We Have Much To Be Thankful For The holiday season is almost here. This is an ideal time to reflect on our blessings. We have much to be thankful for. For the Floridians, the hurricane season is over. One local Jacksonville forecaster has already predicted a return engagement by Mother Nature in 2005. If that forecast is anywhere near accurate, it is time to start planning for disaster recovery. That means facility records must be updated and the cables must be labeled. If the server or the PBX gets drowned, a change out can be accomplished fairly quickly if the distribution system is in order. For the cable manufacturers, some smiles are in order. Business has improved remarkably during 2004. We are still not up to the boom times that ended abruptly about 4 years ago, but the orders are increasing and many major users are stepping up to CAT 6 cabling networks. For the manufacturers of cable support hardware, more smiles are evident as the contractors and users realize that the high performance cable distributions systems absolutely require a more intensive support structure. The performance of CAT 5e and CAT 6 copper cables are affected by the " lay" of the cables. Additionally, today's networks have become very craft-intensive. For the industry educators, panic is in order. Our industry is grossly unprepared to deliver a trained workforce to meet the demands for maintaining, updating, and building new network facilities. The October 2004 issue of Electrical Contractor Magazine focused on this growing potential problem and some of the solutions available. For the architects and building owners, concern is the order of the day. The National Electrical Code NEC 2002 and NEC 2005 called for the removal of abandoned cable not marked for future use. Most of the approximately 8.5 million miles of abandoned cable in USA is located in rental space. It is nearly impossible to place responsibility for the cable on the current or former tenants. Once this serious problem and huge potential cost has surfaced, the building owners are not likely to get stuck with the bill again. Thankfully there are some innovative solutions available for the architects and building owners. We recently saw an office area with cellular floor systems that allowed the tenant turnover to take place and the modular furniture installation accomplished without a major re-cabling requirement. The cable was passed from tenant to tenant without the requirement of removal. The cost for facility updates and tenant movement was substantially reduced by this design. We look for more cellular floor solutions in the workplace. But that's just my opinion, Art Padgett