Today I made $15 on a $1,300 callout because it was covered by a warranty. Sigh. The price is based on 21 hours of field time and more hours of research. I learned a lot about wireless printers, one thing being that I’m not showing up for less than $250. There exists a ridiculous complexity interfacing different manufacturer’s equipment that allows everybody to deny responsibility. Only the government can do that on a daily basis. Since it may do some good, I’ll tell you what I found today.WEP, or Wireless Equivalent Privacy, is outdated but still a standard. Normally you program your wireless antennas with that code that prevents unauthorized usage. Here is the problem. Netgear wireless antennas want that code, so 99% of all installers, including myself, will enter the historical string used by Netgear components, that is, a ten digit telephone number easy to remember. The new AT&T modems called 2wire have a ten-digit setup number stamped on the back, but no serious installer would ever use it. I said “serious”.
Because it is a secret code that is not truly secret. It is known by strangers who would have, among other things, knowledge of your phone number, system, IP and home addresses. (If they were trustworthy, why do we still get telemarketing calls?) The phone company has always sold this information to the highest bidder—but now the phone company requires this code to be used on other equipment. Damn! Worse (and I’ve complained to Netgear about this), when said code is entered, it displays as a string of asterisks. You can’t tell what you are overtyping.
Draw your own conclusions but don’t dare complain later if you disagree now. It is really another example of AT&T throwing its weight around. While all this was transpiring, I had the opportunity to do something I really like. Homework. That means your homework, not mine. My client’s schoolchildren had some assignments. I recall this type of homework from my own childhood. Written by adults who have lost contact with how children approach problem-solving. An ordinary word scramble can be impossible for a ten year old.
I have my own theory on teaching children, I’ll repeat it in case you were unlucky enough to miss the other times. Teaching and tutoring bores most children because the lessons are primarily based on memorization and that insane but sticky attitude too many adults have that the child is “supposed to know”. No, they are not supposed to know. They don’t have accumulated banks of experience to draw on, and it would seem, neither do a lot of the adults who don’t realize it. My theory is that the best way for children to learn to think is to be around somebody who is doing it. Again, a lot of adults don’t qualify.
When children watch somebody think, they will imitate any successful action. In the process, they learn that it is okay to solve problems indirectly. Children don’t need to be told to think, they need to be shown how. True, this approach means children will witness failures as well. If that bothers you, don’t call yourself a teacher. My grade school education was characterized by memorized answers, parroting the textbook and a total forced isolation from any examples of the thinking process. That is defined as “programmed for failure”. I was, as a schoolboy, regularly punished for thinking out of the box.
Prime example. In the science lab there was a sensitive scale that could measure fractions of grams. I quickly noticed a variation in the weights of pennies. (Those of you who know my family can smell the trouble brewing already.) It took me but moment to discover other curious people would weigh their pennies. Aha, Science Fair project and we had a practice run a week before. Find out if your penny is light or heavy. It worked fine until my brother came snooping around and saw that I was keeping the pennies. The howl that started up! The squealing of wild pigs cannot compare to the sound of small minds seeing somebody else getting ahead. Only those of you who grew up in a town of less than 5,000 people can know the volume.
These days, I would have gotten first prize in science, statistics and economics plus a commendation from the president, a few scholarships, and the odd television appearance. Instead, I was not permitted to run the exhibit, the “school’s scale” was now off limits to me “for trying to cheat people” and my $1.14 was confiscated by the principal. I narrowly escaped being punished at home a second time. Sure, today they would be talking to my lawyer, but that was then.
If you find that tale puts certain parties in a bad light, just ask when you want more. I’ve got thousands of such instances if you got the time to read them. My point is that children often cannot tell productive behaviour from non-productive and they will copy it all. But they certainly can tell when adults are thinking right, and given the chance they will only copy what works. Rote tutoring and classrooms do not provide that choice.
Did I mention CreditNation? Yes, I did. It is that e-zine that published articles on the horror stories of credit. I submitted some work and it seems to have passed muster. That means the editor published it on-line under my pseudonym, and furthermore, did not alter so much as a punctuation mark. Now, if only I had not forgotten my password.
Trivia for today? Since I can’t think of anything, I’ll risk a possible repeat. We’ve all heard of worm viruses. Who knows what worm stands for? It is an acronym for “write once, read many”. The even sadder news is that people who create viruses actually think using terms like that. Okay, then what is a “celebrity virus”? Let that be your homework, and get rid of the box.
