WiFi woes

So far, I'm liking my new Macbook.

There are some things that are different. But some things are the same.

My browser, for instance. I quit using Internet Explorer when Firefox came out. And I use Firefox on the Macbook instead of Safari, Apple's own browser. So the browser's pretty much the same. Minor differences, sure, but only minor.

My old Gateway laptop had WiFi connectivity. After I added a card. Old computer, after all. The Dell notebook had it built-in, which was really handy.

The Macbook has built-in WiFi, of course. And, it's really easy to connect to hotspots around town.

For example, the Wife and I often eat at the Subway on Broadway in Columbus. It's not that far from where she works or where I work. And the first time I used the Macbook there, the network connection thingy popped right up, asking me if I wanted to connect to "Subway On Broad."

I did.

And that's actually a couple of mouse-clicks easier than it is to do on the Dell. The Windows machine. So, yeah, it's easier.

Well, that was last Friday.

Monday, I decided to take the Macbook out to lunch. And we went to McDonald's. The one on Veteran's, near 14th Street. It's not too far from where we work. And we had a couple of Arch Cards we hadn't used. And they got WiFi.

Or so they say. It didn't work for me.

The folks there ... or the ones that were there Monday ... didn't know a whole lot about it.

The little girl who was cleaning up tables pointed me right to one of the ladies behind the counter. The lady behind the counter offered one suggestion, but it wasn't applicable.

You see, I was connected to their WiFi. I know so, because, just like it had a couple of days before at Subway, the little connection thingy popped up, asking me if I wanted to connect to "McDonald's."

I did.

And it connected. But wouldn't get on the Internet.

Which told me their network was running, but their network wasn't on the Internet.

I've had that happen at the house on occasion. It usually means that the router isn't routering -- that's a technical term -- properly. It happens every couple of months or so. I suspect because it's a cheap router I bought one night from Wal-Mart. Anyway, when it happens, if I tell the router to restart, it usually fixes it.

Well, that's how McDonald's was acting.

And the lady behind the counter, once she understood that I was on their network, but wasn't on the Internet, told another lady, who was a manager. Or at least, was wearing a blue shirt like the managers at that store do.

After several minutes, this other lady finally told me she didn't know but would ask her manager. She went to some fellow wearing a blue shirt.

After several more minutes, she came back and said they didn't know why it wasn't working for me because it worked a couple of days ago.

I thanked her and walked away, put my computer up, and left.

To me, they ought to either have a working hotspot ... and be able to do simple troubleshooting when it goes out ... or they ought to take the thing out.

I realize that a free hotspot isn't the most important thing about a McDonald's. The most important thing is getting the new toy in the Happy Meal. But, if they aren't going to do something right, they ought not to do it.

And, no, it's not my computer. I'm sitting in the Subway on Broad as I type this.

Yeah, I really do need to get a life.

Royster named SAL player of the week

With the week he's had at the plate, it's not surprise that Columbus Catfish OF Ryan Royster earned Player of the Week honors. The South Atlantic League gave Royster the honor today:

Royster homered seven times in six games, but he didn't really catch fire until the Catfish's series at Greensboro. The 21-year-old outfielder went 9-for-19 with five homers and 11 RBIs in the four-game series, including a two-homer, six-RBI game on Friday. He is hitting .321 with 24 homers and 85 RBIs for the Catfish this year. Although his six-game home run streak came to an end, his seven-game hitting streak is still intact.

Royster had another home run tonight, and leads the league with 25 round-trippers. He's the second Catfish player to take Player of the Week honors in the SAL this year. Matt Fields took Player of the Week honors on June 24. Additionally, Heath Rollins was named SAL Pitcher of the Week on July 15 and May 27, while Wade Townsend took the honor on April 22.

Catfish beat Hickory, Royster homers again, Baker extends scoreless streak

After getting clocked Sunday night, the Columbus Catfish played their normal game tonight, beating the Hickory Crawdads (Pirates) 5-2. Ryan Royster homered again, a solo shot in the top of the 2nd, to extend his league-leading total to 25. Brian Baker, in a relief appearance, extended his scoreless streak to 20-2/3 innings.

The Catfish added 2 more runs in the 3rd, with Royster contributing again. With 1 out, Cesar Suarez doubled, then moved to third on a ground out by Nevin Ashley. Royster singled him in, then scored himself on a double by Seth Dhaenens, putting the Catfish up 3-0.

Hickory scored unearned runs in the 4th and 5th to close the gap. The Catfish added an unearned run of their own in the 5th, when Suarez reached on an error, making it all the way to second. After moving to third on another ground out by Ashley, Suarez scored on a 2-out single by Dhaenens.

The Catfish added one more run in the 8th. With 1 out, Matt Fields walked, and moved to third on Quinn Stewart's line drive single to right. He scored on a sacrifice fly by Jairo De La Rosa to put the Catfish up 5-2.

Brian Baker, a star for Columbus High, Columbus State, and now the Columbus Catfish, pitched 3 innings relief, allowing 1 hit, and striking out 4. He hasn't allowed a run since July 8, a stretch of 20-2/3 innings.

Heath Rollins won his 14th game, tied for tops in the league, pitching 5 innings, allowing 2 unearned runs on 5 hits, striking out 6. Neal Frontz pitched a perfect 9th to notch his 16th save.

Royster's home run tonight was his 10th round-tripper in his last 13 games. Prior to last night's game, he had gone long in 6 straight games.

With the series tied at a game apiece, game 3 of the 4-game series is Tuesday night.

The win tonight brings the Catfish to within 1/2 of division-leading Asheville, who lost tonight.

Catfish clobbered

It started ugly ... and just got worse for the Columbus Catfish Sunday night. The Hickory Crawdads (Pirates) hit 6 home runs, including a 1st inning grand slam, and pounded out 19 hits as they beat the Catfish 17-3.

Things got so bad for the Catfish that they brought in the 2nd baseman to pitch the final two innings ... and he had the best pitching performance of the night. Joey Callender allowed just one run ... the fewest of the four Catfish to take the mound ... on two hits ... again, the low for the night. Starter Will Kline was roughed up for 11 runs, all earned, on 12 hits ... including 3 home runs ... in 2-plus innings work. RF Jonel Pacheco had 2 of the homers to pace Hickory.

The 24-year-old right fielder is tied for second in the South Atlantic League in homers behind Columbus' Ryan Royster, who had homered in six straight games before going 1-for-3 with an RBI groundout and a single in the fifth.

Sakamoto's first-inning grand slam was his 13th homer of the season and first in 18 games. The 23-year-old first baseman added a run-scoring single in the second.

One bright spot for the Catfish was 2-run homer in the 8th that pulled the Catfish to within 14 runs.

The Catfish get to start again tonight, taking on Hickory at 7:00.

Thinking Different

I've loved and hated computers for years. Usually the love of computers wins out. But the hate surfaces from time to time.

First computer I ever dealt with ... hands on ... was at Brunswick Junior College. One of those dial-in terminals with the large black telephone and an acoustic coupler. If you don't know what an acoustic coupler is, you're new to computers.

Anyway, a friend was going to school over at Brunswick, and I'd ride over there on occasion, since I had days off after working nights. He showed me the computer terminal room, which he was enjoying because of the computer classes he was taking.

I fell in love with the computer right away.

Those old terminals, which dialed in to the computers in Athens (UGA), didn't have a screen. Paper output only. Looked like a teletype machine. Sort of like this one.

When I enrolled in school there and took my first computer classes, I thought I was in heaven. I knew I had to get me a computer. Once I had a few million dollars.

Of course, not long after that, computers showed up in stores. And they were years ahead of the old teletype terminals I had used just a couple of years earlier.

I bought a Radio Shack Color Computer 2, an Adam, a TRS-80 Model 4, and an MC-10. I never had a Commodore 64, though. I saw one and just didn't like it. But, in the small computer geek circle I hung around, I was the first one to venture into the land of MS-DOS. I bought a Tandy 1000, which ran MS-DOS 2.11. Later, I upgraded to DOS 3.2, then DOS 4, but removed that after just a little bit. I upgraded it to DOS 5, then DOS 6.

Along the way, I tried out this little thing called Windows. Version 2.03.

I got into putting together my own computers from parts, and eventually upgraded to Windows 3.0. Later, 3.1, then Windows 95 and Windows 98.

Bought a Gateway desktop with Windows ME, and got rid of that piece of crap operating system almost as soon as Windows XP came out. I later bought a Dell desktop, Gateway laptops, Dell notebooks ... for me, for the Wife, for Number One Son, and for the Little Princess.

The whole time, I was still having a love-hate relationship with computers. At times, I was amazed and thrilled at all the things one could do with a computer.

At the same time, I was quite frustrated with lots of the things I'd run into with computers. Like the Blue Screen Of Death.

Oh, sure, I don't think I've had a BSOD since I dumped Windows ME. But still, there'd be lockups and crashes and such.

And viruses.

I got my first virus back in the days of DOS 4. Stoned. That's when I learned to have an anti-virus program on my computer.

I had McAfee (before they were bought out), Microsoft AntiVirus, IBM AntiVirus, Norton AntiVirus (before they were bought out) ... I tried several. And was happy with most of them.

Well, okay, "happy" is a little strong. I had accepted that I needed security software. And those packages worked rather well.

But it frustrated me that I had to add security software to my operating system. However, that was the reality of having a computer that ran a Microsoft operating system. And that's what I had.

After a while, I decided to try to find a different platform to try. And I tried Linux.

Linux didn't work just right. Well, not with my hardware. I really liked Linux, but there were some issues with the video card in my laptop. And there's not a lot of quality help with issues.

So, I was stuck with a Microsoft operating system.

Vulnerable to all kinds of security threats. Running slow. Frightening upgrades. Software crashes. Hardware crashes. Hard-to-use software. Hardware folks blaming the software folks while the software folks blame the hardware folks.

And on and on.

Linux was supposed to take me away from all that. But it didn't work with my hardware.

So, I was stuck in Windows world.

Until ... this week ... I did the unthinkable.

I bought a Mac.

Catfish split with Greensboro, Royster homers again

For the 6th straight game, Ryan Royster homered for the Columbus Catfish. His 2 RBIs helped the Catfish beat the Greensboro Grasshoppers (Marlins), 8-6.

The rest of the Catfish (29-18) picked up where Royster left off as John Matulia hit a two-run single in the eighth to knot the game,6-6, and Matthew Fields blasted a go-ahead two-run shot, his 15th, in the ninth.

Quinn Stewart also cranked a two-run homer in the third, his 20th, and third in three games. Nevin Ashley doubled in the ninth to extend his hitting streak to 10 games and scored two runs for Columbus.

Catfish reliever Ryan Reid (6-4) yielded one hit over three shutout innings with four strikeouts and one walk. Starter Woods Fines allowed two runs on eight hits over four frames and fanned three.

Chris Hatcher went 3-for-4 with a two-run homer in the fourth and a career-high four RBIs. Scott Cousins chipped in a solo shot, his 13th, for the Grasshoppers (22-27).

Royster's 24th home run of the season puts him in the South Atlantic League lead.

Starter Woods Fines returned from the DL, pitching 4 innings, allowing 2 runs on 8 hits, striking out 3.

The win gives the Catfish a split with with Greensboro and pulls them to within 1/2 game of division-leading Asheville.

Columbus opens a 4-game series at the Northern Division-leading Hickory Crawdads (Pirates) this evening. Hickory has won 6 straight. The Catfish have won 12 of 16.

Catfish beat Greensboro, Royster homers again

Columbus Catfish outfielder Ryan Royster hit two home runs -- the 5th straight game he's gone yard -- to help lead the Catfish to a 15-9 win over the Greensboro Grasshoppers (Marlins) Friday night.

After homering only twice in 27 games in July, the 21-year-old left fielder has eight roundtrippers this month. According to the Royster, it's all about mechanics.

"I'm seeing the ball a lot better and I've cut down on a lot of my body movement," he said. "I'm keeping my hips back and taking much of the tension out of my swings, which in turn helps me see the ball."

The 2004 sixth-round draft pick drilled a two-run blast in the third inning and a three-run shots in the seventh to tie Kannapolis' Christopher Carter for the South Atlantic League with 23 homers. Royster also drove in a run with a groundout in the sixth but fell one RBI short of his career high, set on May 23 against Charleston.

Although he knows baseball can be humbling, Royster wants to ride this wave as long as he can.

"The last few games have been great. I'm enjoying it and having fun and I try and take that attitude into each and every game," he said.

"I'm a bit of a loudmouth, always laughing and such, but after I had that slump in July, I made a point of focusing more. If I did well, I tried to remember my mind-set, which in turn would give me confidence. So far this month, it's been working for me."

Quinn Stewart chipped in his 19th homer and Cesar Suarez went 3-for-6 with three stolen bases and three RBIs for the Catfish (28-18), who pounded out 17 hits.

Columbus starter Jeremy Hellickson (11-2) allowed six runs on six hits and a walk over five innings but struck out 10 to win for the eighth time in his last nine decisions. Wilton Noel yielded a run on a hit and two walks with three strikeouts in three frames to pick up his first save.

Royster's performance, while outstanding, was just a part of a balanced Catfish attack. Every Catfish batter either had a hit or scored a run. In fact, all but two had multiple hits, and all but two had at least one RBI.

The win kept the Catfish on pace with division-leading Charleston, who lead the Catfish by 1-1/2 games. The series with Greensboro wraps up tonight with the Catfish needing a win to gain a split. They head to Hickory, NC to open a 4-game series starting Sunday evening.