Journal Entries
Thoughts
Posted Jan 9, 2001
It occurs to me. Winter is, for the most part, very cold
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Latest reply: Jan 9, 2001
Modems
Posted Jun 14, 2000
Modem; modulator/demodulaor
These are devices through which most people connect to the internet. They are also the cause of a lot of mental agony, due to the fact that at one point or another they cease to function the way that they were originally designed to. The reasons for this are many. Here are just a few.
1. A change in the physical condition of the phone line itself. This may cause a higher than usual amount of "line noise" which in turn is the pet peeve of any modem.
2. A change in the physical condition of the modem itself.
a. This is usually caused by excessive vibration of the computer i.e.; in transit from one home/room to another or even excessive vibration of the desk/floor were the computer itself rests caused by the tremendous volume at which your teenager enjoys to listen to his/her music.
b. This can also be caused by power surges in the phone line, or power outlet, i.e.; operating the modem during a thunderstorm (surge protectors rarely function the way they were intended to on general principal. I sometimes wonder why anyone would bother to buy one). Also it seems to be the sport of phone/power company service personel to cause these just to see how many modems/computers they can blow out before the surge lessens in strength enough for a surge protector to actually stop it.
3. Modem drivers. These are wonderful pieces of software which are unique to each and every modem irregardless of manufacturer. You never get the proper driver for the modem you purchase when you purchase it. This is done so that you must go to the modem manufacturer's web site, look at how pretty it is and see all the wonderful products the company produces, while you vainly search for the updated driver for the modem you purchased which was supposed to be the "state-of-the-art" in modern technology. Once you have downloaded this wonderful updated driver, which is supposed to make your modem the fastest thing to search the web since Al Gore invented it(and my God, what a laugh that is)you must now make a technical support person at microsoft feel needed by working your way through the touchtone nightmare that is the microsoft customer support network and asking him/her how to install the driver you just downloaded. If this person does not refer you back to the modem manufacturer's touchtone nightmare (in which I feel certain there are people who are lost forever in, endlessly poking 1 or 2 or 3 trying, now in desperation, to find their way back to the flats their, now mindless, bodies are still sitting in)you would be miraculously lucky. More likely the customer will then be instructed to make a technical support person at their ISP (Internet Service Provider)feel needed by asking them why the ISP isn't working properly forcing the, now clinically insane, customer back to where he started from. Because "driver installation is not part of the technical support provided by the ISP and all we can do is refer you to the manufacturer.".
As if I haven't stated enough, still I must continue.
4.Connection software provided by microsoft. This software can, for reason's I doubt whether Bill Gates himself understands, become corrupted with comparative ease. In other words plan on reinstalling this software at least once every six months. This software includes "Dialup Networking" which will suddenly start dialing a completely erroneous set of numbers which will not in any way resemble the number that it is supposed to be dialing. Or it may simply decide that it just doesn't like the DNS #s (Domain Name Server numbers)you have with great mental anguish and much exasperation pryed from the lips of a tortured technical support agent at your ISP. It may decide, instead, that it does not like the modem in you system and simply refuse to acknowledge that it even exists.
Further this software also includes the "Network" software which includes the following components and then some; "Microsoft Family logon" this software has no usefulness that I have been able to discern. "Client For Microsoft Networks" this software seems to work with most ISPs, that is until it decides it doesn't want to anymore. "Microsoft Logon" another that I haven't found a use for. "Dialup adapter" this is necessary to make a connection so of course it often gets corrupted. "AOL adapter" this one is not actually a microsoft thing, it is of course America online's thing which emulates the Microsoft "Dialup Adapter" it works rather well until you don't want AOL anymore, at which point it refuses to go away, and prevents you from hooking up with any other ISP."TCP/IP" this wonderful Internet Protocol is a Telephony protocol that your modem uses to communicate with the ISP the trick is for it to speak the language that the ISP understands, good luck. As stated before there are many others netBEUI,IPX/SPX,VPN, and others bouncing about within the "network". Jugling these into the right configuration is the most trying thing that anyone has ever attempted, and impossible for the novice. Don't bother asking your friendly ISP tech how to do this as most of them haven't a clue.
5. God forbid you are using an I Mac system. There is not a tech in the world who understands how, or why these things work. Only MacIntosh engineers have the slightest clue and they seem to have had their tongues cut out, and their fingers cut off to prevent them from telling us. If you've got one, pray the "Free PPP" works the first time you install the version you have been cursed with. Or simply get Unix, this seems to make your Mac into a Max system which provides you with a highly usable graphics interface and excellent reliability.
6. Linux users, well, if you understand what you've got then there is no trouble in making it work. After all it was designed for the Internet. This holds true until you attempt to use a Winnmodem, or PCI modem, best advise; Keep dreaming.
7. Win, Winn, or PCI modems. The problem with these is simply that they only work under optimal conditions. These modems require a high degree of CPU attention. This is because they have been denied the luxury of an onboard processor of their own. Subsequently they require the computer's CPU to do the work for them, which means if you want to connect to the internet with one you must have; a. a processor capable of paying attention to the modem, i.e. anything over a 300 mhz pentium III will generally connect as long as the only other programs running on the system are the Explorer, and the Systray, everything else must be turned off, including your brain. (as brain function seems to interfere with the modem's ability to communicate with the CPU, also if your brain is functioning you will most likely want to have your mouse driver on, the sound board on, the monitor on, the antivirus program on. Of course when you turn these things on, they take up memory and the IC (internet connection) will fail.)
On the other hand a "hardware" modem has its own onboard processor, so that when they work, they work. When they don't, well, give them a toss as very little can be done in the way of trouble-shooting.
Modems to stay away from.
1. Any Conexant modem.
2. Any Lucent Technologies modem.
3. Rockwell winmodems. (However the older hardware modems still connect very well.)
4. Newer Aztech modems. (these have fewer chips that the older ones. General rule the higher the number i.e. 38xx, 56xx, the fewer the chips, also note that these are really Lucent Technology modems masquerading as a better modem.
5. Any modem that you have never heard of before.
Win/PCI Modems that will work provisionally (through either an act of God, or if your very lucky it will only require an act of Parliment/Congress).
1. USR (U. S. Robotics), these are now known as 3com modems.
2. Cirrus Logic. maybe, though it seems only the fore mentioned act of Parliment will work with these and only if it is read with a French accent.
3. The aging Cardinal modems. I recommend these. They are the afterthought of the original Hayes modems so that all you have to have is a "yeah" out of a congressman to get them to connect at 33.6.
4. If you can get the approval of the "All Mighty" any winmodem that you have heard of(from a source other than me) will connect at least sometimes.
The upshot to all of this?
Well, pray that you can get ADSL, or Cable,or Fiber Optic in your area sometime very soon.
I will not go into detail on ISDN as this is a fluke. The connection is as maybe at best, then you have to pay the phone bill, and the internet bill too. At least that's the way it is here in the U.S. I've not heard how it is back home, or even if it exists there (France).
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Latest reply: Jun 14, 2000
Names??
Posted Apr 9, 2000
It has occured to me, on the subject of names, that people expect that certain character traits will be transmitted to either pet or child by chosing a particular name.
After paying attention to this human oddity for several years before I and my wife were married (No particular reason, just thought that names were interesting, in that, I noticed that characters in literature with a particular name, behaved a good bit like real people I knew with the same name.) I also noticed that people I knew who had the same first names tended to have the same type of character traits. Not that they behaved so much alike, but just vague similarities such as the type of women they liked, or the type of sport they enjoyed. Just things on the fringes of behavior that were too similar to be explained by the concept of mere chance. Feeling that these differences were partly caused by the fact that their last names were different. I studied, I used company computers for designing probability calculators, (The findings of the company computers I cannot tell you. The programs were shut down before they rendered anything usable, and I was reprimanded.) Still there was some evidence for my argument that a persons firnge characteristics are in some ways affected by their names. In the end I decided that the whole thing had been due to some Freudian, or possibly even a Riekian(I don't think I spelled that right) fascination with the fact that I couldn't at the time figure out what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing, and that it had something to do with my name.
D. Morrison
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Latest reply: Apr 9, 2000
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