Wireless Woes

Ever since I first hooked up our Linksys BEFW11S4 Wireless-B Broadband Router it's given me troubles. Some my fault, some it's.

One of the first issues: don't put your wireless router under the microwave. It just won't work out. Bite the bullet and run the wire all around the apartment and through the closet wall if you have to.

If you have a 2.4 GHz router and a 2.4GHz wireless phone, then most likely whenever the phone rings or is in use then you won't be able to use your 'net connection. Invest in a 5.6GHz phone.

Upgrade your firmware, but with caution. With our router after upgrading to the latest version, the service would degrade over the course of a 24 hour period to the point where you would have to pull the plug on it to reboot it. Every... single... day.... So, dig around in forums and see if downgrading your firmware is the better option.

After finally getting the router to work, I'm still tempted to toss it out the window a-la SCTV.

CLF 2.0

One of the things that the gov't is doing is updating their common look and feel for websites. What I thought of as "CLF" before was just layout, colours and accessibility stuff.

Not so for CLF 2.0: they want all urls to be bilingual (english and french). Now, on the surface this doesn't seem so bad. So, you have to rename some folders or files, what's the big deal right?

What about applications?

You're talking about all GET requests having ALL pramaters in bilingual form.

I can see a couple of possible outcomes for this requirement:
1) this requirement is shown to be a bad and it is killed
2) All prams are obfuscated either
   2a) manually
   2b) by using numbers, not words (which is harder to remember, maintain, ...)
   2c) by some script that would do something like reverse all strings
3) Everything is done with Ajax and the url doesn't change no matter what people are doing like with google maps. Drawback (or advantage?) is that no one can ever enter an application from something other than the root directory.

Some implications as I see them:
1) All developers have to speak both languages well enough not to have to send everything off for translation and then refactor / test it when it comes back.
2) Since the pool of developers that speak both languages is smaller than uni-lingual:
   2a) the cost of development rises and quality stays the same
   OR
   2b) the cost stays the same and the quality drops
3) This won't work for COTS apps, so they will have to be either have to be re-written or an exception will have to be made for them
4) Before, url's didn't make sense to you (or you couldn't remember them) if you didn't speak the official language that it was written in unless you are bilingual. Now since all the url's will be bilingual, none of the url's will make sense to you unless you are bilingual.

Instead of making information easier for people to get to, it appears that it will be harder to access. *sigh* Gotta love government.

Intelligent city finalist

Nice to know that the city I live in is in the top 7 of intelligent cities. 2 in Ontario... nice. ;-)
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Countless times...

I can't even count the number of times that having a test suite has saved me tons of time and embarrassment. It happened again today. Because of the test suite I figured out that I was working in the wrong branch.

At this point in my career I can't understand why people wouldn't write tests. It just doesn't make sense.

Nature Challenge

With the constant talk of climate change, the weird weather and rising energy prices, it's hard to ignore what's been going on. Not that I want to.

After seeing Dr. Suzuki on tv a couple of times lately, we're going to try and follow his Nature Challenge. As it is we try and do things like bike to work (when it's not -30 C) . Next steps are to bring our own bags to the stores (not just grocery) and reduce the number of plastic bags that get about 30 minutes of use before we put them in the trash. Same with lunches: try and reduce the amount of garbage that we generate. The meatless meals once a week will give me a chance to try out some different types of cooking, like Thai.

We're not going to go all freaky and wear burlap sacks while sitting in our mud hut in the forest, but we're going to work on the little things one at a time. I think that in north america we have a culture of waste, and I'm not really happy about being apart of that. If we all just changed a few little things, it would make such a big positive impact for ourselves and not just our children.

Mavenizing older projects

One of the things that I have been doing it mavenizing some projects. One of the frustrating things that I have found is that the surefire test runner doesn't like TestSuites. That didn't make me happy. I *could* refactor these old projects to not use a suite and run the tests in any order, but that's not an easy first step. I'd like to get it working first and then refactor to make it "correct". So I was stumped until today when I found Martin Wˆginger's post.

His solution is pretty simple. After that I just had to put in the proper include / exclude pattern (remember the double star at the front!) and I was good to go. It doesn't print what tests it is running in the console as it runs them, but the real reason was to make a report, not stare at the console as it runs. ;-) Since I can run the test suite, now I also have a coverage report. :-D

How do you like them apples?!

Lately I have been feeling that my laptop (aka the waffle iron) has not been meeting my needs. It's hot, heavy, bulky, slow, and underpowered. Sometimes when I close firefox (the only app that I have running) I watch the screen repaint and it takes like 20 seconds. No exaggeration. :-(

So I have been thinking about getting another laptop. I really enjoy the freedom of being able to not have to sit at a desk to use a computer. Now here is my dilemma: I think that I want to move away a MS Windows OS. So that means either looking at a linux flavour (ubuntu?) or a mac. At this point I'm leaning towards a mac 'cause it will "just work". When doing stuff at home I don't want to have to do something like recompile the kernel to get wireless to work. The biggest drawback for me to get a mac is the cost.

On this computer I'm going to be doing "home" things like surfing the web, photo editing (another plus for the mac). I'm not really planning to do any hard core gaming or development at this point.

I'm looking for some advice. Does any one have any suggestions on what to get? Any horror stories? Would getting a mac be worth it?

Wiiiiiiiiiii!!!!

Oh, so happy now. My friend's wife was able to pick me up a Wii. She just paid someone else who was waiting in line but not going to get one for herself 20 $ (breakfast) to get an extra. So worth it!

I already had an extra wiimote and a game, but no second nunchuk. Those are hard to find. I'll find it and then Laura and I will be able to box. ;-)

One of the coolest things is to make a mii and play against someone else with a character that looks like you... Pretty neat. ;-)

Crapsticks

One of the busiest weekends in Ottawa has to be weekend of the National Capital Marathon. In 2007 it falls on May 25, 26, and 27. Why does this matter? May 26th is W-day.

On a totally different note, Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate orthodox Christmas. ;-)

Sucks to be ill

I'm at home today 'cause I'm sick. Again. This sucks.

I wasn't able to sleep most of the night, then I slept most of the morning. The front of my throat is killing me and it's pretty painful to swallow. Maybe someone with training will take a look at my throat again... and bring popsicles! You know, 'cause they need those popsicle sticks tongue depressors to check out if you're well or not.

Maybe it's about time to make that tea I was "talking"[1] about an hour ago. I just wish that the telemarketers would stop calling...

[1] I can only speak with great difficulty.

Giving away my privacy?

One of the things that I have been thinking about lately is just how much of my personal life I'm making available online. Is it a problem? I don't think so, but it could be.

I'm not just talking about this blog or our flickr page. Gmail and google calendar are both services that I use. At what point should I start worrying about a great deal of things in my life documented and stored by a relative few companies? At this point I feel that I am too much like 99.99% of everyone else for any government or big corporation to care about me individuality. To those entities I'm only important as a statistic.

Maybe the current definition of privacy is outdated and the concerns that I have are just a relic from an old way of thinking.

The question that keeps on nagging at my mind is this: will I only care when it's too late to do anything about it?

Thoughts from traveling with Americans

After our trip this holiday season, I finally figured out some things about our neighbours to the south.

1) They think that Canada is so freaking cold all the time because we talk in Celsius and they hear in Fahrenheit. No wonder when we say that it's usually in the 30's in the summer time they think that it's cold!

2) How lucky I feel to be a Canadian. This feeling usually overwhelms me after there has been talk about health care. One person was saying that after a 24 hour stay in a hospital their daughter got a bill for 30 k $. That just blows my mind.

I love traveling if only to meet people from different places and learn what their perspectives are.

Welcome 2007

Well, it is finally here. Two thousand seven. A lot is going to happen this year. Laura is going to finish school[1], we're getting married, and whatever else that will pop up and make things interesting. 2007 seemed so far away just a couple of years ago. It's funny how time sneaks up on you.

Honestly, this year both excites and scares the bejebus out of me at the same time. I just hope that things go as smoothly as possible. *fingers crossed*

[1] I don't know if she'll be going back. Let's say finished for now.