To give better wi-fi range than was available on a BT Voyager 2100 DSL modem, I used my spare Dlink DIR-655 router as an AP.

It was easy to do.

Connect to the DIR-655 with a CAT 5 cable (don’t do this over wireless).

Then:

1. Click on Advanced and then click Advanced Network. Uncheck the Enable UPnP checkbox. Click Save Settings to continue.
2. Click Setup and then click Network Settings. Uncheck the Enable DHCP Server server checkbox. Click Save Settings to continue.
3. Remove the CAT 5 cable from the computer. Connect one end to a LAN port on the BT Voyager, connect the other end to a LAN port on the DIR-655.
4. Reboot the DIR-655

D-Link DIR-655 as an AP is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

I went into my local T-Mobile store because I wanted to get set up with a PAYG mobile broadband solution for my netbook. Sure, I can find wi-fi hotspots about, but that isn’t going to work when I want to go sit in the park on a spring afternoon.

Anyway, not only could the store not tell me if their sticks worked with any Linux distribution, but they also told me that once I bought a stick, there was no Linux support from their helpline, and no refund.

I was on my own.

Well a little research, and this is such an easy solution.

Fire up your netbook.

Using an alternative means of connecting to the internet, do the following:

1. Open a console.
2. Cut and paste the line below:

sh -c 'wget http://www.betavine.net/repository/bcm_lucid_install.sh -O /tmp/bcm.sh && /usr/bin/xterm -e sudo sh /tmp/bcm.sh'

Let it do its work; it will install the Vodaphone connect Manager.

Then plug in your T-Mobile USB Stick, and fire up the installed VCM. It will find your stick.

Click on connect. You’re done, except for one more thing. You need to go to the T-Mobile site http://t-mobile.co.uk/payperdayhome and set up your first day’s top-up.

That’s about it. Any Questions, drop me a line.

T-Mobile UK USB Broadband Stick in Ubuntu is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

From James Moffitt

Barcamp Charleston is coming to the College of Charleston SC on November 13th this year. This is a participation type of event where different people facilitate sessions which motivates people to participate in the sessions. You can learn more about these sessions here.

Barcamp Sessions November 13th

Thus far I have proposed two sessions that I need for folks to vote on. The links for the sessions are below.

Basic Workstation management for Non Profits

Geocaching in the Lowcountry for beginners

I need for you to do a couple of things please.

A. Consider attending if you can (cost is 10.00 plus parking)
B. if you can not attend please forward this to folks that might be interested in these sessions.
C. help me by voting on my proposed sessions even if you cant attend
D. if you know something about the session material I am presenting please show up and participate. That would help me greatly.

Thanks

Barcamp Charleston is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

The charger that comes with the Motorola Droid is a cool gadget. It has a wall plug on the end of a USB cable, so to transfer files to your computer from the Droid (and to charge from the computer too), one can simply remove the wall plug attachment, and you have the USB cable.

Only problem is, it’s only about 3 feet long.

Another problem. I have a whole bunch of USB to mini_USB cables. I used them for my Sansa MP3 player, and for my Blackberry Curve, and for charging my Motorola HT820 Bluetooth Headset.

The Driod uses the newer Micro-USB size

I decided I needed to get more cables, so I can at least have one on the main PC, and leave the original cable connected to the wall plug where it was,  by the bed at night to charge.

It was rapidly becoming a pain in the butt having to keep moving the cable back and forth.

On Saturday, when I was out, I went to look in Staples for another cable. I found them ok, but a six-foot cable was $24.95.  I decided to take a look online.

That’s when I found these in the top picture. They were $1.69 each and they’re branded Motorola. OK, the shipping was another six bucks, but at just over ten bucks for four, it’s way less expensive than the solution from Staples, and I can use some of the bunch of existing cables with the mini USB plugs.

Another reason I always take a look online first. Heck, if I’d bought four cables from Staples it would have set me back just shy of $100, instead of just over $10! Way to go!

Charging Your Droid? – Read This! is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

Some say that once you start an online life you give up your privacy. Your footprint soon travels in cyberspace. How often do we hear that once you’ve posted that picture, or uttered those words, they are out there forever?

There’s a lot of truth in that. I can find at least one personal website that I created back as far as 1997. Much of the information is inaccurate now, of course. For a start I’m 13 years older. I’ve also re-married, changed careers, and moved since then.

The point is, it’s still out there 13 years later. If I’d been a gigolo or a porn star, and made a web site about that, chances are that it would still be out there too. Perhaps I’d then be worrying every day that my new boss was going to find out. Perhaps I’d thought about running for some political office, and would be scared my dark past would come back to haunt me.

Of course, it’s down to the individual.

One downside is that where we’re younger, wilder, perhaps a bit more immature, it seems great fun to post endless pictures of the wild nights in the bar, or, perhaps worse, videos of us having rowdy drunken fun. *

There’s a lot of talk recently about Facebook privacy.  Many people post much information about themselves there.  Twitter is another place where you see a surprising amount of personal information posted.

I would always recommend discretion myself.  My take on it is this. I don’t really have any skeletons in my closet, but I’ve always worked on the premise that I only tell people what I want them to know. If I don’t tell you about the red and green striped wart on my rear end, you can’t even go and mention that to someone else by mistake, or because you were bursting to tell someone. I’m not burdening you with MY secrets that way. It’s similar online but for one  BIG difference.

Back in say 1990, if someone took photographs of my drunken antics in the bar one evening, it would be something to giggle or groan at the following week among our group. Nowadays, they’re invariably posted on a service such as Facebook, often as they happen. By the time you sober up and realize, and contact your friend to get them taken down, millions of people, including a prospective employer may have seen them. Also, your friend may have posted them in other places you’re not even aware of!

The big complaint though about privacy on services such as Facebook is that many users feel that they’re not in control of what get posted publicly and what doesn’t.  It should be the case that YOU can decide what is public in your profile and what is private. However, at the end of the day, don’t post anything online that you want to keep private. If, for example, you’re sensitive about your age, don’t put your full date of birth up there for everyone to see!

Same goes for anything else. Whatever service you use, if you really don’t want anyone to know about it, don’t put it online. Keep it locked away in your mind.

Many people feel that when they leave a service, they should be able to delete any information about themselves that is held by that service. Great idea, except we come back to that 1997 example I wrote about earlier. I left that ISP and the web space that went with it back in 2001, when I first got broadband, and the site itself had been changed a lot between 1997 and 2001 in any case. Data spreads around the Internet,  that’s the nature of the beast.

Oh and as an aside don’t forget that when you get rid of a computer,  be sure to delete the data on the drive first.  Use a decent deletion utility – not just reformat the drive. If the data is really sensitive, consider removing the drive from the machine, and using it in a new machine, or if it’s too old or small, physically destroy it. Am I being over dramatic here? Better to be safe than sorry!

As a small business IT consultant, I am still surprised at some of the data that gets left on old computers that I get asked to dispose of. I guess I shouldn’t be by now.

Ultimately though, you ARE in charge of your privacy on social media sites.  If it’s THAT private,  don’t post it!

* (Personally, unless I thought someone had an alcohol problem, I’d rather employ someone that was a sociable happy type (assuming they had the required skill-set) than a stuffed shirt. However, not all employers think that way – particularly those that are stuffed shirts themselves).

Private? Then Don’t Post It! is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

Those who know me well, know I’m no supporter of the European Union, and the direction it’s generally taking. Still, I will concede that sometimes, some of the mindless bureaucrats come out with a ‘good idea’.

Ministers responsible for telecommunications and Information Technology within the European Union have proposed that government agencies across Europe should buy non-proprietary software.

Like most corporations, Governments have generally bought software from the largest companies such as Microsoft. This can often mean that end users have to use compatible software to interact with such systems. One of the more common issues, is making it impossible to use a Government web site, perhaps to renew a licence or file a tax return online, unless using Internet Explorer.

Many people, myself included, neither like the IE interface, nor trust its security. In any case, not everyone runs Windows or even Mac systems, and IE will not natively run on Linux boxes .

The software guidelines that ministers are discussing here are known as the European Interoperability Framework, and the key is the promotion of open standards, and Europe wide compatibility.

Further reading can be found in this article from Paul Meller at Techworld

EU Calls For Open Standards in Government Software Purchasing is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

I read this from Blog Maverick this morning:

A question for you. When was the last time you surfed the net ? Can you remember when you just clicked around looking to discover new sites or a site to occupy your time ? Now ask yourself when was the last time you sat on your couch or laid in bed clicking the remote looking for something to watch on TV.  Finally, how long do you regularly spend  on Facebook ?  How much time do you spend checking out your Wall, your friends’ Wall and hopping from profile to profile checking people out ?

Firstly, I know I’m not typical, or perhaps in the majority. I don’t care.

I still find myself surfing the net. First thing I do in the morning is read my emails, and my overnight Tweet DMs and @s. I regularly click on links that are potentially interesting,  and often click on other links, and end up 3 or 4 levels from where I started. Yes, that’s surfing, and I still do it.

I have to stop myself in the morning, or I’d not start work. I do it more in the evening for sure.

We come to TV. Well, I don’t have a TV. From time to time I’ll watch something online, but even when I had a TV, I never spent time looking for something to watch. My TV viewing habits have always been to switch on, watch the show I want, and turn it off again. As an adult, TV has never played more than a minuscule part in my life.

Now Facebook. I go in from time to time,  and my typical visit lasts 2-3 minutes, rarely longer. I scan down the front page, and cast my eye over what’s there. I’m very good at skim reading so that doesn’t take long at all. Sometimes, I’ll comment, or ‘like’; sometimes I’ll click on a link to take me to an external site to read an article.

I check those little red icons at the top of the Facebook page of course. Friend Requests, and notifications. That usually takes a minute or so, as it’s usually just a yes/no/ignore choice.

I almost never surf my friends walls, or hop from profile to profile. About the only time I look at a profile is when I am checking a new friend request, and of course,  you can’t usually see much until you accept them. I understand the privacy concerns here, but it’s also annoying. I can check out a person’s profile and their stream in Twitter before I decide to follow them. In Facebook, it’s often a case of someone who I know, and then I find all they do is play farm games or poker, and as I hide all that stuff, I don’t really hear from them again anyway!

Why don’t I use Facebook more? I find much less of interest there than I do in Twitter.  Also it’s a time issue.

I’ve already said I’m a good skim reader. I can do that so easily with Twitter, or Friendfeed. I can quickly click on links, and pull up web articles of interest.  I can fire off quick replies, and in the case of  Twitter, that 140 character limit can be helpful to a wordy verbose type like me, who talks and writes way too much, when I get on my soapbox!

In Facebook, I find it too slow to search for things that have already gone by.

Of course, everyone has their favorite services, and some people like to just hate on everything else. That’s not my way, but I don’t hesitate to champion the services I prefer over and above those I don’t!

I’ve never had a sheep mentality, and I refuse to follow the crowd, until I decide for myself that I want to go in the same direction.

For now, I’m sticking to Twitter, Friendfeed, and with a little Buzz thrown in.

Facebook Or Twitter, Surfing Or TV? is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

Clear 4G Internet – www.clearwirelessinternet.com

Clear’s 4G wireless technology allows you to surf the internet at speeds equal to or faster than cable or DSL – without the wires. Surf at home or on your laptop on the go – even in a cab! With Clear, your entire city is a wireless hotspot. It’s simple – just plug it in and get online. See why so many people are ditching cable or DSL and turning to Clear. Right now, save big with plans starting at only $30/month. Clear is not yet available in all cities so check the website for coverage in your area.

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Ian May’s profile on MyLikes

Clear 4G Internet is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

A few days ago, I purchased a new, twin, BlackX Sata Hard Drive docking station.

They’re really useful.

I didn’t want to get an external drive in a case, because I’d stripped down some computers, and had these perfectly working Sata drives from them. I was looking to buy a standard enclosure, but then I’d really need to buy one for the drives that I had, which would work out at over a hundred bucks, assuming that each enclosure was around $25 – $30.

Then I saw the BlacX. The single slot USB version was on sale for $34.99, and I would only need to buy one.  I went ahead and I’ve been happy with its performance. I can hot-swap hard drives from the dock (assuming you’re not in the middle of writing data of course).

Now, I can have a hard drive for video, one for music, one for documents and so on.

So, when I needed to upgrade my music library drive, as my old 500GB one was rapidly filling up (I’ve digitized, and bought digital music for some years now), I decided to go for a similar solution.

This time I purchased a twin slot dock, that will work with both USB and eSATA connections. I don’t as yet have any computers with eSATA but I almost certainly will on the next upgrade. The only thing you need to watch for when using eSATA, is that your computer is equipped with a Port Multiplier or your system will only see one drive and not two.

There is no such restriction with USB.

I also bought a 1TB Western Digital ‘Green’ Drive. It’s supposed to use less energy and more to the point, it was over $20 cheaper that the ‘regular’ ones.

It seems to work fine, and is speedy enough too.

One thing I did notice though. The two older Western Digital drives that I have in the twin dock (they’re both 320GB each), are too hot to touch for long. The new 1TB Green Drive, is quite cool in comparison, and I could put my hand on it, and leave it there.

I would assume that this could help the drive electronics to last longer, as heat is certainly no friend of such equipment.

All in all though, I’m pleased with the purchase. A twin dock with 1TB drive for $130, with plenty of room for expansion in the future.

Cool Hard Drive is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

Just installed Ubuntu 10.04 on my netbook. It’s otherwise known as Lucid Lynx. Getting a few issues, like a non terminal kernel error (so far), and Wakoopa doesn’t want to work.

Otherwise so far so good.

A few extra apps are installed by default, such as a video editor, and a simple scanning app. I can’t report anymore on these at this time, as I’ve not used them.

The full release is due out on April 29th, and is an LTS edition.

Lucid Lynx is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog