peter › Comments

Its a linksys. - peter

That's exactly what I did. Replaced our Linksys 802.11n with an AirPort Extreme Base Station with AirPort Express upstairs to extend the range. - Akiva Moskovitz

AirPort Express can extend an existing network and is fairly cheap I think - Bret Taylor from iPhone

$99, I do believe. I'm glad I replaced our Linksys with an Extreme, though. I'll take Apple's AirPort Utility over Linksys' rubbish HTML interface. - Akiva Moskovitz

The Express also makes a great travel accessory. Not only does it give you hotel room wifi for multiple people, but it also charges usb devices. - Cristo

I have to buy more Apple stuff to solve this problem? I was hoping to build my own repeater using foil, a TV antenna and some coils. - peter

Linksys and others make repeaters. - MVB (Grinch of FF) from iPod

You can get antennas that extend the range in all directions or directionally. - Jack (a.k.a. Jeber)

You might want an Airport Express anyway. We got one, not to extend the range of our wireless (we use a Linksys router), but to be able to play music from our laptops/ipods/iphones through our speakers. It works really well, certainly makes doing dishes more entertaining. - Benjamin Golub

Of course, if you want a really kickass music system, you need Sonos instead, and then install the speakers directly in the ceiling. (I'm hoping to have Peter convinced he needs a new house by the end of this thread ;) - Cristo

You might check to see if your router can run DD-WRT (http://www.dd-wrt.com) I think on some boxes you can crank the signal power up past the out of box settings. - Ken Sheppardson

You need antenna (yagi, etc.) -- your laptop has to be able to SEND from far away as well as receive. Higher power hacks only affect the signal sent out from your router. You can use a pair of high-power routers to make a bridge, but for an access point, you need a better antenna, so the AP can "hear" your laptop more clearly. - Michael Herf

Awesome way to start selling into the enterprise. - peter

We are the leading vertical integrator in our space. - Jason Shellen

But where's your fearless leader? - Kevin Fox

Over here: http://friendfeed.com/shellen... - Jason Shellen

wine - Rachel Lea Fox

They happen to be religious, so we didn't want to send wine... - Georgia Diehl

Sourdough? Otter dolls? - Roger Nang

Touristy-style San Francisco t-shirts? - Stephen Mack

I assume the religious thing nixes goodvibes gift cards? 'Cause you know, they'll ship anywhere. - Kevin Fox

A case of Anchor Steam. - Kevin Pedraja

Michael Recciutti (SF) or Charles Chocolates (Emeryville). Rosenblum Cellars wine (made in Alameda, CA). St. George Distillery items (Hangar One vodka or any of the many eau de vies, brandies, etc. they distill in Alameda, CA), Frog Hollow Farms preserves (Brentwood, CA) - Spidra Webster

Though recently purchased by Hershey's, Scharfenberger is still made in the bay area I believe. - Robert Felty

Sourdough is our staple, or a nice plastic golden gate bridge always works. - Steve C

ITS ITS!!!! or Abba-Zabba or maybe Jelly Belly (oops.. they only have plant here)? - Roger Nang

Whoops, didn't see the religious bit. - Kevin Pedraja

blue bottle coffee - peter

No, Robert. Hershey's closed the Berkeley factory and took all production elsewhere. :( - Spidra Webster

Spidra - that's too bad. Thanks for the info. - Robert Felty

Something from Humboldt County should do the trick... ;-) it IS a religion in some places. - Walt Ruppar from iPhone

Awesome, so many great ideas, thanks!! Although I think we're going to pass on the illegal stuff :) - Georgia Diehl

Just wondering what being religious has to do not sending wine (I am assuming the religion in this case is Christianity -- maybe a bad assumption). If there is one thing that they do lots of in the bible it is drinking wine. - Brian Sullivan

Sadly I need a Windows laptop. - peter

Yeah, the market is bonkers with a million different varieties and flavors. Just go Lenovo ThinkPad? What's your budget? - Steve "Daddy do it!" Lacy

Both computers will basically run Chrome + Picasa. And I want an integrated webcam. - peter

Peter: I highly recommend a Netbook, just because their mobility and price. I have an MSI Wind. Just make sure to check if the keyboard is big enough for you. - Jorge Escobar

I used to buy the best computer I could. Now I try to spend as little as possible and focus on speed and longest battery life. - peter

Wait for Windows 7 if you can - LANjackal

Peter: You should still go to the Apple store. MacBooks make fine Windows laptops, either as the primary OS or with VMWare. - Kevin Fox

Unless you really need OS X, or are really concerned about the way your laptop looks, skip the Mac and cut your price in half. That said, if you want to run as many OSes as possible, the Mac is the best option - LANjackal from IM

Would love to buy Apple. But I can get a decent Dell laptop that runs Chrome and Picasa for $650. - peter

Amen, brother :) - LANjackal

Holden: did you catch the "speed' part of what he's looking for? A capable full-size laptop will run circles around any netbook - LANjackal

Figuring out processor performance is impossible. There are too many combinations. When there was 386/25, 386/50, and 486/25 it was very clear which was fastest and which was slowest. Pentium and Pentium II was also clear for a while. I feel PC and Intel marketing is awful from the perspective of the consumer. The Thinkpad site has a FAQ explaining L1 and L2 caches; this is ridiculous to explain to the consumer. - peter

Just curious.. Why do you need Windows? - Bindu Reddy

Well TBH it's really tough even for the CPU OEMs, because back in the day clock speed was all you needed to worry about. Now performance depends on cores, caches, and whether the software itself is optimized for the platform, among many other things. It's not uncommon for machines to be bested by others with slower CPUs thanks to having other components that are faster. Generally I'd advise you look for dual-core at the least, 64-bit capability, and then go for the highest core clock speed given those 2 - LANjackal from IM

I dont need Windows other than to run Picasa. Windows laptops are just less expensive. - peter

Yes they are, very much so - LANjackal from IM

I wish there was a Thinkpad, Thinkpad DX, Thinkpad LX, Thinkpad EX. Just like Honda Accords. :) - peter

where do i do that? - peter

Join the group, and then you can post this again but to the group as well as "My Feed" - Steve "Daddy do it!" Lacy

Looks like here: http://friendfeed.com/parenti... - Bret Taylor

Wow, what a day. Ah, startup security. :) - Damon Cortesi

ouch - Nick Halstead

I gotta say for any company that was in negotiations with Twitter that latest post from TC was massively damanging - Nick Halstead

techcrunch seems to be down - peter

peter, wow yep it does [edit] oh wait it's back up - Mike Chelen

看不懂...似乎水很深.... - K.D.

很喜欢看到这些公开的对话，也许twitter会借机发展的更好！不会是无间道吧？ - telefan

It would need to come in red then, right? there should also be one with a double racing stripe down one side. - Kevin Fox

iPhone 3G Superleggera would also be nice. - peter

Why can't I like this again and again and again? - Brett Lider

Here, I'll like it again for you. - Kevin Fox

Each iPhone version seems to add another letter or two to the name. Apple has clearly painted themselves into a branding corner, which is rather unlike them. They must know they they'll have to revisit this approach with the next batch of iPhones. - Brett Lider

Since they're now at the equivalent stage as the Mac IIci-era of names, the next iPhones will use arbitrary numbers, a la Quadra 605, 610, 630, 650, 660av, 700, 800, 840av, 900, 950 - Mihai Parparita

It'll be interesting to see where they go. I don't think they want to, long-term, be in a place where they have an s-class phone separate from the consumer-line. That being said, maybe they will go down the "iPhone" / "iPhone Pro" path to make the difference more tangible to consumers than a single letter that can also be mistaken for the plural of "iPhone 3G." - Jonathan Terleski

Been saying it since his name was first floated last year. Didn't think anyone could suck more than Timmeh, but Gregory is...wow. - Admiral Anika

It's amazing. I was listening to him last night and got really annoyed. Even Chris Wallace seems so much better - Bindu Reddy

Oh, hush your mouth. LOL You know it's bad when Chris Wallace comes off as the better anchor. Real bad. - Admiral Anika

Yay Microsoft! - τorƍue

Someone actually supporting MSFT :) - Bindu Reddy

wait for bing 3.11 - Private Sanjeev

for workgroups - peter

for workgroups? - Bindu Reddy

Windows humor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - jakebf

bing seems okay, however I'll be more excited when the include the technology they acquired from Powerset (http://www.powerset.com) - Paul Lindner

Well the seem to have some entity detection. That must be coming from powerset? - Bindu Reddy

i'm willing to bet that it will work this time, well coz i worked on it :) - Krishna Gade

Nice Krishna. - τorƍue

Congrats Krishna! - Bindu Reddy

Congrats! I guess your commute will suck more now, though :( - Yann

I think the open social foundation should pay you just for existing. - Antonio Piccolboni

Congratulations Paul, I am certain you will thrive at LinkedIn! - Patrick Chanezon

Cool :-) - Jean-Yves Stervinou

they've made their policies on the seller's side kind of constricting and unfriendly, which has in turn caused many sellers to go elsewhere (fees, feedback policies, etc) - Cee Bee

Mona, this is really weird. I was just thinking of you right after I posted this, immediately after I saw your comment :). Instant gratification in what sense? i.e. it's better to get it from places that ship immediately vs. bidding on an auction? - Bindu Reddy

Ah, Cee Bee thanks for refreshing my memory. Yes, I recollect there was some controversy over them increasing seller fees. It does seem like the Amazon marketplace has gained a lot of momentum. For our Nintendo Wii, I looked around everywhere and ended up buying from an Amazon seller. My guess is also that retail is so cut-throat that the eBay sellers lost their price advantage as their competitors figured out how to source products at the same price as the eBay sellers do. - Bindu Reddy

Bindu or anyone? Do you need an airport extreme for cheap? I have two but you only need one...yeah retail problem...I know - sofarsoShawn

i like the selection on ebay esp for hard to find toys from Europe. but its very time consuming to buy something via an auction. buy it now works very well. i feel the shipping fees sellers charge are outrageous. - peter

sofarsoshawn, that's really funny :)) Are you serious about the airport extreme. Just list it on eBay ;) - Bindu Reddy

*flips bird* special price just for you...:o) - sofarsoShawn

More so the sellers (instant gratification). People realized the *real* way to make money on eBay = shipping. And now, it feels like I have to sift through MANY pages before I find a "real" deal. - Mona Nomura

Umm... I guess they still have a thriving market for rare goods even if they are losing out on the more common-place stuff. Don't they now list price along with shipping. So you can tell if someone is charging crazy shipping rates. I guess Amazon prime doesn't help them much either - Bindu Reddy

WTF are you talking about I just found a Dyson for $199!! That's a deal!! - Lokei Atikus™®

I think it depends; I've been lucky looking at say, games for my Nintendo DS that are a year or so old and that's been good. If you're looking for the latest and greatest. - Derrick

I just bought two used souls for $350!!! - Lokei Atikus™®

Holy wow, that is quite a bit. Are you growing marijuana or running servers, or both? ;) - Bret Taylor

Yikes! We're closer to 240W - Karen Padham Taylor

it does seem high. i am trying to figure out where it is coming from. all the big consumers of power are off. - peter

@bret - yes - peter

off or unplugged? do you have any old freezers? how about a pool pump? - Karen Padham Taylor

how does everyone measure their home idle state? - peter

i have google power meter installed - http://www.google.org/powerme... - Karen Padham Taylor

oh wait..excel charts were borked thanks to my wonderfully buggy macro. :) idle is around .5 kw - peter

:) that's much better! - Karen Padham Taylor

I have solar, and thus, a digital TOU meter, so I can just read off the usage straight from there. For example, going out there at night when all the lights are off (and the solar isn't producing) will give a reasonable baseline. I'm not sure I've seen our usage ever go as high as 5kW -- where did you get than number from? - Steve "Daddy do it!" Lacy

wow i did have a 4kw day in march - peter

i wish my idle was lower than .5. idle should really be the fridge/freezer, security system and that's about it. - peter

TV "standby mode" can use a lot of juice, esp. for plasmas. if you have any 24/7 PCs, that will be ~100W more or less. old appliances are much worse than new ones, etc... - Steve "Daddy do it!" Lacy

for a plasma that doesn't get a lot of usage do i turn it into "off" mode or do i need to unplug it - peter

i like the real time stuff but i feel like i should be able to see more info on a single screen. - peter

torque - ha ha.. peter - more info? You mean on a per page basis. It seems like I am already seeing a lot of information without even scrolling down as things keep popping up. - Bindu Reddy

Peter, if you want to see more posts append ?num=100 to the end of the beta URL. You'll get 100 posts on your main page (though of course that won't make more use of your horizontal resources, unless you make a custom stylesheet) - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Thankfully, everyone stopped posting their one-off thoughts on the beta. It's much more enjoyable to read regular stuff than navel-gazing stuff. - Admiral Anika

If you got the cash, I'd spring for a DROBO and avoid issues with dying drives. Mind you to get an actual NAS out of a DROBO you need to buy the DROBOShare. I have the DROBO and love it. - Dylan Parker

i have a readynas too; how do you see it kernel panicking? - peter

It stops working and the the console on the front of the device says Panic:Kernel <detailed message>. - Bret Taylor

do you reboot it and all is ok? - peter

Yep. I have four drive and RAID set up on it, which may or may not be related depending on where the kernel panic happened. No data was lost. - Bret Taylor

Threaten it with violence. fear based management works for stubborn computers. If that fails, you'll need to wave a dead chicken over it. - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

why did this really old twit show up? - John Fu

If you have time to spend on it, simply build your own simple NAS. It gives you the right amount of control and if you don't mind about form factor too much its MUCH cheaper and more extendable. - Eran Sandler