Archive | January, 2003

Thanks to the 802.11b News site, a couple of great links to what’s happening in the 802.11g world. I’m getting a new DSL cable dropped in for the home office, so I’m working out how to rearrange the existing networking gear. I decided to swap the older Linksys router onto the DSL line, and replace it with the latest and greatest Linksys 802-11g gear. It would be nice to be able to wait until the hardware was a little more stable (this gear is based on a draft standard which won’t be finalized until later this year), but unfortunately real-world timing issues make it a tough choice: go with standardized gear that’s commodity-priced but bound to drop in value, or risk the cutting edge (at almost no price increase!) but with an increased risk of incompatibility. I’m usually a later-than-early adopter, not a lagging-edger, but this time I’m jumping in, with fingers crossed.

Long, deep comparison of Linksys and Buffalo 802.11g gear: The results aren’t surprising, but they’re well documented with good methodology. Pure 802.11g equipment can top 20 Mbps, but once you add clients or mix in 802.11b or even other chipsets, you start seeing degradation that’s asymmetrical. The article is long, but worth examining closely! [via The Shifted Librarian][via 80211b News]

An outrage to consider on MLK, Jr. Day: A judge rules the X-Men are not human!

Got to see Bill Moyer’s show this evening copyright issues, on New Hampshire Public TV. It was a good presentation on the issues brought out in Eldred,but not a clear call to action on what to do next. There was also a great piece on “Responsible Wealth” featuring Bill Gates, Sr, and Chuck Collins, campaigning for the reinstatement of the estate tax as the most reasonable and progressive tax we have, essential in these times of deficit federal spending.

Reuters: “A top music industry representative says Internet service providers will be asked to pay up for giving their customers access to free song-swapping sites.” [Scripting News] Let’s get gun manufacturers to start paying for the damage done by gun violence. And tobacco companies to pay for lung and heart diseases. I don’t swap music. I rip my own CDs for my personal, fair-use clause enjoyment. But simply because people share files does not support the idea that the would otherwise buy them. They’d listen to the radio, borrow a tape, or do without. The record companies aren’t losing sales to pirates. They’re losing sales because they’re selling crap. To expect the rest of the market to support them, particularly those who don’t pirate their wares, is offensive.

Sixteen below zero this morning; it keeps getting colder!

Prior to posting my blogs via Radio, I used the Twiki software to blog on my tedroche.com site, where I’ve also got a knowledgebase of SourceSafe stuff and a business card-sized web site. I’ve moved the contents over to this server, for safe keeping and archive. There are some missing pictures and broken links, but the jist of the materials is there, and I’ll get around to updating it one of these days…

Comcast must feel that having two million inconvenienced, pissed-off customers is less painful than just adding a few MX records to their mail server. Anyone got an email address of the folks in charge of Comcast, so we can let them know our feelings on this?

Titles and permalinks are a neat feature of Radio, but it’s not completely clear how to do it. I wish the tutorials on using the product were a little more accessible, but The Answers Are Out There, I just need to go find them…

Doc Searls points out Larry Lessig’s New York Tome’s op-ed column, “Protecting Mickey Mouse at Art’s Expense” in Lessig is More and emphasizes a portion of the column where Lessig proposes a fee for extending a copyright, similar to the current patent system. That way, owners would be inclined to release items no longer earning their keep. Could this establish a new industry of copyrights for sale? Potentially a two-edged sword. But it could bring back these works in accessible form to our culture.