UrlBlogGrey

Last year when Natalie & I bought our Tivo DVR, we didn't have a phone line to our apartment and figured that we'd use our cable Internet connection to download new program listings and such. The Tivo Series 2 devices don't have a network adapter built-in, but they do have two USB 2.0 ports that can be used to connect supported wired- and wireless-network adapters. We had bought a really nice D-Link wireless adapter that was officially supported by Tivo, could use WPA and WEP wireless encryption, and could connect to 802.11B and 802.11G networks.

The adapter worked great, except that the Tivo Series 2 devices had no support for WPA, which was the wireless encryption method we had been using at the time. So, we downgraded our encryption to WEP until purchasing a wired Netgear USB Ethernet adapter that has worked equally well and permits us to use WPA on our wireless network.

Over the last 3-4 months, our Tivo has been responding...very...slowly...to menu selections. I had been hoping that Tivo would soon come out with a system software upgrade that would improve the performance. So, I was really surprised to find out that the upgrade they sent last week (8.1-01-2-540) included not only performance enhancements, but also support for WPA encryption on wireless networks! We haven't been able to test it out since we're perfectly happy with our current wired-Ethernet adapter, but we might revert to the old D-Link wireless adapter if we get another Tivo and move our current unit to a different part of the apartment.

I think this is really great news for Tivo-owners who don't want to downgrade the security of their wireless networks just for the sake of a home appliance. WPA is more computationally expensive than WEP, so the processing power needs to be available on the hardware in order for WPA to be a drop-in solution.

Posted by Scott at 7:23 AM | Permalink

I've accumulated a lot of coins over the years, and the least useful coins (typically pennies) have piled up and become unmanageable. Then, Natalie told me about a feature of the Coinstar coin redemption (hallelujah!) machines found in many grocery stores where no fee is exacted if the coin value is put towards a gift card with a major retailer, including Amazon.com, Starbucks, and others.

So, with Christmas rapidly approaching, we decided to cash in the container of coins sitting in the back-seat of my car in exchange for an Amazon.com gift card for purchasing gifts. Until now, it had been providing me with occasional parking-meter funds and worked as a reward for someone determined enough to break into my car. We didn't expect to get much out of it, perhaps $60-$75.

Drum roll, please.... No, we cashed in $171.82 in change! Here's the break-down:

• Dollars: 1


• Quarters: 225


• Dimes: 522


• Nickels: 544


• Pennies: 3517

This is a great deal for anyone who enjoys buying from Amazon.com, as is the case with Natalie & I. However, it really sucks for people who resort to Coinstar as a means of subsistence. Redeeming coins for cash results in a nearly 9% service fee, which is just ridiculous. It's like a worse form of check-cashing. I don't think it's a coincidence that we needed to travel to a sketchy part of Oakland to use the Coinstar system at FoodMaxx.

In any case, we're excited about the fact that we can buy a good amount of gifts without dipping into our savings. On a related note, it looks like America is getting ready for another killer year of holiday shopping with "an increase of 5 percent in sales to $457 billion during the holidays."

Posted by Scott at 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Keeping computers cool is a problem that's existed for decades, and doesn't appear to be ending any time soon. High-density CPUs and integrated circuits can generate a lot of heat, typically in proportion to the processing load imposed on them. Because the processing load can vary sometimes unpredictably, it's a good idea to have a cooling solution that keeps your computer components cool in all situations.

I've got a Pentium 4 3.0 GHz PC running Fedora Core 6 that I use for remote access to our home network via SSH & VNC. The computer case sits in a coat closet with very little ventilation. This is good for us in that it blocks that computer noise from being heard throughout the apartment. However, it can contribute to an overheating situation depending on the inside temperature and the computer's processing load.

I recently noticed that the internal temperature on the PC was around 130 degrees Fahrenheit. This is within the tolerances of the Intel P4 CPU; however, I'd like to keep the temperature closer to the room temperature for the sake of safety.

So, I went to Fry's an bought an Antec Super Cyclone fan that installs in two card-expansion ports. It has 3 fan speeds (I'll keep mine on High), and effectively moves air from the inside to the outside of the case. Previously, I just had a case fan blowing air around inside the case, but no means of getting that air out.

After completing the hardware work, I then moved on to the software side. I installed the lm_sensors package by running the usual yum install lm_sensors. I then configured lm_sensors by running /usr/bin/sensors-detect and added the recommended lines to my /etc/modules.conf and rc.d files.

After restarting, I was able to see the status of my CPU and fans (but not the new Antec fan, it's not powered off the motherboard). Here's some output from running /usr/sbin/sensors -f:

fan1:     2393 RPM  (min = 30681 RPM, div = 4)

CPU Fan:  2596 RPM  (min = 2616 RPM, div = 4)

fan3:        0 RPM  (min =   66 RPM, div = 128)

M/B Temp:    +86°F  (high =   +16°F, hyst =   +55°F)   sensor = thermistor

CPU Temp:  +97.7°F  (high =  +176°F, hyst =  +167°F)   sensor = thermistor           

Everything is looking good!

Posted by Scott at 10:31 AM | Permalink

I take great efforts to make sure that my communications on-line are secure. I believe that the choice of having secure or non-secure communications is what attracts criminals interested in stealing personal information for financial gain. Criminals are inherently lazy; otherwise, they would earn a living through legal means. So, it's no surprise that they would exploit the laziness of their victims.

I use the following measures when on-line in order to avoid leaking private information:

• Use the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol when accessing computer systems remotely. SSH can employ military-grade encryption ciphers and can tunnel non-secure application protocols over its secure channel.
• Use a Virtual Network Computing (VNC) session tunneled through an SSH connection so that my non-secure network traffic (i.e. web browsing) travels only over my trusted network that's hosting the VNC server. This is a great way to keep prying ISPs and employers from monitoring the network traffic of their users. While they may be legally entitled to this information, I'd rather only give them undecipherable SSH traffic :)
• Don't use free web-mail services for my personal e-mail. While services like GMail are enticing, they offer little privacy to their users. Instead, I use the e-mail services provided by my web-hosting provider. I access their e-mail servers using IMAP and POP tunneled through, yes, and SSH connection. SSH is a god-send. I store all of my e-mail using Thunderbird on my Mac Mini at home.

There are other measures I follow, too, but these are some of the techniques I use most often.

Still, this does not make me safe from identity theft. Since most identity thieves are lazy, employing an attack on my computers or network is probably too time-consuming or difficult for them. They're more likely to take the easy route and just read discarded financial statements in my trash.

Natalie & I have been using a cheap $30 shredder to securely dispose of our sensitive documents. However, the motor recently burned out when I tried to shred a CD. Yes, I know, most $30 shredders are incapable of shredding 3 pages of 20 lb. paper, let alone a CD. But, still, I tried. Oops.

So, we're now in the market for another shredder. I'd like to find one capable of shredding CDs & DVDs so that we don't suffer from a repeat of my last mistake. I'm currently eyeing the Fellowes Powershred PS-77Cs. It's available on Amazon for $105.99 with free shipping. It r0x0rs.

On a related note, I am tired of buying cheap crap. This attitude began last summer when Natalie & I were suffering through a heat-wave that crashed on Northern California. We do not have air conditioning in our apartment, nor did we have a fan at the time. So, I walked to the local ACE Hardware and sought out a portable fan to get move some air. Prior to heading to ACE, I thoroughly researched fans on Amazon and the Internets at large. The Vornado manufacturer of fans received top reviews. So, I dropped $90 on a 3-speed free-standing Vornado fan at ACE. Natalie was not easily convinced that any fan is worth $90. But, here it is November, and the fan is still in the living room and is used several times every week. The quality, durability, and style of the product have made it a good buy. I'd rather spend an extra $40 on a product that is guaranteed for life than on one that is likely to break or be cumbersome to operate.

Posted by Scott at 2:18 PM | Permalink