Airport Express headaches
Posted on January 20, 2008
Filed Under Internet & Technology, Macintosh | 5 Comments
My beloved 6+ year old HP 995C finally went to that great big printer queue in the sky. ::sniff sniff:: I loved that printer. I think it’s the first time I actually kept a piece of hardware until it just plain wore out and stopped working. And they said it couldn’t be done. 
The best part about my workhorse HP 995C was its built-in Bluetooth. No speed demon, but every Mac in the house has Bluetooth so as long as one had patience, we could all share the same printer. I could have purchased another wireless-ready printer, but in the end I decided to go for a budget all-in-one printer (the HP Photosmart C5280 at just $129) and use an extra Airport Express that Eric had (he bought a second one on a business trip a few months ago when he realized he forgot to pack it) to allow all the Macs in the house to print wirelessly.
Easier said than done if the Internet connection is not through an Airport Extreme base station.
After 45 minutes of Googling and scratching my head, I learned: Airport Express base stations don’t like to join third-party networks with WEP encryption. It’s not just me. Or this guy.
Took me at least 4 hard resets and start overs of the base station to figure out that was the problem. Either that, or it’s just the WEP encryption in the #@#^@^ Westell 327w DSL modem that Verizon insists I have to use. I left the WEP encryption because it was the default and I didn’t have a good reason to change it. Until now.
Over and over again the Airport Utility would see the Airport Express, see the Westell gateway network and agree to join it, only to never make it back from the obligatory “please wait for your base station to restart” dialog box. I’d wait. And wait. And wait. Hard reset. Try something else. Repeat.
Rather than futz with changing password formats to get WEP working, I just switched the DSL modem over to WPA2 encryption. Airport Express joined without a hitch. Printer works great all over the house. Tons faster than printing over Bluetooth.
MacHeist 2008
Posted on January 14, 2008
Filed Under Macintosh | 2 Comments
It seems like a good idea. Get a bunch of indie Mac developers, package their stuff together for $50 and 25% of sales go to charity. Better yet, the more bundles sold, the more apps in the deal as additional apps are unlocked as the total goes up.
Last year I didn’t buy the package because I was still spending too much time on the PC side of my computer. This year, I’m 98% a Mac user, so I thought I’d want to participate. Unfortunately, I think I’d rather donate $50 to charity and skip the deal. I can’t justify it based on the apps exposed so far:
1Password (password database) - Love it. Bought and paid for months ago. It was one of the first applications I bought and installed when I switched my primary browser to the Mac side, as a matter of fact.
CoverSutra (iTunes player) - This one almost got me, looks sweet. But I don’t listen to music that much on my Mac. Most of the time, I’m listening to podcasts, and this app doesn’t appear to do much for that.
Cha-Ching (personal finance manager) - Interesting. I’m so entrenched with Quicken to automatically keep my desktop check register in sync with the bank and pay my bills that I can’t see this giving me a reason to switch.
iStopMotion (stop motion animation builder) - I’m just not a photography gal, I’m even less of a video-making gal. Next.
Awaken (alarm utility) - Computer is not in the bedroom. I rarely use alarms. Can’t remember the last time. Next.
Speed Download (download utility) - Looks interesting and well done, but in my case it’s a solution looking for a problem I don’t have.
AppZapper (uninstaller) - Great app for getting rid of all those stray .plist and cache files after you trash another application. Already own it.
TaskPaper (task & list manager) - I use and prefer OmniFocus now. Next.
CSSEdit (web development editor) - Really nice application. However, I now find that Firebug suits all my CSS needs (which aren’t much these days).
SnapzProX (screen shots & movies) - I have a license for the $29 version and last used it quite some time ago. With Jing and Skitch, I can’t see a need or use.
Plus if I refer folks, I can get LaunchBar which I already own and use.
So, part of the problem (purely from an end-user perspective) with MacHeist is that it’s not designed for someone like me who tends to have a weakness for buying small apps. Everything I like in the list, I’ve already bought. What’s left isn’t worth $50 to me.
I would love to see something fun…like towns that have “Taste of…” nights. Pay the $50 and get points that you can spend at the websites of a bunch of participating developers. Then you visit the sites and go shopping, picking the specially-marked applications that best suit your needs. An app that retails for $70 might be worth 15 points, while a $12 app might only cost you 5. Or whatever. The point is to be more about the true value to the end user in providing applications they actually care about and will use (and will upgrade, hint hint) rather than $368.75 worth of software for $50 that will sit unused in the Applications folder.
Just a thought.
Microsoft Office: Is it okay to cross the streams?
Posted on January 8, 2008
Filed Under Internet & Technology, The Bi-Platform Life | 8 Comments
There’s a bunch of us in our organization who exchange MS Office files (a PowerPoint here and there, maybe an Excel now and then, a lot of Word). I’m currently using Office 2004, I have Office 2008 on order to arrive next week. 4 folks are using Office 2003 and we’ve had no trouble with Mac-Windows file compatibility so far. Maybe a funky font now and then.
Now we have a new employee starting in a couple of weeks and it looks like I have to set up her new computer with Office 2007. I may be able to scare up a nonprofit license of Office 2003, but this late in the Office game it’s probably not worth it.
I’m hoping that file format compatibility between Office 2007 and earlier versions is no longer the issue it used to be now that Microsoft has released a compatibility pack.
Any real world experience in working in a cross platform/cross Office version environment I should know about?
Verizon DSL is not fun
Posted on January 6, 2008
Filed Under Internet & Technology, Misc. | Leave a Comment
I forgot that I had to disable OpenDNS because it wasn’t playing nice with auto-discovering T-Mobile’s hotspot login page at Starbucks.
As soon as I turn OpenDNS back on, Google pages resolve just fine but speeds are way down to the point of being barely usable. I should note that this issue affects every Mac in the house, not just mine, and restarts don’t make a difference (modem or computers).
How bad? Let’s see, with only the browser running:
I switched over to my Sprint EVDO modem, changing nothing else (no restart, no configuration change):
The EVDO speed is nothing to write home about, but come on…it’s beating DSL?!?
I sit in Borders or Starbucks all day with this computer and never have these problems. So I have to believe it’s either the DSL modem (Westell 327W), the wireless configuration (I tried switching channels to see if that’s the issue) or something in how the connection is hitting my house. Verizon phone support is useless. They just ping and see that they can see my modem and call it a day. Looks like I need to spend some time in this forum or this one.
Oh, how I love Verizon DSL. Not.
Comcast didn’t work here due to poor neighborhood wiring in my condo development. Verizon DSL is well, Verizon DSL and it’s going to be a while yet until FIOS is here.
I’m running out of decent broadband options, short of sitting on my EVDO modem all the time.
Update: I think I fixed it.
This thread and this one pointed me to Verizon’s announcement that they had deployed a firmware upgrade for my modem. Would have been nice if I didn’t have to go digging for this information.
Okay, I’m going to say something nice about Verizon… I fully expected the firmware upgrade to be one of those have-to-run-from-a-Windows-PC things. But no! I was able to download the upgrade file, log in to the router configuration window in Firefox (connected to the modem via Ethernet, not wireless, of course) and upgrade the firmware without ever having to leave the Mac side of things and it worked exactly as expected. Pleasant surprise.
Now all the computers in the house are online and not dropping the wireless and speeds are in the acceptable range again. Here’s hoping that’s all it was.
Apple docking station? I want to see it go one step further…
Posted on January 6, 2008
Filed Under Macintosh | 1 Comment
I’ve been reading about Apple’s patent filing for a docking station monitor.
Right now, I have my MacBook Pro connected via a $100 cable to a 23″ Studio Display monitor. Apple’s apparent plan (after they release the much-rumored subnotebook, of course) is to have the entire computer slip inside the monitor. So from the outside, it would look almost like an iMac on your desk but you could take the computer with you whenever you want. Neat.
Now, I’m ready for the next step.
What if that docking station had some extra RAM and CPU, maybe some more cache? I use a MacBook Pro as my primary computer because I’m on the go a lot. But let’s face it, it’s no MacPro. I’m maxxed out at 3 GB RAM and sometimes the portable-enhanced processor creaks, literally.
I would love if I had a MacPro-like computer (or even a really good iMac) when I’m home. Then when I’m traveling, I have all the advantages of a portable without having to keep my data (and operating systems) in sync between two computers.
I could even see having a dock for an external hard drive and/or optical drive (since rumor has it the subnotebook won’t have an optical drive built-in).
Unheard of? Nope. Apple did this years ago with the Duo Dock (emphasis mine):
Duo Dock
This was the largest and most expensive dock for the PowerBook Duo. Unlike cumbersome “port replicators” that plugged into the back of other laptops, the Duo Dock allowed the PowerBook Duo to actually fit completely inside itself via a mechanical sliding mechanism (similar to a VCR), thus turning the PowerBook Duo into a full size, full powered, fully functional desktop computer, with all the common desktop ports which could physically support a heavy, high-resolution display on top of it. The Duo Dock included a floppy drive, two NuBus expansion slots, an FPU, level 2 cache, slots for more RAM, a slot for more VRAM to enable more colors at higher resolutions, and space for a second hard drive. The original Duo Dock was replaced by the Duo Dock II, which added AAUI networking and compatibility with newer color-screen PowerBook Duos. This was followed by the Duo Dock Plus, which was identical to the Duo Dock II, but lacked the FPU and level 2 cache (which were not compatible with the PowerPC-processor PowerBook Duo 2300c).
Doesn’t seem like too much of a leap, does it?
