The Lance J. Technoweb

I was on Ars Technica today reading about heavyweight mesh WIFI networking gear that promises better WIFI in your home. The article makes some excellent points against these products, but it hides the failings deep.  I guess writers don't want to knock their advertisers.  Here I point out Ars' hidden arguments against these mesh networking products. 1. The Ars Technica article says, "like I discovered when I tested Eero for the Wirecutter, multi-hop here works , but it’s best avoided if you don’t absolutely need it". Stated more simply: avoid Mesh networking unless you absolutely need it or don't care much about performance. 2. The article says "some client devices actually perform worse when overwhelmed with too much signal."  Actually, all client devices perform worse when overwhelmed with too much signal.   Unsurprisingly, noise in the radio spectrum is a serious problem when dealing with radio communications.  The more powerful transmitters ...

Democracy cannot succeed if people and politicians set up government policies along the idea of majority rule.  Instead, you have to go back to the guts of it all: happiness for the people. With a concept like Brexit, where roughly half the population of the UK want to leave the EU, and the other half do not, compromise is in order.  Brexit shouldn't mean Brexit, and to run with that conclusion is to blindly follow a nascent and unrefined buzzword.   Is Brexit going to hurt the UK?  Then just maybe you need to REFINE the theme. "Oh, but a majority voted for Brexit".  Bullshit!  They voted for all different things, and for all different reasons. Brexit SHOULD mean fucking fixing the problem so that WAY MORE than 50% of the population is better off, and the few others should at least not be harmed. That's what democracy is SUPPOSED to be about: compromise, make the imperfect world a little better, and repeat forever. The US has the same proble...

I don't like spending good money on stupid crap.  And so I have a new strategy that I've developed to help me keep it in control: Basically, I keep track of my monthly recurring expenses across a ton of categories, such as: Cable TV Internet Insurance Electricity Netflix Mortgage etc.  If prices go up, I make a note of it.  If prices go down, I make a note of it too.  My goals? Financially respond to every price increase Reduce at least one recurring cost every month So earlier this month, I knocked down my cell phone costs from $70 to $40 a month (win!).  I also eliminated my iTunes Music subscription, which I didn't use much, from $15 a month to $0.  Another win! Earlier this year, I changed from my old employers healthcare plan (a "COBRA" plan) to a healthcare market place plan, saving me $260 a month (!).  And some people complain about Obamacare. I also updated my auto/property insurance, which increased by $14 a month, but ...

I have an ugly MacBook.  I like it. I bought my current MacBook for a mere $40, cleaned it up, and then upgraded its RAM and stuck in a 1 TB SSD drive. But it's still ugly. The prior owner sold it to me as broken.  He was a heavy smoker of something, and the machine was a disgusting disgrace.  It had scrapes and stickers on the back of the display and on the case.  Everything was covered in a thick grime. And the keyboard smelled bad. The only things to repair was the magsafe connector and the battery, and while doing that I cleaned out a lot of the disgusting. The tough sticker adhesive, burn marks, and scrapes are still there, but I put a cheesy case on it to cover up most of that. And it has a dead (always red) pixel in the middle of the display. But it's a good computer. It is reliable, and it's reasonably fast. The whole working setup cost me about $300, but that includes the 1 TB SSD which was more than half of that cost. Why dump it? A new, non-upg...

As I said before, I'm a car guy.  I love cars.  They are awesome fun, and many are beautiful works of art and engineering. My car is beautiful.  My car is reliable, and it costs very little to own it.  I'm going to keep it that way. Many years ago I bought a new car.  I put 168,244 miles on it, and then I sold it to a friend.  Then I bought a used car.  I kept it for four years.  Then I bought another used car.  I still have that one, 17 years later.  And I have no plans to replace it. Some day my old car may suffer a catastrophic failure, or get wrecked.  It may get to the point where repair is an economic impossibility.  Then I'll replace it.  Until then, it's my car.  And I'm keeping it. Yes, I do have to have my car maintained, and that costs real money.  Hoses, belts, brakes, tires, alternators, water pumps, and so-on can cost $1000 a year.  But the fact is that $1000 a year is a hell of a lot l...

Google and Apple.  They're doing us wrong.  They don't build things to last. Let me take that back.  They -do- build things to last.  But they withdraw security patching from their products way too early, making older devices a literal danger to use. I love my iPhone 4.  But it is stuck at iOS 7, and who knows if it has dangerous vulnerabilities.  It is unclear if Apple is watching over iOS7, and it is a safe bet that Apple will never release a security patch for their older devices even if dangerous vulnerabilities are known to exist. Don't get me wrong: I think Apple is right to leave the iPhone 4 at iOS 7.  After all, the iPhone 4 was designed and developed long ago.  Technology has moved forward, and no one in their right mind can expect an old device to run the latest and greatest operating system. But I'm not talking about that.  I'm talking about security patches for over a million useful, active devices that are "stuck" at iOS...

I now see all these friends and family who get entrapped in a salesperson's bullshit.  I'm tired of it. I'm fine with people selling products.  I'm fine with people over-paying for a product because that product is great, convenient, or well-supported. Unfortunately, the majority of corporations ask their salespeople to sell product using lies, distortion, and manipulation.  It's bullshit, it's wrong, and I'm gonna stop it. I hear it all the time: Auto Repair Industry:  Your brakes are down to 2 mm, so driving could be dangerous.  We can't be responsible. (Using Fear) Mobile Telephone Industry: You should get a bigger mobile data plan because you use more than simple email. (Using Fake Advice) Cable TV Industry: If you sign up for Cable TV, Internet, and Telephone, your monthly bill will actually be a little lower than if you just signed up for two of them. (Using a Fake Bargain) Electronics Retailer: The $30 gold plated HDMI cable will giv...