Go Go Gadget DSL

So early yesterday morning I detailed some of the problems with a monolithic phone company. Shortly after logging on from home for the first time, I sent an email. When I got home this evening, I plugged my DSL modem into the phone jack, pushed a few buttons in the setup interface, and within minutes I'm online at high speed. The only hitch was forgetting my password on the first pass. Everything just worked™.

There are advantages of a monolithic phone company. There are also advantages of being a former employee of an ISP. Although I'm clearly biased, I heartily recommend Indra's Net. Not only do they combine superb technical knowledge with human-based and user-centric tech support; they are also named after one of the coolest metaphors for the universe.

Sad to Miss It

Perhaps what I miss most about my life as a student is the ability to skip almost every class for a week and attend the Conference on World Affairs. There are so many reasons to love the conference. It brings together scores of interesting people on panels ranging from politics to art to technology to music to world affairs to storytelling to living life. Panels have no set agenda; the only information provided is the (often evocative) titles and the speaker bios. Both experts and outside observers share their thoughts on subjects. Audience members become part of the discussion (though attendees of some of the political panels might feel this is a negative point). Roger Ebert and a concert hall full of interesting people watch and analyze a movie a shot at a time throughout the whole week. It's all free. But what I love the most about the CWA is that it's all together. I think I attended 30 CWA events last April and made it to just one class and a couple meetings. And on the off chance that I have more than 10 minutes to get from one panel to the next, I could get a lunch to go and sit under the new tree leaves in the once-again warm weather.

I therefore encourage anyone who's able to be in Boulder this week to spend as much time as possible at the Conference on World Affairs. Skip class! Take time off work! See something interesting during lunch! I'll be at the Jazz concert tonight (Tuesday) at 8pm at Macky if you've been going through Jesus sighting withdrawal or just want to say "hi."