JDPFu.com 2025

Google is out to make money. All of use use google in some way almost every time we get behind an internet connected computer. Google is very good at taking raw data and correlating it for different purposes – mostly to target ads to interested people. That’s today. Soon, I predict, they will have much more relevant data than even Acxiom does about us.

WiFi bandwidth is extremely limited unless you place hotspots on different non-overlapping channels and repeat them every 200 ft or so. In the USA, channels 1, 6, 11 don’t overlap on the B/G bands. That’s it. All the other channels do. If you see a neighbor’s wifi on channel 2, 3, 4, 5 OR 7, 8, 9, 10 they are wasting all our bandwidth.
Some quick real math on wifi bandwidth – all approximate, of course. Every extra user halves the available bandwidth.
G is about 50Mbps (to keep the math trivial)
|1 user | 25Mbps|
|2 users | 12.5Mbps|
|3 users | 6.25Mbps <— cable down WAN|
|4 users | 3.125Mbps|
|5 users | 1.56Mbps <— approx T1 WAN|
|6 users | 781Kbps|
|7 users | 390Kbps <— Real 3G is a little faster|
|8 users | 195Kbps|
|9 users | 97Kbps <— EDGE is a little slower|
|10 users | 48Kbps|
|11 users | it is slower than dialup for everyone.|

So in any confined area, using 3 channels, somewhere under 30 people will have ok wifi. That assumes they are evenly spread over all 3 channels. Don’t use Outlook (nobody should be allowed to use outlook on wifi hotspots) and down download or upload that HUGE PPT for your next customer. Only simple web browsing should be allowed. All media should be blocked, definitely, for the overall good of the network.

The Pickens Plan
Picken’s says that if only 20% of wind power can be captured in the USA, then we’d have enough energy for 7x what we need. And that North Dakota can provide 20% of our nation’s energy requirements.

Nice sounding, right? Well, it is too good to be true. Here’s why.

• would you like your entire neighborhood covered with HUGE windmills? I wouldn’t even if where I lived was windy. Average speed in my area is 3 mph.
• I’ve lived in North Dakota and Nebraska. There’s wind there and we should use it, when the land owner agrees. The entire state won’t agree. There are wonderful areas where windmills won’t work and were the noise would be detrimental for wildlife. Let’s forget that occasionally wildlife get killed by windmills.
• Windmills are noisy and
• they break.
• Long distance transmission of electricity is problematic and is estimated to lose 7.2% of the power in the USA. Distance is critical to the amount of loss, so shipping electricity from ND isn’t likely. Think within the a tri-state area around your home as the practical distance limit.

Ok, I’m not anti-windmill. I’m a practical person. There will never be 20% of our land covered with windmills. It simply can’t happen. Even 1% would be impressive. I read somewhere that 20% of USA land is set aside for reserves and parks – imagine all that land covered in windmills. Now, we’ve eaten up 40% of the land in the USA for power and parks, not gonna happen.

In one of those videos, they stated that each windmill cost US$300,000 and running them is subsidized by local taxes. Each creates enough energy in 1 hour to power an average home for a month. My electric bill is less than $1,000/yr (2500 sq ft home). Let’s break this down a little using simple math – it will be close enough.
|cost of windmill |$300,000 |
|annual power 1 home |$1,000|
|years for 1 home to
equate to 1 windmill |300 yrs|
|Payback years for 30 homes |10 yrs|

Ok, so this can make sense assuming $0 maintenance costs in windy areas of the country. These devices have a 12-25 year lifespan. I’ve seen newer cost estimates with much lower costs, around $40K, but also, much lower generation capacity, so the formulas used above don’t work.

Ok, the idea that natural gas powered cars should be much more popular in the USA is perfectly correct. I agree with Pickens. When in Buenos Aires last spring, I saw cars, trucks and fueling stations for CNG. It works.

10-19-2008 Update

The Dirty Jobs tv show did an episode on maintaining the large wind power. Twice a week, someone climbs them, monitors them for maintenance needs and performs a 2 hour cleaning effort. It seems that there’s lots of dirt and dust that interact with the grease and oil needed to allow the generation of power. Wasps, crickets, and other “items” were found on that episode.

That takes away the idea that these are maintenance free.

If you’ve heard of the GTD, Getting Things Done, Method, some of these tools will be helpful:

• PocketMod Stuff – a tiny, foldaway, organizer
  • Travel
  • Walkable Maps – didn’t work for me
  • GTD PocketMod I use this daily
  • Another GTD PocketMod
• GTD TiddlyWiki
• And perhaps the best tip is the DIY-Planner This is a larger day planner.

Beyond GTD, remember not to get bogged down with too much process and just do it.

Here’s a few more links:

• The Hipster PDA
• GTD-Introduction
• GTD with Emacs
• Learning GTD
• Notecase
  with a GTD outline
• Randy Pausch Time Management Talk

There are many, many MS-Word or MS-Excel templates out there. Also, some MP3 training sessions can be found fairly easily. These are the GTDF – Getting Things Done Fast recordings. Or you can always buy the book, but you’re probably too busy to read it anyway.

In the interest of full disclosure, I haven’t tried this, but for the cost of a sheet of cardboard, a little toner and foil, you can build a wifi signal booster.

Here are the original plans or you can use the better cleaner template.

I can’t take credit for this idea, but I read about it someplace over 5 years ago. Why is it possible to have altered photo IDs at all anymore?

Use PKI.

When you request an ID (Drivers License, Photo ID, Passport), the request includes a photo. That photo is converted to electronic form and used in the creation of public and private keys of 4K length. The photo and private key are placed onto a server with extremely limited access that is replicated to however many disks (SAN) and remote servers as needed. That data is also replicated to read-only media which can be located at the larger custom facilities in case there’s a communication fault, but is generally not used. A secure web service is setup to allow anyone in the world with a login/password and smartcard to perform remote queries by passing the public key and some nominal text to help speed the DB queries (Country, Name, ID#) and limit and duplicate record queries that need to be decrypted with the provided public key. Purely a web interface for tiny customs offices or DMVs everywhere.

The photo, e-photo and public key are placed onto the ID Card along with the trivial ID information listed above.

Ok, so you’re the customs guy at a terminal. The passport holder hands you his/her passport and you swipe it. That kicks off the remote query to the main server farm (with your login data and smartcard data for tracking who’s looking at what records). While that query is being processed, the electronic photo is read from the ID and displayed. The query returns and that information is displayed with another photo and more data about the person standing in front of him/her.

The person, and 3 photos aren’t identical? Arrest that person!!!

3 Photos?
1) E-photo on the ID card
2) E-photo returned from the central server
3) photo inside the ID that humans see

Any failure in any of these being images being identical? Humans have an innate ability to tell when faces don’t match?

The fail safe media would need to be replenished dependent on the rate of new/changed data. Cross overs in rural North Dakota don’t need the same level of connectivity as JFK or Atlanta Airports OR the San Diego border.

As a technical architect, I think I can design around those problems with redundant servers and networking and power feeds. Of course, all the data transferred is fully encrypted with the keys predetermined by the customs officer and central servers. It is the physical control of the read-only backup use media that concerns me most.

Of course, each country needs to provide a way for other countries to validate that an authentic passport is being presented. That’s just another 3rd party signed part to the electronic data on the passport. GPG has the idea of getting lots of people to sign your public key with their private keys, thus building a web of trust. Obviously, that signature for countries should only come from the UN or other non-corrupt international standards body.

Am I missing any thing with this solution besides the obvious communications failure or power outage risks?

US State Department guy is less than confident talking tech, but he does say PKI, unconvincingly.

How to connect a Bluetooth Keyboard and Cell phone to a Nokia 770: http://blip.tv/file/892343

This guy does a good job showing the major things that any of the Nokia Internet Tablets can do and how to tether them (connect) to Keyboards and cell phones. He mentioned that some kind of driver download was needed. I did not need to download any drivers or anything else to use either my cell phone (or those of my friends with unlimited data plans) or keyboard. It just worked.

He completely left of Maemo-Mapper – a free GPS application. Just tether a GPS Receiver ($34) and you’re good. You can have GPS, Keyboard, Cell Phone all tethered over Bluetooth at the same time. It just works.

I didn’t realize that the media player would playback almost anything, including OGG. Interesting. I only use it to play MP3 audio – which it does nicely – WHILE THE GPS APP IS WORKING. Linux is multitasking – the N800 is no different. No studdering or any other issues seen with either the GPS or Audio player application. An optimized video would probably work well too – I generally just copy the same file that my TiVo produces (after removing the DRM envelope) to the device. That’s a 480×480 video and it plays back.

iPhone, this. iPhone, that. Complete BS. I wouldn’t allow those devices on my business network. I believe in TNO policies. TNO? Trust No One.

The iPhone isn’t secure. That’s why corporations won’t allow it on their networks.

Blackberry is secure. It can be remotely wiped. Access to corporate email is fully encrypted – over the entire wireless data network, inbound & outbound. It doesn’t trust the already hacked encryption that the wireless carriers use for data. Yes, GSM encryption has been hacked.

That’s why iPhones won’t and shouldn’t be used in corporations. BTW, the same applies to Windows-Mobile based deviced. Too open, too insecure. Blackberry got this right when they released the Blackberry EDGE line. Their earlier products like the RIM950/957 didn’t have encryption or remote data wiping.

TNO – I don’t trust Apple, Microsoft, even RIMM. Which technologies work, encrypted, without having to trust? RIMM’s does. What does a lost or stolen device do to your corporate network or data? RIMM lets you wipe the device remotely and brick it so it is useless to whoever found it. iPhone/WM? I’m certain that MS is working on this. The corporate market is that large. Apple will let their users beat up security professionals until they get allowed on the network – insecurely. BTW, Nokia and Palm users - whether I trust them depends on the device. TNO still applies.

For the last few years, we’ve all seen the iPhone, iTouch, WindowsMobile, and Blackberry options for portable computing. Each has there place, especially when you aren’t paying for them.

I have a few problems with them – the radio and that they aren’t general purpose computers with lots and lots of free software. Basically, I wanted a platform that could do the following things in a highly portable container, securely, with great battery life.

1. IMAPS email to my server
2. Browse the real web, not some mobile-limited sites only
3. wifi with WPA2 as the default network
4. Skype and SIP clients for voice calls (I use my cell phone tho)
5. MP3 playback (other formats supported too) OGG or other codecs you decide, not Apple
6. Occasional video playback – mp4 and many, many other formats via mplayer
7. rsync/ssh to servers
8. Mapping/GPS (with a tiny GPS Receiver added on)
9. Blogging and note taking device (with an iGo Bluetooth keyboard)
10. Nearly unlimited expansion via memory (SD cards)
11. disconnected from the cell network, so the connectivity can be upgraded outside this device. I use a cheap Motorola cell phone with a 3G data plan via Bluetooth when there’s no wifi available.
12. USB connectivity to pull photos from a camera during travels (yes, swapping memory would be better, but I sadly bought a Sony camera). External HD also support this way.
13. Youtube to kill some time. Other video formats are supported, but some are challenging for playback – it is only a 400MHz CPU after all. That doesn’t mean you can’t convert with a simple script into whatever format works best.
14. High res screen (800×480)

So there’s a bunch of bluetooth happening here. Why? Bluetooth connection mean the cell phone radio can be upgraded as desired – -fairly cheaply. It also stays in the backpack – same for the GPS receiver, and keyboard if you plan to type much.

My solution? Why, a Nokia N800. It runs Linux, so there are many, many free applications. It is backed by Nokia, so there’s a commercial GPS app. I use Maemo Mapper – completely free. Since it runs Linux, when I’m at home, I can ssh into the device and setup files, move music or other files over, and pull photos off it. The uses are nearly unlimited and completely under your control.

The best part? In Feb 2008, an N800 costs $219. That’s half the price of an iPhone – with no monthly data plan payment needed. AND I can load the apps I like, not just apps that Apple or Nokia think I should. Pick an audio file format, you can probabaly use it, provided the DRM works. If it doesn’t, convert it to any format you like – FLAC, OGG, MP3, MP4, whatever you need. Same for video.

The Nokia isn’t perfect. Typing without an external keyboard sucks. It is a read-only device then. That means replying to email isn’t something you’ll do very much. If that’s what you need – get a Blackberry. But when you are portable and on the move, read-only is generally what you need. Reading PDF docs, recording voice notes, using Skype for international calls, using the GPS to find a shortcut or simply listening to your favorite music for a few hours on an airplane. The N800 does all these things nicely, without the extra cost of the other alternatives or the weight of a full laptop. Even taking a keyboard, GPS receiver, and tiny router, we’re still way under the size and weight of most laptops.

Sometimes you just want a small cell phone and don’t want to carry more. How’s that iPhone then? Some more reasons
and a demo of an N770 you may like. That is an older model.

Comparison between the N800 and iTouch might be better? They cost about the same amount. Here’s the big differences, as I see them:

1. swap the memory or not?
2. General purpose browser (Mozilla) or specialized?
3. OSS Apps or Apple-only approved apps?
4. clunky UI or beautifully designed UI? – this could be important to some
5. Multitude of audio file formats supported like FLAC, OGG, MP3, whatever or just iTunes?
6. Multitude of video file formats supported (mp4, avi, mpg2, whatever or just iTunes?
7. IMAPS email or not?
8. GPS or not?
9. Skype or not?
10. Lots of peripherals or lots of expensive peripherals?
11. General purpose portable computer or specific Music player?

It’s your choice. How much is usability on a limited device worth?

Update 2020 at the bottom.

Tonight I got an automated call from Comcast asking how well my recent service calls had gone. My answers got me handed over to a real person, which turned out to be a good thing.

She transferred me to a Tier 3 guy. Basically, he strongly suggested I plug the modem into a different wall jack with just a PC. He stayed on the line while I did this … My almost empty living room is the only open jack in the house … carry, carry, find cable A, B, laptop, check firewall is on … plug, reboot router. Speedtest … 22Mbps down, 3.2Mbps up. DAMN! Kewl!

a) I was using a gold plugged coax cable this time. Perhaps it was the cable in my office or the coax from outside to the office … or something else … start simple. Only 1 change at a time.

b) Take the setup back to the office … plug the identical golden coax, modem, ethernet and PC in. Speedtest … 19M/2.2M! I can live with that.

c) Swap just the coax – I’d figured that was the issue. Nope.

d) Add the router back in, unplug all but the uplink and cable to the PC – no switch 1.9M/110K up. My router? Nooooooooo! Swap the 10+ year old ethernet cable with the one I’d been using for the router/modem connection. No change.

e) Swap in 2 old routers … forget to reboot the modem so they refuse to get DHCP addresses … finally figure that out on my original 1-port linksys router circa 1998. Run speedtest. 7M/300K … it is 10 years old, so the network chips weren’t meant to get that much speed.

f) Back to my $20 Buffalo running an OSS OS with 1.9M/110K up. Turn off the SPI firewall and QoS – port filtering is still enabled. Now that I’m on a different phone system, I don’t need QoS. 32M/3.3M Yippy!!!!

Ok, so what did I learn today?
1) I’m not convinced it was the router slowing everything down. My connection has been 2M/256K for years.
2) Retighten your coax cables.
3) Swap any legacy ethernet cables.
4) Lastly, go to a simpler router config – especially if you are using QoS or any complex features.
5) I doubt any of this would have mattered 2 weeks ago, before Comcast found issues with my outside cable and put a line amp on the coax inside my home.

Obviously, those speeds are using the “speedboost” and aren’t real world “grab a Linux ISO” speeds. Still, they are impressive. The last wired test was 32M/3.3M, wireless was 7M/2M, that’s 802.11a with a 72Mbps connection.

So in 2020, after years of getting 15/2.5Mbps, I swapped in a GigE router running OPNsense and ran the a speedtest:
Download: 29.71 Mbit/s Upload: 5.96 Mbit/s
That’s a little more than the promised performance for the tier of service we get. I’m on a 25/5 plan (to my knowledge). Nothing else has been changed in any major way the last 10 yrs. Same ethernet cables. Same Coax cables, just more capable APU2 router hardware. Doubt I can get better throughput, but there is 1 more setting in the APU2 I need to check for getting full GigE speeds. To be fair, very little local traffic even hits the APU2 router at all. Local traffic is mostly on the same LAN or directly connected via dumb ethernet switches for the storage network.