Thus came the hungry mobs of developers who turned this 80 Euro machine into one of the most versitile and powerfull wireless routers you could buy for the price of a cheap Nigerian prostitutes hourly fee.  Thanks to these 'improved firmware " the WRT54g turned into something far beyond the expectations of the original manufacturer. Using the minute memory space on the router, open source developers turned managed to extend the range, add extra security, opened up the console so you could access the darn thing with putty and so on. But of course the key element was that they pumped up the transmit power over 90%. In many situations this little router saved my life. Having set up one of these cheap ass routers in a local student dorm, i was (thanks to the improved firmware) able to service 15 students AT ONCE with a wireless internet connection, in a BIG ASS old building with LOTS of walls. All of this thanks to the firmware called  HYPERWART.

I guess just about everybody on the planet who dares to run a website or blog is probably writing about this stuff, but I can't pass up on chipping in my own two cents on last nights KEYNOTE by Steve Jobs. I can't believe a year has passed since the last mac-world where the intel macs where presented. That time I followed the whole show online with hawk eyes, waiting to see what rumors came true and which ones where just bogus. This year however I was glad the thing was over. Not because I was waiting to find out what was new .. But because I was downright sick of all the speculations in podcasts, on blogs and what have you. While most apple fanatics today ( I close my eyes and see the local mac club panting in exhilaration ) are probably lucky their keyboards are white anyway (get it ) I'm not so over the moon with the entire line of products that are presented and my favor goes out to the underdogs of new products.  Lets go over them.

 The Iphone.

My god : Has this little baby been hyped. If I have to listen through another podcast that speculates about the coming Iphone or read one more digg entry with yet another mock up shot of the Iphone .. I'll scream.. Oh wait ! That means i'm gonna have to scream a lot .. for a long time .. for about ONE YEAR ! ! ! ! . If you want the specs on this baby or a complete review .. Hit google and knock yourself out for about 3 weeks delving through the press this little device is going to get. What irritates me is that here in Europe we are going to have to wait UNTIL THE END OF THE YEAR before they ship ! What the hell ? One complete year between the launch in the US and the launch in Europe ? Its not that I'm craving for my apple fix here (hell , I'm one of the few people that actually wants to review the product before buying it) but this is too far out. Granted : it might be the killer phone ( I can already feel the loss in weight around my waist as my ipod and my treo merge into just one device) and am surely exited about the specs (Widgets are going to be big ! Dave's prediction on the GGP has come true)  but why wait a complete YEAR before making the switch ! The only thing that REALLY pisses me off on the whole deal is that i'm going to have to endure a whole years worth of press about the 'iphone' .. My iphone blaaa... your Iphone Blaaaa and so forth. Listening to a lot of American podcasts I'm going to feel pretty out of the loop when they chat this cellphone up.

The AppleTV.

Ah , this I like a little better. Now I can finally have a go at running all the video podcasts I have on my mac mini, straight to my tv set. Mind you the technology of a breakout box is not that new , I've been using my KISS player for the last few months and it too supports playing my Itunes music and my video's on the tv , just not the "IPOD VIDEO VIDEO's" (with Apple's proprietary codec) At about a 150 dollar , the cheapest Kiss player also has a built in DVD player that can handle just about any kind of video codec (as long as it ain't apple). Too bad actually but i've found a workaround that lets me play the video's i've recorded with my EyeTv to the television. Its not top notch .. but it works. The AppleTV is not such a bad thing. Giving me breakout-box power using Wireless Networking technology is always nice for the wife but pumping a lot of video over a 54meg G connection is problematic at best. Thats why the apple TV uses the N-wireless standard and also sports an internal 50 gig drive. My questions are : Is that N standard apple proprietary ? and is 50 gigs of HD space enough. But the last and most important question is : Where the crap is my content. Once again : this appletv works great for playing video podcasts but is actually intended to play video's you bought of the Itunes Video store. ... WHAT ITUNES VIDEO STORE. Once again : Europe does not even have one. We can't buy stuff to play on our apple tv. The only thing we can play are video podcasts and stuff. But buying tv series on line and all that crap  ? No way when you are in Europe. Then why buy this 400 euro device ? Just for video podcasts and playing your Itunes music  ? Where is the content Steve ?

The new airport !

Now here is the peace of hardware I like best. Priced at 150 euro's is the cheapest slickest wireless router you can buy. Equipped with TWO antenna's it can do both Wifi N (FAAST !) and Wifi G at the same time. So that would make a very good solution when you are upgrading from one standard to the other (otherwise your wifi router would switch everything to the speed of the slowest client). So i'm happy there. It looks cool, can sport a hard drive and (for us Europeans) might be the best buy so far. (if this N-standard is going to be THE standard) 

Epilogue.

I think Steve Jobs needs another geography lesson. He should probably try to zoom out on Google Maps and see that there are other continents on the globe as well. Now i know that their are legal deals stopping him from opening up the Itunes Video store but putting a year between the launch of the Iphone just to get it across the pond ? Do these buggers have to swim themselves ? I'm pretty disappointed at the US-centered policy of apple in this last keynote. Not because I'm begging to buy , but because I have to endure the press for a whole fracking year before I can counter it with some valid arguments of my own.. As a user.  I guess they can't spell EUROPE in LA.

Wifi is bloody everywhere.

These days you cant stick your laptop out of the door without at least stumbling over one or more SSID signals indicating that multiple wireless routers are up and running in your vicinity. Wonderful wireless routers blast their unsecured unprotected signals at your wifi-card, propagating not only their default SSID name like "linksys" or "belkin"  but also an ip, a chance to hitch a free wifi ride. Thus proving the glorious stupidity of their owners who graciously grant us a wifi mesh to use virtually anywhere.

But there is also the other part of the story. A frustrating story of NOT getting a wifi signal through. Forget broadcasting your signal to far of DHCP-requesting wardrivers. Sometimes you can have a problem in getting your wifi signal to go where it is supposed to go, let alone go beyond.  You come to the point that you think your house must be built by the secret service because no matter how hard you try , its just impossible to get the wifi signal where you want it. Wether its the concrete wall ,the steel in the floor , or the microwave in the kitchen , something is messing up your wifi signal. Why ?

One of the reasons is that most wireless routers/ acces points (and wifi cards) have what we call an 'omnidirectional' antenna. An antenna that sends and receives the wifi signal in all directions and spreads its transmitting power over a 360 degree radius. Now If your router was mounted dead center in the middle of your house that would be ideal. But we all know its not. A setup like that would require you to re-organize all of your furniture and would make your family members do the 24 hour limbo underneath the network cable running to the darn thing.

What we need is : An antenna ! Now I can hear you moan in agony. You're a computer geek, not an electro-nerd. You have no idea how to build your own antenna or where until this post blissfully unaware that you could even swap out antenna's on your wifi equipment. But don't worry ! We are gonna go Jodie-Foster-in-Contact-Deflector-Dish style .. With nothing more then a peace of paper.  
The trick is "aiming" your wireless signal TOWARDS the areas where you need it, and possibly away from the neighboring apartment (where you know that your neighbor is using your wifi to surf Russian-goat-porn sites) So , either you BUY a directional Can-tenna like the one in the pic above .. OR you deflect the rays from your own wifi router. You can do this by using two some of these great parabolic antenna's made from nothing more then .. Cardboard.

You can do this in a very simple way like this.

Or go more elaborate like this.

or keep it a little simple like this.

THIS great site will show you how to make them and will give you a graphical representation of what your little cardboard deflector will do to the outgoing signal.

The great part is most setups  come with great diagrams that you can print ant cut out so its easy as pie ! You don't need to read all the math part, best is that you use a program like NETSTUMBLER and measure what you little setup does for you. The good news is that you cant really damage your wireless router , there is no soldering or anything involved, just deflecting the signal.

So have fun, get your scissors and enjoy !

First day of the week and allready a ton of stuff to do. Still rounding up the Knightcast episode 38 with quite a bit of post productionwork ahead. But it will all be worth it so stay tuned for the next episode.

Meanwhile I thought I would share another weekly dose of Knightwise with you and point to you this weeks episode of The Global Geek Podcast. A technology podcast that I do together with my Australian friend Dave Gray about Web 2.0 developements, tech news and the pulse of the net as it exists today. Featuring cool reviews of applications, sites and services and the occasional interview. This week we have Jason Vahn over as a guest, giving us a business side angle at the stories we cover.

It turns out to be quite a hilarious episode, both at Daves and my expense. As I hammer down on him for falling of a chair and I get squashed for using Media player 10. So beam over to www.globalgeekpodcast.com and enjoy !!!