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posted by Joe S. at 3/29/2007 07:07:00 PM 9 Comments
posted by Joe S. at 3/29/2007 06:11:00 PM 0 Comments
posted by Joe S. at 3/28/2007 05:25:00 PM 0 Comments
posted by Joe S. at 3/28/2007 05:06:00 PM 0 Comments
posted by Joe S. at 3/10/2007 07:28:00 PM 0 Comments
posted by Joe S. at 3/10/2007 05:06:00 PM 0 Comments
posted by Joe S. at 3/08/2007 07:58:00 PM 0 Comments
posted by Joe S. at 3/07/2007 08:46:00 PM 0 Comments
2 years ago I bought what was then a state of the art computer from a local computer store... within 2 days of having the machine installed in our home starnge and bizarre things started happening.The room where the computer was installed was always cold...easy 10 to 15 degree's colder than the rest of the house, at first i thought there was a draft in the room, but we moved the computer into our 'living' room.. within 3 days the temperature drop started happening in there. The computer was then put back into its original location. As a computer freak i started buying add-ons, you know scanner printer and such like, but whenever we tried using them, they refused point blank to work, computer programs would vanish (i dont mean data crashes) pictures would alter themselves internet connection wouldn't work, phone line started going nuts (at this point the home telephone would be back to normal as soon as the computer was unplugged from the phone socket), at first i thought that the machine was faulty. Engineers came and looked at it, and everything was fine with it.My little sister refused to go anywhere near the machine and 7 year old kids love computers! Worse was to come... the lights in the computer room would start turning themselves off and on... strange smells started to appear I couldn't smell these but my mom could. Strange text was appearing on the screen, some was gobbledygook some were things like "leave me alone". stains were starting to appear on the machines casing. It was truly freaky, but the last thing that prompted us to get rid of the machine was a scary experience.We started seeing shadows always by the machine and getting feelings of nervousness, the family dog refused point blank to enter the room, and worse of all the smell of burning. So we decided to let my elder brother borrow the thing.. the room temperature returned to normal and all the feelings had gone. He has never had anything happen to him regarding the machine and he knew what was going on even before he borrowed it, maybe the machine or whatever 'lives' inside it preferred him to us.
posted by Joe S. at 3/07/2007 08:04:00 PM 0 Comments
posted by Joe S. at 3/07/2007 07:04:00 PM 0 Comments
posted by Joe S. at 3/07/2007 05:54:00 PM 0 Comments
posted by Joe S. at 3/06/2007 09:21:00 PM 0 Comments
What Starbucks Can Learn From the Movie Palace By RANDALL STROSS WI-FI service is quickly becoming the air-conditioning of the Internet age, enticing customers into restaurants and other public spaces in the same way that cold “advertising air” deliberately blasted out the open doors of air-conditioned theaters in the early 20th century to help sell tickets. Today, hotspots are the new cold spots. Starbucks became the most visible Wi-Fi-equipped national chain when it began offering the service in 2002. Now, at more than 5,100 stores, Starbucks offers Internet access “from the comfort of your favorite cozy chair.” Before you pop open your laptop, however, you need to pull out your credit card. Starbucks and its partner, T-Mobile, charge $6 an hour for the “pay as you go” plan. Day passes or monthly subscriptions are available but can be used only at Starbucks stores and other T-Mobile partners like Borders bookstores. McDonald’s offers Wi-Fi in more than 8,000 of its 13,700 stores in the United States, giving it wider reach than even Starbucks, and it also charges for access. McDonald’s doesn’t charge as much: it asks $2.95 for two hours. You can’t apply your T-Mobile subscription there, however, because McDonald’s works with other partners. Metering and charging for a service, of course, is the prerogative of any business owner in a free market. One will always find entrepreneurs willing to try new ways to profit by erecting tollbooths in front of facilities that had been freely accessible. In the past, this took the form of coin-operated locks on bathroom stalls. (You may have first encountered these at a moment when you were least ready to praise the inventor’s ingenuity.) Today, the outer frontier of pricing innovation can be found at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, where some electrical outlets are accompanied by a small sign: “To Activate Pay $2 at Kiosk.” This is an experimental service, “Power Up My Portable,” which provides chairs and outlets for laptops; $2 buys 20 minutes of juice. But what about the many other wall outlets scattered around the terminals and originally installed for vacuum cleaners? Zenola Campbell, the airport vice president who oversees concessions, demurred last week when asked whether travelers could always count on having free access to those outlets. “I can’t tell you where we’re going to be in the future,” she said. When Starbucks and McDonald’s decided to exact a toll from their customers as they set up their in-store Wi-Fi networks, they created a confusion of conflicting signals: how welcome can one feel when staring at a meter that is running? The restaurants’ predecessors, the movie theater owners of almost a century ago, understood that not every amenity, every service, every offering must have a separate price tag attached. The owners and the architects sought to give theatergoers an environment that was pleasing in all aspects. Marcus Loew, the head of a nationwide chain, once said, “We sell tickets to theaters, not movies.” Panera Bread, which has more than 900 Wi-Fi-equipped sandwich and bakery stores, has set itself apart from its contemporaries by upholding the old-fashioned spirit of those bygone theater owners who never stinted in their efforts to make public space inviting. The grand movie palaces did not have to show the revenue-enhancing potential of an ornamental gold cornice or plaster pilaster. So, too, at Panera Bread, where its fireplaces do not have to demonstrate a monetary payback to justify their place in the stores. Neither does Wi-Fi. Neil Yanofsky, Panera’s president, said that no cost accounting had been done on its service, which is free. The rationale relates to ambience: “We want our customers to stay and linger.” A Panera cafe does half of its business at lunchtime — there is little lingering then. But before and after the lunch rush, the restaurant addresses what it refers to internally as “the chill-out business,” which constitutes a not-insignificant 15 to 20 percent of its rev enue. Panera has no interest in rushing these customers out — the longer they stay, the greater the likelihood that resistance to the aroma of freshly baked muffins will crumble. Free, unmetered Wi-Fi is one way the restaurant sends an unambiguous signal: Stay as long as you like. Of course, Mr. Yanofsky is the first to point out that he is in a position to be much more welcoming than the competition across the street at Starbucks. The average Panera store has 120 seats and does about two and a half times as much business as the average Starbucks store. Mr. Yanofsky said he could not see why Starbucks, given its more limited seating, would drop access charges so that it could match Panera’s Wi-Fi offering. “Why make it free?” he said. “They’re already full.” Each Panera cafe averages 220 connect hours a week; Starbucks and McDonald’s declined to provide similar information about the use of their services. In the 1920s, when air-conditioning began to be installed in movie theaters, owners had to spend a sizable sum — $50,000 (roughly equivalent to $570,000 today) — to transform the property into a “cold spot.” But it was worth it. Before the “refrigeratory process” came along, theaters could not draw customers during the summer because of the unbearable heat in confined space. With air-conditioning, patronage increased so sharply that even the largest investments were quickly repaid. Wi-Fi does not address a similar problem of seasonal attendance. Nor will it produce a multifold increase in patronage. But, then again, it’s not nearly as costly to introduce as the cooling plants of the 1920s. The access charges assessed at Starbucks and McDonald’s suggest that behind the scenes, their service providers have had to make huge infrastructure investments and carry burdensome operational costs. But if the stores already have business-class broadband connections for their own operations, the addition of a Wi-Fi access point is trivial. Schlotzsky’s Deli, w hich offers free Wi-Fi in 82 of its restaurants, uses Internet connections that were already in place, just as Panera Bread did. And Val King, Schlotzsky’s director of information technology, said the technical demands of remotely overseeing a wireless network were minimal. “It doesn’t take rocket science to run these things,” he said. Customers need feel no shame, however, if they need help configuring their laptops, and sandwich makers and baristas are not necessarily the ones who can solve their technical problems quickly. A Starbucks spokeswoman, Sonja Gould, explained that her company’s Wi-Fi customers receive, in exchange for their access fees, “excellent customer service help from T-Mobile.” It should be added that businesses offering free Wi-Fi also contract with tech-support companies to help customers. One such company, HotPoint Wireless, says its network now handles five times as many sessions originating from businesses offering free access as those that charge fees. Getting connected is one thing, but keeping one’s e-mail private is another. Wi-Fi signals, by their nature, are notoriously susceptible to electronic eavesdropping. Wi-Fi services you pay for are no better protected than free services. As T-Mobile informs customers on its support Web page, all wireless service is “inherently insecure.” Its recommendation should be heeded by users of Wi-Fi hotspots everywhere: use a virtual private network, which provides secure industrial-strength encryption. If your employer does not provide a V.P.N. server, consider using a commercial service, like JiWire, which charges $30 a year for a V.P.N., personal firewall and other services, including a hotspot directory that can be used offline. STARBUCKS, which has rolled out a plenitude of stores, follows the same design concept that is behind the modern multiplex: for interior space, small is beautiful. It’s unfortunate that the grand architecture of early movie theaters no longer exists to put today’s microscale retail architecture to shame. Gail Cooper, a professor of history at Lehigh University who has written about the introduction of air-conditioning, said: “In the movie palaces, one-third of the space was devoted to the lobby so people could come and ‘promenade’ — today we would say ‘hang out.’ Welcome was built into the space, and air-conditioning was one part.” The movie palaces are long gone, and so, too, is the novelty of air-conditioning. We now step into public space less to be chilled than to chill. The palace’s spiritual successor is the cafe that sends out a welcoming blast of free, unlimited Wi-Fi.
WI-FI service is quickly becoming the air-conditioning of the Internet age, enticing customers into restaurants and other public spaces in the same way that cold “advertising air” deliberately blasted out the open doors of air-conditioned theaters in the early 20th century to help sell tickets.
Today, hotspots are the new cold spots.
Starbucks became the most visible Wi-Fi-equipped national chain when it began offering the service in 2002. Now, at more than 5,100 stores, Starbucks offers Internet access “from the comfort of your favorite cozy chair.”
Before you pop open your laptop, however, you need to pull out your credit card. Starbucks and its partner, T-Mobile, charge $6 an hour for the “pay as you go” plan. Day passes or monthly subscriptions are available but can be used only at Starbucks stores and other T-Mobile partners like Borders bookstores.
McDonald’s offers Wi-Fi in more than 8,000 of its 13,700 stores in the United States, giving it wider reach than even Starbucks, and it also charges for access. McDonald’s doesn’t charge as much: it asks $2.95 for two hours. You can’t apply your T-Mobile subscription there, however, because McDonald’s works with other partners.
Metering and charging for a service, of course, is the prerogative of any business owner in a free market. One will always find entrepreneurs willing to try new ways to profit by erecting tollbooths in front of facilities that had been freely accessible.
In the past, this took the form of coin-operated locks on bathroom stalls. (You may have first encountered these at a moment when you were least ready to praise the inventor’s ingenuity.)
Today, the outer frontier of pricing innovation can be found at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, where some electrical outlets are accompanied by a small sign: “To Activate Pay $2 at Kiosk.” This is an experimental service, “Power Up My Portable,” which provides chairs and outlets for laptops; $2 buys 20 minutes of juice.
But what about the many other wall outlets scattered around the terminals and originally installed for vacuum cleaners? Zenola Campbell, the airport vice president who oversees concessions, demurred last week when asked whether travelers could always count on having free access to those outlets. “I can’t tell you where we’re going to be in the future,” she said.
When Starbucks and McDonald’s decided to exact a toll from their customers as they set up their in-store Wi-Fi networks, they created a confusion of conflicting signals: how welcome can one feel when staring at a meter that is running?
The restaurants’ predecessors, the movie theater owners of almost a century ago, understood that not every amenity, every service, every offering must have a separate price tag attached. The owners and the architects sought to give theatergoers an environment that was pleasing in all aspects. Marcus Loew, the head of a nationwide chain, once said, “We sell tickets to theaters, not movies.”
Panera Bread, which has more than 900 Wi-Fi-equipped sandwich and bakery stores, has set itself apart from its contemporaries by upholding the old-fashioned spirit of those bygone theater owners who never stinted in their efforts to make public space inviting.
The grand movie palaces did not have to show the revenue-enhancing potential of an ornamental gold cornice or plaster pilaster. So, too, at Panera Bread, where its fireplaces do not have to demonstrate a monetary payback to justify their place in the stores.
Neither does Wi-Fi. Neil Yanofsky, Panera’s president, said that no cost accounting had been done on its service, which is free. The rationale relates to ambience: “We want our customers to stay and linger.”
A Panera cafe does half of its business at lunchtime — there is little lingering then. But before and after the lunch rush, the restaurant addresses what it refers to internally as “the chill-out business,” which constitutes a not-insignificant 15 to 20 percent of its rev enue.
Panera has no interest in rushing these customers out — the longer they stay, the greater the likelihood that resistance to the aroma of freshly baked muffins will crumble. Free, unmetered Wi-Fi is one way the restaurant sends an unambiguous signal: Stay as long as you like.
Of course, Mr. Yanofsky is the first to point out that he is in a position to be much more welcoming than the competition across the street at Starbucks. The average Panera store has 120 seats and does about two and a half times as much business as the average Starbucks store.
Mr. Yanofsky said he could not see why Starbucks, given its more limited seating, would drop access charges so that it could match Panera’s Wi-Fi offering. “Why make it free?” he said. “They’re already full.”
Each Panera cafe averages 220 connect hours a week; Starbucks and McDonald’s declined to provide similar information about the use of their services.
In the 1920s, when air-conditioning began to be installed in movie theaters, owners had to spend a sizable sum — $50,000 (roughly equivalent to $570,000 today) — to transform the property into a “cold spot.” But it was worth it. Before the “refrigeratory process” came along, theaters could not draw customers during the summer because of the unbearable heat in confined space. With air-conditioning, patronage increased so sharply that even the largest investments were quickly repaid.
Wi-Fi does not address a similar problem of seasonal attendance. Nor will it produce a multifold increase in patronage. But, then again, it’s not nearly as costly to introduce as the cooling plants of the 1920s.
The access charges assessed at Starbucks and McDonald’s suggest that behind the scenes, their service providers have had to make huge infrastructure investments and carry burdensome operational costs. But if the stores already have business-class broadband connections for their own operations, the addition of a Wi-Fi access point is trivial.
Schlotzsky’s Deli, w hich offers free Wi-Fi in 82 of its restaurants, uses Internet connections that were already in place, just as Panera Bread did. And Val King, Schlotzsky’s director of information technology, said the technical demands of remotely overseeing a wireless network were minimal. “It doesn’t take rocket science to run these things,” he said.
Customers need feel no shame, however, if they need help configuring their laptops, and sandwich makers and baristas are not necessarily the ones who can solve their technical problems quickly.
A Starbucks spokeswoman, Sonja Gould, explained that her company’s Wi-Fi customers receive, in exchange for their access fees, “excellent customer service help from T-Mobile.” It should be added that businesses offering free Wi-Fi also contract with tech-support companies to help customers. One such company, HotPoint Wireless, says its network now handles five times as many sessions originating from businesses offering free access as those that charge fees.
Getting connected is one thing, but keeping one’s e-mail private is another. Wi-Fi signals, by their nature, are notoriously susceptible to electronic eavesdropping. Wi-Fi services you pay for are no better protected than free services. As T-Mobile informs customers on its support Web page, all wireless service is “inherently insecure.”
Its recommendation should be heeded by users of Wi-Fi hotspots everywhere: use a virtual private network, which provides secure industrial-strength encryption. If your employer does not provide a V.P.N. server, consider using a commercial service, like JiWire, which charges $30 a year for a V.P.N., personal firewall and other services, including a hotspot directory that can be used offline.
STARBUCKS, which has rolled out a plenitude of stores, follows the same design concept that is behind the modern multiplex: for interior space, small is beautiful. It’s unfortunate that the grand architecture of early movie theaters no longer exists to put today’s microscale retail architecture to shame.
Gail Cooper, a professor of history at Lehigh University who has written about the introduction of air-conditioning, said: “In the movie palaces, one-third of the space was devoted to the lobby so people could come and ‘promenade’ — today we would say ‘hang out.’ Welcome was built into the space, and air-conditioning was one part.”
The movie palaces are long gone, and so, too, is the novelty of air-conditioning. We now step into public space less to be chilled than to chill. The palace’s spiritual successor is the cafe that sends out a welcoming blast of free, unlimited Wi-Fi.
posted by Joe S. at 3/06/2007 09:00:00 PM 0 Comments
posted by Joe S. at 3/06/2007 08:32:00 PM 0 Comments
From the Catecheses by Saint John Chrysostom, bishopChrist and MosesThe Israelites witnessed marvels; you also will witness marvels, greater and more splendid than those which accompanied them on their departure from Egypt. You did not see Pharaoh drowned with his armies, but you have seen the devil with his weapons overcome by the waters of baptism. The Israelites passed through the sea; you have passed from death to life. They were delivered from the Egyptians; you have been delivered from the powers of darkness. The Israelites were freed from slavery to a pagan people; you have been freed from the much greater slavery to sin.Do you need another argument to show that the gifts you have received are greater than theirs? The Israelites could not look on the face of Moses in glory, though he was their fellow servant and kinsman. But you have seen the face of Christ in his glory. Paul cried out: We see the glory of the Lord with faces unveiled. In those days Christ was present to the Israelites as he followed them, but he is present to us in a much deeper sense. The Lord was with them because of the favour he showed to Moses; now he is with us not simply because of your obedience. After Egypt they dwelt in desert places; after your departure you will dwell in heaven. Their great leader and commander was Moses; we have a new Moses, God himself, as our leader and commander.What distinguished the first Moses? Moses, Scripture tells us, was more gentle than all who dwelt upon the earth. We can rightly say the same of the new Moses, for there was with him the very Spirit of gentleness, united to him in his inmost being. In those days Moses raised his hands to heaven and brought down manna, the bread of angels; the new Moses raises his hands to heaven and gives us the food of eternal life. Moses struck the rock and brought forth streams of water; Christ touches his table, strikes the spiritual rock of the new covenant and draws forth the living water of the Spirit. This rock is like a fountain in the midst of Christ’s table. so that on all sides the flocks may draw near to this living spring and refresh themselves in the waters of salvation.Since this fountain, this source of life, this table surrounds us with untold blessings and fills us with the gifts of the Spirit, let us approach it with sincerity of heart and purity of conscience to receive grace and mercy in our time of need. Grace and mercy be yours from the only-begotten Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; through him and with him be glory, honour and power to the Father and the life-giving Spirit, now and always and for ever. Amen.
posted by Joe S. at 3/05/2007 08:55:00 PM 0 Comments
From the Mirror of Love by Saint Aelred, abbot Christ, the model of brotherly love The perfection of brotherly love lies in the love of one’s enemies. We can find no greater inspiration for this than grateful remembrance of the wonderful patience of Christ. He who is more fair than all the sons of men offered his fair face to be spat upon by sinful men; he allowed those eyes that rule the universe to be blindfolded by wicked men; he bared his back to the scourges; he submitted that head which strikes terror in principalities and powers to the sharpness of the thorns; he gave himself up to be mocked and reviled, and at the end endured the cross, the nails, the lance, the gall, the vinegar, remaining always gentle, meek and full of peace.In short, he was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before the shearers he kept silent, and did not open his mouth. Who could listen to that wonderful prayer, so full of warmth, of love, of unshakeable serenity – Father, forgive them – and hesitate to embrace his enemies with overflowing love? Father, he says, forgive them. Is any gentleness, any love, lacking in this prayer?Yet he put into it something more. It was not enough to pray for them: he wanted also to make excuses for them. Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. They are great sinners, yes, but they have little judgement; therefore, Father, forgive them. They are nailing me to the cross, but they do not know who it is that they are nailing to the cross: if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory; therefore, Father, forgive them. They think it is a lawbreaker, an impostor claiming to be God, a seducer of the people. I have hidden my face from them, and they do not recognise my glory; therefore, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. If someone wishes to love himself he must not allow himself to be corrupted by indulging his sinful nature. If he wishes to resist the promptings of his sinful nature he must enlarge the whole horizon of his love to contemplate the loving gentleness of the humanity of the Lord. Further, if he wishes to savour the joy of brotherly love with greater perfection and delight, he must extend even to his enemies the embrace of true love.But if he wishes to prevent this fire of divine love from growing cold because of injuries received, let him keep the eyes of his soul always fixed on the serene patience of his beloved Lord and Saviour.
posted by Joe S. at 3/02/2007 05:28:00 AM 0 Comments
posted by Joe S. at 3/01/2007 12:06:00 PM 1 Comments
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