Using a 1964 modem to dial up to the Internet

In the late 80s I used a 300-baud acoustic modem connected to my Atari 800 to connect to BBSes. Ah, the memories. (Though I think it would have been cooler if he had actually used a rotary dial phone to make it true “dial up”.)

Via Boing Boing

Help me solve a networking problem

The CAT-6 wiring has been installed and streaming HDTV from the office computer to the HDTV & stereo is pretty much complete. But there’s a problem. Before I explain it, here’s a diagram of the setup. (via gliffy)

Now for the problem: The switch in the living room. The switch is there to connect the TV computer and the game consoles. If the Switch is connected the DSL modem constantly connects to the Net, works for a minute or two, then resets, killing the Net connection for the house. When I remove the switch and connect the TV computer directly, everything works fine and the DSL modem stops resetting itself.

The switch is a DLink DGS-2205 which has a “feature” which turns off the ports when they’re not being used but that should effect the DSL modem shouldn’t it? I’ve ordered a new Netgear switch without the green feature. just in case that’s the problem.

So any ideas? Need any further details? Just post a comment.

Dot Matrix Revolution*

DOT MATRIX REVOLUTION* from superbrothers on Vimeo.

The first 72 hours with 64 bits -or- Taking the Ferrari to the corner for milk

As some of you may have read on FriendFeed and Twitter, after six years, I finally replaced my aging home desktop computer. The old one ran Windows XP at 2.0GHz with 1GB of RAM. The new computer (shown right) runs Windows Vista 64-bit with a 2.66GHz Quad-core processor and 6.144GB of RAM. I've nicknamed it "The Beast". (Full specs can be found on the Gateway site.)

First, some background.

Whenever someone asks me, "Should I get a new computer?" I ask them "Well, does your current computer do what you need it to do without an undue burden on you?" In other words, does it work without going too slow, or needing regular (daily) reboots? If the answer is yes, then it isn't time for a new computer. If no, then it is.

Readers, it's been that time for me for about a year now.

I knew that this computer was never going to be upgradable to Vista. I looked into doubling the RAM (which is generally a stop-gap measure at best) and found that the old Gateway used some sort of obscure RAM and that all my slots were full so upping it to 2GB was going to cost me something in the neighborhood of $300. That wasn't going to fly.

So, I've been looking. I've been trolling the NewEgg and TigerDirect flyers and RSS feeds and figured that I'd be purchasing a bare-bones kit (case, power supply, CPU, RAM) then customizing it with a graphics card, hard drive, and OS. This was looking to cost me about $900 for something in the neighborhood of a dual-core 3GHZ with 3GB of RAM.

Then, this past Thursday, Gateway sent me an e-mail.

The e-mail listed a deal on a laptop and The Beast via Office Depot. I posted a message to FriendFeed and Twitter to get opinions and most were "go for it". The one from @stephenk was memorable: "Do you really need a Ferrari to go to the corner store for milk?"

The simple answer is of course no, but I'm glad I got the Ferrari. (I ended up driving 50 miles out to LaVista, NE to pick it up at the store so I'd have it to set up over the weekend.)

I'm not a serious gamer (as can be shown by the fact that The Beast doesn't contain the greatest graphics card in the world,) but I have been known to encode DVD video. Did I "need" 6GB or RAM and a quad-core processor, probably not. But for this price, I'm glad I didn't pass it up.

Here's an example from the weekend:

At one point I had Firefox, Outlook open, BitTorrent downloading and seeding some video, a bunch of background software running in the system tray, I was burning a DVD-ROM, AND streaming a tv show up the the livingroom over the network.  All at the same time, and yet was still using only about .45 of the CPUs and .40 of the available RAM.

That's what I need my computer to be able to do and it did so with enough headroom to be able to handle anything else I could think of throwing at it. Oh, and did I mention that it boots in about 30 seconds?

As for the 64-bit version of Vista, I was hesitant but Paul Thurrott over on the Windows Weekly podcast says that it's ready for prime-time and the 64-bit hardware drivers are no longer a problem. So, how's that working for me? Just fine.

I did have to hunt through the Dell Web site for a 64-bit driver for my Dell 1100 laser printer but once I found that, it printer works as it should.

The only continuing problem is with my Ultra USB hard drive enclosure. Which, most unfortunately, contains my music. So far The Beast refuses to recognize this USB device even though it works fine on the old computer. I contacted Ultra and they insist that it should work just fine in Vista 64-bit, it's a Windows problem, and I should contact Microsoft. I'm thinking I'll just replace the enclosure with a different brand. Right now that decision is coming down to wether I'd rather spend time with Microsoft technical support or just shell out $30 for a replacement.

So, yes, I'm glad that I bought the Ferrari. Sometimes a little overkill is worth not having to walk to the store.

Logitech diNovo Edge Keyboard

Last week I realized that there was a down side to how I'd hooked up my laptop to my HDTV. The laptop ended up connected to the TV and on top of my stereo cabinet, forcing me to stand at the computer to use it, or in my lap on my sofa, but not connected to the TV. So, I started poking around for wireless keyboards and mice. Thinking that a mouse wasn't going to work all that well, and that would just be one more "remote" in my livingroom, I shopped for a wireless keyboard with a built in trackpad. What I found was the Logitech diNovo Edge Keyboard.

At $149 this keyboard is a smidge on the pricey side but it's worth every penny. It's light, it's thin, it doesn't need AA or AAA batteries due to the built in Li-Ion batteries and charging station, and it's on board "touch disc". The batteries are quoted as being able to last a month or more on a single charge and based on other reviews I have no reason to doubt that. The "touch disc" is a round touchpad but with two special spots on the disc that allow for both vertical and horizontal scrolling once you get the hang of it.

Stylistically, this is a gorgeous piece of equipment. It's sleek and black, and had many backlit icons for special functions. (For example, the ring around the touch disc lights up when your using it and slowly fades out when you stop.) And, as other reviewers have said, it even looks great when sitting in the charging station.

The wireless connection runs on Bluetooth and this is where I ran into some problems. My Vista Ultimate laptop has built in Bluetooth but I'd not used it in the past as this is my first Bluetooth device for a computer. So, I went into the Bluetooth configuration settings and instructed the computer to find the device. I'd pressed all the right buttons and read all the instructions a dozen times but computer continually failed to find the keyboard. So, as a test, I plugged in the USB dongle for computers that didn't have Bluetooth and everything connected almost instantly. Therefore, the problem was with my computer, not the keyboard.

An hour later, having read many a support document, it seemed that Bluetooth was "running" (at least there was a Bluetooth icon in my system tray) but it was "turned off". Using the function keys to turn it on didn't work since, ultimately, the laptop was refusing to recognize the built in Bluetooth hardware. My guess is that something happened in the upgrade to Vista.

I found updated drivers from Gateway, downloaded them, and ran the install program. The install program informed me that I had to first uninstall the old version. Off to Add/Remove Programs to uninstall Bluetooth. Upon reboot, Vista found the hardware, reinstalled the (original) drivers, and before trying to install new drivers, I tried again. This time, the keyborad connected as it should.

(I don't blame the keyboard or Logitech for this at all. I mention it since others might have a similar problem.)

I then installed the Logitech software which seems to give me some additional options and customizations but I'm in no hurry to investigate those since so far I've been able to do everything I've needed to do.

The only other odd thing I've noticed is the keyboard's volume control. Using the keyboard to raise and lower the volume seems only to work within a small range, not silent-to-blearing like you'd expect. I'm sure this again has something to do with the OS' volume settings and not a problem with the keyboard itself. This is also something I'm not all that worried about as I'll probably use the TV remote's volume control more than anything else.

For those interested, a slideshow of the unpacking, Bluetooth installation(sans screenshots of the hour of troubleshooting) and Logitech software installation, can be found in my Flickr account.

Shutdown Day

Saturday, March 24th has been named Shutdown Day. Can you turn off all your computers for 24 hours? Not only will it save a lot of energy it'll give you a chance to read that book you've been meaning to get to. I'm going to do it. Can you?