Technology should just work. And given my focus on technology at home and at the office, it should work very well for me - right? So, then why do I have to deal with issues like cable modem outages and power adapters that simply don't work? I've mentioned both of those issue on the blog before, and yet, we're here again.

Apple's power adapters are still horrible. For some reason, my PowerBook G4 simply stopped liking Apple's power adapters, which, even if connected, would only have a fifty-fifty chance of actually charging the laptop. I'd have to adjust the wire or the connecting port at all sorts of odd angles to see the battery percentage go up at all. So, after dealing with this for weeks, I bit the bullet and ordered a Macally power adapter, which not only works with the PowerBook G4, but also costs half the price of Apple's. So now, at least that's working, and now, we get to throw away yet another Apple power adapter - the absolute worst hardware they make, period.

Oh yeah... and did I mention our cable modem is back on the blink? Literally. The darn thing's blinking, and we have no access. I didn't pay monthly fees in order to use it less than 31 days a month... and I expect it to work. If it wants to take time off for maintenance, then why doesn't that happen when I'm at the office, and nobody is using it at home? As far as I know, the beagle has yet to learn how to do much more than eat and sleep and rearrange our furniture. So, we're stuck. And now we get to remember what use computers were... before the Internet.

It shouldn't be this way. Anything less than 24 by 7 uptime is simply not acceptable.

Growing up in the late 1980s/early 1990s, I started my sports fan experience as a dedicated follower of the Oakland A's, led primarily by Bash Brothers Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire. From 1988 through 1990, the A's reached the World Series every year, and followed up in 1992 by winning the American League Western Division title. Throughout this time, Jose Canseco was my favorite player - nobody could hit the ball as far as he could, or walked with such a swagger. While at times the talk of steroids came up, or fans at opposing cities chanted "Steroids, Steroids!" at him, it was largely dismissed as rumor.

Soon, Canseco wore out his welcome in Oakland, and McGwire rose up to eclipse Canseco's place in the power echelon, overcoming injuries to post multiple seasons of more than 50 home runs, something Canseco had never accomplished, and topping it all with a record 70 home runs as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals in the epic 1998 race against Sammy Sosa. During these years, McGwire's body took on dramatic changes, as he grew thicker, broader, and talk of steroids again rose up - highlighted by the charges of his using androstenedione after a bottle of the drug was found in his locker. But as baseball had no testing program in place, neither he nor Canseco or others of their era were ever charged with breaking the rules. There were no rules - unless you were known to use cocaine or other illegal drugs - and even then, it would mean a short-term suspension. Yankees reliever Steve Howe, after all, had been suspended seven times altogether and kept getting another chance.

All this leads us to today's topic du jour - San Francisco Giants outfielder and home run champion Barry Bonds. Barry, like McGwire, started out a lanky player with home run power, who saw his offensive output explode after hitting his prime. In fact, after age 35, Barry had by far his best ever season, when in 2001, he broke McGwire's single season home run record, knocking out 73. But after federal agents raided a Burlingame lab and uncovered the BALCO case, linking Barry, Jason Giambi and other stars to the use of performance-enhancing drugs, Barry has been unable to shake allegations he knowingly used steroids, despite multiple denials on his part - in court and on the field. With the announcement yesterday that two San Francisco Chronicle reporters have issued a book called Game of Shadows, dedicated to Barry's steroid use, with more details than ever before, any doubts that Barry is dirty are now gone.

As a fan, I wanted badly to believe that Barry was clean. He may play for the Giants, but he is a phenomenal athlete to watch, and has done things that nobody has been able to do - things based on a talent he was born with beyond other players, even the greatest of stars. Similarly, I wanted to also believe that McGwire and Canseco were clean, and as an A's fan, I saw Jason Giambi join the ranks of the tainted, as the entire steroids scandal seemed to rotate around the Bay Area. That's part of being a fan - believing in the unbelievable, and hoping that these humans can be without fault or error. It's part of hoping that the sport (and other sports) is untarnished, clean itself, and that you can believe in the product you've paid good money to see and that the statistics being hit are true - without enhancements. I have been in significant denial, even when showered with mountains of evidence. I want to believe that those who are cheaters are found and eliminated. I wanted to believe Barry was not one of them, because his name, at the end of his career, will be all over the record books and I want to believe in those records. I want to revere those statistics the way we always have those of the past. 714, 373, 61, 755, 511, 660, and 586 all mean something to me. I only wish the new numbers could be remembered with the same fondness.

More in an irregularly occurring series when there's news to discuss and not the time to do it.

This morning, Apple added Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" to the iTunes Music Store, and in a unique twist, set up a subscription process, where customers can pay $9.99 now, and not only receive the most recent show, but the next fifteen, as they air and become available. Effectively, that brings each episode to you for the low, low price of 66 cents each - contrasted with $1.99 being the typical fare for a 30-minute or 60-minute broadcast. It sets the stage for additional subscription-based services, a break from its buy and own model.

Yesterday, Microsoft revamped its search engine... again... in an attempt to take on Google for the world's most thorough Internet archive and index. Moving from MSN.com to its new Live.com, quasi-Web 2.0 site, the new search engine closely mimics Google's personal homepage service for customization and saved searches. However, in my attempts to use the site on Mac OS X, with both Safari and Firefox, results have been less than outstanding.

Additionally, Google's premature announcement of GDrive also included some presentation notes discussing forward looking financials, which forced the company to further disclose the data, according to SEC regulations. Due to their mistakes, their stock is getting hammered to the tune of $10 a share, and the media says after a series of financial missteps, "this one takes the cake" for the young, fast-moving company.

After all the hype around Microsoft's Origami, prototypes of the devices were displayed at Intel's Developer Forum today, and according the News.com, the response has been a resounding thud. After weeks of bloggers hyping what could have been an iPod-killer, a PSP-killer, Palm-killer all in one, the device looks a lot like a tablet, too large for a handheld and too small for a laptop - so yet another entry in this elusive market that is hard to define and even harder to serve.

Interestingly, Microsoft's PR execution followed by an understated product introduction follows a very similar experience from TiVo last week, and Apple earlier. In all three cases, the companies elusively spread tidbits of information, and in the vacuum, bloggers and media hopefuls filled in the gaps - almost to a fault, as in every case more was expected than what was delivered, satisfying none who were watching. In this era of instant analysis, product debuts can be crowned successes or defeats even before a single device has shipped and reached customers. It's a far cry from the mantra of "underpromise and overdeliver". Through time, companies that elicit such a strong following will have to learn to temper expectations - whether through improved secrecy or in its opposite, increased openness.