This next week the Senate is expected to vote on legislation to delay the transition of broadcast television in the United States from analog signals to digital signals.
The initial deadline was to have been February 17, 2009, however some in Congress as well as President Obama claim that more time is needed due to the fact that evidence has shown that consumers are not prepared. The new legislation sets a deadline for the switch to June 12, 2009, however broadcasters can switch over to digital prior to that deadline if they so choose.
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Just like a car’s VIN number, a cell phone has a number or two that contain interesting information about the device.
There’s the IMEI number, the SIM card number and the phone number itself. Ever wonder what pieces of information are related to those numbers? If you go to the International Numbering Plans website you can enter those numbers in and see what you get.
So, a friend of mine was setting up a Linksys WRE54G Range Extender on her wireless network to eliminate a dead spot in her house.
She had issues with the Windows-based setup utility because it hardcodes the TCP/IP settings on the computer due to the fact it assumes that your network won’t be setup to work with the device out of the box. After that failed, and spending a while on the phone with a hapless Linksys tech support person, we finally got it configured via the web interface.
So everything is going fine until she notices that the MAC filter that was configured on the WRT54G was no longer effective.
It turns out that when you setup the WRE54G to work it invalidates the purpose of your MAC filtering. All traffic sent through the range extender is automatically flagged as OK.
From a Linksys forum post:
As a result, Wireless MAC Filtering on the main wireless router or access point will have no effect on clients connecting through a WRE54G Range Expander.
You have to wonder who makes the decisions on options with stuff like this. The Linksys tech I was chatting with online about this said that the best solution would be to enable WPA security, but their user guide for device specifically recommends doing MAC address filtering in addition to the encryption, except for the fact that you can’t.
Good game Linksys.
There are many really nice web apps out there now. Some of them are designed for pure entertainment, others are designed for tracking personal information, and still others serve a clear design purpose.
Here are a couple that I like:
- My Mile Marker – a nice app that helps you track your car’s mpg over time.
- Wufoo – an online html form builder. They have a number of pre-designed templates that you can choose from and alter.
- Typetester – an online font comparison app that helps you see what your online content will look like in various fonts.
What web apps are out there that you use or find particularly interesting?
Over the past several years I have begun to wonder if the trend towards all things new, online and electronic is really better than the non-electronic analog.
There are many areas where the electronic version has eclipsed the original analog format, and others where the electronic version is making serious attempts to usurp the existing analog.
I decided that I would write a series of articles discussing this trend and my personal take on various changes that have occurred. I call these articles the New Tech Series, since they will generally be pitting a new technology version against the traditional analog.