thanks for not being a zombie

I know that bad things happen all over the world all the time and that when I post entries about the things that happen close to me, it can appear that I don't care about those things that are far away and about which I do not post. I do care. But if I were to stop and think about it all, I would not be able to function.

That said, we all know that things are rough in New Orleans and places nearby as a result of Hurricane Katrina. There are several things we can do to help. Crooked Timber's Ted Barlow will make you a custom mix CD if you donate $100 to the relief effort. Below is the text of an email I received today from the United Way:

United Way Hurricane Katrina Response Fund:
All funds will be allocated for both front-line disaster relief and long-term recovery needs; as determined by local United Ways in the affected areas in coordination with a vast network of governmental and human services agencies. For checks: United Way of America, PO Box 630568, Baltimore, MD, 21263-0568

American Red Cross
1-800-435-7669 (Help Now-English) or 1-800-257-7575 (Help Now-Spanish)

Salvation Army
1-800-725-2769

Heart to Heart International

The following voluntary agencies are all members of the network of National Voluntary Agencies Active in Disaster and have specific roles to play in response, such as: child care, damage assessment, mental health counseling, mass care, food distribution, long term recovery, debris clean-up, etc.

America’s Second Harvest, 1-800-344-8070
Adventist Community Services, 1-800-381-7171
Catholic Charities USA, 1-703-549-1390
Christian Disaster Response, 1-863-967-4357
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, 1-800-848-5818
Church World Service, 1-800-297-1516
Convoy of Hope, 1-417-823-8998
Lutheran Disaster Response, 1-800-638-3522
Mennonite Disaster Service, 1-717-859-2210
Nazarene Disaster Response, 1-888-256-5886
Presbyterian Disaster Response, 1-800-872-3283
Southern Baptist Convention, 1-800-462-8657 x6440
United Methodist Committee on Relief, 1-800-554-8583

Posted by at 7:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It's my favorite holiday. The pumpkins, the candy, the costumes, the parties! Who can resist?

More than 150 links listed on del.icio.us as a Teaching Carnival, Backstage. Anyone with a del.icio.us account (they're free!) can contribute to Backstage: just tag something with teaching-carnival. A few things show up at Technorati; anyone can contribute there, too, by following directions located here.

Some time tomorrow will appear right here the Teaching Carnival proper.

If you've written something related to teaching but not captured by the above del.icio.us links, let me know asap.

If you'd like to host a future Teaching Carnival, let me know.

Posted by at 12:09 PM | Permalink

When I first began to plan turning my dissertation into a publishable book, I clung stubbornly to the chronological boundaries I had started with. Then I gradually realized that there was a wealth of relevant information available for the years that begin right at the end point of my dissertation. At first, I was totally Oh, that's too bad. If only that information were available for the earlier years. Then I was all, Duh! Why don't you just extend the end point by about thirty years, loser? And then I went, Oh, no, you di'in't! And I said, Well, bring it, beyotch! And I was like, Oh, snap! And then...

Wait...what was I talking about?

Oh, right. I've come across some really great archival material here at Magnolia University (which is the pseudonymous name I'm giving this place). Sometimes I fear that I must be mistaken to think this material is so important. Why haven't any scholars made good use of it before? At other times I believe I'm on to something really big.

In other news, I've been invited to present a paper on someone's panel at ASECS 2006, which saves me the trouble of writing up paper proposals. Yay!

Posted by at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

The last time I bought a new car was 1990. I sold it in 1994 to pay for my first year of grad school. L and I have shared one car for half the time we've been together, but now that we'll be living in two different cities (and I'll be making some regional research trips) we need two cars.

"Now is a good time to get a great deal on a new car." The 2006 models are or will be coming out, and dealers are trying to get rid of the 2005 models. Luckily for me, my bank will do the negotiating for me. (I know! Crazy, isn't it?) So last weekend I did a bunch of research online, printed out various spreadsheets, put them all in my clipboard and went to the closest dealership. The salesman who dealt with me was very nice and very young, maybe 24 at the oldest. We bonded over a few things -- he's from Rhode Island / my grandma was from Rhode Island; he's a army brat / I'm an army brat -- I took a test drive, and two days later, I was driving my new car home.

Things that make buying a new car easier:

• Research all the online information about options and pricing.
• Never underestimate the power of a printed spreadsheet.
• Never underestimate the power of a clipboard.
• Ask your bank if they will negotiate the price for you.

Based on my research, I know I paid an average price for this make and model. I may not have gotten the absolute, rock bottom, lowest price, but I don't care because the salesman seemed like a decent fellow trying to succeed in his new job at the dealership, and if paying a bit more means he got a slightly higher commission and made a good impression on his boss, then I'm happy.

Now here's the best part about the car (yeah, yeah, warranty, gas mileage, reliability, customer satisfaction, yadda yadda yadda): the stereo will hold 6 CDs and will play mp3s off of those CDs. This means that if I load it up with 6 700-megabyte CDs full of music, I essentially have the equivalent of an iPod mini in my dashboard. How cool is that?!

Oh yeah, I'm off on a 3-day research trip this morning to one of the best American libraries for my project.

Posted by at 7:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

How about Teaching Carnival, Backstage (rather than Teaching Carnival Raw) to describe the constantly updated RSS feed of links related to teaching in higher education? The monthly or bimonthly Teaching Carnival would proceed basically along the same lines as the other blogging carnivals out there: History Carnival, Philosophers' Carnival, and Poetry Carnival, for example. Every one or two months, a different editor (me first) will round up a bunch of links to blog posts related to teaching in higher education.

Scott asks a question in the comments to a previous post, and I thought I'd try to explain myself a little better.

Content

In terms of content, anything goes for the Teaching Carnival, as I recently wrote Scrivener, from "I can't believe summer's over and I'm headed back into the classroom" to "Here's a complete version of the syllabus I've been working on" to "Wow, that was a weird first day of class!" to "Check out this assignment I've been using." Anyone who teaches in higher education is welcome to contribute, from grad students to senior, tenured professors.

Teaching Carnival, Backstage

The "Backstage" version would just be the links that aggregate over time between the montly or bimonthly regular versions. There would be no difference in the content of the links that appear in either version.

I'm imagining, however, that "Backstage" readers would find many, many links contributed by many people through, for example, their own del.icio.us accounts (which are free) in which they use the teaching-carnival tag. If you use blogging software that features categories (like WordPress or Movable Type), Technorati will automatically grab any posts that are categorized as "teaching-carnival." If you use Blogger, which doesn't have categories, you'll need to add your own Technorati tag to each relevant entry like so:

<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/teaching-carnival" rel="tag">teaching-carnival</a>

Teaching Carnival

By contrast, the regular version would have a narrower selection of links as well as some commentary and organization provided by whoever is editor at the time.

RSS Feeds

"What's RSS?" you ask. Live in confusion no more. You can use desktop software (e.g. NetNewsWire) or web-based software (e.g. Bloglines) to subscribe to the RSS feeds of your choice.

The advantage of Teaching Carnival Backstage is that anyone can make their entries part of the RSS feed. You do not have to wait for whoever is putting together the regular Teaching Carnival to notice what you've written. You can add your posts using any of the methods described above. Another advantage is that, given how very many academic blogs are out there, the open RSS feed could help under-read blogs get more exposure. And finally, readers of Teaching Carnival, Backstage would be provided with a constant and easy-to-sift stream of teaching-related blog entries from a wide range (I hope) of blogs.

Currently

The del.icio.us links for Teaching Carnival can be found here. So far, they are overwhelmingly by me, although Marcia Hansen added a couple, too. Technorati has only picked up one link, at the time of this writing, which you can see here. The first installment of Teaching Carnival will feature a link to an RSS feed for Teaching Carnival, Backstage that mixes all the feeds from different sources together.

Any questions?

Posted by at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Texas Representative Joe Barton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, doesn't think much of the way Europeans live their lives:

They don't understand the lifestyle where you live in Arlington, Texas, and drive to Dallas or Fort Worth to work. Or maybe you live in Plano or Denton and ... go back and forth. I don't think they [the Europeans] really understand the concept of personal freedom. They think everybody ought to live in an eight-story walkup with no air conditioning and ride bicycles everywhere...That's not Texas. And I'm not apologetic about that.

In completely unrelated news, 5 of the 25 fattest cities in America are in Texas.

Posted by at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I have a rough idea for something interesting. We will have Teaching Carnival Raw to go along with Teaching Carnival Cooked. What's Teaching Carnival Raw, you ask? Well, I'll use Feed Digest to grab a bunch of RSS feeds, mix them all together, and present them on a constantly and automatically updated page, just links and very brief descriptions. You can contribute to the Raw feed. Here's how:

• del.icio.us: If you have a del.icio.us account, start using the tag "teaching-carnival" to tag things you think should be included in the Raw feed.
• Flickr: Similarly, with your flickr account, tag any of your relevant photos "teaching-carnival."
• Technorati tags: Use "teaching-carnival" on any of your blog posts that should be included.

Anyone have additional or alternate suggestions for doing this?

Carnival? Raw? Cooked? Wow, that's a really badly mixed metaphor. I'm open to suggestions for alternate naming.

Posted by at 7:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I got yer bunny right here!

Update: Rana's watching critters, too.

Posted by at 5:12 PM | Permalink

Via Slashdot:

Dogers writes "Robert Hare, creator of the Psychopathy Checklist, has recently been applying his test 'Is your boss a psychopath' to businessmen and has found some disturbing results. From the article: 'Why wouldn't we want to screen them? We screen police officers, teachers. Why not people who are going to handle billions of dollars?'. Citing Enron and Worldcom management as an example, it seems a reasonable argument. The same source also has a quiz (magazine produced it seems) which allows you to test your own boss, too!"

Given that conservative critics of higher education believe that professors are running amok--filling their Renaissance Lit classes with reading assignments denouncing the war in Iraq (or something like that, apparently)--I wonder if they'd be interested in applying the same strict monitoring standards they want to legislate for, say, adjunct teachers of composition at the local community college to the occupants of corporate America's most influential boardrooms. What say ye?

Posted by at 11:43 AM | Permalink

Tuesday was the 28th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley. Cheeky Prof remembers hearing the news, but I don't. In 1977, if I'm not mistaken, my parents were listening mostly to bluegrass and mountain music, although I'm sure in their youth they were Elvis fans.

Elvis always makes me think of this passage from 1977 by music writer Lester Bangs in which he writes of going out to buy a case of beer for a wake in honor of Elvis:

As I left the building I passed some Latin guys hanging out by the front door. "Heard the news? Elvis is dead!" I told them. They looked at me with contemptuous indifference. So what. Maybe if I had told them Donna Summer was dead I might have gotten a reaction. I do recall walking in this neighborhood wearing a T-shirt that said "Disco Sucks" with a vast unamused muttering in my wake, which only goes to show that not for everyone was Elvis the still-reigning King of Rock 'n' Roll, in fact not for everyone is rock 'n' roll the still-reigning music. (from "Where Were You When Elvis Died?" in Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung.)

Putting aside for a moment the question of whether these "Latin guys" would have been likely Donna Summer fans, I can't help but notice that Bangs overlooks something important. For Bangs, the hierarchical, celebrity-based idol worship of popular culture is a problem, something that rock-n-roll is supposed to help destroy. So as it became more and more commercialized, with big shows featuring artists up on stage and audiences removed from them by distance, fame, and wealth, rock-n-roll morphed into just another part of the problem. Bangs argues that Elvis is a key player in all of this.

Although he doesn't elaborate on it here (or anywhere that I've read), I think it could be argued that disco provided the framework for a more democratic and participatory culture than rock-n-roll. With disco, fans didn't go into an enormous arena to scream out their inevitably unfulfilled desire for the people on stage they will never meet. Instead, they went to clubs to dance and party with friends. Disco fans didn't thrive on a lack of connection with celebrities; instead, the music facilitated their connection with other people like themselves. Bangs can't see this; indifference to the death of Elvis represents cultural fragmentation. "We will continue to fragment in this manner," he writes, "because solipsism holds all the cards at present." Disco, I think, was a powerful antidote to the solipsism that has Bangs worried here.

I'll admit that I could be completely romanticizing the era of disco, however, since I was less than 10 at its peak. I'd like to think it had the elegance of Whit Stillman's 1998 film Last Days of Disco, but maybe it was just a bunch of fat, sweaty guys in polyester leisure suits.

And finally, the Bangs quote--and the issue of white folks' appropriation of black folks' music--brings me around to yesterday's blog entry by Joe Miller: "Cracka with Attitude".

Posted by at 7:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

(via Jason)

Posted by at 2:38 PM | Permalink

I've noticed that people like Scott and Chuck are posting entries about their fall courses. Inspired by the genre represented by the History Carnival, I'd like to propose a monthly or bimonthly Teaching Carnival.

Although I'm not teaching this semester, focusing instead on my research, I'll host the first one on September 1 and then call for volunteers to host subsequent ones.

Any teaching issues are fair game, regardless of discipline.

If you would be so kind, gmail non.zombie with any blog entries you have written, are writing, or will write about teaching. Be sure to include "Teaching Carnival" in the subject line.

Please forward and link as appropriate.

Posted by at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (1)

I think this article would make interesting reading for universities that award modest grants to their faculty members through application processes involving review by faculty from multiple disciplines.

"The Sociology of IRB's," by Scott Jaschik (Inside Higher Ed):

For decades, but especially in recent years, social scientists have been frustrated by institutional review boards, campus bodies that must approve studies involving human subjects.

...there is...the question of how much deference IRB members give to different kinds of research projects. DeVries has been observing IRB meetings at a large medical center to study the dynamics, and he spoke at the sociology meeting about two projects that were reviewed by the board on the same day. One was a social science project — research on new ways to work with victims of sexual assault to find out what happened to them. The other was a medical proposal — on new drugs to treat serious skin diseases.

On the sexual assault study, nearly every member of the IRB offered suggestions on the study, regardless of whether the IRB member had any particular expertise in the subject area. On the drug trial, only “housekeeping details” were discussed.

DeVries said that many IRB members act as if they believe that there is “a softness” about social science research. “People feel that everybody can do sociology.”

But there is “deference” shown to medical research, he said. In addition, because medical researchers tend to appear before IRB’s frequently, there is “an easy rapport” between the researchers and the IRB members, while a sociologist may “be kind of novel.”

Posted by at 8:56 AM | Permalink

From History of the Book Online:

The State and Literary Production in Early Modern Europe
Folger Institute Spring Semester Seminar led by Nigel Smith

Please encourage faculty and advanced graduate students to consider applying. This seminar undertakes a comparative study of the relationship between different polities (including nation states and other kinds of polity, be they secular or ecclesial, monarchical or republican, imperial or not) in early modern Europe and the kinds of literature produced within them between 1500 and 1700. How did the nature of different polities shape what was written? Does any vernacular literature have a special claim to make at a time when some vernaculars were gaining authority either in parts of Europe or in other parts of the world? What capacities were retained exclusively by Latin literature? Participants will examine the consequences of the migrations of both authors and texts from one part of the Continent to another, or to another continent, by force or design, in and through the wars of early modern Europe. Each week, a particular case study of a text and context will be studied from western European vernacular sources (e.g., Dutch political verse; German drama; French libertine literature; Italian religious polemic; Portuguese colonial epic). A dynamic range of interests is sought in the research fields of applicants, and the syllabus will be shaped, in part, to reflect those interests. English translations of any non-English text on the syllabus will be supplied.

Application Deadlines: 1 September 2005 for admission and grants-in-aid; 3 January for admission only.

Posted by at 10:48 AM | Permalink

After being ousted at NPR, Bob Edwards landed a show on XM Radio. Check out his hour-long interview with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy.

Posted by at 8:58 AM | Permalink

"Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man," by David Edelstein (Slate):

Grizzly Man has the tang of the famous chapter in Moby Dick, Melville's sardonic answer to the Transcendentalist movement, which produced Thoreau (and Whitman). You might sit astride a mast and feel your oneness with nature, Melville wrote, but fall into the sea and you're going to get eaten.

Posted by at 8:07 AM | Permalink

Max enjoys the sun streaming through the kitchen window onto this ledge. (Those are his cremains in the box.) He's been here for days.

Posted by at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

...and I could understand you thinking that way, but hear me out. Rather than search Amazon or go to an actual bookstore, I'm asking you, dear reader, for a recommendation because that's the kind of bond we have, that's how much I trust you and depend upon you. Can you handle that kind of trust? I'm pretty sure you can.

I need a good reading edition of the King James Bible. What I don't like about most editions of the Bible is what I don't like about the Norton Anthology of English Literature: tiny type, tiny margins, and paper that's so thin it's verging on onion skin.

So what do you think? Is there an edition I might get my hands that would not have these reader-unfriendly features?

Posted by at 6:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Do you remember a few years ago when some publisher was coming out with individual books of the Bible published for something like $1 each, and with introductions written by celebrities of one kind or another? Bono wrote the introduction to one of the gospels, I think, and Nick Cave wrote the one for another. I'm blanking on who the publisher was, and I've yet to find any info online.

UPDATE: Ah, it's the Pocket Canon Series. Bono actually wrote the introduction to Psalms. I was thinking about these editions--wondering if I could get my hands on some of them--because of Meg's post today on Psalms.

Apparently, some aren't too happy with this series.

Posted by at 5:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

"Electronica From the 1920's, Ready for Sampling," by Michael Beckerman (NYT)

"This is our story," by Will Hodgkinson (The Guardian).

Listen online to the new album from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (NME).

"Without a Prayer: Like other religious artists before him, Sufjan Stevens puts his faith in craft," by Nick Sylvester (Village Voice).

"Acts of Antiwar: Operation Ceasefire Will Bring Music To the Mall," by Teresa Wiltz (WaPo).

Posted by at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We went to the farmer's market this past weekend, and I took some pix. Thai basil. Okra. Tomatoes. Bok choi. Raw peanuts. Blackberries.

Yum.

Posted by at 8:24 AM | Permalink

It was much, much easier than I thought it would be.

You snooze, you lose, D-Link.

Posted by at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Please forward and link as appropriate. When I was staying at the University of Manchester earlier this summer, I shared a flat with a few different people. One of them was Khadim Ali-Ali, a PhD candidate from Iraq. For his dissertation, he needs responses to this survey (PDF, ~100k). The survey concerns three translations of one poem and requires just a few moments of your time this morning to help out an Iraqi scholar. The following is the cover letter:

Dear Colleagues,

"Doing research is never an easy task in the present Iraqi situation! Your kind response, however, can make it possible." Could you please forward to other colleagues?

Bilinguals and translators were very much suspected and policed in Saddam's dictatorship, and are slaughtered by present extremists under the pretext of being collaborators with the 'enemy'. Your response can help me enlighten this area and enlighten others as well of a true and sincere relationship between the foreigner, who are you, and the enemy, who is he, 'the extremist'. So would you spare me some of your precious time to give your response on the translations attached. Your answers will be confidentially utilized in a Ph.D. project on “Assessing Responses of Non - Arab English Speakers to Arab / Iraqi Poetry Translated into English”. Kindly note the following:

1. Kindly read the three translations well before responding to them.
2. Please fill in personal information. Your name may be needed for further information on your responses. Age and sex may be taken as variables in the study, so please do not forget
   them.
3. Please note that this research depends on your personal response; taking it seriously, however, promotes translation and academic research in new Iraq. Moreover, as it is personal, there is no need for seeking the help of other people.
4. I would appreciate any enquiry on the questions and the subject as well.

Kindest Regards

Kadhim Al – Ali
Ph.D. Candidate
Iraq
kadhimalali at yahoo dot com

Posted by at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A recent New Yorker article ("God and Country," by Hanna Rosin) describes the mission of Patrick Henry College to provide a college education to conservative, home-schooled students and to streamline their path to positions of influence in the federal government.

This morning, we get an article from the Washington Post on the intellectual climate of the school ("Divide on Doctrine Fuels Fight Between Va. College, Ousted Clerk," by Rosalind S. Helderman). Jeremy Hunley works for Patrick Henley College, and he's a Christian who believes that one must be baptized to be saved.

College administrators told Hunley, a member of the Church of Christ, that the belief put him at odds with the school's statement of faith, which he was required to sign before taking the job. According to the 10-point document, salvation is found only through faith in Jesus Christ.

Patrick Henry was founded in 2000 to be an Ivy League-type college aimed at attracting academically gifted home-schoolers. The school's president talks unabashedly of birthing a new generation of conservative leaders who will reclaim the country from years of liberal sway. It is a bold mission that has attracted national attention.

Skeptics, however, suggested that the ouster of a low-level evangelical employee over theological differences could spell trouble for the school, spotlighting an exclusionary attitude that could turn off prospective students and make employers wary of graduates.

Not only did the college force him to resign, they sued him for making these remarks: "No Christian would deny Christ to save his job; certainly no Christian would ask him to do so." Nice.

Cf. Mark Bauerlein's Chronicle of Higher Education essay, "Liberal Groupthink Is Anti-Intellectual," from November 2004.

Groupthink of any kind--not just liberal groupthink--is anti-intellectual, right? I wonder how (or if) the more strident conservative critics of higher education will respond to this story.

Posted by at 8:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I very much like the "author's note" at the beginning of my latest pleasure reading book, Azar Nafisi's memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran:

Aspects of characters and events in this story have been changed mainly to protect individuals, not just from the eye of the censor but also from those who read such narratives to discover who's who and who did what to whom, thriving on and filling their own emptiness through others' secrets. The facts in this story are true insofar as any memory is ever truthful, but I have made every effort to protect friends and students, baptizing them with new names, and disguising them perhaps even from themselves, changing and interchanging facets of their lives so that their secrets are safe.

Posted by at 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Via Slashdot:

markmcb writes "It seems that teachers may have a new way to boost classroom participation using a device called a clicker. A clicker is a small handheld device that allows its user to wirelessly respond to various prompts selected by a teacher. So when a teacher wants opinions on topics that people tend to shy away from like sex, religion, and politics, the question can be asked and the students can answer anonymously via the clicker. Everything from a simple poll to a graded quiz can be conducted using the device. In the age of cell phones and wireless computers such a technology is likely to be well-received by students, but one can't help but wonder if such a device will breed less assertive graduates who lack the will to stand up and voice their opinion on sensitive issues."

Posted by at 8:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

We went out for dinner in a funky hip part of the city and ate

• fried green tomatoes,
• shrimp and grits,
• collard greens,
• crowder peas,
• macaroni and cheese,
• deviled eggs, and
• fluffy white biscuits.

Posted by at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Took pix of our walk this morning. If you're interested, contrast the pictures I took this morning with those from our previous neighborhood.

Posted by at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Well, I'm still trying to get the wireless network up and running while we wait for all our stuff to arrive later today. (See previous entry.) Thanks to everyone who responded with suggestions.

In a nutshell, here's the problem: We have just moved halfway across the country. In our new home, neither of our Powerbooks can connect to the Internet using the wireless signal coming from our wireless router. Both of our Powerbooks could connect to the Internet in this way at our old home. I've found a partial, though unsatisfactory solution that eliminates the wireless router from the equation: I can plug Powerbook1 into the cable modem with an ethernet cable and then share the Internet connection wirelessly with Powerbook2.

Essentially, this is a process of identifying all the variables in the home network and determining which ones are functioning correctly and which ones are not.

I've written up a systematic response below the fold to Scott's comments:

Preface: Our wireless network is mostly the same as it was before:

The same two Powerbooks.
The same wireless router.
The same Internet service provider.

The cable modem.

Additionally, on Monday night we were both able to use the wireless network at a local bar. So I don't think there's a bug affecting the laptops. Instead, it's something unique to this particular network in our new home.

"1) Try plugging one of your PBs directly into the modem and see if it works. If it does, then the problem is with either the router or the wireless card. If it doesn't, it's your ISP."

1) Check. Both PBs can get Internet access by plugging directly into the cable modem via ethernet.

"1.5) Make sure the cable from the modem to the router is plugged into the correct port. Sometimes it's upside down. Sometimes it's different looking. This is your most likely problem."

"2) If that's all good, try plugging one of your PBs directly into the router via ethernet."

"3) If that works, plug in the router and log into it. Make sure that it's broadcasting an IP address via DHCP. Make sure that the channel is set to automatic."

3) Even though, step 2 doesn't work, I tried step 3. Yes, the wireless router is broadcasting an IP address via DHCP. There's no way to set the channel to automatic, but the PBs have no problem picking up the signal. It's just that once they get a signal they cannot go anywhere with it.

"4) If that's all working, open up system prefs>network>airport>tcp/ip. Make sure you have it selected to join via DHCP. Check your IP address. It should be either a 192.168.x.x or 10.0.1.x. If it's not, click 'renew IP address.'"

4) Check. Looks good.

"5) Reboot your compy just to make sure."

5) Tried that. Doesn't seem to help.

"6) If that doesn't work, you may have the stupid wake-from-sleep bug of 12" powerbooks. If you do, it'll see the network but fail to connect."

6) I don't think this is the problem. See above preface.

Addendum: When I open prefs>network> and select "Network Status" from the "Show:" drop-down menu, the Airport status is described like this: "Airport is connected to the network. You are connected to the Internet via Airport." However, I cannot open any webpages. And I cannot "ping" successfully from the Network Utility.

Weirdness. I talked to the ISP, and they passed me off to the manufacturer of the wireless router, who passed me off to Apple. *sigh* Round and round we go.

Apple's troubleshooting guide is located here.

Posted by at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

We are using the same ISP as at our previous location. We have the same equipment (except it's a different cable modem supplied by the ISP). But we can't make the WiFi networking work. What's wrong?

Equipment:

• Time Warner cable modem
• D-Link DI-614+ wireless router
• Two Powerbooks running OS X

Any troubleshooting suggestions would be much appreciated. This is basically the same set-up we used before with no problem.

Posted by at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

All of our worldly goods arrive on an 18-wheeler tomorrow afternoon. Until then (and even after) this is my new office. My office mates are crickets, cicadas, frogs, a few rabbits, lots of birds, and a couple of dogs. At night, the noise from the first three of these is really impressive. In the morning, the rabbits come around to nibble on this and that.

Red dirt. Lightning bugs. Kudzu. Lots of highways. Sweet tea.

Yup, we're back in the South.

Posted by at 5:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

To answer a question from Jason: If you already have a Blogger account (they're free), then it's very easy to use Audioblogger.

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