I Can Hear You Now
The Winter of 2015 was pretty brutal, with record snowfalls, school closings and delays, and general mayhem on the roads. So when I had the opportunity to go to Peru on a business trip, a warm smile formed on my face. We landed at Lima International Airport, picked up our bags and headed outside. The unfamiliar feel of heat and the sunshine on my face was an amazing change. We were headed to the Miraflores district of Lima, which borders the Pacific ocean and is known for its shopping, parks and beaches. Much of the ride to our hotel was along the Circuito de Playas, which is a highway that runs along the coastline and is reminiscent of the California Pacific Coast Highway.
Each of us reached for our phones around the same time to call home and let our families know we had landed. One co-worker using Verizon had no problem. However, the rest of us who used AT&T were not so lucky. We had all coordinated with our company IT and were assured that our phones would work internationally. We called company tech support, who advised us to restart our phones - no joy. We tried fiddling with our iPhone settings - no joy.
The worst part was we could see the building of the main cell phone carrier, CLARO from our hotel and it seemed inconceivable that there wouldn't be a strong signal from were we were standing.
Through a lot of trial and error, a coworker and I finally figured out a sequence to get our phones working again. I believe it had something to do with the LTE setting interfering with the cellular connection. If you ever have problems getting your phone to recognize and KEEP the local cellular signal while traveling internationally, try this!
1. Restart your iPhone
2. In Settings, go to "Carrier" and toggle off "Automatic"
3. Wait a bit, then select a local carrier from the list (CLARO PER)
4. From Settings, Select "Cellular" then toggle off "Enable LTE"
5. Bask in the glow of a fully working phone
EZPZ and happy travels!
Macbook WiFi Not Working - "First Try!!!"
Chance are if you own a Macbook, you've had periodic WiFi connection problems. When we had problems I found lots of other people online with the same experience. The problem was, there are so many flavors of WiFI problems and a dizzying array of solutions - many of them scary technical. I don't want to be the guy that tries to fix the problem, only to make it worse.
The funny thing is, after many years of struggling with this, the best solution I've found is actually an EZPZ one. So I would humbly suggest if you are having problems, try this first.
It's easy, requires no money, and takes all of 1 minute or so. And now, without further ado:
EZPZ Macbook WiFi Connection Problem Solution
Step 1. Turn off your laptop
Step 2. Turn off your cable modem
Step 3. Turn off your Wifi router
Step 4. Turn on your cable modem, wait for the green lights
Step 5. Turn on your Wifi router
Step 6. Turn on your laptop
Step 7. Check your connection and hopefully, enjoy a solid and stable signal again.
I hope this works for you, too!
Organization All-Star
Have you ever found yourself deep sea fishing to locate a charging cord, headphones, or other small object from depths of your bag? And why does this happen so often when you are under some sort of time pressure, like about to catch a taxi or train or head outside? I have a name for this - the "Pit of Despair." And of course, adding insult to injury, after you've sworn it's not in there and at a time where it really doesn't matter anymore, you find it hanging out with some lint creatures.
I stumbled across a nifty solution for this EXACT organizational indignity. It is called the GRID-IT organizer. Long story short it is board with a series of elastic bands that you use to secure your everyday items so you can retrieve them in a sane and orderly fashion. They come in a few different shapes and sizes.
You can find them online or at various stores. I think I got mine at the local Container Store. Good luck and hope you avoid the Pit of Despair!
Scene from "The Princess Bride" - The Pit of Despair