AIRPORT DSL issues: The router v. DSL modem debate continues. I have some people noting that I can use a router with my USB DSL modem, which will get my Airport up and running. Then there's the ethernet school, who have argued that it makes more sense to get an ethernet card for my Dell PC and get an ethernet DSL modem. I'm not sure if I'd still need a DSL router with this option. My new Mac laptop has an Airport extreme wireless card installed and is ready to go even via dial-up on the Airport base station (I got an inbuilt 56k modem, but I'm not sure why. Probably because it will come in useful right now, in the interim period of no wireless DSL!).

Now Apple Ireland has come back to tell me I need a different DSL modem to the one Eircom offers. Sigh. They are now carrying the D-link DSL modem for euro129 thru the Applestore. This has an inbuilt router so I can plug in my Dell as well (though presumably I'll need an ethernet card still for the Dell).

I had lunch with a group of Dell people who also presented a smorgasbord of possible options. And I must say Eircom's i-Stream help guy was also extremely helpful and explained some options to me, too (I think all the best Eircom help people are over on the DSL side!). He wasn't sure of how the Airport would work with the Alcatel DSL modem, though. I can't imagine why it wouldn't work... Anyway feel free to offer perspectives and I hope some of this helps other Apple Airport users. My head hurts from thinking about all of this!!!
7:16:05 PM  #   your two cents []

Well, after speaking to an Arab friend I am none the wiser regarding the format of Saddam Hussein's name. He says "Saddam" is his first name, but most news agencies outside the NY Times seem to use Saddam rather than Hussein as a way of referring to him after first reference. I'd always believed that the name order was reversed -- eg that "Saddam" was a family name and Hussein the given name. The NYTimes (see note below) uses "Mr Hussein", which sounds very odd. My friend isn't sure why general reference tends to be Saddam, not Hussein. Anyone know why?
4:40:35 PM  #   your two cents []

From Boing Boing Blog. Now we realise ABBA was a serious step up in sartorial elegance!! Vintage Swedish rocker photos.  
10:10:49 AM  #   your two cents []

Tech sector hit hard with job cuts. The technology industry has shed 10 percent of its work force over the last two years, a new report shows, and downtrodden dot-commers continue to feel the pain. [CNET News.com]
10:06:16 AM  #   your two cents []

Megnut's well-thought-out essay, On the war. In its thrust it parallels the New York Times editorial and Scott Rosenberg's amazing Salon piece, all essential reading.

Whether a person is a hawk or a dove on the Iraq issue, people need to realise  the Bush administration has been utterly hopeless and inept in creating a coalition abroad, in showing leadership overseas, in working towards consensus. This is the job of the world's most powerful nation. Instead, we have elected representatives making fun of the French and Germans in a puerile way most of us grow out of by age 10, "freedom fries" in the US Congress cafeteria, and the US media defensively leading many Americans to believe the utter garbage that Europeans are on some anti-American crusade. Hey: I live here. There's no mass anti-American sentiment. Not here in Ireland. Nor in Germany or France. Indeed, across Europe what I've seen for the most part is an attempt by people and the media to voice the opposite view (including in key French newspapers like Le Monde and Liberation) -- a disagreement with US policy and how it's been presented, alongside assurances that there's no dislike of Americans per se.

The strong belief in the US that there is -- that this is somehow the root of all opposition --is a sign too of the Bush administration's inability to acknowledge the intelligence of Americans to accept that because people don't like your policies doesn't mean they don't like you and nya nya nya, yu're going to take the ball home and then no one can play. To the outside world, the Bush admin stance comes across like a petulant child feeling sorry for himself because he discovered the other kids  didn't always agree with him.  People may not like the French or the Security Council's position but the Bush admin's job was to lead, negotiate, and gain respect during the two years before it decided it wanted war in the Middle East. Instead, it did nearly everything it could through bungling 'diplomacy' to irritate and alienate countries on every other continent, and continuously disregards and badmouths the UN. With their strong Christian bent, the members of the Bush administration mikght have remembered 'as ye sow, so shall ye reap.' The ground was always potentially fertile, but was not nurtured. It will take years for this to be righted.

Not only will this go-it-alone war in Iraq stir up a hornet's nest for the US in the Middle East, where repurcussions will be felt for decades; the catastrophic undiplomatic lead-up to it has damaged US-European and US-World relations in other frightening ways. In other words, in order to satisfy an obsession with Iraq, the US has both further fueled terrorism and destabilised alliances that it badly needs in the war against same.

(On a trivial sidenote, the NYTimes, one of the key arbiters of proper newspaper writing style, refers throughout its editorial to "Mr Hussein". It's "Mr Saddam" -- as the Iraqi form of presenting a name is to put the family name first and the first name second.)

10:05:31 AM  #   your two cents []

Turner Jabs AOL Time Warner. Though full of criticism and antics, Ted Turner is still not ready for his exit from AOL Time Warner.[New York Times: Technology]
8:59:11 AM  #   your two cents []

Bush, shame and the Dixie Chicks. The arch-conservative country music biz forced Natalie Maines to apologize to the president. But for a moment she was the bravest American entertainer. [Salon.com]
8:57:31 AM  #   your two cents []

Human error causes most security breaches. Study respondents blamed only 8 percent of breaches on strictly technical failures [InfoWorld: Top News]
8:56:41 AM  #   your two cents []