Writing letters, part 2

While looking for some other info this morning, I came across this article from EContent that opens with:

Parents: Ask your teenager to write a "get well" letter to Aunt Edith who is confined to a bed at a nursing home. They are probably looking at you like you just asked them to explain Kepler's Third Law. "C'mon mom, nobody writes letters anymore," they whine. "They're not cool."

While it may be a question of changing social mores, more than likely it is the way today's young people were raised in relation to technology. "The next generation was born digital," according R.J. Pittman, CEO, president, director, and co-founder of Groxis, Inc., who gave the opening keynote at the 2006 annual NFAIS Conference in Philadelphia. The "next generation," he describes, was raised communicating through cell phone, either voice or text messaging. The audacity you have to suggest they (gasp!) actually pick up a pen to communicate is nothing short of alarming. It simply isn't as natural for them to put their thoughts down on paper in a clearly written missive, get an envelope, address it, stamp it, and trudge out to a mail box than it is to (duh!) dash off a text message and hit Send. Better immediate information than perfectly penned, right?

which reminded me of my post (ironically published just a week before this EContent article) on writing letters inspired from reading an article in Newsweek about writing letters and an experience my wife and I had about...writing letters.

Amtrak internet connection, part 2

A week after recycling the power on Amtrak's wireless router in the D.C. Club Acela, I again was traveling and offline most of the day, before arriving a little early at the Amtrak station to send and receive email. This time 8 1/2 x 11 pieces of paper with the note "Sorry Internet Access is Down" were taped to the monitors in the computer room.

Just for kicks, I took out my own ethernet cable (I've learned to travel with my own) and plugged it into a wall jack (not the same one the router was plugged into). It worked.

I don'’t know what was wrong with the router or the other PCs. I had a train to board.

Amtrak, your welcome

I travel to Washington D.C. at least once a week for work, sometimes more. I use Amtrak so much, I have a card that gets me into Club Acela, the super secret club of the Amtrak elite. The D.C. Club Acela has free wireless access...most of the time. Yesterday, I was traveling "offline" most of the day and had a few minutes to download email before I boarded the train, but I couldn't connect. I asked someone at the counter, who said it was "out." So I went into the little computer room, unplugged the wireless router, waited 30 seconds, and plugged it back in. Everything is good now. I like when solutions are simple.

Sidenote: I travel to NYC less frequently, but stopped into the NYC Club Acela a few weeks ago to download email, but the NYC doesn't have free wireless.