Not Pleased With MyYahoo...

I use my.yahoo.com to get all my news, fun stuff and feeds from all the blogs I read. The last couple of weeks I have not been able to get anything on my feed page. When I go to read you every day all I get is 'Ooops!'

I'm getting tiered of oops. Not only is Yahoo having problems of late but their product is starting to suck. The TV guide I have on page one is useless. I'm would love to find another home page but nothing will allow me to customize the layout and color scheme like Yahoo. That's one area they have MSN and Google beat hands down...they don't let you customize and they load a little sluggish for my taste.

Anyone have any suggestions?
Side note: forgot to mention...doesn't matter if it's IE, FF or Chrome. Same thing. And yes, all you tech support guru's, I did delete cookies and cache.

Beast's Lair...

Been a while since my last computer talk. At the end of February my wonderful boss let me replace the POS (not Point Of Sale...you get my drift) system I had with an XPS 420. Since I often have as many as 8 web pages, 3+ spreadsheets, 2 email clients and IM all going at once I was sick of the old system (P-4, 1.6 GHz, 512 MB ram) locking up under load and desperate to try two monitors. After this one arrived I bought a new 24" for home and brought the extra one to add to the new system. Here's the Beast's work cave:

It's been a good system overall. Here's the specs:

XPS 420
3 GB RAM
Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 3.16 GHz
ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro w/ 256MB
300 GB hard drive

Raw speed is awesome...makes me wonder how much better it would be with XP but Vista was the only choice. Don't get me wrong, Vista is pretty and slick but some of the new stuff left me wondering "now why in the world would they change that?"...like why does it now take an extra step to get to display properties? ...for that matter why did they split the display properties window with it's tabs into a web page with icons? ...and why when you attach a file to a message using Windows Mail (OE7) does the button at the bottom of the box say 'Open' when on all previous versions of Outlook Express it says 'Attach'? ...I could go on and on but it's more evidence to me that programmers don't spend enough time in the real world talking to real people about how they really use computers before they design things.

While I'm on bad stuff: the video driver has an annoying habit of failing every few days causing the system to uncontrollably reboot. Did this the first day out of the box. Doesn't matter if it's one monitor or two, fancy or simple background, with or without sidebar. Sometimes it will go days and work fine, sometimes it will crap out several times in one day. Upgraded to a new driver from ATI just after I got it, same problem. ATI just came out with another new one Wednesday...so far so good. On the plus side hardware wise I can plug in any brand of MP3 player or Camera and Vista handles it, so far, with no fuss and no special 3rd party software.

On the plus side Vista does keep better tabs on your files and has a vastly improved search feature. The Documents window (old Windows Explorer) is much more informative. It's easier to customize your view and column needs based on what your looking for. Pictures and music are easier to access. I'm mainly stoked about the speed, though. I can have a dozen things open and active, PC-Cilin kicks in a scan and I don't even notice it. This system isn't that much more powerful than my year-old XPS 410 running XP at home. I can't tell much difference in single app performance from one to the other but Vista really shines at multi-tasking. It's supposed to make better use of multi-core processors and as far as I can tell it works as advertised.

Before I got this I read horror stories about people being pestered to the point of suicide by the security warning. For me the solution was simple: Firewall, Auto Update & Malware Protection all on; User Account Control OFF! and let the 3rd party Security do it's job. No more pestering. In fact, no more annoying than XP.

So what's the verdict?
Hardware compatibility: overall a C- (I would have expected this if I upgraded an XP system but, for cryin' out loud! They (MS, Dell, ATI) have had over a year to get together on this! Pull your heads out, guys! Oh-by the way: SP1 didn't do a thing. No problems but no help either.

Aesthetics: B (Vista is really nice looking--Sidebar and Sideshow are neat little toys but not very practical--but some of the change-for-the-sake-of-change stuff and the lack of thinking things through hold it back)

Performance: A+ (the overall system really screams...I never dreamed I could work my helter-skelter way and have a computer keep up with me. I spank it and it says "That all you've got, big boy?"...my kind of computer!)

Overall Grade: B+ to A- (the graphics driver thing would bother me more if I were doing heavy video or gaming, but for what I need at work my main appetite is well fed)

My recommendation, for what it's worth: if your going to get a PC with Vista, go ahead but go full boar on the hardware. I skimped on the graphics and sound because I don't expect to do any gaming or heavy multimedia stuff here but now I wish I had gone the extra for a top end video card. BTW: PC-Cilin kicks Norton's and McAfee's butt for usability and politeness...it has none of their in-your-face look-at-me-or-I'll-lock-up-your-computer arrogance. It also caught a couple of things in email and file archives that I transferred over from the old system that Norton had missed. AND-two monitors ROCK!!! You couldn't pay me to go back to one monitor!

The overall system works great for me. I went light on audio/sound, middle of the road on graphics and upped processor and RAM. It really paid off. The only thing I might do is upgrade the graphics card if I keep having trouble with this one...plus this card only has one DVI and one VGA port. I'd like to get one with two DVI's.

Oh...that's my Beautiful Wife just over the top of the monitor. Yes, my wife and I work together. How can I stand it, you ask? Quite well, thank you very much, but...that's another post.

From The Call Log

I understand what Jeremy and Laura are talking about. My experience at i2 more closely resembled their experiences...people from different regions were closer to stereotypes. There we dealt with the 5-6000 company employees and not John Q. Public. We had a narrow captive audience.

Before that I dealt with the general public. If you bought the software, opened the box and called the number or if you got the free CD in the mail and needed help, I was one of the guys you talked to. If you've ever dealt with the public you know that anything can happen. I had quite a few memorable calls--

Neatest call, a tie:

• First - was helping a guy from Hawaii one day configure his modem. While waiting for a connection to go through I heard a steady 'whoosh--whoosh' in the back ground. I asked "...is that what I think it is?" He laughed and said "Yeah, I live just off the beach. I have the patio door open." Wow.


• Second - on New Years Eve at @ 4:00 p.m. Dallas time I was talking to a guy in the Paris office of i2 Technologies with the most pleasant British accent I've ever heard. As we finished he said "Happy New Year, mate! I'm going to go celebrate New Year's in Paris with half a million of my closest Parisian friends!" Double Wow.

Most rewarding call:
Doing Windows 95 support I was talking with a guy in mid-town Manhattan. He was a professor at NYU and his wife was a real estate agent. He had all his lectures, research & class material and she had all her real estate records on their computer. He was upgrading IE from v3 to v4 (the infamous 'Active Desktop' upgrade). He had forgotten to disable his anti-virus beforehand. Anti-virus programs were notorious in those days for bricking a system if they were running during the Active Desktop install. He called his OEM when he got this black screen with a blinking cursor and a funny looking "C:\" thing. Their answer: "run restore". Wiping his drive wasn't an option so he made a paid-support call to Windows support. I got permission and walked him through a nearly 4 hour 'manual uninstall' of IE (look THAT one up in the K.B.) that requires extensive work at a DOS prompt and deft use of the 'extract' command. At the end he was up and going with no trace of any ill effects and he & his wife were ready to name their next child after me.

Funniest call, another tie:

• First - was speaking to a gentleman named Armando in L.A. who was the proud and very enthusiastic brand new owner of what was then the fastest computer money could buy. He was trying to set up the not-so-intuitive-in-those-days internet access software that came installed. He was about 7 layers deep into things and lost. I said "Armando, let's get back to the desktop." He said "Si, si. My computer - she is on zee desktop!"


• Second - was helping a curiously pleasant yet grouchy novice user in New Mexico from the Greatest Generation do a 'manual uninstall' of Dial Up Networking. During the lengthy reboot he was chattering away about all the technology changes and what things were like during the war when I heard a tinkling sound followed by a loud flush then "..ahh. That's better."

Some of the more unusual calls:

• the drunk who called late one night and actually passed out while I was talking to him
• the guy who wanted me to move in with him after fixing his problem (a whole new meaning to 'connectivity')
• the guy who called for help fixing Outlook Express...he was a biology researcher connecting via satellite phone and internet from his camp in the middle of the Northwest Territories miles from nowhere. I could hear the generator running in the background.
• several celebrities that called
• a nearly 6 hour call helping someone upgrade a 486 DXII with 512 K of RAM from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 using the extremely rare 20+ set of floppy disks. All went well, just took forever. Luckily MS was way more concerned about having happy, fixed customers than about average call time.

Most meaningful call:
I was speaking with 'John' from Seattle one day. He was having trouble setting up his email program after switching to us from another provider. He was getting more irritated every passing minutes over the simplest things yet wouldn't listen to my directions and then blamed me for things not working. He was bordering on abusive. I finally stopped and said "John, look: I'm on your team. I'm here to help you. If you're not ready to work on this now, no problem. You can call us back later to finish. Or, you can cut me some slack, listen to what I'm telling you to do and we can get it done now and get you fixed." After a long pause he said in a very apologetic tone "I'm sorry. I just wanted to get my email going so my son can send me some pictures of my grandchildren. Please forgive me. I just found out today that I have terminal cancer..."---somehow, through the tears, we got him fixed.

Most fun gig:
During my time in the 2000+ seat call center I spent 9 months on the MSN Irate Team (guess who we talked to all day). There were 9 of us. I worked 4x10 shifts (Mon, Tu, Th, Friday from noon to 11). We had NO support boundaries...we could do whatever it took to fix a customer. We had NO boundaries how we talked to the customer short of profanity or insults. Each person would only take about 5 calls a day. We spent most of our time doing testing and research. We each had a 'Crash' box. Whenever a new version of some critical software came out we were given a CD and told to "Break it" then report back to Redmond. During this time we solved a major crisis: they began a program where a customer signed up for 3 years of service and received a certain brand of free computer. Only problem was hardly any of the software controlled generic modems (not a Lucent chipset modem) would connect to our access numbers. A couple of us researched the command control set from the chipset manufacturer and came up with a string that would allow nearly 100% of the customers to connect. We received special recognition from Redmond.

Best all around job:
i2. Working for them was what I would have imagined working directly for Microsoft-Google-Yahoo or any of the other high profile, high tech companies would have been like. If I had been willing to move to Bangalore I would still be working for them.

Overall I appreciated the experience I gained during this time...I was in a constant state of learning and I couldn't have bought an education like it. I love my job now but if anything ever happened that I was back on the market again I know where I would look.

"Thank you for calling technical support. How may I help you?"

For years I worked the 'corner grocery store' where the customers were from your own neighborhood & you always saw the same people day in and day out, morning and evening. It was easy to get to know everyone but the big drawback was standing there day after day looking out the same window watching the world pass by.

When I finally broke my 'rusty cage' I ran smack into the world of tech support. Over the next few years I did support for Windows (95, 98, ME, NT4 & 2000), Internet Explorer, MSN, EarthLink, the old AT&T @Home cable Internet access network and a stint in the i2 Technologies I.T. department.

What a different world. Now I never saw the people I was helping and those I talked to were all over the world. I learned some interesting things first hand that blew some old myths out of the water--

Nicest People: Yankees. While there are some sphincters, by and large people from the Yankee states in general and New York City in particular are very nice. If you're from Texas like me and used to people 'drawling' out everything they say and you can get past their staccato & machine gun style you find out they are really great people and a whole lot of fun to talk to.

Most unpleasant: toss up between Wisconsin and Florida (sorry, no offense to anyone from there but it's just what I and my co-workers noticed). Also, some of the states where you'd think the people would be laid back like Montana, North/South Dakota, Washington, Oregon and Idaho had their more unpleasant people. This was a big shock to me. Actually it's more complex than 'unpleasant'. That's too general of a term...I noticed an extreme air of impatience from people in these areas. I have visited some of these places, Montana especially (spent 4 months there for work one time). In person that's not what I remember at all but on the phone, after comparing hundreds of calls and talking with fellow agents it definitely comes across that way.

Deep South (Alabama, Carolina's, Georgia, etc.): these people are much more intelligent and sophisticated than most of you (including me) have been led to believe they are.

Most laid back: Hawaii. People from Hawaii were in a world of their own (can't blame 'em). They were more like what you would expect from Californians.

Most like I expected: not surprisingly people from Texas since they are the ones I know the best...and believe me, Texas has it's their share of horses butts...many not attached to a horse at all.

Like I say, these are my observations from taking well over 30,000 calls during 5 or 6 years of call center work. I still talk to people from all over the US, Canada and Puerto Rico in my current job and these observations still hold pretty close to the same. My Beautiful Wife never took many calls until she started working with me and she pretty much agrees. Don't get me wrong, you can find every kind of person and have every kind of call experience from anywhere but when I get out the broad brush this is the way it seems to fall.

Anyone else who's ever done the call center gig have any observations?

Review: OFF 2K-7

Well, took the plunge about 4 months ago. I took all my saved up Best Buy Father's day/Birthday/Christmas gift cards and sprung for Office 2007.

So, my take: 'ehhh.'

Maybe I'm a stick in the mud but why the heck do they want to change the basic interface when hundred's of millions of people have gotten pretty darn good at it? Maybe it would have been OK 10 years ago when they were fighting Lotus and Word Perfect for top-dog status and maybe it's OK if your a middle aged 'boomer who's never heard of a DOC or a spreadsheet...but how many of them are left out there? Most everyone has some level of familiarity with the Office suite in particular and Windows-standard interface in general.

I guess it just puzzles me that you have a pretty good product and instead of fixing the things that need fixing (like MEMORY HOGGING---BLOAT---CRASHING) you 'mess' with the stuff that doesn't need to be 'messed' with (yes, you can substitute the 'other' word for 'mess'). Case in point: I dare you, the first time you open a doc or spreadsheet in OFF 2K-7 to save it in another format (say plain text) and not spend at least 5 or 10 minutes trying to figure out how the hell to do it. Also, if you're going to be sharing your stuff with anyone else be aware that the default file format for Word and Excel aren't compatable with older versions...that same 5-10 minutes to figure out how the first time. All applications do a good job of reading older versions, though.

PowerPoint seems to be the most improved and Outlook seems to have the least 'messed' with interface. Haven't touched Publisher yet. A positive: the applications seem to open and respond much quicker than any of the old versions do so performance seems to be improved (although occasionally when I close one I get some strange 'application error' box pop up). I'm sure as time goes by and especially when & if we make the switch at work I'll get more used to it and eventually fall in love and try to figure out how I ever got along without it but until then it's going to be a pain.

Makes me really think twice about upgrading to Vista. I still have the free upgrade that came with the new PC we got last Christmas but I have been waiting for SP-1 to release before installing it. If Vista is going to be as big of an interface change as OFF 2K-7 I'm not sure I want to put my Beautiful Wife through that...read between THOSE lines.

All systems operational...

We finally upgraded systems. The raging debate for months had been ‘to build or to buy built?’ My Beautiful Wife made the decision for me. She said that from her observations building, upgrading or just general working on computers was tantamount to working on the car…language and all. She requested that for HER sanity and peace of mind I just buy a pre-built system. I grudgingly gave in, especially since she controls the credit cards.

I have used and supported a variety of systems from HP, Dell, Apple, Toshiba, and Compaq at various jobs these last few years and must say that on the PC side of things after an 18 month stint doing Windows and IE support that there seemed to be the fewest problems with Dell computers. (Mac was never really a serious choice…see Jeremy’s excellent post on Mac vs. PC.) Mind you I’m not necessarily saying Dell’s are better than the others, just that I took almost zero support calls on Dell’s but had boat loads on HP’s, Compaq’s, Sony’s, and the dreaded Packard-Bell’s and E-Machines. Maybe Dell had better support…I just know what the numbers turned out to be. Also, after using Dell at work the last 3 years I’ve had zero hardware problems (can't say that about the OS but that's another post). I have NOT been a fan of the inability to tweak the BIOS and other system settings. But, that’s the sacrifice of going pre-built. Besides, when I get home from an 8-10 hour day working on a computer I’m not thrilled about the idea of working on one at home…I just want to turn it on and have fun. There’s too much else to do with my time. So, Dell it was.

An XPS 410.

The 710 was a too much for my needs and felt I would be paying $500 extra for a fancy case.
Here's what we got:
-E6600 Processor
-2 GB of DDR2 SDRAM
-250 GB hard drive
-GeFource 7900 GS w/256 MB
-XFi PCI Sound Card
-13 in 1 Media reader
-16x DVD R/RW CD-RW combo drive (only one...I'll add another later)
-20 inch digital wide screen monitor
-Entertainment Edition of XP with a dual TV tuner
-IEEE1394 adapter—just for fun.
-For better or worse - a free upgrade to Vista

Ordered and received back before Christmas. So far: I hate Norton Security...I feel like my mother is standing over me and I'm in Jr. High again..."You can't go there" "Don't do that" "I don't want you hanging out with them"...sheesh. I've never had any kind of security package at home (if you're careful what you do and know what you're doing and watch where you go you probably don't need it). I've never had a virus attack at home...only spy ware. I've only used anti-virus at work. I can't get the stupid firewall and internet security part set to where it doesn't annoy the daylights out of me every 5 minutes. I'm beginning to think Norton is a virus.

Everything else is great. The speed is unbelievable and the graphics card, while not the highest out there, sure will run anything I'm ever likely to throw at it (Desktop Earth is more fabulous than ever). All the 'stuff' from my old system fits with tons of room to spare. So, even though a pre-built system isn't the best this one's not bad. It's better than any I've ever had and my Beautiful Wife loves it...and THAT's the most important thing of all!

"Whose side did you fight on during the Wars, daddy?"

Downloaded IE 7 today. So far I'm pretty impressed. Pages load noticably faster than IE 6. Of course the best feature is Tabbed Browsing. Most everything I do for work is web based...shipping/accounting apps, customer service apps, access to FedEx-UPS-USPS for tracking...so I normally have at least 5 browser windows open at once in addition to email, Office apps, and at least 2 IM conversations going at a time. The taskbar gets a little crowded sometimes so anything that can help the clutter is appreciated.

Before you say it, I KNOW Firefox has offered Tabbed Browsing for some time now. I love their layout. Everything is logical and intuitive. Sometimes when I have had trouble uploading a pic here in IE 6 Firefox will do it with no back-talk. Occasionally the text and alignment on Jeremy's site will render weird in IE 6 but not in Firefox. My main reason for not using Firfox is it's behavior on HTTPS sites. Our main online app at work (NetSuite) is all via HTTPS. Firefox just will not work right...even version 1.5 and 2.0 RC3. One other thing: it's memory management compared to IE 6 or IE 7. Right now I have 1 tab open in Firefox to my work app and it is swallowing up 40,868K of RAM at idle. IE 7 is using 11,764K at idle with 6 tabs open, including the same one that's open in Firefox! Can you say Memory Hog?

Honestly, I think they're both pretty good. The 'set-it-and-forget-it' part of me loves Firefox's simplicity. It stands alone and leaves a light footprint on the system. If it crashes you're still in business system-wise. IE on the other hand: doesn't 'break' often but when it does it takes the whole system with it and you're screwed (when I did IE support we used to joke that the only call script we needed was 'You're screwed', hang up, answer next call, repeat). IE assimilates itself like a Borg implant and is a real bear to repair. I do have an easier time manipulating my favorites and cache with IE, but that's probably due to my background more than anything. Bottom line, I really don't see why so many people, on BOTH sides, cop this 'mine-is-best-and-yours-is-crap' attitude.

Same thing with all the other wars:

• Windows vs. Apple (and yes, Virginia, I have used a Mac before). If all I did was email, web, video/pics a Mac would be great. Since I have to actually use a computer for business and like an occasional game or two I use a PC.
• iPod vs. everything else (iRiver in my case). iPod's are cool and trendy...and overpriced...and fragile...and light on features (no FM-radio? Come on!) but they ARE cool and trendy. My iRiver came with an armband, steel chord nearly-indestructible lanyard, smaller that an iPod Shuffle but with an easy to read display, FM radio (great for the TV simulcast in the club while on the treadmill), protective case, lasts 12+ hours on 1 AA battery, & enough memory that I can go for 3-4 hour rides and not hit the end of the play list, all for about $150 3 years ago (way less than that now with more memory). The iPod's of the day, didn't offer the flash option-just the fragile hard drive - and were about twice as expensive...still are today, although with more memory. Plus I've heard stories about iPod batteries that won't hold a charge. My iRiver has survived thousands of workouts, thousands of miles on bike rides & dozens of drops with hardly a scratch. Some iPod users I know haven't been so lucky. But iPods really do look cool.
• Dell vs. HP; Ford vs. Chevy; McDonalds vs. Jack-In-The-Box; Chocolate vs. Vanilla; Mustard vs. Mayo...

You get the point.

It comes down to this: what do YOU like? what are YOU most comfortable with? what fits YOUR needs best? I'm just thankful we live in a world where competition keeps pushing the envelope on software & hardware development, consumer products...and keeps prices down!

So, if you have Windows XP with service pack 2 download IE 7 and have fun!

Time to upgrade...

The old computer is reaching the end of it's service life. Considering it's age (built by me in September of '98) and the fact that it's still doing a decent job of web service, basic media (downloading pictures from the camera and playing music) and handling all the Office apps I have been very pleased with it's performance.

To give an example of how much things have changed in 8 years: the DVD ROM drive that I installed originally cost right at $300 (just a DVD player). The HP CD burner (I think it was a 4x, 6x, 24x drive) cost about $125. The video card was a generic NVida TnT card with 32 mb of memory that cost about $100. The 12 gb hard drive cost over $300. I put in 128 MB of ram at a cost of $75. Asus mother board, P III 600 (just as they came out) overclocked to 700. Haven't had too many problems being able to do things until the last year or so. Due to age and cooling issues had to back the clock down to 660. It can do most of what I need, as long as I ask it to do them one at a time. On the web it's really not too bad.

My problem is this: go with a pre-built system from one of the big companies or build my own again? Cost wise, best as I can tell, the pre-built will be a little less expensive. I realize the trade off's will be in the area of the mother board with the on-board LAN/Sound cards on the pre-builts, probably cheaper power supply, ditto for the HD & the CD drives. Dell makes the XPS 410 with the new Core 2 processor that looks really promising. I've always been a fan of AlienWare computers too but they are more expensive and the extra cost comes from the same areas as a custom built. Besides, now they are just Dell's top tier line.

For usage: I don't do much with games, though on occasion there are those in the house who do. I do a tremendous amount of web related activity. My wife does quite a bit of streaming video and audio. I am a multi-tasking hound...right now at work have 7 browsers, 2 Excel spreadsheets, a mulitple IM client, email, weather monitor, and the occasional background antivirus/spyware scan all running...I don't think the home system could handle it. I don't need a top gun video card but would like to get a better one that will last a while...maybe something with 256 mb of memory. Because of the multi-tasking I think the Core 2 and at least a gig of RAM would definitely help (nothing makes me go insane with rage more than when the system is busy and nothing will come up). I wouldn't mind a decent sound card but a 5-1 will do fine for me. I would like to get into some photo/video/audio editing...just to have fun, nothing real serious. Hard drive isn't that big a deal now (I have 40 gb that is 3/4 full...just makes me keep things clean and tidy). I do realize that the 2 easiest upgrades later to make - and therefore the 2 best places to skimp now- are the RAM and HD size since these will traditionally continue to come down in price. I also realize one huge benefit of a system I build is I have control over how my HD is partitioned. I can't tell you how many times having all the setup and driver files on a separate partition has save my bacon.

I spent about $2000 on the system in '98, which included a 19" CRT monitor and 5-channel speakers. Did NOT include the OS. I had my own 'special' copy of the OS...but that's another story. I plan on upgrading monitor and speakers separately. I would like to keep the system cost down to about $1600. If that can include at least a 19" flat panel, great.

I've never used an AMD processor, though based on tests the Core 2 seems to be in the lead now. I would be very interested in a MAC except for the learning curve for the others in the house...I just want to stick with what they all know.

Based on the above usage: what say you, oh masters and guru's? what do you recommend: pre-built Dell/AlienWare/some other brand, store bought system or custom built? What will give me the best (not necessarily the most) bang for the buck?

I'm really looking to RAD, Jeremy, Allison, Laura ... any other opinions welcomed!

The next great BLOG tool?

Looks like Microsoft is taking BLOGGING seriously. Check it out: Blogging From Word 2007. Has some great screen shots. I have to admit the thought of only having to mess with one interface is very appealing.

Maybe Merlin was right...

Since childhood I've been fascinated by stories of King Arthur the Knights of the Round Table. I am probably one of the few kids from my High School who voluntarily read 'Le Morte d'Arthur' and 'The Once and Future King'. There's just something about the whole 'chivalry' and 'code of honor' thing that is very uplifting.

A concept I found interesting in 'Once and Future King' was how Merlin lived 'backwards' in time. As the story goes he was born hundreds of years in the future and was living backwards in time...to the eyes of the people living normal through time he grew younger as the years passed. A look around his medieval forest cottage showed fly fishing rods, baseball bat and glove, along with the dancing dishes that washed themselves.

It's been reported several times in the last few years that researchers have been able to speed up and slow down light. Now the Science Blog reports that researchers have been able to make light travel BACKWARDS. Check out the report.

If light can reach it's destination before it's sent, like this seems to suggest, that matches a story I read about 5 years ago where researchers accelerated particles in a super collider so fast that they arrived at the target before they were launched. They speculated that the particles actually traveled beyond light speed but they said they weren’t ready to say so officially. Could scientists be flirting with the time barrier?