Solution to my problem with BPO's DCH?

OK, first, a few definitions for the acronyms in the title. BPO is the world-famous Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (deutsch: Berliner Philharmoniker). DCH is the recently (January 2009) unveiled Digital Concert Hall, at which subscribers may watch live concerts as well as archived concerts in the season from the comfort of their living room. I have watched quite a number of concerts already, and it's well worth the price €89 of for an entire year.

Except, of course, for potential network problems. It seems that in every concert there would be two or three instances that the streaming was disrupted for a few seconds. Here is my current configuration:

• Intel Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600@2.4GHz, 6GB RAM, Microsoft Vista 64-bit
  
• Latest version (10.x) of Adobe Flash Player (running with the 32-bit version of Internet Explorer)
  
• 3Mbps DSL connection (I can usually get 2.5Mbps sustained on bandwidth tests)
  
• 100Mbps wired local area network to the DSL modem, with a NetGear WGT624v3 router

Here is a snapshot of the network activity as captured by the Windows Task Manager:

Note that toward the right, there are two periods of a few seconds with no network activity. The lengths of these two periods were greater than the buffered contents, and, as a result, I experienced the disruptions in content delivery.

This occurred with such regularity that I think there must be a problem somewhere in the network, either my own or along the path to DCH's server—which, not surprisingly, seems to exist in various locations in the world, so that I am actually getting fed from one close to where I live.

I found an update to the firmware of the NetGear router, and the release notes indicate, "Fixed - DHCP reboot issue by heavy traffic". Well, I have been letting the router assign a dynamic address to the media PC, and since watching a concert involves rather heavy network traffic, could this actually pinpoint my problem? So I downloaded the firmware patch. In addition, I reconfigured the media PC to have a static address, so that it doesn't use DHCP at all.

Last night, I watched Bruckner's 9th Symphony again (the first two movements, interrupted in between by an hour of 24), and the streaming went smoothly. Of course, this is not proof that my problem was resolved. But there is hope.

UPDATE 2009-04-05: I was disappointed to experience disruptions to the streaming tonight. I guess this wasn't a fix after all.

The Two Americas

“In America there are two tax systems; one for the informed and one for the uninformed. Both systems are legal.” —Judge Learned Hand

Two very different views on hard work

1. Secret to Raising Smart Kids.

2. 马云对雅虎员工的精彩演讲：爱迪生欺骗了世界 [Got this in a forwarded email; source unknown]

     今天是我第一次和雅虎的朋友们面对面交流。我希望把我成功的经验和大家分享，尽管我认为你们其中的绝大多数勤劳聪明的人都无法从中获益，但我坚信，一定有个别懒的去判断我讲的是否正确就效仿的人，可以获益匪浅。

   让我们开启今天的话题吧！

   世界上很多非常聪明并且受过高等教育的人，无法成功。就是因为他们从小就受到了错误的教育，他们养成了勤劳的恶习。很多人都记得爱迪生说的那句话吧：天才就是99％的汗水加上1％的灵感。并且被这句话误导了一生。勤勤恳恳的奋斗，最终却碌碌无为。其实爱迪生是因为懒的想他成功的真正原因，所以就编了这句话来误导我们。

   很多人可能认为我是在胡说八道，好，让我用100个例子来证实你们的错误吧！事实胜于雄辩。

   世界上最富有的人，比尔盖茨，他是个程序员，懒的读书，他就退学了。他又懒的记那些复杂的dos命令，于是，他就编了个图形的界面程序，叫什么来着？我忘了，懒的记这些东西。于是，全世界的电脑都长着相同的脸，而他也成了世界首富。

     世界上最值钱的品牌，可口可乐。他的老板更懒，尽管中国的茶文化历史悠久，巴西的咖啡香味浓郁，但他实在太懒了。弄点糖精加上凉水，装瓶就卖。于是全世界有人的地方，大家都在喝那种像血一样的液体。

     世界上最好的足球运动员，罗纳尔朵，他在场上连动都懒的动，就在对方的门前站着。等球砸到他的时候，踢一脚。这就是全世界身价最高的运动员了。有的人说，他带球的速度惊人，那是废话，别人一场跑90分钟，他就跑15秒，当然要快些了。

     世界上最厉害的餐饮企业，麦当劳。他的老板也是懒的出奇，懒的学习法国大餐的精美，懒的掌握中餐的复杂技巧。弄两片破面包夹块牛肉就卖，结果全世界都能看到那个M的标志。必胜客的老板，懒的把馅饼的馅装进去，直接撒在发面饼上边就卖，结果大家管那叫PIZZA，比10张馅饼还贵。

     还有更聪明的懒人：

     懒的爬楼，于是他们发明了电梯；

   懒的走路，于是他们制造出汽车，火车，和飞机；

   懒的一个一个的杀人，于是他们发明了原子弹；

   懒的每次去计算，于是他们发明了数学公式；

   懒的出去听音乐会，于是他们发明了唱片，磁带和CD;

   这样的例子太多了，我都懒的再说了。

   还有那句废话也要提一下，生命在于运动，你见过哪个运动员长寿了？世界上最长寿的人还不是那些连肉都懒的吃的和尚？

   如果没有这些懒人，我们现在生活在什么样的环境里，我都懒的想！

     人是这样，动物也如此。世界上最长寿的动物叫乌龟，他们一辈子几乎不怎么动，就趴在那里，结果能活一千年。他们懒的走，但和勤劳好动的兔子赛跑，谁赢了？牛最勤劳，结果人们给它吃草，却还要挤它的奶。熊猫傻了吧唧的，什么也不干，抱着根竹子能啃一天，人们亲昵的称它为“国宝”。

     回到我们的工作中，看看你公司里每天最早来最晚走，一天像发条一样忙个不停的人，他是不是工资最低的？那个每天游手好闲，没事就发呆的家伙，是不是工资最高，据说还有不少公司的股票呢！

     我以上所举的例子，只是想说明一个问题——这个世界实际上是靠懒人来支撑的。世界如此的精彩都是拜懒人所赐。现在你应该知道你不成功的主要原因了吧！

     懒不是傻懒，如果你想少干，就要想出懒的方法。要懒出风格，懒出境界。像我从小就懒，连长肉都懒的长，这就是境界。

   再次感谢大家！

Interesting mutual fund

The Congressional Effect Fund posits that markets do better when the Congress is in recess than when it is in session, and invests accordingly.  Interesting concept, maybe worth a look.

Kleeneliness is next to Gödeliness

Came across this funny pun while reading about the mathematician-logician Kleene. Just too funny!

Toru Yasunaga retires

Toru Yasunaga, concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, has retired from the orchestra after 32 years of membership, and will return to Japan. I saw Mr. Yasunaga at the Philharmonie back in 1994 when I visited Berlin, and, most recently, on BPO's Digital Concert Hall programs, with his solo playing in Brahms's First Symphony. He is indeed impressive.

Proceedings of the Heartland Institute 2009 International Conference on Climate Change

Debunking global warmism.

The Economist's blooper

The Economist is supposed to be a reputable publication, so the blooper in this article is all the more embarrassing:

For all Europe’s Obamamania Mr Obama is, in fact, one of the least European-minded of American presidents. JFK studied at the London School of Economics with Harold Laski, a leading British socialist. Bill Clinton went to Oxford University and surrounded himself with Rhodes scholars who liked to discuss the German educational model. John Kerry was famously not just French-speaking but also “French-looking”.

What's John Kerry doing in a list of presidents? At least they didn't mention the mighty Al Gore.

Draw your parallels

Richard Milhous Nixon: I am not a crook.

Barack Hussein Obama: I am not a socialist.

UPDATE (2009-03-16)

Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi: I am not partisan.

There Is No Such Thing as Nuclear Waste

That was the bold title of an editorial in today's WSJ.  Bolder still is the author's rebuke of Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

Credit card woes

I used to think that I was a pretty savvy credit card user -- the type that credit card companies hate, yet, for some reason, would go to lengths to convince him to keep my accounts open. I almost never paid interest on my cards, as it is against my inclination to buy more than what I can afford. Instead, I pay off the entire balance every month, except when there is a special deal such as a 0% interest during a promotional period.

Well, even I get dinged occasionally. Today I saw a charge of $15 on one of my cards, the description being "processing fee for annual summary". I don't remember asking for it, so I called the card company 0to inquire about it. The customer rep said that I must have signed up for it at some point in time. If I did, I must not have realized that there was a charge attached. It's probably one of those deals that are free for the first time, and then do damage to your wallet thereafter. I attempted to have the charge reversed, but didn't insist hard enough, because if I did enter into a contract, I don't want to renege on it. $15 is not a big deal, so I'll just let it pass and count that against the other perks that I had received from using reward-type credit cards.

But that was a long prelude. My real point for this post is the difference between the last time I tried to close this account and this time. When I asked the customer rep to send me a final statement and close this account, she did not even make a faint attempt to persuade me to keep it open, as another did last time. I suppose this is just another anecdotal evidence that credit card companies are reducing credit now (duh!), and when a customer of my ilk asks for it -- hey, all the better! Well, if the fact that a credit line has been cut contributes to the recovery of the bank that underwrote it, I can claim to have done my part to help the economy. Oh, and add $15 to that.

Jeopardy!

I enjoy watching Jeopardy! a lot.  The "answers" are often too hard for me, esp. those having to do with pop culture, history, and literature.  I do somewhat better with science.

Last night's Final Jeopardy, however, was an interesting exception. The category was "literary character", and part of the clue was that the character's name was based on Greek words for "all" and "tougue". Knowing a little Greek, I came up with Pangloss (a character from Voltaire's Candide).  For this I have to thank Gary North, from whose writing I learned about this character.  I don't remember the exact reference now, but he used this name to mock a professor whose name had a superficial resemblance with it: starting with a P, ending with ss, and having a y in the middle which, like g, goes below the line.

Too bad I couldn't wager real money.

UPDATE 2009-03-16: By the way, for the record, I have a great deal of respect for the above-referenced professor.

Power Nap for Compute Servers

It's past time due to implement power-saving schemes for servers.

Interesting site for mnemonics

Mnemonics, or memoria technica, is a collection of mnemonics. I especially like the self-reference:

Mnemonics Neatly Eliminate Man's Only Nemesis - Insufficient Cerebral Storage

Hoping for failure

I, too, hope they all fail.