Be Unlimited provide ADSL2+ services in the UK, supplying a Be-branded Thompson SpeedTouch wireless router called the BeBox. The Member Forum is full of complaints about router instability and errant behaviour. My 780WL had been doing well for around 6 months, then started resetting itself sometimes several times within a short period, but at least daily. Sometimes after a reset I was left with no Internet connectivity. Eventually Be sent me a replacement router, which came with replacement problems. So how do you turn a flaky BeBox into a rock-solid Internet router? Just take the "Be" out of your BeBox.
Continue reading 'Resolving router issues with Be Unlimited'
Tag archive for 'Mac'
Over the past 16 years I've had the pleasure of being responsible for eight well-used Macs and associated hardware. In that time I've seen the failure of one display, one hard drive (thankfully post-TM), one power supply, and now one logic board. So what are your choices when a piece of kit fails? For most people the options considered will be either fixing it (until they get a quote), or replacing it. But there may be at least two more choices worthy of consideration: sharing a Mac, or rethinking what you actually need from a computer and recycling pre-loved equipment. Older equipment can be like older people: once you get past a certain point it's evidence of good genes! I'd bet my PowerBook 100 of 1992 vintage would still boot if it had any juice in the battery. Here's how we looked to the past to save money, and in so doing saved an ancient (i.e. any computer over 3 years old) iMac from premature retirement.
Continue reading 'Rethink, reuse, recycle'
You're in Prague for 6 days with your camera (shooting in raw format), packing your data logger for geotagging, and your MacBook. At the end of each day you plan to download your images and track logs to geotag them before processing via Adobe Bridge. Given this scenario how do GPSPhotoLinker and PhotoGPSEditor—two free Mac apps—stack up against two commercial alternatives, Geophoto and HoudahGeo?
Continue reading 'Mac geotagging software showdown'
Despite strong indications of an imminent second generation 3G iPhone, the recent £100 price drop on the 8GB iPhone proved too tempting. I had hesitated because the iPhone failed to meet my minimum requirements for basic PDA functionality. With 1Password mostly overcoming the secure data exchange obstacle, the remaining challenge was to find a network-independent way of managing and synchronising tasks ("to do" items). I've also been wading through David Allen's book Getting Things Done in a search for ways to improve my personal productivity. Could I cherry-pick the key principles of the GTD religion and apply them on the iPhone using only the built-in apps?
Continue reading 'Using faux Contacts for GTD on the iPhone'
Mac-based web developers may yet find a use for Dashboard. SeeSS is a CSS property reference detailing inheritance, CSS compliance, Safari support, possible and default values, examples, plus an informative description [screenshot]. PHP Function Reference provides offline access to the PHP manual, a cheat sheet, and an interactive date formatter [screenshot].
After David rekindled my interest in geotagging blog posts with Google Map integration, and Dave's photo tracking experiences convinced me to revisit geotagging photos, I posted An ABC of geotagging photos on the Mac. In that article I considered questions relevant to selecting an automatic geo-location system, naming most of the few Mac-compatible devices available. I recently purchased a data logger to overcome the pain of manual photo geotagging and dispense with the hassle of a DIY solution.
Continue reading 'Evaluating the Holux M-241 data logger'
