It looks like my ADSL wireless router has beaten me up once again ! And big time ! For the last five and a half hours, and for no good reason, I have been knocked out completely off the network. I still have to figure out what actually happened in the end. Not even the customer service representative could figure out what happened. The thing is that for the first time this year my ADSL wireless router decided to die on me for a few hours and reminded me of how vulnerable I really am without a live Internet connection. It felt almost like being naked in a …! Yes, that, indeed !

Anyway, the funny thing is that I am not sure why but when I came back from my daily swim a few minutes ago I actually tried it out again and see if it would connect me and voilá this time around it worked ! Go figure ! That is just one of the things that I really like about technology. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. And it doesn’t ask for a reason, does it?

Well, now that I come to think about it, did my ADSL wireless router decide to play funny on me so that I would learn the lesson on the same day that I was actually planning to take for a spin the new La Fonera that I just purchased a few days ago and which has finally arrived? Yes, indeed, I am really excited about diving some more into La Fonera and check some more further into FON, the ever growing worldwide social (And free) wireless WiFi community. Wooohooo ! Doesn’t that sound really exciting (And inviting?)? Is that the reason why my router didn’t want to play along with it? And all that just after unpacking the box ! Imagine what would happen when I try to install it further. Hummm, food for some further thoughts… and perhaps a future weblog post on the results.

Now, unfortunately, when everything is back up and running, there is the usual catchup of what have actually may have happened while I have been away. So you would have to bear with me as the regular weblogging will resume from tomorrow onwards.And why not right now? Well, because the life part of the work / life balance dichotomy just kicked in and is demanding my attention in full force. And somehow this time around it seems to be winning. So I shall be back tomorrow (With a live Internet connection, I would hope!) …

Tags: Wireless, Router, ADSL, FON, La Fonera, Work - Life Balance

I certainly had lots of things to comment on as part of the highlights from my current trip to the US, yet, today it still feels painful, very painful, despite those five years gone by already. At the time, I was in a conference call with some US colleagues talking about KM stuff when the first plane hit the WTC. We didn’t get to finish the call. In fact, we didn’t talk much afterwards. The rest of the day, pretty much like till today, was just that: painful. And I bet that it will continue to be like that for many more years to come. Yes, time heals open wounds they say, but I doubt I would ever want to close that one, for that matter. Not now, not ever.

In memory of those who died on September 11th 2001 and of all those who have died or suffered in its aftermath, never forget!

Not now, not ever.

Tags: 9/11, 911, September11, WTC, Open Wounds

World

Champions ! ! !

Nothing more to say, nothing more to add. Now, just time for a huge celebration after such an unprecedented and unforgettable achievement ! Thanks ever so much, Pepu!

Tags: ÑBA, Basketball, Spain, World Championship 2006, Japan, Finals, World Champions

I know that this weblog post hasn’t got anything to do with Knowledge Management, Communities, Collaboration or Social Networking for that matter but I just cannot let this day passed by without mentioning it. Earlier on this morning I was preparing my way to do some blogtipping as it is the first day of the month again but I just got too excited about this:

Those who know me in person would tell you how passionate I have always been about basketball. I played it for more than half of my life in my younger years and still enjoy it very much and perhaps today more than ever before because, indeed, after having waited for 24 years, Spain has finally made it into the finals from the Basketball World Championship 2006 after an exhilarating and exhaustingly last-second win over Argentina, 75-74. WOW! Incredible ! Fascinating ! You gotta love this game ! I am still getting goose bumps from just thinking about it. So much so that I can hardly think about anything else at the moment. I mean, it has taken us 24 years of frustrations, bad luck, bad timing, bad matches, you name it, and now it was certainly our chance and we made it!!! Wooohooo!

Now on to the finals to meet up Greece after having performed some incredible team performance against the USA. It sounds like it is going to be a great final, indeed ! And I am sure the best one will win. Time to enjoy it now, so with all that excitement I think you would have to excuse me for the rest of the week since I am surely going to enjoy the moment, because you never know when we would all be in a similar situation… Hopefully, we would not have to wait for another 24 years …

Tags: ÑBA, Basketball, Spain, World Championship 2006, Japan, Finals

You may have noticed how for the last couple of days I haven’t been able to weblog much but, not to worry, there is actually a reason for it. Moi! Indeed, yesterday I suffered from those sporadic user generated errors that has knocked me down from one of the computers I am currently using, the one that was easing the pain. I have only been having it for just a few days and I already had to reformat the whole hard drive again. Poor little thing. That should teach me for the next time to stay away from partitions !

Anyway, as you can imagine over the last few hours I have been trying to recover from the disaster. Lucky enough I didn’t get to lose any critical files or anything. Thank goodness! I was very close though. But I still have got to install a whole bunch of applications so you would have to bear with me for a little bit while I get back in shape with it. It shouldn’t take much longer, I am sure. Perhaps I will create a couple of weblogs over the weekend on different things that have been crossing my mind lately since I haven’t been able to the last couple of days. We shall see how smooth it all goes. Time now to continue with the installation of the different applications I am currently using. Will be back in a bit …

Tags: User Generated Errors

Remember the amazing story that Michael Arrington, from TechCrunch and Crunchnotes, shared over at his weblog about his recent adventure while travelling and staying in Spain? Remember his incredible experience about the ordeal he had to go through ? Interesting one, right? Well, folks, I got one of my own but this time the other way around: me, living in Spain, travelling to the U.S.A. Hummm, travelling actually may be an understatement, because here I am, at home, writing this weblog post feeling quite disappointed that I didn’t make it in the end to the States to present at the IBM Collaboration Best Practices conference, just because something, somewhere, went wrong, awfully wrong ! But too disappointed, and perhaps too upset, right now to tell you all about it.

Thus whenever I feel I am ready to weblog about it all I shall certainly do so, for the time being I am going to enjoy the weekend. So to all folks out there who wanted to hook up with me while being there I can only say that I am so sorry that in the end I will not be able to make it this time around. Then the rest of the story you will get it afterwards; when things have quieted down a bit.

Tags: Travelling