The USB-A Connector

This is the component of the flash drive which is inserted into the USB port of your computer. It works in pretty much the same fashion as any other USB device(which makes sense; since it’s a standardized peripheral format). You just plug it in, wait for the PC to recognize the device and install any requisite firmware, and then you’re good to go.

The Memory Chip

Here’s where the actual information is stored. The memory chip of a USB drive is located on the device’s main circuit-board. Most USB sticks use the NAND flash memory format; it’s the same type of memory used in digital cameras.

Mass Storage Controller

The mass storage controller contains a very small amount of RAM and ROM, and basically functions as a very small, very simplistic on-board computer. The Mass Storage Controller is what communicates with whatever system you’ve got your USB stick plugged into (via the USB Host Controller), and, in most cases, also contains any firmware which might be present on your storage device.

The Light

Most USB sticks contain some sort of light within them to indicate what the device is doing. If it’s flashing slowly or turned off, chances are the device is safe to remove, but if it’s solid or flashing rapidly, chances are your USB stick is transferring data – and removing it could corrupt said data. This light usually consists of a small Light Emitting Diode.

Crystal Oscillator

While the mass storage controller communicates with the system and stores your firmware, the crystal oscillator controls the data output of the USB device along with the device’s clock signal (essentially, an electronic signal which is used to transmit data between your USB device and your computer).

Other Features

Occasionally, a USB device will feature a retractable USB connector or a cap to protect the USB connector, a write protection switch (flipping it on prevents any data from being modified or erased), a ring, chain, or hook to facilitate easy transportation, hardware components for testing, and/or expandable storage.

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Working Parts: USB Memory

The Overview

Apple devices – sometimes referred to as “iDevices” – include the iPad, iPod Touch and other iPods, iPhone, etc. along with the Apple TV. These devices all operate on basically two levels. The outermost level is generally referred to as the firmware. In mobile devices, firmware is the equivalent of the operating system on your computer, like Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X. However, in a mobile device – this OS is actually stored in flashable (programmable) memory within the device rather than on the storage medium (such as a hard drive). On iDevices, this firmware is often referred to as “iOS.” The most current version of the iOS is 4.2. as of the time of this writing.

The innermost level is sort of like your computer’s BIOS. These are the built-in functions of the iPod that allow it to be programmed and updated when Apple releases new features for your device. The most notable update was the change from the old iOS 3.x to the newer iOS 4, which brought features like multitasking and better performance for most devices.

The Nitty-Gritty

Most Jailbreak programs make the entire process pretty simple. We’ll go into what programs are available and which is best for your particular iDevice and firmware revision in a later post. What’s interesting is what goes on behind the scenes in the entire process (Well, if you’re a geek like me and want to know how things work).

First, the jailbreak program will generally send a command to your iDevice while it’s plugged up to your computer. The command tells the iPod to reboot and enter “Recovery Mode.” If your iDevice had suddenly crashed a horrible, horrible electronic death and would not start (even though it was charged) – Apple Care Support would probably have you start your device in this mode and let iTunes re-flash the firmware to it. This is usually a last resort method (as it wipes your media completely off the device). In this case, jailbreaking acts more like a software “upgrade,” and maintains your media usually without a clean wipe.

Once your iDevice is in this mode, it’s become willing to accept changes to its programming by applying a firmware package. These are usually files that iTunes downloads from Apple to get updates for your iDevice. Most jailbreaking programs will modify iBoot on your device to accept customized firmware packages (commonly referred to as IPSW files, since that’s the extension the file uses).

When iBoot has been successfully modified, the jailbreak program will either automatically patch your existing IPSW firmware file or have you download a fresh one that it will modify and apply to your device. If all goes successfully, the iDevice will reboot and have a new app installed, usually one called Cydia or Rock (two of the most popular). From there, the sky’s the limit! Your device is now considered “jailbroken” and can install apps from either the Cydia or Rock app stores. A lot of the apps are free, but some are still for purchase. After all, the point of jailbreaking is to get your iDevice to download and install unofficial apps, not just get them for free.

Why Jailbreak?

There are plenty of interesting applications out there that add functionality to your iDevice that Apple either didn’t approve of or the author decided not to submit their app to the App Store. For example, people are using apps to unlock their iPhones to use on a different carrier (GSM networks only, for now, CDMA are not supported in hardware), or turn their iPhone into a wireless access point. Jailbreaking opens up your device to a monumentally larger selection of apps.

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Apple Jailbreak Q & A: What is Jailbreaking?

You buy a printer. It has proprietary software needed to function, which obviously comes on an installation CD. A year or two later you replace your computer and need to reinstall the printer again, so you go to find the disc. It’s gone. You swear that you put it back in the box after you were done using it, but it’s nowhere to be found. Desperate, you go to the OEM’s web site to download drivers and download them, but it’s missing features that the CD installed originally.

This is unfortunately a familiar story to many.

The way to backup an installation disc to the cloud is as follows. For this example the free cloud backup medium I’ll be using is Microsoft SkyDrive, who offers 25GB of free storage to anyone who wants it:

1. Sign up for a free SkyDrive account (if you have a Hotmail account, you already have one).

2. Create an ISO of the installation disc locally using ImgBurn (free).

3. The resulting ISO file will most likely be over 50MB, which is over the maximum allowed file size allowed per file on SkyDrive, so we’ll need to break that up. Use 7-Zip (free) to create an archive of the file in 50MB pieces.

4. Upload the multi-file archive to a private folder in your SkyDrive account.

5. When you need the disc again, simply download the archive files, use 7-Zip to get the ISO back, then use ImgBurn once again to burn the ISO direct-to-disc and it’s a done deal.

Final notes

I used SkyDrive as my cloud-based backup medium, but if you’d rather use something else, go right ahead – but be mindful of individual file size limitations for the service you use. If you have to break up the ISO, you know how using the 7-Zip method above.

Some of you may get the idea of emailing files to yourself if using webmail. I recommend against this due to it being a hassle. Most webmail providers currently only allow a maximum 25MB file attachment per email. This can lead to a CD’s worth (700MB) of data being 28 individual files, meaning you’d potentially have to send 28 individual emails to yourself just to back up a single CD. In addition, some webmail providers like Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail may in fact freeze your account temporarily if all of a sudden you send a bunch of large email attachments to yourself (they consider it abuse of their respective mail systems).

For those that choose to send sensitive archive data to the cloud but want better privacy concerning the data, you can opt to make archives that are password protected and encrypted. When creating a 7-Zip archive, check the box for “Encrypt file names” using AES-256 encryption and set a password. For split volumes you will be required to use the 7z format and not ZIP.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Backing Up a Driver Disc To The Cloud

If going the cheap retro route, these are my tips on getting the best possible working (keyword there) setup.

1. Search for Dell first.

Dell PCs and laptops are everywhere, so you search for this brand first to give you the widest selection.

2. Don’t buy a custom build built by someone else.

It’s a common truth the primary reason why anyone sells a custom build is because something is drastically wrong with the computer box. Could be bad RAM, bad hard drive, wonky fans, overclocked-and-overcooked CPU and so on.

3. Avoid “slim” cases.

When shopping around for Dell boxes in particular, you’ll see a lot of “slim” version cases. You avoid these because they’re difficult to work on and upgrade options are extremely limited. In many you can’t even upgrade the video card and are forced to take on-board video only. Stick to the full-size cases and you’ll be in good shape.

4. The bare minimum in the “usable” dept. is Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP with 512MB RAM and a 64MB video card.

The slowest Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP is 1.3GHz. Both of them started at that GHz speed so you can’t go any slower. Outfitted with 512MB and a 64MB video card, this will run Windows XP with no problems at all and can run just about any program you throw at it. It’s even decent as a low-end gaming box as it will play titles like Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Starcraft and Diablo II easily.

You can easily bump most 512MB RAM computer boxes to 2GB, which for a 32-bit XP installation is fine.

Many of the older boxes come equipped with AGP video cards instead of PCIe. This is fine because AGP cards are still sold new and can be had for as little as 30 bucks. Note: If you’re in the under-2.4GHz CPU territory with whatever box you get, 128MB video memory is the maximum you should upgrade to, because anything more than that won’t make much of a difference, performance-wise.

Concerning the RAM, you should be able to bump to 2GB easily on the cheap – however it’s important to check that the box can actually support it (some boxes of that era cut corners and only support 1GB maximum).

Concerning the CPU, the biggest difference between these particular AMD and Intel CPUs is that the AMD will run hotter. A lot hotter. That’s just the way they were back then. If you get a box with an AMD Athlon XP CPU and when running the side of the case feels a bit warm, that’s normal.

5. A Dell with the original XP CD reinstallation disc is a huge score.

The great thing about XP discs from Dell (obviously for Dell boxes) is that you can simply pop in the disc, install the entire OS and it never asks you for a product key. Why? Because it’s built-in to the SIF file. Yes, you can install XP from scratch, it will validate on WGA check and you’re good to go. It was designed that way from the OEM directly, so if you come across a Dell box with the Dell-branded XP OS reinstallation disc be it Home or Professional – that’s a very cool thing because it saves a ton of hassle with the XP OS itself.

What this means is that even if the XP sticker on the Dell box is completely scratched off, it doesn’t matter. As long as you have an original Dell-branded XP OS reinstallation disc, that’s all you need.

6. 17-inch LCD monitors are easy to come by and are basically indestructible.

In the under-$50 search on Craigslist you’ll see a lot of 17-inch LCD monitors. The vast majority of them are standard 4:3 aspect with a resolution of 1280×1024. This is fine. Most of them still have strong backlights and if it busts for whatever reason there are always more out there.

These are the drawbacks with an older 17-inch LCD monitor – and they’re darned few:

• You may see “ghosting” effects when playing some video games.
• The monitor cannot produce a true black and at best you’ll see a dark gray.
• Color representation will be a bit “off”, requiring you to sit down with it and tweak it a bit.

Other than the above, the 17-inch 1280×1024 LCD monitor gets the job done just fine.

Also remember that since they’re so cheap, if you replace your video card with a dual-head, you can go dual-monitor easily.

Things you may have to replace with new

This list is fortunately short.

Hard drive

If the hard drive is loud or making any sort of odd noises, junk it immediately and buy a new one. Get a cheap new 7200 RPM standard 3.5-inch HDD (they start at around $35) and you’ll be glad you did.

Fans

If any fan anywhere in the box doesn’t work correctly or is threatening not to work correctly even after a cleaning, replace them.

What about wireless?

Most desktop boxes don’t have any wi-fi options in them at all. Fortunately it can be added in easily as all Pent-4/Athlon-XP boxes have at least one PCI slot available. Wi-fi PCI cards are cheap and widely available, so if you can’t string a network cable to the box for whatever reason, wireless is a very do-able thing.

Final notes

All boxes in the Pent-4/Athlon-XP era have USB 2.0

You can plug in printers, cell phones, keyboards, mice and more or less everything you use now into one of these older boxes and it will work just fine. USB 2.0 be it new or old always works the same. Even though USB 3.0 is right around the corner in 2011, USB 2.0 isn’t going to vanish overnight and will still be around a long, long time.

Don’t buy a box that has missing covers

I’m referring to the plastic covers that are in place of where a floppy or optical drive would be. On many of the older boxes these things are gone. It doesn’t affect the way the box works, but it will annoy you every time you have to look at it. And if you think you can locate the covers from somewhere else after you buy the box, you won’t. These plastic covers no matter the box are never available when you actually need them.

If you have an existing XP Home or Pro Dell-branded OS CD, it will work in any Dell box of the era

This is another beautiful thing about Dell boxes. If you have in your possession a Dell XP OS recovery disc, you can pop that into any Dell box and ta-da, the OS will install and validate normally.

“What about the XP product key?”

Doesn’t matter – it will work and validate.

And if you’re wondering, no it will not work on anything but Dell-specific PCs.

“Does this mean I could buy two old Dell boxes and that single Dell-branded XP OS recovery CD would work on both of them?”

Yes. You could buy 10 Dell boxes – or laptops – and it will work.

“WOW! Will this work with Windows Vista or 7 too?”

No. Just XP.

There is absolutely nothing illegal about reloading XP on any Dell box like this, because they did all ship with fully licensed XP originally. Where the product key is acquired from is on the disc itself in a file called winnt.sif.

I know the next question you have.

“Can I take that product key from winnt.sif and use on another non-Dell PC?”

No, you XP thief. Dell-branded XP OS discs only work with Dell-branded PCs, period. The XP installation reads the OEM manufacturer right from the motherboard itself, so taking the product key information from winnt.sif won’t help you.

(I sense a large amount of people who read this will be suddenly interested in older Dell boxes…)

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Buying a Retro PC On The Cheap

Before continuing, my suggestion to anyone that reads this is to buy a WRT54GL now before they’re taken off the market. It’s 60 bucks very well spent and it you wait too long, you won’t be able to buy one new any longer.

Here’s what makes the 54GL great:

1. High profile chassis

The 54GL has the exact same design as the WRT54G introduced way back in 2002. Absolutely nothing about the chassis has changed in 8 years because it was done right the first time. Even if you have all five ports connected (one WAN, four LAN), the most heat you’ll feel on touch of the top of the chassis will be slightly warm – but never hot. Why? Because the profile is high with a nice large vent on the top. Heat escapes very easily and this greatly contributes to the 54G and 54GL’s reliability.

2. Replaceable antennas

Both antennas are large and easy to replace with better ones if need be. You most likely wouldn’t have to, but if you did there are plenty of options on eBay for greater-range options, and the installation is tool-less. Screw out, screw in, done.

3. Stupidly easy admin interface

A problem many wi-fi routers have is that their admin interfaces are difficult to use. The 54GL’s admin UI is the essence of simplicity. Summed up: Everything you need and nothing you don’t.

4. Solid wired performance

An unfortunate trend with many wi-fi routers is that the wired performance is just plain awful. Sure, the box may say 10/100M, but in practical use you’d swear it doesn’t do over 2M. The 54GL on the other hand has outstanding performance when connected via wire. It acts as you would expect 10/100 to act.

If using a gigabit LAN and don’t want to degrade to 100M (and I wouldn’t blame you), I’d still recommend buying a 54GL anyway even if you have to “piggy-back” it off your 1000M router. The solid G reliability and expansion options of the 54GL are more than worth it.

5. Seriously hackable

With the 54G and 54GL, you have several options to hack the firmware to your liking. There’s the famous DD-WRT, Tomato and OpenWrt. Any one of these gives you lots of great options for tweaking your 54GL in ways other wi-fi routers simply cannot do.

Important note: As is the case whenever you hack firmware, if you bust your 54GL in the process, the warranty obviously won’t cover that.

6. Rock-solid reliable

There are 54G routers out there from late-2002/early-2003 that are still in operation today, eight years later. The 54GL was introduced in 2005 and is more or less just a revision update/reissue of the 54G, so it has the same reliability the 54G has.

Buying a Linksys WRT54GL is a no-brainer purchase, and that’s the reason I bought one. I consider it one of the last of the great wi-fi G routers to exist. Yes, it has a very old-school looking chassis along with it’s old-school admin UI, but it’s the definition of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The fact of the matter is that nobody truly cares what a router looks like as long as it works. Does your router make a fashion statement? I didn’t think so.

Get your WRT54GL before they stop making them, else you’ll have to suffer with that new “spaceship” design Linksys is using – and it’s awful. Not for the way it looks, but because of the low profile that cuts reliability because they run hotter.

Linksys WRT54G and GL owners

Do you own one? How long has yours been running?

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Linksys WRT54GL – The Last of the Great G Routers?

Why use a group?

A group is useful for a centralized means of communication in a way that can have threaded conversations, and has the bonus of not being mistakenly flagged as spam.

With email, any mail received that was sent to over 25 recipients is usually flagged as spam on a mail server level. This can prove to be quite annoying when you have an email to send to over 25 people, because you’ll have to send the message twice (once to the first 25, second to the next 25, etc.) The advantage of the group is that it can act as a free newsletter. You can have hundreds or thousands of members in the group, and any communication sent through it will always get to all recipients.

Using groups the old-school way

The oldie-but-goodie way of starting a group is to use a popular web service for the task, with the three biggies being Yahoo! Groups, Live Groups and Google Groups. You will most likely pick the one per your current email provider. All three essentially work the same way but it’s the feature set that truly separates one from the other.

Yahoo! Groups

With Y! Groups you can integrate things like Yahoo! Answers (a very popular question/answer site) as well as many other group apps which Y! called “grouplets”. These are accessible via Add/Remove Applications on the left sidebar once logged into your Y! Group.

Live Groups

Arguably the best feature in Live Groups is the ability to create, edit and share documents via Office Live. For many this is an absolute godsend because anyone that is in the group will always be able to view any document you post exactly as created originally. This also counts for spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. In addition, with SkyDrive, adding files into the group is stupidly easy and unbelievably convenient given the fact you have 25GB of storage in the group. All of this is very convenient.

Google Groups

The strength of Google Groups is in its ability to track conversations. It is by design very Gmail-like, and that’s not a bad thing. You also have more customization when using Google Groups. You can change the theme, colors and even the fonts the group uses. You can also change the core navigation (i.e. which links show up first in the sidebar). Another good feature in Google Groups is “Pages”. If you want a “flat” page outside of the normal threads but still within the group (such as a how-to doc), Pages is a nice feature to have.

Using groups the new-school way

The new way of using collaborative group features is to simply use social media.

Facebook calls a group a “fan page”, but in reality it’s a group with a more fun(?) title. In addition, Facebook does have a Groups app, although I don’t think anybody uses that when you can just use fan pages instead.

MySpace has no fancy title for groups and simply calls it MySpace Groups.

The drawbacks of using groups

No matter which group service you choose, it’s always the case that you own absolutely none of the content posted to any of those systems, so if the goal is to create a community with the intent of making money from it later, using a free group is not a wise move. What will happen is that after you build your community, you’ll have to shift everybody over to a new system where you do own the content. The transition will be frustrating at best and you’ll lose a good chunk of your community members in the process.

If future cash fueled by community involvement is the goal, you’re better off using a self-hosted forum on your own web site such as vBulletin (what PCMech uses) or phpBB. It does require a good deal of technical know-how to pull that off, but you do own your own content and have 100% control over the entire system.

On the other hand, if the goal is simply to have a place where everyone can join in where mass-emails can be sent out without fear of being spam-flagged by mistake, the group is the best solution.

Groups are the unsung hero for small business

One of the absolute best uses of a group is for small business. As a collaborative solution, you truly can’t do much better especially considering it’s free.

Let’s say you wanted an in-house  collaborative solution that has a full-enabled calendar with to-do/task management, threaded discussions, “levels” of members (administrators, moderators, etc.) and so on – and you want the entire thing set up in less than 30 minutes.

Groups is it. Not only can it be set up in record time, but is also accessible anywhere – office or home. It’s also mobile-enabled as well (for old-school providers anyway).

For large-scale enterprise collaborative solutions, I’ll concede groups would not work that well. For small biz however it’s a darn good choice. You can even brand it to your company name (as in a domain) through Yahoo! Small Business, Windows Live Domains or Google Apps Standard Edition. This makes all accounts end in @your_site.com. It’s all free and all ready-to-use.

What do you think of groups? Boom or bust?

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

How To Set Up Free Online Group Collaboration

I figured now was the time to upgrade to a wi-fi router with Wireless N. After all, I have a Dell mini 10v netbook that has a Draft N wi-fi card in it, so why not.

After two wi-fi N routers bought and returned, I have a Linksys WRT54GL ordered from Newegg on its way to me now because Wireless N simply wasn’t worth the hassle.

Here’s wi-fi N in a nutshell and why I’m choosing not to use it:

What is Wireless N?

The technical name for N is 802.11n. It is the fifth version of the spec. The first was 802.11, then 802.11a, then B, G and finally (for now) N. The indoor range of N is 70m/230ft, outdoor range is 250m/820ft – however in practical application those numbers are much lower due to obstruction/interference/etc.

There are four things about N that make it distinctively different from B and G.

1. Four MIMO (multiple-input/multiple-output) streams instead of one.
2. A raw data rate of 600 Mbit/s.
3. Two bandwidth frequencies, 20Mhz and 40MHz, instead of 20MHz alone.
4. Two GHz frequencies of 2.4GHz and 5GHz, instead of 2.4GHz alone.

How can you get the fastest possible data rate with N?

This is where the frustration begins with N.

While it’s true you can operate on 40MHz bandwidth with 2.4GHz, doing that takes up 82% of the unlicensed band. In other words, it most likely won’t work because of network congestion, so you’re more or less required to use 5GHz just to use 40MHz bandwidth.

Let’s say for the moment you configure your N router to the configuration where it will only accept incoming connections @ 5GHz using 40MHz bandwidth. Will you get 600 Mbit/s? No, because that’s the raw data rate. The practical data rate will be under 300. You can consider this the difference between gross and net. When you get a paycheck from your job, there’s the gross amount and then what you’re left with after tax which is net. With wi-fi routers, "raw" is "gross", and "practical" is "net".

The ridiculous nature of N routers at present

You would think there’s only one type of N router, but there are actually three "major" types:

1. Up to 150Mbps, single band
2. Up to 300Mbps, single band
3. Up to 300Mbps, dual band

The 150 and how stupid it is.

I hate the fact the maximum-150Mbps wi-fi N router even exists, because none of them as far as I know are fully Draft N certified, and you literally cut the maximum data rate you can achieve with your Draft N wi-fi card in half. The 150 exists only because these type of wi-fi routers are cheap to produce. As such, they’re junk. I know – I bought two of them before I realized this. The second one bought was a storied brand, a Linksys WRT120N – a router that barely qualifies as N. If you were expecting blazing N speeds, well.. just read that article for yourself and you be the judge. It states more or less every reason why a maximum-150Mbps wifi-N router is garbage.

And yes I was thoroughly disgusted that Linksys could even consider making let alone selling such a piece of junk.

At all costs you should always avoid purchasing a maximum-150Mbps wi-fi N router. Do not buy one, you will regret it.

The up-to-300Mbps single-band trap.

If you are in a wi-fi environment that is N-only by your design, you’ll get along just fine with a single-band 300Mbps wi-fi N router. However most of us, yours truly included, have other devices that require G. One such example is a Nintendo Wii which does G but not N. Or maybe you have another laptop or desktop with a wireless NIC that only supports B/G. Or maybe you have a smartphone that only supports B/G. You get the idea. Most of us have mixed wi-fi environments.

What you run into is a trap because the single-band N router won’t accept 2.4GHz and 5GHz at the same time. Remember, it’s single-band. You either configure for 2.4GHz or 5GHz and have to deal with it. This means that in order to connect up your wi-fi devices that require G and your other devices that are N-capable, you must use 2.4GHz and the result from that are awful N speeds. Yes, you’re connected via N, but are absolutely not taking advantage of the greater data rate 5GHz with 40MHz bandwidth has. In some instances you will be no better off with N than you were with G.

In a mixed wi-fi environment, a single-band wi-fi N router is just a bad idea. Sure, you’ll get great G speeds, but the N speeds will barely be able to outrun G in most instances.

The up-to-300Mbps dual band saves the day – if you know how to configure an N connection in a mixed wi-fi environment properly

The dual-band wi-fi N router is the one that does it all, but the way to ensure a proper 5GHz with 40MHz bandwidth connection is wholly dependent on software.

I’ll explain.

If you set up your dual-band wi-fi N router to operate as a mixed environment that accepts B, G and N (you can’t configure to operate only G and N for whatever reason), there is usually no option that says, "N connections must operate on 5GHz with 40MHz bandwidth only". What occurs is a mix between 20 and 40MHz, and it has to happen because B and G only use 20MHz bandwidth. A tradeoff is that your N connections will also most likely be watered down to 2.4GHz using 20MHz bandwidth.

What do you do to compensate for this? You specifically configure the wi-fi connection on the desktop or laptop to force a 5GHz/40MHz connection to your router and then you’re finally getting the N speeds you want – assuming the signal is strong to begin with.

This begs the question: How is anyone supposed to magically know you’re supposed to force a 5GHz w/40MHz bandwidth freq connection to get the best N data rate?

On top of that, most wi-fi cards (particularly on laptops and netbooks) have independent configuration admin programs, and none of them work the same. There is no simple 1-2-3 way of doing it and never has since N has been in existence.

Things that need to change about Wireless N

The "up to 150Mbps" Wireless N router needs to be taken off the market and not come back

This has everything to do with wi-fi router manufacturers. All of them need to pull those craptastic routers off the shelves because they’re not Draft N certified, they don’t deliver the best speeds for an N data rate, and most importantly there are already certified Draft N 300Mbps wi-fi routers that cost less. This one is a no-brainer.

Single-band wi-fi N routers should all come with a warning sticker

The sticker would say this: "Warning! Setting your router to 5GHz-only connections will prevent Wireless B and G devices from being able to connect to this device."

This sticker should be big, red and and slapped right on top of every single-band wi-fi N router made so consumers are made very aware of what happens when you go 5GHz-only. And when I say sticker I mean sticker and not some quick pop-up screen in the router setup program that everybody would ignore. This is something that really needs to be seen and understood.

Some of you are probably thinking it might be better if all single-band wi-fi N routers were removed from the market along with the "up to 150Mbps", but I disagree with that because single-band does offer a low-cost option for the budget-minded. I think it’s fine to offer single-band N as long as all of them support up to 300Mbps or higher.

Draft N wireless card admin programs need to explain themselves better

If you have a Draft N wi-fi card and have explored its configuration program, you saw the 40MHz connection option (most likely a checkbox), but had absolutely no idea what it was for or even what it did. And why would you? Your admin program probably doesn’t explain the option at all, so you’re left in the dark as to what it does.

Things like this need to change, even if it’s just one sentence that says, "40MHz is for Wireless N connections only and increases data rate." That little blurb would help out immensely for many folks. It says up front that the 40MHz bandwidth option is only for N connections and also states what it does.

Why do I hate Wireless N?

What I hate about Wireless N is the fact as to how utterly stupid it is in practical application. How is anybody supposed to know that:

1. Your wi-fi N router must be Draft-N certified in order to achieve 300Mbps or higher connectivity.
2. Your wi-fi N router must be dual-band if you intend to use it in a mixed wi-fi environment.
3. You’re supposed to know the difference between 20MHz and 40MHz bandwidth – and how to apply it in your wi-fi card’s configuration program.

If you’re technically inclined when it comes to wi-fi routers, then sure, you know this stuff well. But what about Joe or Jane Consumer? How are they supposed to know this stuff?

If after reading this you’ve made the decision to stick with G, don’t worry, I don’t blame you. G is not going to go away any time soon. Heck, we haven’t even been able to get rid of B!

What’s a good use for Wireless N?

A good use for N is speed when connected properly. When you’re surfing at 5GHz at 40MHz bandwidth, then oh yeah, life is good. It’ll be so fast you’ll think you’re on a wired connection. Sony PlayStation 3 users particularly appreciate this.

A bad reason to use N is for extended wi-fi range, because to be blunt honest, it’s a crapshoot as to whether that will actually work or not per your specific environment. Wireless N is not a guaranteed solution to a wi-fi range problem and never has been. While it is true that N does have better range than G does, you’d be far better off using two decent G routers (like the Linksys WRT54G or WRT54GL), with the second one as acting as a Wireless Access Point, a.k.a. WAP.

Also be very aware that "dual-band" absolutely does not mean "better range". All dual-band means is that the N router will accept both 2.4GHz and 5GHz connections at the same time.

On a final note, I’m not saying Wireless N itself is bad. Not at all. But how to get the most out of N requires way too much assumed knowledge, and I don’t believe anyone would disagree with me on that point.

If you elect to use it, at least you now know what to buy.

What’s your recommendations for Wireless N?

Wireless N is something where many people are still riding the fence trying to decide whether to go with it or not. If you use N currently, please feel free to post a comment as to what wi-fi router you use, how its performance compares to G and so on.

For those of you out there that routinely use 5GHz N connections in mixed wi-fi environments that also use G – your comments would be especially helpful. How has that been working for you?

Yes, it is 100% OK to list brands and particular models by name, because some N router models are junk while others are great.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

I Hate Wireless N

1. Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook

I’d dare to say that for some of you, this may be the only reason to have a Facebook account.

Bejeweled is not a new game, but Bejeweled Blitz is a modernized version with a one-minute time limit per game that will keep you coming back over and over again. Highly addicting, very cool arcade-style gameplay, fantastic sound effects (particularly when lightning strikes across the board and jewels explode), this game has it all.

Most people can’t stand Facebook, but totally love Bejeweled Blitz.

2/3/4/5/6. nintendo8.com, c64i.com, gbemul.com, mastersystem8.com, dosdose.com

The above links are the absolute mother lode of retro gaming. Nintendo8 is for NES titles, c64i.com for Commodore 64 games, gbemul.com for Nintendo Gameboy games, mastersystem8.com for Sega Master System (the one before Genesis) games, and dosdose.com for MS-DOS games.

All five sites are from the same provider, and it could literally take you weeks to go through all the games.

All games are in-browser, all original ROMs, all free. The only drawback is that you play with your keyboard instead of a game controller since you’re using your computer.

Those of you with Nintendo Wii consoles will particularly find Nintendo8.com useful because you can actually test a vintage game title before actually buying it for Virtual Console.

7. Neave Games

Paul Neave has had a web site for a very long time, and also has some fantastic remakes of classic arcade games, including a great Tetris clone, Frogger, Hexxagon (remember that one?) and more. All the games are simple and all very addicting.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

7 Great Places To Play Free Games Right Now

As everyone knows, there is a distinct difference between want and need. The bitter truth about Apple products is that people want them because they’re “cool”, but don’t actually need them.

This is why:

There are no more killer apps for the Mac

There was a time years ago when you actually did need Apple products to do certain things, particularly for audio, video and graphics editing. If you wanted a true non-linear video editing workstation for example, Mac was the only choice. If you wanted the best audio editing workstation, (such as ProTools) that was at one point exclusively for the Mac. For graphics editing, same deal.

All three workstation types are now available for Windows platform and have been for some time. In addition there are also professional-grade options for Linux and UNIX platforms. The exclusivity that made for killer apps on the is now nothing but a distant memory.

Mac Pro is not the best workstation

Have you seen the Dell Precision Workstation line of products, in particular the T7500 model?

The T7500 can load in 192GB when you opt for dual processors and the Red Hat Enterprise Linux option.

The T7500 also supports the nVidia Tesla C1060 GPU card. That’s 240 cores and 4GB video memory, by the way.

Expandability is what differentiates what’s “best” concerning a true workstation, and put simply, Mac isn’t it.

MacBook Pro is not the best laptop

This is another arena where Apple was really on top of their game for a good long while, then completely fell behind the competition. In the Motorola processor days, i.e. the “G” series (ex: G3, G4, G5), MacBooks were fantastic. Truly. The only way to get something built as well or run as fast as a MacBook during that time was to buy a premium-grade ThinkPad – and even ThinkPad couldn’t keep up during the “G” days.

Today, however, the MacBook Pro simply doesn’t live up to expectation. It cannot outrun or outgun a comparable competitor (ex: Dell Precision M4500 with the Core i7 Extreme offering).

With a MacBook Pro you used to get what you paid for. Not anymore.

OS X is not the most innovative operating system

Innovation when it comes to an OS can be defined by answering one simple question:

What can I do with it?

Even though I’m an unapologetic Windows 7 user, I do know that the OS that offers the user the most possible options is Linux – and it’s always been that way. If you want the most possible options, the most apps, the most everything, Linux is the OS of choice for the true power user.

There is absolutely no part of Linux where the OS says to you, “Sorry! You can’t do that.” If you want to change/modify anything, you can do it. To somewhat borrow from a Microsoft advertising slogan, with Linux there truly are no walls.

Innovation in an OS as far as I’m concerned lies in user empowerment, and OS X is a far cry from the top position in that respect.

iPhone is not the best smartphone

Once again this is another arena where Apple was on top, but is now faltering.

I don’t take away the fact that Apple is selling a bazillion iPhones right now. Yes, they’re selling well. But as everyone is aware, sales numbers don’t necessarily translate to “best” other than “best-selling”.

Generally speaking, smartphone users only care about three things: Network availability, network speed and apps – in that order.

Per the first two, that’s wholly dependent on the carrier and not Apple themselves unless the phone itself fundamentally has a problem connecting to the network due to one or more design flaws.

Per the apps, iPhone does have them where it counts, however the tyrannical nature of which apps are approved or not is becoming increasingly more of an issue.

Summed up in a single phrase, this is what iPhone users want:

“It’s my phone; I paid for it; I should be able to run any damn thing I want on it.”

You can’t install anything you want unless you do what’s called a “jailbreaking” of the phone, which risks “bricking” it (i.e. making it unusable).

This walled mobile environment concerning apps is what will ultimately cause smartphone users to dump iPhone and go with something else, because like it or not, most power users of smartphone users are of the nerdy/geeky type. As such they demand a mobile environment that is not overly restrictive. They can deal with some restrictions, yes, but when it actually gets in the way of what they want to do with the phone, that’s when it becomes a legitimate problem.

At the end of it all, it’s about the lack of approved apps when it comes to iPhone and that is ultimately what makes it not the best smartphone.

Is there anything that Apple is best at anymore?

A huge reason why people bought Apple products to begin with is because they were the best. But now there are no killer apps, workstations that fall behind, a restrictive OS, laptops that aren’t ahead of the curve, phones with overly restrictive app requirements, and so on and so forth?

But at least iPod Touch is cool for playing games on.

Then again, Apple deems the iPod Touch a throw-away device considering they give them away for free to college students who buy a Mac. I bet that makes iPod Touch owners who bought them outright feel really special..

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Nobody Truly Needs Apple Products