Perfectly Normal Traffic
Leaving work in LA this morning, I came upon a traffic jam just outside the building. Los Angeles is a strange city.
Tethering on AT&T with Nokia Phones
So, after a long stint with a painful Windows Mobile phone (the 6.1 variety, ugh) I'm finally back on a S60-based Nokia phone (the 6790 AKA Surge). It has its own share of problems caused by AT&T "customizations", but it's still so much more pleasant in everyday use.
One thing that Windows Mobile did particularly well though is the handling of tethering over USB. Its built-in Internet Connection Sharing app presents the phone as a wired modem that's already connected -- so it's just a matter of plugging the phone into the laptop, and you're online.
With S60, when you connect the phone via USB and select the "PC Suite" mode, a disconnected wired modem is also presented to the computer. You can use Nokia PC Suite (now Ovi Suite I believe) software to enable the connection, or set up the dial up settings manually (all of this is specific to Windows; Ubuntu's Network Manager has comm0n carrier settings built in and will allow you to pick them from a list). I found the following settings online, and thought I'd put them here in case it's helpful to anyone else (or if I ever need them again):
- Dialup number: *99#
- User name: WAP@CINGULAR.COM
- Password: CINGULAR1
As a side note, I did some speed tests (http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/) on my old and new phones and got about the same speeds on my kitchen table: ~1.5Mbps down/.3Mbps up. I also had 4 IM connections and Outlook running, so there's probably actually more bandwidth available (one speed test on my Nokia gave 1.9Mbps down), but I mainly just wanted to compare the two phones/methods of connecting.
Men Give Perfect Advice
This made me lol; enjoy:
http://www.jonathannguyen.net/2009/11/men-write-advice-columns/
Authentication
One thing that's been on my mind lately has been secure authentication, specifically using One Time Passwords. I've investigated a few solutions, and I'm trying one out now that I really like (www.yubico.com) .
I had formed a basic opinion on how I wanted it to all work together (dealing with different systems with different protocols), and saw this blog post today that articulated exactly what I was thinking; I really like how they've spelled it out:
http://www.wikidsystems.com/WiKIDBlog/the-importance-of-using-standard-authentication-protocols
Ubuntu on the Horizon
One of the things I love about my new job is the amount of Free software I get to use and leverage. Ubuntu (my Linux distro of choice) was already quite a passion of mine "on the side", so I can't say enough how cool it is that part of what I get paid for now is to manage Ubuntu servers.
The talk of the Ubuntu world right now is today's release of Ubuntu 9.10. This is significant to desktop users today (if you have a netbook in particular, you owe it to yourself to try it), but also shows some real promise for the server edition in the future. Clouds, clouds, and more clouds are the name of the game, and the server team has the momentum to be the de facto choice for private cloud building.
The WorksWithU blog was kind enough to quote my optimism for how significant the next Ubuntu release is going to be for my employer, Rezitech:
http://www.workswithu.com/2009/10/28/ubuntu-910-is-the-appetizer-ubuntu-1004-is-the-meal/
My Rezitech.com Redesign Proposal
Travis couldn't picture my vision, so I've made a mockup.
Rezitech Frontpage Redesign
I think it has potential.
The Desk, Again
Yet again I'm reminded why I can't step away from my desk; I return to things like this:
Pirate Hijacked Computer
The Art of Community — Now Available
Just wanted to give some link love to a book I'm planning on picking up: Jono Bacon's The Art of Community is now available (published by the little-known O'Reilly Media). I can't wait to get a copy!
Art of Community
Tim O'Reilly on FLOSS Weekly
Funny experience today while driving home today. I was listening to the FLOSS Weekly podcast, and actually said OMG (well, not like that) aloud while driving. I'd expected good insights from Tim O'Reilly, considering the accolades that preceed him, but I was still blown away by some of the analysis he presents on the growth and future of networked communication technologies.