Netgear WN3000RP WiFi range extender

I picked up a refurbished Netgear WN3000RP “universal” WiFi range extender on Amazon figuring that $40 was worth a shot to see if I could fix my wireless signal strength issue around the house.

I’ve tried this before by getting a new wireless router, but the location of my network closet just isn’t conducive to equal coverage since it’s not in the middle of the house. As a result, the signal strength dips sharply on one side of the house which causes occasional issues with devices (like my outdoor cameras) in that area.

The WN3000RP promised an easy way to extend the wireless … just plug it into an outlet between the router and the “dead zone,” make a few web-based configuration changes, and enjoy increased signal strength. As is usual for me, however, it wasn’t that easy … but I did finally get it working.

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WIJFR: Redshirts

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory.

Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations, and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

Today I finished John Scalzi’s “Redshirts.” You can probably guess from the title what this novel is about but just in case you’re not a Trekkie, “redshirt” is slang for those characters in the original “Star Trek” TV series that always died on away missions. If Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were going down to an alien planet there would be one or two extras with them and they usually wore red Starfleet uniforms. You knew the stars of the show weren’t going to be killed so if anyone was going to die on the mission it was one (or more) of the redshirts.

Now take “Star Trek” (including TNG) mixed with “Galaxy Quest“, a little “Futurama“, the “Wormhole X-Treme!” episode of “Stargate SG-1” and a dash of time travel and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what you’re in for as you read “Redshirts.” (The Stargate reference works in more ways than one since Scalzi was a creative consultant on “Stargate Universe“).

Welcome to the starship Intrepid, where “crew deaths are a feature, not a bug.” Shortly after his assignment to the Intrepid, ensign Andrew Dahl figures out something is not quite right: everyone avoids the commanding officers like the plague and inevitably some member of the crew dies a horrible death while on an away mission with them. As crazy as it sounds, Andrew and his friends come to the conclusion that they are characters on a television show, and the worst part is “it’s apparently not a very good show.” If their lives are out of their hands, controlled by the Narrative, do they have any hope of survival?

The last chapter of the book (24) made me laugh out loud, and the three Codas after that (told in the first-, second-, and third-person respectively) wrap up the story nicely. “Redshirts” is a quick, easy, and enjoyable must-read for any TV science fiction fan.

I probably shouldn’t mention this, since it’ll probably get stuck in your head like it did mine, but as I was reading I heard Captain Abernathy’s voice as Zap Brannigan from “Futurama” (which would make Lieutenant Kerensky Kif  :-D).

Replacing iGoogle with … My Yahoo?

I’ve had iGoogle set as my browser homepage for years (before even the much reviled update that moved the tabs from the top of the page to the side back in 2008). Before that, I think I was using Excite. Now last week Google announced that it will be retiring its iGoogle personalized homepage service in November of next year.

This saddened me (and I wasn’t alone). My custom homepage wasn’t very complicated, but it was comfortable and something I’m used to seeing when I open up my browser every day: weather, sports scores, stocks, and movies. Even though the shutdown is over a year away, I started looking for iGoogle alternatives spurred on by a recent segment on TekZilla.

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Brave

After seeing “Cars 2” last summer, I lamented that it lacked the depth, imagination, and emotion I have come to expect from Pixar’s films. I wondered at the time if their next film would re-capture that spirit

It has.

“Brave” is amazing to look at, the story is entertaining, and the characters aren’t toys, cars, fish, rats, or robots (but yes, okay, there are a few bears). Even the “La Luna” short before the film was the kind of touching story that can be told without any dialog. Merida is sure to be popular addition to Disney’s princesses, although this princess carries a bow and arrow.

I didn’t catch any easter eggs this time around, but looking at the (short) list they weren’t that obvious anyway (I did catch Ratzenberger’s name in the credits at least). I was surprised we were the only ones who stayed through the end of the credits to see the “end” of the movie.

Next up is another sequel: “Monsters University.”

My final question is: who do I have to “thank” for there being two popular movies this year (targeted at young girls) that involve archery?

WIJFR: Under the Dome

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day, a small town is suddenly and inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and rain down flaming wreckage. A gardener’s hand is severed as the dome descends. Cars explode on impact. Families are separated and panic mounts. No one can fathom what the barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away. Now a few intrepid citizens, led by an Iraq vet turned short-order cook, face down a ruthless politician dead set on seizing the reins of power under the dome. But their main adversary is the dome itself. Because time isn’t just running short. It’s running out.

On our flight up to Cleveland today I finally finished “Under the Dome” by Stephen King.

“Under the Dome” takes place in the small town Chester’s Mill where, suddenly and inexplicably, an impenetrable force field has cut off the town from the outside world: no power (except for propane-powered generators), no burbling river, no winds or breezes, no rain, no fresh air. It’s a chilly late autumn in Maine, but under the dome, it’s unseasonably warm and getting warmer.

Like many other of King’s books, the cast of characters is vast and there’s a lot of stuff all going on at once, described from multiple viewpoints, much like “The Stand.” This was initially hard to keep track of, but once you get sucked into the world of Chester’s Mill, everything flows together nicely. The novel also has the “benefit” of being confined to one place (under the dome) and thus the locations aren’t as spread out as they were in “The Stand.”

The themes of the story range from small town politics, religion, environmental issues, and emergency management to “Breaking Bad”-like drug lords and meth labs. And, of course, there’s the Dome. Where did it come from? Why does it only surround Chester’s Mill? Will the U.S. military be able to break through and free the trapped citizens of the Mill before it’s too late?

At over 1,000 pages, “Under the Dome” wasn’t a quick read for me (I started it back in April after I finished “11/23/63“), but it was definitely a page-turner.

GoalZero Guide 10 Plus Adventure Kit

For Father’s Day I received the GoalZero Guide 10 Plus Adventure solar charging kit. I had first heard of this product back in February on an episode of Tekzilla and thought it might be a good addition to our hurricane supplies. I added it to my Amazon Wishlist and then forgot about it until I opened my gift on Sunday.

The kit consists of the Nomad 7 solar panels that provide 7 watts of power, the Guide 10 Plus battery pack powered by four 2300mAh NiMH AA batteries, and various cables.

The beauty of the kit is the wide variety of charging and power options you can get out of these simple components. For example, I could charge my iPhone by connecting it directly to the solar panels via USB or to the battery pack (also over USB). The batteries in the Guide 10 can be charged over USB or the solar panels and removed to be used in anything that takes AA cells like a radio, camera, or flashlight. The battery pack also has a built-in LED flashlight which can come in handy. Finally, the kit includes a 12V cigarette lighter adapter for use with car accessories, but with the limited wattage output of the solar cells you’re not going power anything big like a power inverter (although I did give it a try).

To charge larger devices like a laptop or iPad GoalZero has other solar array options but the one I got is perfect for our hurricane kit to charge our cell phones or smaller devices in an emergency.

 

Kicking off the summer at Busch Gardens

Other than our usual Memorial Day weekend preparations for the upcoming hurricane season we had no plans or obligations so we decided to go to Busch Gardens for the day. Even with Tropical Storm Beryl approaching north Florida, we had gorgeous weather for our outing.

We had purchased vouchers for our Fun Cards (pay for one day, come back all year) online the night before, hoping to avoid any long holiday weekend lines at the ticket windows. An early start got us to the park before the parking lot even opened so we got a great parking spot (once it opened) and were on the tram and across the street at the entrance with plenty of time to spare. We redeemed our vouchers at the automatic machines to get our Fun Cards and still had a few minutes to wait before the official park opening.

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Virtual Console and WiiWare games through a USB loader

[ I apologize for using the term “rabbit hole” three posts in a row! -windracer ]

Apparently I have a thing for doing homebrew stuff in April: almost exactly two years after softmodding my Wii so I could load my games from a USB hard drive instead of discs, I found myself wondering if I could do the same for Virtual Console and WiiWare content. Well, of course you can! The path can be confusing and frustrating, but the destination … well, it’s a cool destination.

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Parsing the Precise Pangolin

This week the latest LTS version of Ubuntu, 12.04 Precise Pangolin, was released. I waited a little bit for the initial download rush to die down (ok, only one day this time) and then took the plunge and upgraded.

As with my prior upgrades, the ‘do release-upgrade’ process itself was painless but I had a few post-installation issues:

  • calibre wouldn’t start with a “ImportError: cannot import name detect_xml_encoding” error. Deleting /usr/lib/calibre/calibre/ebooks/chardet fixed this.
  • zoneminder was completely messed up and wouldn’t run. After going down a seemingly unending (and increasingly frustrating) rabbit hole of package dependencies and missing libraries, I gave up trying to re-build it from source and just installed the package via ‘apt-get install zoneminder’. Even after that I had to clean up some of the mess left over by my previous from-source install, but I finally got it working again.

Coming this October: Quantal Quetzal!