You know, there’s something nice about re-discovering an old friend. Since I moved over to Vista, I’ve been using Internet Explorer as my browser. Microsoft has done a good job of making it better with each major release, but it’s still not as stable as I’d like, and it can be terribly sluggish at times. Last week, I downloaded Apple’s Safari browser and have been, on the whole, underwhelmed. The one good thing Safari did for me was to make me re-think FireFox. The good folks at LifeHacker are big fans, but I’d been away from it for a few months. I have to say it works beautifully under Vista. Fast, stable, and customizable–I think I’ve found software to make me happy.

Categories: Consumer Technology, Software
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So, I’ve go the new ISP happily shoveling bits at my network. During the crossover to the New Boss, I changed the address space for my network–the old one was odd, and made some sense when I established it six years ago, but times change and I was ready to get into lockstep with the rest of the non-routable private-network world. For most of my network end-points it was simple, since they politely ask the DHCP service for an address when they need one. For certain items, though, I had given them addresses they’d held since the network started. Among the hard-coded; wireless access points. Getting two working units has proven to be far more of an adventure than I’d imagined.

One of the access points was easy, if time-consuming. An earlier version of this Cisco AP had to be kick-started a couple of times, but it came around and is now happily singing tunes from both the 802.11a and 802.11b songbooks. My other access point was and engineering sample from another vendor and I can’t for the life of me figure out how to reconfigure the thing. It’s at least five years old and has served well, so it’s time to let it put it’s little rubber feet up and rest. After all, how hard can it be to buy a new access point?

Pretty damned hard, as it turns out. If I wanted an wireless router, I could have my pick from shelves full at either Office Depot or Best Buy. The thing is, I don’t want a wireless router–I want an access point. I don’t want a pre-N or draft-N access point (though I may change my mind after I review a few), and I’d really like one that has both 802.11b/g and 802.11a. They simply can’t be found on any mass-merchant shelves. I suspect I’ll end up buying one of these Linksys units–even though it’s not the latest and greatest, it fits the bill and I’ve seen a similar AP at work in another network.

I know I’ve said this before: I understand that the network in my home/office is unusual. With that said, I can’t believe I’m the only person who wants a nice, simple access point. I’m thrilled with the way my current router/firewall setup is working, and I don’t want another device that thinks it should be doing the DHCP and NAT chores sitting in the mix. Sigh. I’ll look forward to reporting success later on.

Categories: Networking, Wireless
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The latest project around the house is a new master bedroom closet. Carol planned it and has been managing the project–I’m supplying the muscle. I’d been wanting to upgrade my chop saw, and this project provided the perfect opportunity. We decided that an early Father’s Day gift was in order, so Carol got me this Hitachi dual-bevel miter saw. I’ll admit that the big reason for choosing the Green Monster was the price–it was nearly $200 less than the Dewalt and Ridgid saws at the Home Depot. So far, though, I’ve been pleased with the performance. It’s easy to adjust, square and accurate on the angles and bevels. The only complaint I have is the dust collection system. It doesn’t really collect the dust. It’s more that it splits the stream of sawdust coming off the blade and collects the little bit that sticks to the outside of the bag. I’m going to spend some time trying to adjust it, but even if it doesn’t get better it only bothers me so much. I’m a happy camper with this one–look out, crown moulding.

Categories: Consumer Technology
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Last week I was up in Washington, D.C. speaking at the Publishing for Impact conference sponsored by the World Bank. On the one hand, it was fairly heady stuff for a guy who’s spent most of his career talking to fellow geeks. On the other hand, it was exciting to hear people talking about using new technologies to reach audiences in developing nations. I was talking about podcasting, and was interested to hear folks discussing the possibility of podcasts for distributing public health information in Africa. In nations where neither electricity nor telephone service can be counted on as a 24 x 7 commodity, podcasts are a great tool, since they can be downloaded to a battery-powered device during connection times and listened to sometime later.

More important for me was hearing people talking about technology that’s critical to someone’s life. We get used to thinking about technology as convenient or important to the way we do business–for most of us, a podcast isn’t going to be a life or death issue. There are places and people for whom it is that important, though–and it’s good for me to remember that as I work on these systems.

I haven’t mentioned the book in a while, so I’ll put a link down here in this post. If you haven’t read it, yet, I can certainly recommend it. the book is The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Podcasting.

Categories: Enterprise, General computing, Media
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One of the things I’ve already started thinking about is the computer I’ll haul around campus. I’ve got a neat Gateway desktop-replacement laptop, but it has two qualities that make it just slightly less than ideal as a classroom machine. First, it’s just a hair heavy–I’m guessing it comes in somewhere in the 6.5 lb range. That only bothers me so much, though. The thing that really has me worried is that I keep my life on this thing. Really. The up-to-the-minute version of my work, my e-mail, my schedule, all my cool reference files–they’re on the hard disk here. Oh, I know about backup, and I do keep things backed up reasonably well, but those back-ups are analgesic, not truly prophylactic. Having them reduces the pain when something goes wrong, but they can’t keep the pain from happening.

To avoid the pain, I’m thinking about using a little Dell XPS machine I’ve had sitting around for a couple of years. It’s not the hottest new processor, it has a tiny hard disk (less than 20 gigs), and not much memory (384k), but it’s really small, really light, and has built-in networking. I’m thinking that a stripped-down OS with just enough applications might make this the perfect note-taking platform, since it would also let me check e-mail, do a bit of research, and check my schedule between classes. My real question is whether to keep it on Windows XP or try a Linux variant–Ubuntu, perhaps? I’d be interested in your thoughts on this one…and I’ll keep you posted on the decisions.

What made me really think seriously about this? The introduction of the Foleo from Palm. I’ve heard a number of folks talking about what a useless concept it is, but I disagree. Sometimes, you just need something to do basic work on until you can get back to the Mother Ship. The Foleo isn’t trying to be your only computer–it’s trying to be the device you carry with you when your real computer is just a little too much. I don’t know whether the Foleo will be a wildly successful device, but I think the category will be, though it may take a little while to fully develop. Jeff Hawkins has a good track record on this sort of thing–I wouldn’t bet against him here.

Categories: Consumer, Enterprise, General computing, Mobile
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Wow, you let a major conference happen, and everything goes to pot. Sorry about the lag in posts…some interesting things have been happening and they’re going to make for some changes here in the blog.

First big change: I’ve been accepted to graduate school. I’ve enjoyed teaching at the community-education level, and the only way anyone will let me do more is with at least a master’s degree in hand, so it’s off to grad school. Where, you ask? The University of Florida, and in College of Journalism and Communications. I know I’ll be working on a concentration in journalism: there, I’ve told you all I know. Several folks have suggested I blog the experience of going back to school, and I think I shall…lots of technology to be covered, as well as plenty of life in general. I hope it will mean more regular updates, and I hope they’ll be interesting. Let me know what you think.

Speaking of that, I may end up shutting off comments here, since the only regular contributor is a comment-spammer who’s work I kill frequently and with great gusto. It’s only a minor pain, but a pain it is, and I’m not sure I need any more at this point. Do let me know if you would miss the great sense of community here…

Categories: Housekeeping
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