Printer Problems Solved?

My printer (Brother HL-5370DW) has been giving me headaches for the past year.  I thought the issue had been solved (see previous post), but inevitably it was only temporary, and the printer would without fail return to being 'offline'.  Ugh.

I think, now, though, I finally managed to discover the root of the problem, and hopefully (knock on wood), my printer will be headache free.  This post is primarily to put in one place the information I used so that should this irritating printer failure occur again I won't have to waste my time searching the internet once more.

Anywhoo,  I think the issue is that my computer was giving the printer a new IP address with every boot-up.  Why it started doing this a year ago when previously it hadn't still remains a mystery.  I blame a Windows update somewhere along the line.

1. Press "Go" button on printer 3 times within 2 seconds to print "printer settings".  Check for IP address and "Boot Method" status.
2.  If "Boot Method" status is "Auto", it needs to be changed to "Static".  To change Boot Method on Windows 7:  go to Control Panel -> Network and Internet --> View network computers and devices under Network and Sharing Center.  Right click on printer --> click 'view device webpage'.  Browser window should open, just like when accessing router settings.  Click on Network Configuration on webpage --> Configure TCP/IP under Wired (the printer is connected by network cable) --> change Boot Method to 'Static' --> click 'Submit' and exit.
3. Next, go to Devices and Printers in Windows 7 --> right click on printer --> Printer properties --> Ports --> Add Port --> choose 'Standard TCP/IP Port' and then click New Port --> Wizard will pop up, click 'next' --> and under 'Printer name or IP address' type in the IP address of printer found in printer settings (see step 1) --> click 'next' then 'finish'.
4. Confirm new port created by making sure the new port is listed under Ports, and check off the box next to it.  Choose this new port and click Configure Port --> make sure under 'Protocol' that the 'RAW' radio button is chosen.  Everything else should be default, eg. SNMP status is 'enabled' (Community name = 'public'; SNMP device index ='1').  Click 'OK'.

Whew.  All done.  Verify printer works, and uninstall old  printer.  Put hands together, close eyes, and, were I the praying sort, pray I never have to do this again.

Oh yeah.  Print out whatever I need to print before restarting computer.  Just in case.

A Late Jump onto the Apple Bandwagon -- A Rough Ride

When my Zune 80GB's battery started dying, I recently decided it was time I abandon my personal boycott of Apple products.  I settled on an iPod Touch that was available through AirMiles.

Unfortunately, after being pleasantly surprised for the first week of Apple ownership, the ride turned bumpy as soon as I upgraded iTunes (on Windows 7, 32-bit) to version 10.5.0.142.

The problems I immediately encountered after updating to iTunes 10.5:

• iTunes started hanging whenever it tried backing up my iPod, whether as prepping for the sync process or when right-clicking on my iPod and clicking "backup" with no sync involved.  iTunes also hanged during the backup process associated with trying to update the iPod OS to 5.0.  I once let the backup process go for 18+ hours with no movement on the progress bar, before giving up. 
• My CPU was constantly running at more that 50%, minimum, often jumping up to 100% when opening windows or programs, regardless of whether iTunes was open or my iPod was plugged in.   Apparently the villainous resource hog is "AppleMobileDeviceService.exe" which can be turned off but is required to sync.
•  The iTunes store no longer opened properly.  Even after signing in with my Apple ID, all that would appear was a blank window with "iTunes Store" on it, even after the progress bar had finished.

To cut this short, I'll save everyone from reading a poignant, heart-rending description of all the failed trials and tribulations I went through in an attempt to get everything working properly, again.

Here's what ultimately ended up working for me.  A simple, straight-forward solution I found on the internet; a solution I sincerely and vehemently wish I had discovered earlier rather than later.  It would have saved me a lot of time and useless work.

1. Open the DOS command console as an administrator.
2. Enter "netsh winsock reset".
3. Restart computer.

This is supposed to restore the Winsock catalog to its default state, to repair a corrupted Windows TCP/IP stack (not sure what that is, I'm just quoting).

Anywhoo, this completely solved all three issues I described above.

Odd Goings On With My Printer

Computers can be fairly puzzling sometimes, with a big splash of annoying and often a fairly large dollop of frustrating thrown in.  A case in point, my Brother HL-5370DW printer has been working perfectly with my Windows 7 desktop, connected via an ethernet cable, since the day I purchased the laser printer a couple years ago.  This perfect track record, unfortunately, is now a thing of the past. 

For some reason I can not fathom documents suddenly stopped printing.  The printer was detected, the status light was green, but... nothing.  The only clue was that when I brought up the window that shows the printer document queue, the window title read, "Brother HL-5370DW - Offline". 

I wasted a better part of an hour trying to find a way to get it back "online" to no avail.  Anywhoo, to get it working, again, I ended up adding a "new" printer via the control panel, reinstalling the device driver, and then deleting the "offline" printer.  

Ultimately a simple and straight forward solution, except for the fact that the reason why the printer went offline to begin with is still a mystery.  Hence the large annoyance and frustration.

Just another day in the computer age.

Phishing

In this era of viruses, malware, adware, trojans, hacking, malicious rootkits, worms, e-mail scams, phishing attacks, and what have you, one of the recommendations always given for users to protect themselves is to never click on any suspicious links in e-mails you don't absolutely know is legitimate.

That's why it always irritates me to find links in 'legitimate' e-mails from large, well known commercial companies.   They don't foster good habits when they include links in their e-mails that to my eye, at least, would look suspicious if I didn't already "know" they were legitimate .

Here's just a few recent examples that arrived in my inbox:

http://links.newsletter.futureshop.com/ctt?kn=15&ms=MzY5MDUxNzcS1&r=MzM0NDc2MDA3NQS2&b=0&j=MTA4ODM4MzgyS0&mt=1&rt=0

This one from Futureshop isn't too bad, since "futureshop.com" is in there, but what's with all that gibberish at the end? Is that supposed to instill confidence?

http://lt02.brierleycrm.com/track?type=click&eas=1&mailingid=6086068&messageid=6086068&databaseid=6086068&serial=16777794&emailid=myemail@xxx.xx&userid=xxxxxxxxxxxx=&extra=MultivariateId=&&&6086095&&&http://www.gamestop.com/StoreLocator.aspx?cid=eml_10000269

This link from a Gamestop e-mail only has "Gamestop.com" near the end. Besides, what the heck is "lt02.brierleycrm.com" and all that gibberish between?

To my admittedly non-expert eye these links look all too easy to spoof or mimic for non-legitimate purposes.

And finally the true impetus for this post was receiving an e-mail from Sony Playstation offering free identity theft protection for users in Canada:

"If interested, please submit your email address by 03/10/2011 at 11:59:59 PM CST at: http://www.playstation.ca/identity-theft-protection/. Please note, you must enter the same email address used to register your Playstation Network or Qriocity account[...]"

This sounds like a classic phishing attack, working on consumer concern regarding Sony PSN being hacked earlier this year, and that Sony had stated previously that they would provide something like this globally (where feasible) and not just the United States.  Sort of like those scams that show up trying to take advantage of natural disasters or real events.

Even worse, when I hovered my mouse over the link in the above excerpt, this is the actual address the link would take you to:

http://playstation-email.com/r?xnlJHTHEcqJqHTEHWTJnTnPPclH

Doesn't match too well, does it, and I'm expected to decide this is a legitimate link/e-mail?  When as of this writing I can't find any official announcement of this offer on Playstation Canada or PS blog?

Anywhoo, latest rant over.  I should say that as far as I know the above link examples are legitimate... just suspicious.

BCCode 116: Nvidia GeForce 7650GS video card

This is an update from my previous post, where I mentioned some problems I've been having with my desktop.  To briefly recap, I'd been getting video crashes with the error message "Nvidia kernel 266.58 stopped responding and has recovered," or words to that effect. Reinstalling the latest driver didn't turn out to be a permanent fix.

In fact, in the past 3-4 days it became progressively worse, where instead of a straight-forward crash I'd get incorrectly displayed displays (odd colours, horizontal lines, etc.), then crashes and then blue screens of death (BSOD).  The upside, however, was that I finally managed to catch the phrase "BCCODE 116" somewhere among all the funky graphics, crashes and BSODs.  I couldn't research this at home, of course, since my desktop was fairly unusable at this point.

Anywhoo, BCCode 116 turns out to occur when the video card malfunctions for whatever reason, one potential reason being the video card processor running at too high temperatures.  I found a free utility that reported current temperatures of hardware components, and lo and behold, at "idle" my GPU went from 78 to 95 degrees Celsius in a matter of minutes.  The temperature reached 102 degrees Celsius before I shut down my computer.  According to what I read, at idle it should be in the range of 50-70 degrees Celsius.

The cause of this elevated temperature?  The video card fan was no longer working, which I confirmed visually.  Cleaning up the dust (how does that much dust get in there, anyway?!) didn't help.  The video card is a Nvidia GeForce 7560 GS that came with my desktop.  It must be four, maybe five (or more?) years old, now.

I removed the video card, plugged my monitor via the basic D-SUB port, uninstalled the Nvidia driver, and now I can use my computer comfortably once again.  The only question I have now is whether I should buy a new video card.  I probably will, since I can already tell that videos run a little slower than they had previously -- not by much, almost negligible, but nevertheless noticeable.

Nvidia Kernel 266.58

For a good long while I'd been having video problems with my PC desktop. The monitor would freeze, go black for a second, and pop back up with the error message, "Nvidia kernel 266.58 stopped responding and has recovered," or words to that effect.

There never seemed to be a specific reason for it -- I'd just be surfing the internet, reading the news, and I'd get the identical crash and error message several times in a 30 minute span, regardless of website, not watching videos or playing games. It even happened when I was simply working in Excel or Word.

When it first happened I tried "rolling back" to the previous driver version via Device Manager, but it didn't help. At the time I gave up and decided to live with it... until a couple days ago.

Here's how I fixed this issue, on a Windows 7 32-bit desktop with a Nvidia 7650GS graphics card:

1. Downloaded latest driver for my graphics card (which still happened to be 266.58) from the Nvidia website.
2. Used "add/remove programs" in the Control Panel to uninstall Nvidia driver.  Do not use the "roll back" feature in device manager.
3. Restart computer.
4. Used ccleaner (free software) to clean up the registry (this step might have been superfluous but I did it, anyway).
5. Installed newly downloaded Nvidia driver from (1).
6. Restarted computer.

To date (knock on wood) following the above steps has completely stopped my monitor from crashing.

UPDATE:  Ugh.  Looks like the above "fix" wasn't successful.  The same error message started reappearing a week or so ago.  It does seem to occur less frequently than before, but perhaps it's only a matter of time.

UPDATE 2:  I think I've finally found the root cause of my video troubles.  More information in this post.

MS Word 2007

I've discovered something fairly annoying with Microsoft Word 2007.  In the past I'd used an earlier Word version to create and update webpages on my website.  Well, this was the first time since upgrading to Word 2007 that I tried to update a webpage and it was a disaster. 

I deleted one bullet point, added another.  Uploaded files, and... eh?!  Entire blocks of text were shifted from the middle of the page to the very top.  Eh!?


I repaired one hyperlink to a subheading on the same webpage, and... entirely new hyperlinks were created in entire subsections on the webpage.  Eh?!  Instead of a single word being hyperlinked the entire sentence/paragraph magically became a massive hyperlink.  Other hyperlinks were changed to link to something I didn't link them to.  Eh!?

The most puzzling thing is all this unwanted and magical editing that was occurring wasn't visible in Microsoft Word, just in my browser.  Opening the page's htm file in Word was fine.  Text okay, hyperlinks okay in Word.  But once I uploaded the updated files and opened the page in a browser the page had turned into the frustrating monstrosity I described above.

So... if anyone is wondering about the recent paucity of updates to my R32 Gallery site it's because I currently lack the time and patience to figure out what the heck is happening, why it is happening, and how to fix it.

Garmin GPS: nüvi Battery PCB Recall

I was concerned when I read that Garmin is recalling certain Garmin GPS models (nüvi 200W, 250W, 260W, 7xx, 7xxT) because of battery over-heating posing a fire hazard, as I purchased a 755T a couple years ago.  Fortunately, when I visited the Garmin website directly I learned that only those models falling within a certain date range were actually affected.

Here's what Garmin had to say on their website:

Garmin is voluntarily recalling certain nüvi devices that contain a specific battery that was manufactured by the battery supplier within a limited date code range. Garmin has identified potential overheating issues when certain batteries manufactured by the third-party battery supplier within a limited date code range are used in certain Garmin nüvi models with a specific printed circuit board (PCB) design. It appears that the interaction of these factors can, in rare circumstances, increase the possibility of overheating, which may lead to a fire hazard. Although there have been no injuries or significant property damage caused by this issue, Garmin is taking this action out of an abundance of caution.

The recalled devices include a small subset of the following nüvi model numbers:

• nüvi 200W, 250W, & 260W
• nüvi 7xx (where xx is a two-digit number)

Conveniently, Garmin lets you check whether a specific unit is affected by the recall by checking the unit's serial number.


Luckily mine is fine... at least in regards to posing a fire hazard -- I've posted previously about some of the issues I've had with my Garmin  nüvi 755T.

Garmin Nuvi 755T

I purchased a Garmin Nuvi 755T two or three years ago and for the most part I've been fairly satisfied.  I even bought a life-time map subscription for it, though recently I've been wondering if that may have been a mistake.  Why is that?  Read on!

First, I have to say that 90-95% of the time the 755T does what I want a portable GPS to do... give me driving directions.  I forget whether the 755T has additional features like playing music or showing pictures, features I could care less about.  I picked up the 755T because it came with both Canada and U.S.A. maps, had a decent screen size (at the time) and had reasonably positive reviews.

Unfortunately, the map updates haven't been entirely successful.  I say that because I know of three different big-chain, international retail store locations in my area that the 755T places on the wrong side of the street.  This despite updating my maps less than a month ago and the locations being there for years.  I know a Sony Style location where my GPS takes me to the completely wrong exit with no Sony Style in sight.  No shopping mall, either.

All of the above I can live with.  What now has me doubting the longevity of the Garmin Nuvi 755T are two incidences which I describe as epic fails.  Actually, perhaps I should say three instances, though the third may be partly my fault, too.

1. Last year sometime I was in Niagara Falls, NY little more than one hour drive from my home in the Land of Tim Hortons.  The 755T had been completely successful guiding me there.  The EPIC FAIL occurred when I tried to get the 755T to guide me back home.  The route calculation stopped at 99% and no further.  I turned the GPS off, waited a couple minutes, turned it back on, and it still wouldn't work, still stuck at 99%.  In disbelief I repeated this process with no improvement in outcome.  It was quite a quandary.  Since I'd followed the GPS directions to get there I hadn't paid particular attention to the roads I'd taken, making back-tracking problematic.  Anywhoo, to cut this particular story short, I eventually managed to find my way back, though along a different and longer route than I'd hoped.  Once I got home I was so frustrated I ignored the 755T for a while, and when there was a firmware update the 755T worked again, so I thought the problem solved.  Not quite.
2. Fast forward many months and full moons.  My 755T FAILED AGAIN in the exact same city.  I was once again in Niagara Falls, NY, and once again when trying to get directions home the 755T route calculation stuck at 99%.  AGAIN.  Something very strange is happening with Niagara Falls, NY.  I purchased the 755T when I was still living in the U.S.A. and it worked (except for a time in the dead of night somewhere in PA where I lost all satellite signal for a critical 5 minutes or so, sending me off in the completely wrong direction).  So... something odd with Niagara Falls, NY.  This incident wasn't quite so stressful because I had a clearer memory of how to get back to Whirlpool Bridge.  This time I managed to "recover" my GPS while on the QEW.  Simply powering off, waiting a couple minutes, powering on again still didn't work.  Here's what did work for me:  My GPS was powered up and plugged in to the 12V outlet.  I pulled out the 12V adapter and let the GPS shut itself off automatically after the 30 second countdown.  I left it off for at least 10 minutes.  I turned it back on and the 755T was back to normal, no longer stuck at 99% and I could now successfully get new directions.
3. This last incident I'm going to relate was partially my fault.  I was on the U.S.A. side of Niagara Falls.  I was 10 minutes away from Whirlpool Bridge, my preferred border crossing.  I asked the 755T for directions to the bridge and was on my way.  This is where blame rests partially on me.  I glanced at the "time to destination" on my GPS and saw "10" so I thought, good, it's correct.  I should have looked more closely but I was on the road for about 20 minutes before I realized the indicator was saying ten HOURS and not ten minutes.  Eh?  What had happened was that the 755T was guiding me to the Canadian side of Whirlpool Bridge without actually taking me across Whirlpool Bridge.  Mind boggling.  As far as I could gather in my stressed out state, it was taking me far, far, far north to cross the border, then all the way back south to reach the Canadian side of Whirlpool Bridge.  Turning off the 'avoid toll roads' feature didn't do anything.  No amount of swearing and re-routing fixed the problem.  Nowadays I have two addresses programmed in for Whirlpool Bridge -- one for the Canadian side and one for the U.S.A. side.  If I'm in NY going to Canada I get directions using the latter, if I'm in Canada heading to the U.S.A I have the 755T use the former address.
4. Oh, yeah.  I updated maps plus firmware several days ago.  Yesterday, in the midst of a single trip the 755T asked me to input my PIN... TWICE.  What's even more odd is that the audio directions apparently still worked; it was just the map/picture that was kaput until I re-input my PIN.  Not the most convenient thing to do while driving at highway speeds.

The 755T works adequately in the Land of Tim Hortons and Toronto,  It worked fine in the Washington DC beltway and surrounding environs.  It worked fine for two round-trips driving from DC to Canada, but as I said something strange is going on with Niagara Falls, NY.  All of this has made me start wondering whether I should get a new portable GPS, and if so whether getting another Garmin (but different model) would just be asking for trouble.

Windows 7: Let There Be Sound

A week or so ago I finally got around to clean-installing Windows 7 on to my desktop.  It was fairly painless and seemed to install quicker than previous O/S installations.

All was fine for about a week when my audio abruptly died.  In the morning it was working fine before I shut down my computer.  That evening when I turned on my PC there was no more sound.

This was especially strange since literally nothing had been done between the time I turned the PC off and when I turned it back on to hear only silence.  No plugging or unplugging stuff at all.

Hovering the mouse over the speaker/volume icon on the taskbar gave me the message "No Audio Output device is installed".  My PC came with an Avermedia M780 PCIe NTSC/ATSC Combo sound card and according to both the manufacturer website and Windows Update I had the latest drivers installed (ver 2.5.0.32; date 11JUN2009).  Device Manager said "This device is working properly".

The audio-out/headphone jack wouldn't work, either.

The Windows 7 Playing Audio troubleshooting wizard couldn't identify the problem.  All my web searches basically ended up talking about Windows 7 compatibility and installing the latest driver -- nothing that solved the sound of silence emanating from my PC.

I checked my PC speakers on my Netbook and they worked fine.

I thought perhaps the sound card drivers had been corrupted or something, so I installed an older driver version (which still didn't work), then re-installed the updated drivers.  Reboot.  Nothing.


So... instead of wasting any more time I went to Best Buy to buy the cheapest PCI sound card I could find compatible with my computer and Windows 7.

Opened CPU, 1 minute.  Bemoaned the fact I didn't have an empty PCI slot, 5 seconds.  Wondered what the cable that was attached to the Avermedia sound card was for, 10 seconds.  Removed telephone/fax PCI card, 1 minute.  Installed new sound card, 20 seconds.  Reassembled CPU and reattached plethora of cables, 30 seconds.  Turned on computer, installed drivers from CD, rebooted, 5 minutes.

Sound, sweet sound.

Anywhoo, my Avermedia card is still installed so if I ever get bored maybe I'll continue trying to figure out how to fix it, or perhaps Windows Update will come out with new drivers in the future.  For now, though, I'll let it be.

HP ePrint Web-Connected Printers and Yahoo

If I ever had the thought that sometime in the future I'd consider purchasing a "web-connected" printer (where users can print documents remotely by sending an e-mail directly to a specific printer) reading this article just killed it.

Hewlett-Packard plans to use Yahoo's advertising network in a pilot program that will deliver targeted advertisements for content printed with its latest line of Web-connected printers. [...]

The company also sees a potential for localized, targeted advertising to go along with the content. While testing its ePrint Web-connected printers, HP ran two trials where consumers received content from a U.S. national music magazine and major U.S. newspaper along with advertisements, said Stephen Nigro, senior vice president in HP's Imaging and Printing Group.

"What we discovered is that people were not bothered by it [an advertisement]," Nigro said. "Part of it I think our belief is you're used to it. You're used to seeing things with ads." [...] -- computerworld

Yes, I'm used to seeing ads.  I also see people spit in public (a disgusting habit) -- that doesn't mean I wouldn't be bothered by them doing it in the privacy of my own home.

While the analogy might not be quite so dire, the threat of all the spam and phishing e-mails I currently receive in my Inbox being directly printed on my printer using my paper and my toner (which isn't cheap!) disgusts me to no end. 

RFID Credit Cards

I've never been a fan of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on things potentially used for fraud and identity theft, like passports, official ID cards, and now credit cards. Articles like the one linked below describing how easy it is to read RFID information, and that many RFID tags aren't even encrypted, do nothing to instill confidence.

RFID smart cards

New credit cards pose security problem

Hacker shows CBC how to crack 'contactless' MasterCard

Most newly issued credit cards pose major fraud and privacy concerns because of how they're designed to be scanned through the air, some cyber-security experts warn. [...]

"What people don't understand is the credit-card industry isn't trying to make cards secure," Holman said. "They just have a risk-management problem where they try to control the amount of fraud on their system." -- cbc.ca

Formatting a Large HDD to FAT32

When I used to format HDDs or USB drives I never really thought about the different options available, like NTFS, FAT or FAT32. As long as it worked, right? And they all did.

Though there have been times when a USB drive wasn't recognized for no discernible reason, I attributed these instances to cheap USB drives. It wasn't until recently when my PS3 wouldn't recognize a USB drive that I gained enough motivation to investigate.

Turns out the PS3 will only recognize FAT32-formatted disks. It also turns out that FAT32 is format that's pretty much universally recognized by various O/S.

Unfortunately, while Windows Vista will recognize HDDs of any size formatted as FAT32, Vista itself will not -- by design -- format anything larger than 32GB as FAT32. Eh?

I think that deserves another, emphatic eh?! Especially as HDDs these days are much, much, much larger than 32GB, and I don't really want to partition a 1-2TB HDD 30-60 times.

FAT32 does have limitations, however, which is at least in part why Microsoft prefers formatting HDDs via NTFS. FAT32 is only useful for up to 2TB, I gather, and individual files can't be larger than 4GB.

I hope there are other technical issues that contributed to Microsoft's decision to not allow formatting anything larger than 32GB in FAT32, though frankly I can't be bothered to find out if there are.

All I wanted to do was format a 500GB external HDD via FAT32.

The first potential solution I found was appealing and simple. In Vista, open the DOS/command window as an adminstrator, format /FS:FAT32 x: Although this appeared to work at first ultimately an error message came up stating the drive was too big.

The second and successful solution I discovered was utilizing a little FAT32 format routine (free!) from Ridgecrop Consultants Ltd.. A simple matter of putting the exe file on my computer and running it (fat32format x:) from the command/DOS window allowed me to format my 500GB as FAT32 in a single partition.

Anywhoo, apparently I can now hook up my FAT32-formatted external 500GB HDD to my PS3 via USB for increased storage space, or do a complete backup of my PS3 should I so desire.

Oh yeah, I'm sure everyone is already aware of this but, in the interest of preventing a nasty surprise, I feel compelled to unnecessarily remind anyone reading this post that formatting a disk will wipe the HDD clean of any data or files. Backup as appropriate.

Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router, WRT54G2

So far I'm fairly impressed by how much difference changing a router can make. For the past eight months I'd been living with an inconsistent wireless home network, mostly evident with my Nintendo Wii.

My Nintendo would connect via wireless one day, and then with the identical settings throw up an error message the following day. I'd change my router to channel 11, and the Nintendo connected... and then it wouldn't next time I tried. Channel 1? Eureka -- but, no. I finally gave up and decided to try a new router.

Why did it take me so long to make the decision? I'd always thought that different routers differed in strength, speed, and area of coverage, and that's about it. Based on this erroneous assumption I wasn't optimistic a new router would change anything. After all, my Nintendo connected fine... sometimes. PS3, no problems.

Anywhoo, I started reading up on routers and my error quickly became evident. Most routers work at a 2.4 GHz which apparently is a frequency prone to interference from microwaves, cordless phones and the like. Living in an apartment building I can easily imagine my locale being full of potentially interfering devices.

So... I considered purchasing a "N" (or pre-"N") router with simultaneous dual band ability (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz). Dual band, because much fewer devices use 5 GHz so there's less chance of interference. Simultaneous, because the mere thought of having to manually switch between 2.4 and 5 GHz depending on what device I'm currently using annoys me to no end.

After all this, as you may have guessed from the post title, I decided to buy a Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router (WRT54G2), broadcasting at a frequency of 2.4 GHz.

Eh?

Unfortunately, all the simultaneous dual band N routers reviewed in my price range were lacking in some manner -- mostly poor efficiency/speed data transfer while in simultaneous mode. Still, this wouldn't have held me back from buying one, but I began to wonder whether any of my electronics were even compatible with this latest and greatest 5 GHz wireless "N" router technology, let alone being capable of taking advantage of it.

Anywhoo, my primary uses of a wireless router is to connect my Nintendo Wii and PS3, which I learned, after further reading, both operate at 2.4 GHz using "G" protocols/technology. Interesting.

The WRT54G2 is an older router, but the reviews I read were mostly positive; I decided to go with a proven performer rather than a router with all the latest bells and whistles. So far I haven't regretted my decision. Not only has my Nintendo Wii been connecting without fail, but another issue, one I had thought was unrelated to the router, has also been fixed. Thunderbird software on my desktop frequently failed to check/download POP3 e-mail, giving out "unable to connect" error messages for some or all of my e-mail accounts. No more.

The only negative of the WRT54G2 I've experienced is with its MAC filtering. My previous router allowed me to label each MAC address I added eg. "PS3" or "Nintendo" . With the Linksys... no. There's no way I'm going to be able to remember which MAC address is associated with each device. Still, all in all a minor quibble.

Music versus Personality

A study reported on bbc.co.uk suggests a link between the type of music
a person enjoys and personality.  They looked at 36,000 people
internationally.

• BLUES: High self-esteem, creative, outgoing, gentle and at ease
• JAZZ: High self-esteem, creative, outgoing and at ease
• CLASSICAL MUSIC: High self-esteem, creative, introvert and at ease
• RAP: High self-esteem, outgoing
• OPERA: High self-esteem, creative, gentle
• COUNTRY AND WESTERN: Hardworking, outgoing
• REGGAE: High self-esteem, creative, not hardworking, outgoing, gentle and at ease
• DANCE: Creative, outgoing, not gentle
• INDIE: Low self-esteem, creative, not hard working, not gentle
• BOLLYWOOD: Creative, outgoing
• ROCK/HEAVY METAL: Low self-esteem, creative, not hard-working, not outgoing, gentle, at ease
• CHART POP: High self-esteem, not creative, hardworking, outgoing,gentle, not at ease
• SOUL: High self-esteem, creative, outgoing, gentle, at ease

Source: Heriot-Watt University 

For the most part the above seems fairly accurate when I think of the
music I like.  But because I like multiple genres some characteristics
are contradictory eg. if you compare classical and jazz one says
"introvert", the other "outgoing".

As always, take studies like this with a grain of salt.  In 36,000 samples there's bound to be many that don't fit the descriptions.

Anywhoo, something to think about while you're listening to your
favourite tunes....

It's a Spam World

There was an interesting article at bbc.co.uk the other day.

An experiment by the computer security company McAfee found that surfing the web unprotected for a month will leave the average surfer 70 spam e-mails per day. One study participant received 5,414 spam messages during the trial.

McAfee invited 50 people around the world to participate in their study. Participants in the United States fared the worst, receiving a total of 23,233 spam e-mails during the one month trial.

"The results show that spam is showing no signs of slowing down, although the opposite can be said of those receiving messages.

"Many of our participants noticed that their computers were slowing down. This means that while they were surfing, unbeknownst to them, websites were installing malware," said Guy Roberts, director of McAfee's labs in Europe.

Some 8% of the total spam received during the experiment was classified as phishing e-mails - messages that pose as a trustworthy source as a way of getting sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and bank account details." --bbc.co.uk

From the article:

Number of spam messages received:

1. US - 23,233
2. Brazil - 15,856
3. Italy - 15,610
4. Mexico - 12,229
5. UK - 11,965
6. Australia - 9,214
7. The Netherlands - 6,378
8. Spain - 5,419
9. France - 2,597
10. Germany - 2,331

*Data supplied by McAfee

Top ten most common spam categories:

1. Advertisements
2. Financial
3. Health and medicine
4. Adult services
5. Free stuff
6. Education
7. IT related
8. Money making
9. Credit cards
10. Watch adverts

*Data supplied by McAfee

Computer Security -- Avast!

A short while ago my subscription for Trend Microsystem's antivirus software was expiring, and I decided to try something new (and free!). Well, after some research at CNET downloads I decided to try Avast -- a free, no limitation antivirus - antimalware program compatible with Vista.

It's working quite well. The boot up scan takes a while, but I turned that off after the first time. With the normal scan, using the most thorough setting, scanning my computer takes several hours -- overnight, even; but it doesn't take many resources so it can run in the background.

Avast detected 5 trojans (in Outlook) that Trend Microsytems missed completely.

I'd say that so far the only drawback of Avast is that you can't do any scheduled scans. Still, for competent, free, non-limited antivirus software with auto-updating, I'm willing to scan manually.

Hmm... this post was originally supposed to be only on Avast, but what the heck. Since I'm here, a slight alteration of the post title... there we go... and... tadah! Computer Security -- Avast!

Anywhoo, regarding security software I'm of the mind that you can be very good at one thing, but not good at everything eg. Jack-of-all-Trades but Master of None. To that end, I prefer to have a single program for antivirus, antimalware, and firewall, respectively. So in addition to Avast I have Webroot Spysweeper and ZoneAlarm's free firewall.

ZoneAlarm is simply the best firewall program that I've ever used. The software will notify you if any non-approved programs are trying to access the internet, and vice versa.

Webroot Spysweeper... I almost decided to try something else when it was time to renew the subscription. It works well, but while it's updating it's pretty much a big pain to use the computer. It hogs A LOT of system resources. A LOT. Did I say A LOT? Yes indeedy. Webroot Spysweeper uses A LOT of system resources while updating. A LOT. I would appreciate it very very very very greatly if in the future they allowed users to schedule when to update. Pssst, hear that, Webroot?

Send your name to the moon

You have until this Friday, the 27th June, to sign up and send your name with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The LRO's mission is to map the moon's surface for resources and future landing sites.

Anywhoo, the names (a million so far!) will be placed on a microchip and installed on the LRO, traveling to the moon. After signing up you're given a chance to print out a certificate. Neato!

I'm already signed up. And Picard, too!

Big Brother is watching

By tracking mobile phone use, a recent study suggests that humans are creatures of habit and rarely travel more than a few miles from home (Mobile phones expose human habits; Study secretly tracks cell phone use outside US).

This would have been an interesting, benign study if it weren't for the fact that the study authors didn't obtain consent from the 100k people they tracked. The authors violated the privacy of 100k individuals. They already had their mobile numbers -- they could have requested consent, but they did not.

The authors acknowledge their own concerns regarding privacy but instead of taking their study proposal to a recognized ethics board they declined, merely because it wasn't required of a physics experiment.

Nonconsensual tracking is illegal in the USA. I imagine the authors chose their victims from a country with no such prohibition. Nevertheless, my mobile itself and my use of it is private, not public, and I definitely would not want to be tracked without my knowledge and consent regardless of its legality.

Big Brother is watching, but it's not the government, it's the scientists. :o(

Mouse Solves Maze Researchers Spent Months Building

Warning: mild profanity.

"IOWA CITY, IA—University of Iowa neuroscientists studying spatial learning and the effects of stress on memory announced Tuesday that a little son-of-a-bitch mouse ruined an experiment on cognitive performance by effortlessly navigating a maze that researchers spent nearly a year designing and constructing. [...]

"It is regrettable to spend such a tremendous amount of money studying mammalian neuropathways, only to have some hotshot mouse ruin everything," Eng said. "However, we have compiled substantial data on this species's ability to breeze right in and destroy an entire postdoctoral legacy."

Repeated trials yielded similar results, with the mouse performing equally well despite added variables of Dr. Eng trying to "scoot" it back with a pen and Dr. Barret tipping the entire maze upward 45 degrees. Additional attempts to deceive the mouse by placing a reward of cheese in an impassable section of the maze were also unsuccessful.

"Taking into account my past successful experiments with chimpanzees, it is my final analysis that we are dealing with one smart little fucker," said team member Dr. Russell Sutton, who has already applied for an additional grant to study cognitive learning in the same mouse. "I wonder if he'll be so smart without a functioning hippocampus."" -- The Onion.

Maybe it's just because I work in a lab, but I thought this story was hilarious. Follow the link for the full article.