments..

inflection age - some other views

Got this from a friend - in one of the groups lists.
thought this explained my earlier post a little clearer..
==


George Carlin's Views on Aging

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions. "How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key.
You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead. "How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16!

And then the greatest day of your life . . you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony .
YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed? You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.But wait!!!

You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would! So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday! You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime.

And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!" May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG
1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay "them."
2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.
4. Enjoy the simple things.
5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.
7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.
10. Tell the people you love that you love them , at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER :
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

among academics

i had an opportunity to be immersed among academics at the recent IEEE international conference on requirements engineering.
after IISc, this was my experience of being among so many intellectuals in a serious conference.
i was a ppanelist [on two different panels]; the first was about the RE practices in specific niches [i had chosen the systems engineering space] and another on the impact on new trends in software engineering and services on Requirments Engineering.

it was a good experience to interact with the other panelists as well as the audience.

as a summary of my thoughts, i mentioned that the first expectation as a practitioner from the researchers was to help 'make the obvious explicit' in a simple manner.
this evoked a couple of questions and a brief discussion.
whether more documentation will make it explicit. my response was not to rely on written documentation, but identify ways of capturing and sharing the context [domain, business etc] and conveying it effectively.
with multi media and unstructured ways of generating knowledge in groups, through interactions, we need ways to capture and later aggregate, just in time..

..
re an earlier post on the answer being in the question:
one day, the party chief in Russia asked as peasant how the potato crop that year was.
Peasant: we have so many potatoes that, if they are all piled up, would reach the feet of God.
Chief: but there is no God!
Peasant: there are no potatoes, either!

technology everywhere

just got back from a literal whirlwind trip.
it was my first trip to the US after almost one year.
while i have heard of many developments, it was surely a good first hand expereince.
start with the delhi-newark non-stop flight.
duration wise, shorter than the SFO-SIN i had flown once, but it was very convenient as i could leave here sunday afternoon and reach work monday morning!
the entertainment system on continental on the way out was very good - with VoD, the selection was very vast.

if the summaries of the shows / movies were also available with some critiques, it would have been easier to choose.

the technology @ the airports is still the same - and the security lines, as long.

the technology at teh hotel was all pervasive.
no money, no service - was their motto.
whether it was the wi-fi internet access from the rooms or using the LCD panel tv in the conference room - everything was centrally controlled and unless paid for or guaranteed by a credit card, one cannot use the facilities.

the best 'adoption' of tehcnology was when we were entering the customer's office - for a meeting with an officer who was based in a different building and the guard could not get through.
we could not reach his mobile.
as we wondered hiw to get in, the guard asked "do you have an email from him on your blackberry? you can show me that!"

that was the first acceptance of blackberry as a positive confirmation document that i came across!

is there an 'inflection age'?

i wonder if there are different ages of inflection when our outlook, priorities and preferences change. what could be the triggers or the turning points:

? from wanting to appear / behave like someone older -> wanting to appear / behave like someone younger?
? from wanting to eat out -> eat home burnt food!
? from wanting to keep writing -> wanting to keep reading
? from wanting to see places during travel -> wanting to meet more people during travel
? from wanting to spend money [go shopping] -> wanting to make money

and so on...