OK, I’ve been going through router hell recently.

I replaced an old workhouse with a new one, which seemed to fix stuff.

And then it didn’t.

Just one person’s opinion:

THE GOOD – Linksys WEFW1154 Broadband Wireless Router My first home router; worked like a champ for approximately seven years. Had only 801.11B coverage, but made it through the house fine. Little bulky compared to today’s models, but cooler running. Allowed unlimited time for clients via DHCP, so was effectively a DNS server (until a box or router was turned off for whatever reason). Again, a trooper. (Note the dust – actual unit!)

THE BAD – Linksys/Cisco WRT54G Wireless Broadband Router Same footprint as the B router; this G router (which I bought on sale to keep as a backup) is about one-half to two-thirds the height of the old router. Runs much hotter, and drops so much that I just bailed on it in less than a month. Piece of crap (but faster, when it runs…credit where credit is due). Also, the old router had six ports: Internet in; four switch ports; one uplink. This one (and subsequent models) get rid of the uplink port – any one can uplink (good), but steals a port (bad). Fortunately, I have space on my supplemental switch so this is not an issue (yet….).

THE PRETTY – Linksys/Cisco E1500 Wireless Broadband Router OK, this is a nice looking unit (hey, no external antennas!), and so far has been working well, but I’m kinda soured on Cisco right now. No front lights, so I have to look in the back to see what’s going on (I’m sure that’s to save $$ somewhere, but idiotic for home use), and it seems to run hot, so I have configured with some breathing room. (Awkward!) This will run 801.11N; I only have G running now, and it’s fast. Hasn’t dropped since I put it in a couple of days ago, so we’ll see how that goes. I bought this unit because I can assign MAC to certain IPs, so I might lose a terminal window, but when an IP is refreshed on said computers, the IP stays. Again, too early to tell how that is going (I have the max lease time going – about six days – so I should start to see stuff after ~ three days). Fingers crossed – which is always a (not) good way to run a network!

Put into place by a Democratic president (Clinton) yet loved by Republicans (who keep trying to keep it around or delay the repeal of same), the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (re: homosexuality) is no more.

Good riddance.

We didn’t have blacks in the military.

And then we did, and they contributed as well as non-blacks.

We didn’t have women in the military.

And then we did, and they contributed as well as males.

With sexual orientation, it’s a little different: Most people can usually tell if you’re black (African-American or whatever) or a woman.

Sexual orientation?

Not so much.

But there were/are homosexuals in the military, and they’ve contributed as well as heterosexuals.

Now they can serve openly.

What’s the big deal? I mean, really – it’s the 21st Century.

Let’s start acting like it.

I’m not a business type – I’m more concerned with building tools and so on than getting into the weeds with marketing issues – and here is an example of something I’m just missing:

This was today’s LivingSocial.com deal.

Ten bucks for $20 of Whole Foods’ stuff.

They sold a million of these deals. (And there was a viral aspect – get three to buy same, your purchase is free …).

$10 million loss to Whole Foods, and Living Social gets a cut of each coupon (not as draconian as GroupOn, but every penny counts, especially when you’re giving a portion of a million deals!).

To me, Whole Foods is a pretty well-established brand; does it need to spend $10m+ on this kind of promotion?

That’s where the lack of MBA in me gets lost…

© CNN

As today is the 10th anniversary of 9/11, it’s only fitting that I say a few words about these awful events.

However, I will keep them brief and only for the record. I have been making a point of avoiding all coverage of this event: this is not an event to be celebrated in any fashion; it should be for those who lost in these attacks to privately mourn. I didn’t know anyone involved in that Tuesday’s events; I was just a spectator – a distant one at that – to what happened that day.

This blog was operational at that time, but I didn’t get around to posting anything about the day until four days later.

I was at home that day, working on a freelance project. As usual, I got up and – before hitting the shower – checked my email and news/tech sites.

CNN was slow to load, and when it did, it was in crisis mode: Few images, just HTML links of the hot news. The one picture was like the one to the right – a plane-shaped gash in the side of the first tower hit.

I turned on the TV and watched for 15 hours straight. I was watching live coverage when the second plane hit the other Twin Tower, and that’s when you knew we were under attack. One plane could be an accident/the result of a mechanical failure, perhaps the result of a hijacking.

But two planes, coordinated like that. This is deliberate; there may well be more…

I have a handful of take-aways from the days and years following the attacks:

• Then Mayor Rudy Giuliani of NYC did a great job at keeping things in perspective and he helped the city and the country get back to what now passes for normal.
• Both David Letterman and Jon Steward delivered powerful soliloquies when they returned to air a week or two after 9/11. Both were heartfelt, classy responses and, to me, jump-started the healing.
• Our privacy has eroded to an enormous degree as a result of legislation like the Patriot Act (and other similar policies/projects). This is not good; we need to re-examine many of these security measures.
• On a related note, the whole flying process is now seriously messed up (Senator Ted Kennedy found himself on the “Do Not Fly” list and had to run the gauntlet to get on a flight). Noted security expert Bruce Schneier refers to all the security at airports as “security kabuki,” and says the two good pieces of security to come out of 9/11 are the following: Reinforced cockpit doors, and passengers accepting that they might have to fight back (as they famously did on United Flight 93 over Pennsylvania on 9/11). The rest really doesn’t do anything.
• Taking out the Taliban in Afghanistan (with that government’s sanction): Good.
• Taking our eye off the ball in Afghanistan to engage Saddam Hussein in Iraq: Disastrous in just about every way possible. This was reinforced by this year’s Arab Spring, when many countries’ people took to the street to toss out (or try to do so) dictators without any real outside help (Libya is a little more complicated).
• While 9/11 did briefly unite America, it also lead to a completely unacceptable level of hatred and prejudice against Muslims in the US. From claims that Sharia law is creeping into our justice system through the vehement push-back on the so-called Ground Zero Mosque in NYC to the Murfreesboro, TN, mosque lawsuits (and vandalism), these actions are a putrid stain on our democracy, our vaunted melting pot heritage.

I can’t remember a time since the go-go days (and subsequent burst) of the 2000 internet bubble when so many major managers of tech companies were shuffled around like fray-edged cards in a loaded deck.

Until recently.

The CEO shuffle – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly:

• The Good: Steve Jobs has stepped down as CEO of Apple (but on the board). Not good for Apple, but – to me – good for him. Health is more important than business. Spend time with the wife and kids. And Apple’s going to be fine, at least short term.
• The Bad: I never really had an opinion about Jerry Yang’s replacement at Yahoo, Carol Bartz. Well, now she’s gone. If she was really fired over the phone, well, that’s indefensible. She’s the freakin’ CEO – if no respect for her, show some respect for the office. Yeah, Yahoo is circling the drain – what she was brought into to fix – but, still. Face to face. Confirms to me (if true) that Yahoo’s best days are just a distant image in the (internet’s) rear-view mirror… (Update: Time to re-read Paul Graham’s screed against Yahoo! from about a year ago, What happened to Yahoo.)
• The Ugly: The crazy-ass shit going on at TechCrunch – Arrington in/out? HuffPo winner/loser? AOL’s Armstrong has a spine or not? It’s a clash of what each party defines (or declines) to accept as journalism and act accordingly. I think – right or wrong – Arrington has always acted consistently; AOL/Armstrong and Arianna/HuffPo kinda want it both ways (each in a different “both ways”). Interesting…

Note: Some may swap the “good” and the “bad” (bad that Jobs is stepping down; good that Bartz has been given the boot). Whatever. Just my take at this moment – the “ugly” I have more to say about, but that’s another post.

This post is a reaction to Bartz’s sudden departure – and how I saw the small pattern.

Over at popdose.com, they’ve put together a list of the top 100 cover songs of all time.

Lists are always fun – always something to argue about, always something to learn (I thought “Sandy” was a Springsteen song covered by Tom Waits. Other way around.).

Just to put my 2 cents in, here are some covers that should be on that list, IMHO (note: – I’ll be adding to this list as I think of them):

• Percy’s Song – Fairport Convention (original by Bob Dylan)
• Whiter Shade of Pale – Annie Lennox (original by Procol Harum)
• Trout – Neenah Cherry, with help from REM’s Michael Stipe (original music by Steppenwolf, from The Pusher). So not a cover per se.
• I Don’t Like Mondays – Tori Amos (original by Boomtown Rats)
• Wooden Ships – Jefferson Airplane (original by Crosby, Stills & Nash)
• Hallelujah – John Cale (original by Leonard Cohen)
• Highway Patrolman – Johnny Cash (original by Bruce Springsteen)
• Gloria – Patti Smith (original by Van Morrison)
• For Shame of Doing Wrong – Sandy Denny (original by Richard Thompson)
• The City of New Orleans – Arlo Guthrie (original by Steve Goodman)
• Ring of Fire – Johnny Cash (original by June Cash’s sister, can’t recall her name. June Cash co-wrote the song)
• Helter Skelter – U2 (original by the Beatles)
• Little Wing – Stevie Ray Vaughan (original by Jimi Hendrix)
• Good Morning Little Schoolgirl – Van Morrison (original by Muddy Waters, written by S.B. Williamson)
• Like a Rolling Stone – Jimi Hendrix; the Live at Monterey version, please (original by Bob Dylan)
• Crazy – Alanis Morissette (original by Seal, I think)
• Friend of the Devil – Counting Crows (original by the Grateful Dead)

Google is famous for just introducing new tools/effects or whatever without every really trumpeting same.

If you go back to Google Maps, for example, after not having been there for some time, you’ll just about always run across new widgets/functionality.

Today, I was at Google’s Image Search for the first time in a while. And it mentioned (in small type) a new feature: Upload an image to start your search.

Really?

I tried a picture of a zinnia (didn’t do so well, just matched the colors); uploaded a picture of a sunflower and got a lot of hits of sunflowers (and other flowers with yellow blossoms).

So I picked a very distinctive image – the statue of the sitting Lincoln in DC’s Lincoln Memorial.

Google’s result is displayed here. They nailed it.

And they are only going to get better – yet it’s impressive right now. To me, this functionality is a kind of reverse search. Normally, you go to Google Images to pull up – and download/view – an image. (What does Florence’s Duomo look like?)

The reverse search enables you to take a image from your desktop and upload to Google Images and find out just what the image is of. As this gets better, this is going to be a vacation saver.

What town in Ireland was this pub in? Upload to Google, and you might get the answer (with link to Google Maps and so on. The mind reels…)

And this is a drag-and-drop upload: HTML5 goodness. Just drag a picture from Windows Explorer/the Finder to the search bar, and a big box comes up saying drop pic here. Uploaded!

Pretty amazing, if you ask me.

As everyone in the world knows, Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO of Apple Wed., August 24.

Yet he was already on medical leave, and this was his third such leave in the last half-dozen or so years. I have to believe that the toll of the job was getting to him, so he wisely stepped aside and had Tim Cook – who’s been running the show for the past year – named CEO.

Yet Jobs asked – and his request was granted – that he stay on Apple’s board.

So while he’ll be spared the day-to-day hassles, the hand that steers Apple isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Just a bit of a lower profile.

Here are my thoughts on the end of Jobs’ full-time engagement with Apple:

• I do believe Jobs’ health is at risk; I wish him the best.
   
• Jobs will still be running things for as long as he’s able.
   
• Were Jobs to completely sever ties with Apple today; there would still be 2-3 years worth of products with his imprimatur on them in the pipeline. That’s how big companies work – and Apple’s now a freaking huge company.
   
• There are worries for Apple fanboys, simply because there has not been a CEO and company so completely one and the same as Jobs and Apple in modern history. Really – can you name anyone who has exercised such control over a huge company? Not even Bill Gates at his strongest (pre-Netscape). Jobs would have to step down at some point, but I don’t think anyone wanted it to be this week. Well, maybe his competitors…
   

Of all the articles discussing the changing of the guard at Apple, I think uber-Mac fanboy John Gruber had the best line:

Jobs’s greatest creation isn’t any Apple product. It is Apple itself.

— Resigned

It is true – Jobs oversaw the creation of new markets, fabulous software and elegant hardware, and who knows what’s coming.

Yet the company – as a whole – does seem to be the greatest creation of all.

WATCHING:
Blue Valentine
Starring: Michelle Williams, Ryan Gosling

This is a very difficult to watch movie about a couple falling in and – ultimately – out of love.

Williams is a smart, driven woman who wants to be a doctor. Gosling is just drifting along. They meet, marry and after a six or so years things just fall apart.

Williams’ character (Cindy) is – after marriage and child – still driven; Gosling’s character (Dean) is just happy being a husband and a dad. Ebert has a great line about this dynamic in his review of the movie: “Dean thinks marriage is the station. Cindy thought it was the train.”

Brilliant synopsis.

Told with a series of flashbacks, some of which require one to read between the lines – it’s a tough watch. Well made, well acted – especially by Williams. But you just don’t want to watch what happens. It’s too painful; too real.

The one thing I didn’t get from the film was how Cindy always thought – up to the end – that Dean had such potential, that he could do anything. I didn’t see anything to suggest that.

All movies

Well, after about 12 years, my main router sorta died. As in, didn’t work as advertised.

Fortunately, I had a backup router – a wireless G, instead of B – on hand.

Swapped them out tonight.

Painful!!

The main issue was connecting the new router to a switch. Mix of OSs – Mac, Windows (XP & 7), Linux. OK, but the uplink/switch protocol differs from the router I put in 10 or so years ago and today (understandable…).

But the change is not documented! I had to fart around with ethernet cables, host files and so on to get it to work. Frustrating – because I’m not good at same – but fun because I always learn something from this.

I think I currently have both Windows boxes, both Linux boxes and the Mac all connected via ethernet; the wireless (to another Windoze box) was a challenge, but with the new router (supporting 802.11 G, not just B), it’s fricking faster.

Another decade before I do the same again? Doubtful – I’ll have to (gladly) update to faster faster.

Not my idea of a fun evening, but always fun to futz and learn.

Update: I had noticed my connection speeds deteriorating over the last few months, but I blamed Comcast for that. We have had a lot of storms lately, and so nodes were getting overloaded and so on. I expected things to gradually get back to normal. However, at least part of the slowdown now appears to be the router. The new router is – like the old – hardwired to my main computer, so it should pretty much run as fast as the cable modem.

Yet my speeds seem to have jumped since putting in the new router. Coincidence? Doubtful – I guess the old one was circling the drain before it just died. Interesting.

Well, the smartphones wars just up amped up a notch: Google has agreed to fork over $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility, the phone-making arm of electronics giant Motorola. This is Google’s biggest acquisition to date.

Now, a lot of folks are saying this is a move to secure patents in the increasingly litigious smartphone space, and they are right, but I see another target: Apple.

By acquiring Motorola Mobility – and at a premium (63% more than its closing price Friday) – Google now controls the software (Android) and the hardware for a smartphone. This gives Google a really good shot at making as pure an Android phone as they can, like Apple does with iOS.

Yes, Google tried this before with its original Android phone, the Nexus, which wasn’t the greatest (I’ve read), but the Nexus was more of a proof-of-concept phone than a real iPhone killer. Now that Android is more mature operating system, Google can build phones – and hopefully convince the carriers to not put a bunch of crapware on (I blame Dell and the PC desktop for this innovation) on the phones.

This helps and hurts the Samsungs and other Android phone makers. Yes, they will get the same patent protection that Google gets for the Android software, but now Google can compete with them in the hardware arena. And Motorola knows how to make phones.

Will Google fork Android here and there to tie it to a specific – Motorola – phone to have tighter integration with the hardware (and Google properties)? Why not?

Is this bad news for Apple? Not really. Sure, Android is now a little less vulnerable to patent lawsuits, but that doesn’t mean game over on this (stupid) front, by any means.

Apple still has a huge lead in smartphones, and is still the phone all others are compared to (and the iPhone 5 is due to arrive shortly, raising the bar again). It knows how to design and integrate hardware/software. Google just has a bunch of smart people – but with the Motorola Mobility purchase, they just got a bunch more smart people, but this bunch is smartphone smart.

Big winner?

The consumer. Patent protection will help keep the cost of phones down; Google entering the hardware market will encourage all sides to innovate. Phones will keep getting slicker and more affordable (I’m ignoring the telecom piece).

Things are getting more and more interesting in the smartphone space…

Update: Over at TechCrunch, it looks like Erick Schonfeld agrees with my take on the purchase. Patents nice, but having the whole package is the end game.