There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically. “Maybe,” the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed. “Maybe,” replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. “Maybe,” answered the farmer. The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. “Maybe,” said the farmer.

… This is one of my favorite Taoist stories. Though, there are so many great Taoist stories, it is hard to pick favorites. The connection to my life today is that I am now using my wireless connection again.

I’m not using ndiswrapper anymore though. I was disappointed when I overwrote my custom ndiswrapper config in the process of updating my system a couple days ago. A couple of days ago, I would have told you this was very bad news (in fact, I think I did).

I took the opportunity, though, to look at using ipw2200 (native Linux drivers for my Dell 600′s Intel/Pro wireless card). Well, they work great… and, better yet, I’m getting much better reception and speed than I did with ndiswrapper’s emulation. Before, with ndiswrapper, I never got better than a 60% signal strength; now, I’m getting 99-100% reception. What a difference!

So, great news? Maybe…