I was having problems this morning downloading my mail, and logging into my server to do some work. I could not work out what was going on. Things just seemed slow – I was using WiFi, but everything else seemed to be working OK. Then I moved the laptop about a meter to the left, and things started working a whole lot better. I was wondering what was going on. Was this some strangeness that makes WiFi and the entire radio world an art and not a science?

Turns out this is not the case. I finally remembered that I had scheduled a job on the server that was using up bandwidth which finished at almost exactly the same time as I moved the laptop. It is strange how coincidences like that happen. And they do just happen. Anyway, thanks to WiFi and the like I can get my email and do work even if I am out and about.

One of the things that my brother bought me for Christmas was a book called ‘Dumb Criminals’ which is a hilarious list of the deeds by some crooks. Things like wearing a nametag to a robbery, or asking a uniformed police officer to hold the bottle of booze after an accident with the words ‘take this before the cops turn up’. Much of the book was culled from the Dumb Crooks Web Site. I found the book an enjoyable read…

With the list of things to be done by people in 2006, or the predictions for 2006, is an analytical piece suggesting what microsoft needs to do to improve itself. I can see much gain if they implement this, but it would take much pain too…