d00dism

A big ado was made when the Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer team announced they would use Firefox’s feed icon. I guess it’s better than yet another icon, but I never what the problem was with the original XML icon, etc. was in the first place. Mozilla seemed to create the icon because “RSS” wasn’t considered kosher considering the number of Atom feeds out there.

As an aside, what’s even more maddening is that Safari still opts for Atom feeds over RSS feeds despite ordering in the source when one clicks the RSS subscribe button. Not only is that an inconvenience for webmasters, but it confuses the hell out of users.

I guess I can accept the new icon as the de facto standard. Firefox and IE are the two big players. I do have to find some irony here though. Firefox was pushed so heavily because it was a minority browser and helped push community established web standards into the published web. Now that it’s a major player with IE, the two of them have essentially ganged up to force their picked icon as the standard for xml based feeds. I missed the community involvement here. But I digress.

I can even try to overlook the fact that there is still a very real disconnect between rss and atom feeds and this icon. Typical non-geek users that don’t already know what the icon means aren’t going to know what it means. How is the average user supposed to identify this icon with this rss feed you speak of? They won’t.

You’re getting impatient. I can feel it. What’s the point? This website is infuriating. Basically, some dude decided to try to use the current situation to derive some profit and attention to his own web designs. If we take a look at the readme that’s on the site, we have four authoritative sources.

http://blogs.msdn.com/rssteam/archive/2005/12/14/503778.aspx
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2005/12/firefoxfeedic.html
http://mattbrett.com/archives/2005/12/the-new-standard-feed-icon
http://feedicons.com

The last is of course itself. That’s authority by recursion. The third is a post by the author on his blog. The very same post that spawned the “project”. That leaves two sources, Microsoft’s announced adoption of the icon and a blog post by Asa Dotzler of Mozilla. Again, I’m missing the community involvement.

Now that we’ve all supposedly decided this is to be the standard, we come to this part of the site:

Customize

Not a fan of orange? Download the package and customize the icon to your liking. We believe that as a symbol, the feed icon is recognizable enough that it doesn’t need to be restricted to one colour.

Who is we? What happened to a standard and trying get the userbase to recognize the one icon? Won’t users wonder if maybe the different color means different content? Maybe green means podcast? Meh.

In all fairness, I do believe that Matt is serving a very good purpose. He is supplying a high quality, scalable version of the icon. That’s certainly a great service to those that want to support the icon as the standard. Talking in the first person plural should be reserved for royalty. (I’ll try to reserve comments about the PayPal Donation button because bandwidth is expensive.)

However, there is one irony too delicious to ignore. The site uses a mailing list for notifications. If the irony doesn’t jump out right away, give it a moment. Okay, in case you missed it, a site promoting a new icon standard for XML based syndication feeds doesn’t itself offer an XML feed for notifications, opting instead to syndicate via email. I think that says it all.

Tags: firefox, ie, standards, rss

Next to my TV, I have an EyeHome and a Playstation 2 (with ethernet adapter). I originally bought a D-Link DWL-G810 wireless to ethernet bridge. That way, devices with only an ethernet port could join the wireless network I had running out of my loft. It worked, but only for one device because it only had one port. To remedy this, I bought a D-Link DSS-5+ switch. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, that don’t work. It seems the bridge will recognize only one MAC address at a time.

Pricey

It seems that most wireless to ethernet bridges are handicapped in this way. At $80, I didn’t feel like getting one of these devices every time I add a non-wireless capable device. Linksys makes a wireless to ethernet bridge, the WET54GS5, which includes its own switch. However, it’s a pricey $180. That’s no good either.

The Answer to My Hopes and Dreams

The solution is the do-it-all wireless router, the WRT54G (or WRT54GS or WRT54GL). Thanks to its open source firmware, third-parties have been able to take the ball and run with it. The most prominently known is Sveasoft with their Alchemy and Talisman firmwares. The former is freely available, the latter is not. There are cracked versions of the firmware available for free. There’s been a long running debate as to whether Sveasoft can control their firmware distribution as they do. I didn’t want to get into it or pay (because I’m cheap), so I went with DD-WRT. It’s free and full featured, but slightly more intimidating.

The v23 beta 2 version includes a “client-bridged” mode. The firmware makes a ~$50 device into a ~$180 device, and I’m not even mentioning the firmware’s dozens of other features. As an added bonus, it even lets you connect with WPA, a feature I’m not sure I’ve seen elsewhere. My Eyehome and PS2 can now connect at the same time in happy harmony.

Caveats

Unfortunately, not all WRT54G models were created equal. The v1 versions only have a 125 MHz CPU and the v5 uses VxWorks instead of Linux. Any other version is good, as is any version of the WRT54GS or the WRT54GL.

Treasure Hunting

I found a WRT54GSv4 for $50 after rebates at Staples and a WRT54Gv4 at Walmart for $50 straight up. It’s worth noting that other than Linksys officially supporting “Afterburner” (their proprietary speed boosting technology), the devices are identical. In fact, the hardware itself is the same, as is the WRT54GL, which is currently selling for $70.99 at Amazon. Linksys seems to have finally realized that they were sitting on a gold mine.

Most online retailers are shipping the latest versions of the router by now, so your best options include gasp shopping offline. First, check places like Walmart that likely have low technology product turnover. They probably have some older versions on their shelves. Also, the WRT54GS (with Speedbooster version) is still safe. If you can find a good deal for that model online, that’s a good option.

Conclusion

You might note I got two compatible routers. One has just become the new main router for my network. I love to tinker and this is certainly the router to do just that.

Tags: ethernet, linksys, networking, bridge

Google, little by little, is trying to draw me into using Gmail full time. The latest round of feature additions include a vacation auto-responder (something I think ends up being unintentionally annoying) and contact groups. I was so excited to see the latter feature. I thought it would end my auto-filing problems. The truth be know, I filter my email more than anyone I know. Half of my email is auto-filed away from my inbox. The other half is colored according to who its from, allowing me to color prioritize. Purple is family email. Blue is from friends. So on and so forth.

However, creating a simple filter in Gmail to apply my “friends” label to email is painful. I need to create a rule for each of my friends. That’s painful. Beyond that, if I decide to change the behavior of mail from friends, I need to alter each of those already created rules. That sucks. I thought now that there are contact groups, I’d be able to select messages based upon messages from people being in that group. However, you can’t. It’s simply for addressing emails. Bah. That’s half implementation.

Until Google beefs up its filtering capabilities, I’ll have to keep using genuine (non web) email clients.

Love to see your comments about MacWorld 2006 on your blog, if you have any. This year will be my first as an attendee, and I plan on drinking Steve’s Kool-Aid all week. Even sadder, I’m looking forward to it a little bit more than Christmas…..not sure what that says about me.

So, if you have predictions, comments, hopes or desires you want to see happen that week, I think you have enough geeks that would enjoy hearing your perspective.

Kind Regards,
Andy

I can’t pass up a question that someone asks me to answer. I’ve been thinking about it a little, but not too hard this year.

First, a recap of the current rumors is worth listing. According to MacRumors, there are six strongish rumors.

• Intel PowerBooks
• Intel iBooks
• Intel Mac mini
• iLife ‘06
• iWork ‘06
• Leopard Preview

New Hardware

The current popular rumor which has risen to the level of fact via the mechanism of urban myth is that Apple will transition the low end Macs first. While all the speculative stories in the media about the transition said that Apple would be doing so, followed by the high end machines, at no point did Steve say that in the keynote. Go ahead and check the transcript. He didn’t say it. The other part of that rumor is that the transition will start mid-year.

But starting next year we will begin introducing Macs with Intel processors in them and over time these transitions will again occur. So when we meet here again this next time next year, our plan is to be shipping Macs with Intel processors by then, and when we meet here again two years from now, our plan is that transition will be mostly complete.

I don’t see mid-year anywhere in there. The closest thing to that is that Intel Macs will be shipping by the next WWDC. That doesn’t preclude earlier and actually in a way suggests before. So let’s put the myth to bed.

As far as I can tell, the only reason that people are suggesting that the iBook will be making the transition so early is because of those early rumors. Given, I’ve been wrong before, but I simply cannot see the motivation for Apple here. The cost motivation is bullshit because industry analysts have already stated that Apple had a sweetheart deal with IBM that gave them the chips cheaper.

While better battery life, power consumption, and performance are all excellent reasons to upgrade the laptops with Intel, they aren’t good reasons for upgrading the iBook. Customers looking to purchase the iBook aren’t likely to care enough about those issues to the point that it would affect sales. The iBook’s real selling point is the price point.

The Powerbook on the other hand, does need these things. Badly. The Powerbooks have been long in the tooth for a long time now. The best evidence of this is the fact that the last Powerbook revision had no processor speed bump at all. As far as I know, that’s unprecedented (save the Powerbooks going from G3s to G4s, but they gained new chips). Apple needs to bring attention back to the Powerbooks. A fancy new screen isn’t going to cut it for long.

That just leaves the Mac mini. While the same argument I made against an iBook transition applies to the Mac mini, it is Apple’s switcher machine. Making it an Intel machine means that dual booting with Windows will be possible, allowing switchers to feel safer because they can run a full up Windows installation for software they still need. It’s a terrific safety net. Further, virtualization software will make running Windows inside OS X nearly transparent.

Media Mac mini

A fairly significant rumor about the mini came out of Think Secret. New features include an updated Front Row, DVR functionality, an iPod dock built in, and a 3.5″ hard drive.

The iPod dock and 3.5″ hard drive are completely unexciting to me. I don’t care if they do it. I think the dock is cutesy and unnecessary. The 3.5″ isn’t exciting because a stacker device already corrects any performance or storage issues.

An updated Front Row is a no-brainer, as is it becoming available for all Macs (though it may be for pay). Apple trying to restrict it to a single machine is a practice in futility.

What’s really exciting about this is the DVR functionality. I don’t count the iTunes Music Store carrying TV shows as DVR functionality. While it does suggest a future model that video content may be delivered over (you know Comcast and the cable providers are already headed that way with On Demand), it’s not currently viable due to cost and show availability. Recording TV off cable is viable right now.

DVR is really compelling when coupled with existing Mac functionality. Imagine a $500 machine that can act as a TiVo, play DVDs, burn DVDs, play your iTunes music, show off your photos, play video games, etc. All that and it’s so small that stuffing it in your entertainment center is almost easier than with a normal DVD player.

Not only does the Mac mini become the ideal switch machine, but the ultimate consumer gateway into Macs. It becomes conceivable that people will begin buying them not because they’re a computer but because they’re a great complement to a TV. This is assuming of course that Apple thinks ahead and makes it easy to attach to TVs without DVI (by adding some kind of more traditional video output).

Yawn

The last three rumors are completely boring, so predictable to the point that they’re not rumors. That is all.

The Summary

Here’s what I foresee happening. The iBook processors will be bumped up to current Powerbook speeds. The 14″ might actually get a better resolution than the 12″. The Powerbooks will move to Intel. I expect they’ll start using the new Airport/Bluetooth combo cards, or that will become completely integrated with no way to remove it.

The Mac mini will start shipping with a new Front Row and Intel processors. As much as I like the idea of it doubling as a DVR, it may not happen.

One thing I’d like to see, thought it probably won’t, is Apple start prepping for 802.11n with either some MIMO products or something that will be capable of being updated to the 802.11n standard. I’m a little disappointed with the lack of rumors in this aspect of Apple’s business, and it’s time that they returned to being on the wireless forefront.

It’s official. I have way too many movies in my queue. I tried to add Suspiria to my Netflix queue, only to get the following response.

If you wish to add this movie to your Queue, you must first remove some movies.

I’m going to trim it a little, but I fear I may be forced to spawn a new queue (just for TV shows). Boo to Netflix for its artificial 500 movie queue limit. Split it into multiple pages if necessary. I don’t care how they handle it. It’s an inconvenience to me.