Networking without wires? This is certainly old news to most, not particularly secure and has some interesting range issues.
Falling in between wireless and old style wired is th new technology that lets you network your PC over your power cables, using the electrical cables already embedded in the walls to run a network. Not surprisingly, as a true techie, I had to try this.
We've got issues using wireless thanks to interference and location, so when we want to run a PC outside the office it has always involved running a long network cable round to where we want to work. Not ideal, particularly with two cats who view cables as long lengths of string. We bought the version with built-in AES, and set up a stand alone network.
The bad? It can't be plugged in to an extension lead. The good? Plugged into a wall it took about 5 seconds to set up. You literally plug an adaptor in to the socket, plug an RJ45 cable into it, and into your network hub/switch/router, plug another one in where you want to run the PC, and put an RJ45 cables from the socket to the PC. Effectively every power outlet in the house is now a network port.
A moment's thought reveals security issues, particularly if you have exterior power sockets or have ring networks shared with another flat*, but these are less than wireless would suffer, and it doesn't replace the need for antivirus and firewalls on the PC. However it removes the need for cables, is slightly more secure than wireless, and is very easy to use.
We're planning on setting it up as a second network, not linked to our main one, for light/fun use on gadgets like consoles which we can't use on the commercial network.
The only problem a real techie may have? Running out of power sockets...We may be doing some more DIY this weekend.
*We checked with one adaptor plugged into the PC first to see if it picked up any other networks. If you think it might, you may want to try this.
Thursday, 2 September 2010
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Dragon Cave
Friday, 13 August 2010
A flawed business method
An interesting example of a potentially backfiring business method just came up, so I thought I'd run through it. I'm not sure whether it's ironic, or just downright funny.
We were phoning round second hand bookshops to get rid of some books (I've got too many and they've taken over the house).
When we phoned one of the nearer ones we had a very interesting conversation. Apparently, they are having trouble competing with charity shops, so they will only take the best quality books. They only wanted as-new books - which they stated included no signs it had ever been read and no page browning. I did ask how a ten year old book was supposed to avoid page browning: apparently they don't want ten year old books no matter how pristine or rare. Likewise any new books printed on creme, no-go. Unfortunately most people selling books are trying to clear space, not make money.
One big problem with their method: the number of people who go into the store, sell what books they can, and then drop the rest off at the nearest charity shop.
Why am I not surprised the charity shops have a better range of stock? On the bright side, I suppose they must be grateful for the steady supply of good reading copies and brand-new-but-printed-on-creme books that keep coming through their door courtesy of their competition.
We were phoning round second hand bookshops to get rid of some books (I've got too many and they've taken over the house).
When we phoned one of the nearer ones we had a very interesting conversation. Apparently, they are having trouble competing with charity shops, so they will only take the best quality books. They only wanted as-new books - which they stated included no signs it had ever been read and no page browning. I did ask how a ten year old book was supposed to avoid page browning: apparently they don't want ten year old books no matter how pristine or rare. Likewise any new books printed on creme, no-go. Unfortunately most people selling books are trying to clear space, not make money.
One big problem with their method: the number of people who go into the store, sell what books they can, and then drop the rest off at the nearest charity shop.
Why am I not surprised the charity shops have a better range of stock? On the bright side, I suppose they must be grateful for the steady supply of good reading copies and brand-new-but-printed-on-creme books that keep coming through their door courtesy of their competition.
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Mturk - surprisingly good!
At the weekend a friend introduced me to Mturk, Amazon.com's method of taking automation out of simply routine tasks. Effectively you sign in, grab a task off the pile, like "rewrite a sentence" "find a url" etc. do the task and get a couple of cents for it. I haven't blogged because quite simply I've been doing this.
It's easy to use, but you need to have an Amazon.com account. For people outside the US, another issue is that they only pay in US$ Amazon gift cerificates that only work on Amazon.com. As my company sometimes works with partners or clients in the US, these are easy enough to swap (and use to buy hospitality etc) but it might be a problem for people without those links.
On the other hand, it is very easy to use and srprisingly addictive. The pay rate is pitifully low in terms of money/time and it can't support you full time, but its so easy to grab an item off the stack during a lunch hour or a spare moment for a bit extra.
I'll be sticking with this one for a while, I think. And since they don't do referrals you know this is an honest endorsement.
UPDATE: Seriously, change my comment about the amount of money you make from pitiful to pitifully infintesimal. To be quite blunt, four hours work on this makes me less than one of my bukisa articles does every month.... So, if writing a few hundred words, uploading and leaving it earns you more every month than four hours and severeal thousand words of data entry, I know which I'd rather do.
It's easy to use, but you need to have an Amazon.com account. For people outside the US, another issue is that they only pay in US$ Amazon gift cerificates that only work on Amazon.com. As my company sometimes works with partners or clients in the US, these are easy enough to swap (and use to buy hospitality etc) but it might be a problem for people without those links.
On the other hand, it is very easy to use and srprisingly addictive. The pay rate is pitifully low in terms of money/time and it can't support you full time, but its so easy to grab an item off the stack during a lunch hour or a spare moment for a bit extra.
I'll be sticking with this one for a while, I think. And since they don't do referrals you know this is an honest endorsement.
UPDATE: Seriously, change my comment about the amount of money you make from pitiful to pitifully infintesimal. To be quite blunt, four hours work on this makes me less than one of my bukisa articles does every month.... So, if writing a few hundred words, uploading and leaving it earns you more every month than four hours and severeal thousand words of data entry, I know which I'd rather do.
Sunday, 1 August 2010
Visa Update
A quick update on the Visa giftcard issue: after four days of searching Amazon.co.uk finally accepted it, so my book is on the way!
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