I've become a really big fan of Penny Arcade this year. I read it like... three times a week. Sometimes I look through the archives to see what I missed back when I didn't know of PA's existence. These are a couple of my absolute favorites.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/07/29

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/09/26

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/05

Posted by ra in other geeky stuff at 22:22 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

My router had been begging for a VLAN switch for some time. With seven ethernet interfaces, things were getting a little out of hand.

While designing a wireless network for a big client and spec'ing out the hardware, I found just the thing. The Netgear FS726TP. Like many people, I've been burned by the crappy plastic-encased Netgear consumer grade stuff in the past, however I'm a big fan of their higher quality ProSafe gear, especially the WG302 and WG102 access points which comprise my home wireless network.

I was impressed with the specs of the FS726TP, for the price, and had tentatively planned to buy one for myself once the client's project was complete and I had verified the switch would meet my own needs as well. As soon as the gear for the project came in, I put the switches to the test.

Posted by ra in computerish at 09:29 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

I'm either talking about Palm's new Foleo.... or the company itself. As a long time Palm fan, I feel a little weird saying that, but honestly, if this is the best that Palm can do, then there isn't much of a future for them.

Basically it's a slimmed down laptop; definitely in terms of functionality, surely in size, and also in cost--somewhat. At $500, for a device that is currently being pitched as an email client, this thing seems targeted at a niche for sure.

So who is going to buy it? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't. If I'm going to carry around (let alone pay $500 for) a device with a 25 cm screen, it needs to do a lot. At this point it does nothing more than my Palm TX does, and I carry that in my wallet!

Posted by ra in gadgets and phones at 14:52 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

I did it.
I am free.

The DSL line has stabilized and seems to be working quite well. They did have to knock down the download speed a bit to get it stable, but I can live with it for now.

So no more time warner cable for me. I called them up and canceled earlier today. Interestingly, the first time I called I was disconnected... or hung up on. I was transfered to the cancellations department and told the rep I wanted to cancel my service and he said "oh, I'm sorry... *CLICK!*" and I thought "hmmm... typical".

I raced over to give them their cable modem before they closed at the end of the day, so I have washed my hands of them completely.
I no longer have to deal with their stupid policies (eg. $50 extra for one static IP) and most satisfyingly, I never have to deal with their stupid fucked up billing system ever again.

Posted by ra in tech at 01:24 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

In a startling series of events, Cincinnati Bell managed to get my new DSL line working. No one is more shocked than me! Evidently my loop length was in fact no where near 22 k feet, because I'm seeing download speeds between 3 and 4 Mb/s, which would be impossible at that distance. So basically I've been putting up with the cable company for over two years, for no good reason. Thanks AT&T!

The CinBell tech came out and determined that my DSL problems were caused by noise or other problems on the line, rather than the loop length. They dispatched AT&T (ILEC who owns the lines) to fix it, and they were onsite within two hours. They found and removed a bridge tap, and after a few more changes on the ISP's side, I was suddenly able to keep my DSL line mostly stable at about 3.5 Mb/s.

Posted by ra in tech at 17:37 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

I don't want anything more to do with Dell PowerConnect 2700 series switches. These things are crap!

Today I had a fight with a PowerConnect 2724, and I lost when it committed suicide. The client has four of these switches, but they had never used the management features. The first two seemed fine as I logged in and created some VLAN's. The third one was a pain. It was in managed mode but would not answer on the previously assigned IP or the default management IP. As luck would have it this switch is mounted way the hell up in the air, so a platform lift was required to get to it to cycle it out of managed mode and back, after which I could finally log into it.

Posted by ra in tech at 23:47 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

For a variety of reasons I got motivated to play with my network and my servers over the weekend, and the results were very beneficial security-wise.

First I upgraded all of my access points to WPA2-PSK. They had all been using WPA, and the limitations of my old laptop's wireless adapter had previously prevented this move. My new laptop has an Intel PRO wireless 2200 card, so there was nothing stopping me anymore. I got the laptops, and the Nintendo Wii configured using WPA2. Next came my Palm TX. I suddenly realized that it doesn't support WPA2! A quick search revealed an update available on Palm's website.... for $6. Okaaaaaay. I don't really understand why they are charging for this. A new Windows Mobile device would have WPA2 support included. Besides that, the description doesn't make it clear to me whether the update adds support for WPA2-PSK or just WPA2-Enterprise. I'm not sure what I'll do about this yet, but I'm sticking with WPA2 so the TX is going to have to remain offline for now.

Posted by ra in tech at 17:54 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)