Best Hubris

After a TON of consternation and A LOT of crappy information out on the Internet, I think I have finally solved a wireless networking issue that has been the bane of my home network for too long.

Help My Wireless Network Keeps Disconnecting

You’ll see those words or some just like them on message boards and forums all over the Internet as the home based network administrator struggles to find a solution to a seemingly bizarre. Wireless network issue.  Often they will blame Windows or Windows XP or Vista too.  They are kind-of-sort-of right, but not really.

If you read the answers, you’ll find a wide assortment of pseudo-experts throwing out impressive sounding, but utterly useless answers.  The typical exchange starts out with the “network pro” suggesting something mind numbingly simple that all but the most naive computer user has probably already tried.  Change the channel, or make sure you have the same WEP passwords on all your computers, or the most common of all, update your drivers.  Folks, update your drivers is a throw away answer that does not come close to troubleshooting the issue.  This is what people at help desks tell people who call in because they hope that it will somehow solve the problem without having to do any actual work.  Yes, you should update your drivers, but this should never be any serious person’s full answer.

It’s The Windows XP Browser

No, really…Well, sort of.  I know a lot about the answers to people who ask about intermittent wireless network dropping because it was the exact same problem I was having.  After looking for an answer long enough I found out that it happens to all kinds of wireless network cards whether Intel, Linksys, Netgear, D-link, Trendnet, you name it.  Depending on where you looked though, that was one of the places the blame was pointed.  “Oh, Netgear sucks, get a real router.”  Some people even insisted matching up hardware, “Oh, you can’t use a Netgear card with a Linksys router.”  And some people even insisted that you can’t use USB wireless adapters.  No, no, no.

Here is the deal.  I have one desktop PC running Windows XP Pro.  It’s a sweet machine.  Then, I have two laptops that are a few years old, but perfectly good for what we use them for.  They are Dell Inspiron 600m with Intel 2200/BG wireless built into them.  The desktop has a D-link USB adapter and the wireless router is a Trendnet.  Ironically, the reason I bought the Trendnet was a seemed to be having some problems with my Netgear one.

All the computers connected just fine to the wireless network, so it isn’t some dumb thing like mismatched passwords.  The problem is they would sometimes drop off the network.  It seemed like it was random.  Sometimes, I would go hours with no issue, other times it seemed like I was getting disconnected every few minutes.  I tried everything.  I updated the drivers.  I updated the router firmware.  I changed from WEP to WPA to WPA2.  I tried Windows Zero Configuration Wireless utility.  I tried the Intel Wireless manager.  I tried the D-link wireless manager, and every combination of the three.  Nothing seemed to work.

Then, one day, I got what would turn out to be my big break.  One evening, I had been working on my desktop computer when my wife joined me and turned on her laptop computer.  Bam!  I was off the network.  I didn’t think anything of it.  I reset my connection.  Then, I heard a big sigh from my wife.  When I asked, she had just been kicked off the network.  Shortly thereafter I caught a bigger break when my Event Viewer logged a network disconnect and a browser election event at the exact same time.  Yes!  The problem is the computer browser. 

Unfortunately, as I searched the Internet with my new keywords, I found out that it didn’t make a difference.  The same half-helpful ding dongs answering the wireless connection drops questions were the ones answering the computer browser makes the wireless connection drop questions.  The answer was always, “What kind of router/card,” followed by “More details/Log files” followed by “Maybe it’s your cordless phone” and ultimately either “Buy a new router/card” or nothing, the thread would just end.  Truth is, the person sounding like the expert probably never had a clue what could possibly be the issue.

Broadcasts and Networks

The answer finally came in, of all places, a Facebook forum.  Turns out the real administrators from Facebook actually help out their users by really trying to understand their problems.  After all, people might just decide to stop using Facebook before they decide to buy a new router.

I don’t remember the question or the exact answer, and I can’t seem to find it anymore, but it came down to this.  If you are running Windows (any kind of Windows) in a small home wireless network you might have this connection dropping issue.  Why?

Every so often, your Windows computer will for whatever reason want a browse list.  The browse list is nothing more than a way to find computers on a network by name.  It is woefully outdated and nobody with a serious network uses it (quite frankly, they probably block it at every router).  But, it works great for the small home network because it takes no setup.

The way it works is that whenever you turn on a computer, once it gets on the network it sends a broadcast out onto the network asking for the browse list.  Normal network traffic has a destination.  But in order to have a destination, you need to know where the other computers are.  A broadcast solves this Catch-22 by being sent to everybody.  Think of a five-year old in a crowded room looking for their mother, “Mom?  Mom?  Mom?”  Everyone in the room can hear him calling out for his mother even though the message is not meant for them.  A broadcast works the same way.

Now, in order for this to work, there has to be just one list that gets updated, otherwise there might be discrepancies between the lists.  To achieve this goal, the computers hold a Browser Election.  Basically, if a computer want to have the master list, it has to be the master browser.  There is an algorithm on how this election gets one, but the important thing is that it all happens by broadcasts.

Ok, here comes the glitch.  If you have a small area wireless network, then it is possible that all of the computers will receive the broadcast at the same time, and they will all respond at the same time.  This has a technical term, I don’t know it.  When this happens, the wireless router won’t hear everyone properly.  (Think about five kids shouting for mom).  The router will either respond incorrectly, or not at all to one or more of the computers.  This computer will wait for the proper response before it sends any more network traffic.  This is why the connection does not show up in the icon as disconnected.  It isn’t really.  It is just that it will wait literally forever before it sends any other traffic for that proper response.  Since the router thinks it already responded (or didn’t know it needed to respond), no signal will ever be sent, and BOOM, your connection is dropped.

If you have a big house, the difference in signal between your master bedroom and the kitchen is probably enough to keep this from happening.  But, I live in a bungalow style house and my wife and I often share the same room, so the distance from router to computer isn’t far and the computers are even closer together than that.  I’m sure there is a ratio of some sort here where if you are too close or too far you’ll never have a problem which is why no one ever believes the people who do have the issue.

Advanced Router Settings

There is a fix!  First off, if you do have Intel 2200BG wireless adapters you do need to get new drivers if you still have the original ones.  The way you can tell if you need new drivers is if they allow you to chose WPA-2 with AES or not.  If they only allow you to choose WEP or WPA with TKIP, they are too old.  Otherwise, if all your equipment allows for WPA-2 with AES, then you should be ready.

Log into your wireless router and look for the advanced settings.  It might be called something different, but basically you are looking for where you get to put numbers into certain parameters, not where you get to put your password or SSID or anything like that.

You may not have all these settings.  That might be a problem, and it might not.  Change what you can and see if it helps. 

Most wireless routers come pre-configured by default with their ideal settings for a perfect environment.  And why not?  Always hope for the best.  If your wireless network keeps dropping then you are looking to tweak some of these settings.  Yes, they will technically slow down your wireless network, but I will bet you that you only rarely consume your full bandwidth anyway, especially if you mainly use your wireless to share an Internet connection and a printer or two.  (Your Internet connection is way slower than your wireless.  My Comcast Internet with one step upgrade is something like 7 Mb/sec.  The wireless goes at 54 Mb/sec so even if I lost 3 Mb/sec off the wireless I’d still be fine.)  Besides, what is worse, a connection that keeps dropping or one that is a teeny tiny bit slower?

The settings you want to tweak are the fragmentation threshold and the RTS number (they might be called something slightly different, but you should be able to tell them.)  The fragmentation usually comes set at 2346.  Drop it to 2306.  The RTS usually comes at 2347.  Drop it to 2304.  If it works, then here is your virtual high-five.

If not, then lower the Beacon (usually set at 100) to 50.

Still doesn’t work.   Go to your computers and look at the card’s configuration.  If it lets you choose between RTS and CTS, choose RTS.  Otherwise, the RTS changes at the router will just be ignored.

If you still don’t have it, make sure that you actually have the same issue.  Here is a summary of the symptoms:

• All computers can and do connect to the wireless when first started.
• When the connection drops it is seemingly random, that is it doesn’t always drop when you do a specific thing.
• It isn’t just the one computer that drops.  If you have this problem, then all of your computers should be just as likely to drop as another one.
• You don’t have other errors in Event Viewer (except for browser, live update, automatic update, etc…)

If so, then try adjusting the settings down a little bit at a time.  These numbers make big changes for small values, so start with something like 10 less for the fragmentation and the RTS and something like 2 or 3 less for the beacon.  Also, always keep the RTS exactly two lower than the fragmentation.  If you get down to 1800 or something, you are barking up the wrong tree.  Sorry.

Good luck.  I hope this helps.

Here is a good lesson for business owners and management.  Do not pretend that you don’t know what is going on in the business world.  It only makes you look like a fool.

There was an episode of the West Wing in which the staff insist the President not use his opponent’s name because it gives him free publicity.  The President asks that if he doesn’t use his opponent’s name, won’t it just look like he doesn’t know his name?  The absurdity being that everyone already knows both names; presidential elections are like that.  (Whether you are Republican, Democrat, or hate politics, by now you know that names of the two guys running this year.)

This brings me to today’s post.  I always laugh when people or companies try and pretend to be oblivious of the obvious to make themselves try and look good.  Ironically, they only end up making themselves look foolish.

The folks at Microsoft’s new online push have released a new version of Windows Live Writer that addresses some of my previous problems with it, so I’ve re-installed it and am starting to use it again.  So far, so good.

Windows Live Writer’s Absurd Omission

While setting up my blogs, I noticed that Microsoft has declared itself to be the victor in the blogging universe despite the fact that it is currently a tiny niche player.  When you setup Windows Live Writer to work with your blog you get a setup screen like this one:

If you aren’t laughing out loud right now, you probably don’t know much about blogging.  The most used blogging service is Wordpress.  The other most common ones are Blogger and TypePad.  These are so ubiquitous it’s like, not including Google, Yahoo, and MSN in your new search related software.  Only, on the Microsoft blogging software, none of the top three are listed.  Sure, they are there under “Another Weblog Service,” but what kind of message does this box send?  If you have a great new search product and it says “What Search Engine Do You Use?” — Bob’s Search, Lycos Search, or Another Search Engine, what kind of message does that send regarding your understanding of your target users?

Microsoft hopes that this box add legitimacy to its Johnny-come-lately addition to the online universe called Live Spaces.  What it really does is give everyone a big fat reminder that Microsoft is not only not a leader in the online world, but frequently a hinderance.  (It’s Internet Explorer is legendary for it’s terrible implementation of standards it supposedly supports — Search anywhere for IE and CSS for examples.)  Furthermore, it suggests that Microsoft is pretending that there aren’t thousands of people and sites out there who have been up and running and doing just fine while Microsoft was trying to decide if the this whole Web 2.0 thing was real or not.  So, your average Internet professional (like Moi) sees this screen and thinks, “Who are they kidding?”  I mean, I’m assuming that they aren’t delusional enough to know that the likes of Wordpress and Blogger make up the vast majority of sites out there.   So, they have to be doing it on purpose.  I guess they hope people will be setting this software up and decide to give one of these services a try.

What they have actually done is to put out a software that reinforces the notion that Microsoft software is cumbersome and difficult to setup.  Not long from now, other blogging software will update or a new one will come along with features.  But, this other software will have easy default buttons for setting up Wordpress and Blogger and the reviews will start to say things like “Much easier to setup than Windows Live Writer” and before you know it, Microsoft has released yet another product that no one has any interest in actually using.  The only users they’ll be left with are the lowest end people who use whatever comes pre-installed on their computer without doing any research or investigation.  Needless to say, these won’t be the people producing the top blogs on the Internet.

So, welcome to Windows Live Writer.  It is cool today, but absurd corporate politics have doomed it to be a weak player in the market.  Feel free to use it as a place holder until a Mozilla backed version of blogging software comes along.

Yesterday, I was handed a business card. This isn’t unusual. In fact, I get them all the time, which may be what made this one stand out so much. It was laminated. At first, I thought, “What a great idea!” After all, getting your business card to stand out is a major goal of any entrepreneur. But, as always, it is important to look at all the angles.

What Do Your Clients Want

Again, standing out is your goal, but what do your clients or prospective clients want? Just because you are an Internet savvy technology hound who keeps all your contact information in a high-tech contact management system, doesn’t mean everyone is. Believe it or not, there are still a lot of businessmen and businesswomen out there who are old school. They keep their business cards in something you may of heard of called a Rolodex. The standard Rolodex punch probably has enough umpph to get through a laminated card, but I’m not certain everyone would try, and unlike you, they don’t want your card sticking out like a sore thumb when they go flipping through. A different color, or a bright graphic is fine, but a plastic card is like those stupid ads in magazines that keep you from flipping through. If it’s irritating enough, they’ll yank it and toss it.

One person I talked to said they didn’t care about these kind of people. After all, if they weren’t more savvy than that, he didn’t want their business. Um…Hello? If you were going to bet your house against the age of a random senior manager at a Fortune 1000 company, would you bet over 45 or under? Me, too. Young and hip is cool, but older still has more of the power.

What about your tech savvy clients? Does your thick laminated card fit through the business card scanner they use? Does it feed properly? Does it scan, or does the light get reflected?

Then, there are those who are power users of business cards, like to keep them in business card holders. First, in a small one in their pocket, and then in some sort of binder. Your laminated card might be just big enough not to fit, or to make the premium leather holder they spend a pretty penny on not close properly. So, they throw it in a bag or briefcase where it gets lost forever.

Finally, you have people like me. I like to jot a note down on a business card sometimes. It might just be a reminder of who they are, or where I met them. Sometimes, it’s even more important, maybe the name of the product I should be looking at, or a price, or a local supplier. Either way, if I can’t quickly write it on the business card, then, I’ll probably just try and remember. I don’t want to take those odds.

How To Stand Out Good

Having the business card stand out is most definitely a good goal, but there are better ways to do it. Color is a great way. You can write, scan, file, on cards of most any color. Slightly nicer paper or embossing are good ideas too. Also, take advantage of all that space on the back. A quick tip, or link to a web site, or something else your clients will find useful can all improve the common business card.

For Mr. Laminated, I remember the card, so good job. The only problem is, I don’t think I have it around here anymore…

I keep reading that people with bigger monitors are more productive than those without.  Recently, I went from a 15″ LCD to a 22″ Widescreen LCD.  I have to admit, when I first put it up on my desk it seemed HUGE.  I mean, ridiculous, as in, “What did I just waste my money on?”  But, I’ve learned how to work with it, and I can say that it definitely provides a huge productivity boost.

Take Full Advantage of Bigger Monitor

The only way a bigger monitor is going to increase your productivity is if you use it differently than you used your old smaller monitor.  It takes a few days to get used to all the real estate and what you can do with it, but once you do, there is no stopping you.

To help cut down on how long it takes you to start maximizing your usage, here are some tips.

Re-visit Your Application Settings

When you first started running your applications, you combed through the settings and moved the toolbars and windows around to suit your old monitor.  It’s time to do that again.  The file folder view that you squished to make more room for the main window can now be widened to actually be useful.  This will be especially useful for those development, imaging, and desktop publishing apps that come with so many features that they can’t all be displayed at once.  They probably still can’t, but you can display a lot more of them.

Double Your Windows

Ok, with a small monitor, you got used to working in a full screen window and then switching to another window when you needed to.  With a 22″ widescreen monitor, a full screen window almost never makes sense unless you are in one of those feature heavy apps above.  In fact, you’ll notice yourself moving your head around in a cartoon like way as you end a line on the right side of the screen and go all the way back to the left edge of the screen.  At 22″ a half-half isn’t usually optimal, but I find that setting  two windows at 2/3 (more like 5/8) of the width means that I can switch back and forth super fast.  Sometimes I don’t even need to switch because I can get enough of the picture from the rest of the window I can see behind my main window.  This is awesome for when I am referencing information in one window and typing or coding based on that info in another.  If I need to see it all a lot, then I go to 1/2 and 1/2 and it is awesome.

Here is why I do business consulting and business coaching. I get an email today from Microsoft. I attended an event not long ago for their CRM product. Truth be told, I’m doing just fine with Zoho right now, so we’ll call it good. But, they were offering a free license of Office 2007 Professional, and cheap software is a good thing. In order to register I gave them an email address, so here we are.

Invited to Microsoft Small Business Center

The email invited me to take a look around the Microsoft Small Business Center. At first glance, this thing looks chock-full of useful information. A few minutes clicking, however, reveals something a little different.

First, you never know which clicks go to real useful information, and which clicks take you to a page where the “solution” is a 60-day trial of some Microsoft product. Unless you don’t have a word processor, it is doubtful that the solution to any of your business issues is a product. Chances are a product could help you, but it won’t be the solution.

Second, even if the click does take you to information and not an infomercial, the information isn’t exactly “wow” material. Take “5 Ways to Create a Media Kit,” for example. A media kit is a critical resource in getting the word out about your small business, especially if you are in a higher-end service business where your target market isn’t likely to respond to form letters or cold calls. So, information on 5 ways to create a media kit would be most welcome.

Create a Media Kit

Here are the so-called 5 ways to create a media kit.

1. Cover the conventional basics.
2. Choose brand-appropriate, consistent packaging.
3. Decide on digital and print options.
4. Include a call to action.
5. Stay timely.

Um, that’s not even one way to create a media kit. Those are five hints you might want to keep in mind when creating a media kit, but that is a far cry from 5 ways to create a media kit.

Really Create a Media Kit

As part of our business coaching we cover various forms of marketing and one of the key forms of marketing is a media kit. Our information includes how to actually create a media kit, not breeze platitudes. Our advice involves choosing a format, usually a file folder or presentation book depending upon the industry. Then, it involves how many pages to include, and what should be on each page. It also includes formatting examples, and things like whether or not to include some sort of coupon, sample, or give-away, depending on your industry. We help with design and offer feedback and tips. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t include any advice on staying timely, so they got us there. Of course, after reading that one sentence, I think you know everything you need to know about timely-ness.

Real Solutions for the Real World

There are successful professionals out there who don’t need fluffy hand holding advice. What they need is the prospective of a fellow business professional that has seen things they haven’t seen and tried things they haven’t tried. We provide that tangible real world consulting or coaching to our clients. That’s what separates us from the pack.

I was thinking, for some reason, this morning about the movie Catch Me If You Can, with Leonardo Di Caprio and Tom Hanks. In the movie, Leonardo’s character impersonates a lawyer. In order to do so he has to pass the state bar exam. This is the only thing that Tom Hanks’ character can’t figure out. Leo finally tells him that he just studied for two weeks and passed. My wife is a lawyer and is dubious of that claim.

Be that as it may, I have always been able to learn things from books. I learn them so well, that I can retain most of it and can therefore pass tests pretty well too. I got a certification in Netware back in the day, having never touched the product (just read the study book). I also got a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification without taking any of the classes. More recently, I was able to get my Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certification by just taking the “accelerated” courses my firm offered. The “regular” course of study is over 3 years and the accelerated took just 12 months. The catch is that I quit before we finished, so I did the last 3 classes on my own. Although I signed up for online training I never did anything but read the books they sent me and do the practice questions. I passed the first time out. The failure rate on that test is something like 45% and over 50% for first timers, so it’s nothing to sneeze at.

Business Coaching & Business Consulting, but no paper skills

The reason this is intriguing to me is that we offer business and management consulting and coaching. What makes us different is that our techniques and procedures are very much grounded in real world tangible every day skills whereas most others offering similar services seem to work with much more “soft” skills. For example, a manager getting the advantage of our coaching gets real tips on how to manage his people. After all, this is what being a manager is all about. When I say “real tips,” I mean actual language that can be used to diffuse a situation or actual disciplinary actions that should be taken and so on. Others ofter “team building” or “goal setting.” Don’t get me wrong, we do that too, but that is where we start, not where we end.

So, what is the deal with the movie? Despite the experience and skills that we bring to the table, and the much more useful and sought after techniques we use, we don’t necessarily have the kinds of things that certain people look for on paper. For example, my experience comes from consulting and contracting in dozens of companies and seeing many management styles and many failed business strategies. But, my degree is in Biochemistry, and my only job title that matches the service is my current one. (I’ve done plenty of this type of thing before, but my title was always something more technical.) So, to certain people (usually those who have never met us, but who have to sign off on the request) it doesn’t look like we have the proper stature. Enter the CPA.

CPA = Big Paper Skills

The CPA exam is a multi-part exam which has multiple study guides availible for it. I don’t know everything, but I know plenty about business, math, taxes, and so on. I’m not saying I already know everything, but I do have a very firm grounding in the concepts. Using the aforementioned learning from reading skill, I’m confident I can pass the CPA exams and then put on that piece of paper that I have not only real world experience, but also that I am a Certified Public Accountant. I’ve got some research to do, but hopefully this is something I can make happen in between my four businesses, the book I want to write, the products I want to market, and …

So, it’s the first week of May, and I have jury duty. Yeah! Actually, other than having to make changes in my usual Wednesday, it isn’t that big of deal. Sitting in a quiet room with a hundred plus strangers is a little odd, but otherwise, nothing too exciting.

The “orientation” is an 18 minute video with a local news anchor providing the narration. After spending way too much time studying and analyzing various training techniques, I can’t help but notice them in the video. Although there are no explicit directions as to what you have to do as a jury or juror (there can’t be, by law), the “examples” from former jurors are carefully structured to “suggest” some rules. No less than four people come on the screen to metion how they “were impressed with their fellow jurors” and came to realize that each of them “deserved their respect.” Translation: You are getting sleepy…You should respect the other jurors even if they look like scumbags or seem stupid.

Then, there are the seemingly unrelated yet repeated by each person on the screen topics of “everyone has their say”, “we made sure everyone said something”, and “we went around the table by juror number and everyone said at least one thing about each point,” and my personal favorite: “I think it is important to speak up and at least say something even if you are introverted like I am.” Translation: You are getting sleepy…You will go around the room and make sure everyone says something. You will say something even if you are shy.

I can’t decide whether to mess with the system by pointing out in the juror room that none of those ideas are things we actually have to do, and maybe we would be better off by only listening to the people who feel strongly enough about something to speak up themselves without being called on.

I would post live from here, but I can’t get Internet access despite having connect to a strong signal from wireless network named: “Free Internet Access”. I’m not getting a default gateway and I think that is the problem, so I don’t get name resolution and can’t seem to ping or tracert to anything. I don’t see any signs or handouts regarding access and the people working the window don’t strike me as the kind who’s forte is wireless hotspots. When we get a break I’ll pop down to the cafe. I bet the access is from there and they may have instructions. For now, I’ll type into Blog Desk and mass post when I get access.

I’ve become obsessed with themes in Wordpress. Nothing seems to be exactly what I want, although there are a lot of great themes out there. Currently I’m using this grid based theme (see credit in footer). I’ve been hacking at it for a while now, and I’m not sure it looks as good as the one on another site of mine Undefeated Daddy which is using the WP Premium theme with virutally no hacking (just to make things work in my file structure). So, it continues…

Shouldn’t the built-in web-based post writing interface of Wordpress have a way to upload images within it? I’m talking about the one you get when you click Write -> Post on a standard Wordpress installation. Yes, I have FileZilla and I get how to FTP, but seriously, how hard can it be to have a button like on Gmail where you click “Browse” and then upload your file from there? It would go perfectly in the dialog box that pops up when you click the little tree icon. I mean for all the versions we’ve gone through here you would think someone else would have looked into this by now.

Throughout most of my life, I have been a procrastinator.  In some cases this has been very much to my detriment.  However, often, my other abilities have been able to pull me through to success when it really counted.  Still, to those around me the length of time it takes me to complete certain things is frustrating.  Even more difficult, is the frenzy that over takes me when it becomes time to complete a two-week task in just a day or two because I have just now begun to undertake the task now that the deadline seems to loom large enough on the horizon for me to take seriously.  It doesn’t take much analysis to see the folly of proceeding with one’s life in the this manner.  It would be much better for me, and I would be a much happier person if I did not function in this way and instead were able to work even a small bit at a time far in advance of a deadline.  But, for some reason, I can’t seem to “force” a change in this aspect of my person.

Tonight, something happened that made a piece (possibly only a small piece) of this puzzle a little clearer to me.  For the better part of a week or more now, I have an Amazon order that I want to place.  This order is for things I want and need and those things will bring both me and my family pleasure and happiness.  Yet, the order has yet to be made.  Largely, this is due to the non-deadline nature of the order.  After all, we aren’t talking about anyone going hungry here.  But, less than an hour ago, I ordered a new monitor (not from Amazon).  The intention to make this order has existed for less than 4 hours.  Although I have been following the prices of monitors and had chosen the kind of monitor and even the brand if it could be made to work, I haven’t ordered it because of the cost and the mistaken impression that my lovely wife would not approve at this time.  Today, during the course of conversation this revealed itself to be a false assumption coinciding perfectly with an Internet posting showing that the exact monitor I have been looking at was on sale for a price well below the lowest price it had been seen for in the past.  So, I ordered it.

This seemingly borrowed urgency came from a single source.  Fear.  With such a good price on exactly the right monitor there existed the possibility that my ability to get that price would disappear if the monitor was sold out or the price raised in response to demand.  And so, the task was completed in record time.  (The couple of hours of delay were the result of factors including my baby’s need to eat, a showing for our house, and so on.)

The obvious question is can this sense of urgency be faked?  I can’t manufacture fear.  My brain is too intelligent to be fooled by lying to myself (as I assume most people’s brains are) so there isn’t a way to pretend that the products that I need to order will disappear.  Indeed, one could argue that by waiting I increase the odds of them going on sale before I make the order.  False deadlines don’t work either.  I’ve been trying that game for years with no success.  Again, lying to yourself is seldom an effective tool.  Instead, I find myself searching for a mechanism to mimic the fear.  Is there a way to create a real non-lie synthetic version of fear?  Something that compels one to action in the same way as a desire to avoid an imminent, unpleasant, probable outcome does, while missing one or more of those factors?

If I find it, I solve not only my own procrastination problem, but potentially that of many others.  I hope it’s patentable.