Month: May 2008

AirTunes and WDS

Earlier this year I decided that my home did not have enough Apple products, that my network and home data center design was not stable, and that my cable bill was too high.

I decided that I wanted better range on my wireless home network, backup solution that worked without much work from me, and a home entertainment system that allowed me to enjoy music and movies from anywhere in the home on any device.

Some of the pieces are starting to fall into place. In April, I purchase Time Capsule (TC), Apple's simple but effective combination of a Wireless Access Point (WAP) and a Network Attached Storage ( NAS ). I already had a NAS that I setup by installing BSD based FreeNAS on an old Dell Dimension. That setup works ( it works so well that I sometimes forget it's there ) but I wanted something that offered automatic backup. So for about $300, I bought a Time Capsule from Apple that provides me with both. With Time Machine running on both my Macs things just work.

One of the problems I have in my house is that the cable company installed the cable router/VOIP gateway in my basement. This was the easiest place to put the device since it provided a juncture to attach the cable telephone service to the phone wiring in my home. Unfortunately it is also where I have to place the Time Capsule to easily plug it into the cable router. The Time Capsule is off to the far end of the basement so the far end of the second floor of the house gets a very weak signal. My wife kept complaining that she could not get a signal from her laptop and the kids could not get onto Webkinz.

This problem existed before I bought Time Capsule. Earlier this year I tried solving the problem with power-line networking but that solution did not work at all for me. Once I had Time Capsule I learned about Wireless Distribution System (WDS).

A Wireless Distribution System is a system that enables the wireless interconnection of access points in an IEEE 802.11 network. -- via Wikipedia.org

I was hoping to use my old Linksys WRT54G WAP to go this but then I remembered Apple's AirPort Express (AX). AirPort Express is a WAP that is perfect for frequent travelers or someone with a very simple home network with just a few computers. It is designed like a MacBook power-brick and includes two very interesting features. One of these allows the AirPort Express to extend the range of an existing wireless network using WDS. The other enables the streaming of music from any computer (Mac or PC) running iTunes to the AirPort Express. The Express has an audio jack into which one can plug in any stereo or powered speakers in your home.

I found and 802.11g AirPort Express on eBay that was gently used ( the previous owner had just bought it before Apple debuted the newer 802.11n model ). Within an hour I had extended the range of my network with the AX and the TC in a WDS configuration. Yesterday while eating dinner the family listened to our favorite music send over the network from my Mac mini. Now how cool is that!!

I am Khurt of Borg

DSC02202.JPGShe called me in from the waiting room. We entered the exam room and we sat down. She started explaining how to use the device, a Dexcom 7 continuous glucose meter (CGMS). She explained that it consisted of three parts, a sensor, a transmitter and a receiver. The sensor would be embedded just under my skin, the transmitter would send readings every minute to the receiver which I had to keep within 5 feet of my body. Easy enough.

She walked me through calibrating the Dexcom ( two sequential meter readings uploaded to the Dexcom from a OneTouch Ultra ) and reminded to make one meter reading every 12 hours to keep the 7 updated. She then handed me some sheets of paper for keeping a food and insulin dosage log. She also wrote down her phone number. "Call me if you have any questions or issues".

She then showed me how to insert the sensor ( on my belly ) and snap in the sensor. Quite painless I must say.

I left. The first day was a little frustrating. The 7 kept telling me I had a low ( below 70 ) but my meter ( if in doubt test ) said I was over 100. Hmm ... three more finger pricks later and I had the 7 in tune with reality. Or so I thought.

I are lunch and fully expected that two hours later my BG would be about 120. Nope. The 7 says I am 256. The meter says 134. Sigh! Recalibrate again. I finish up my work day and head home for dinner.

My wife and kids want to see the "alien" on papa. "Does it hurt", asks my 7 year old. She's so cute.

Around 10 PM the 7 buzzes and displays a blood droplet icon. Time to calibrate. One more finger prick ( that's over 10 today ) and I am off to dreamland. Er ... ahh .. not quite... the 7 wakes me up around 2 PM. "LOW!". I test, curse at the frackin device, and go back to bed.

Day two and three were similar although there was much less testing. About 4 per day.

So what's the frackin point again!!

Yesterday, my endo and I looked at the numbers from my FreeStyle Flash. He plots a graph. "This look good". My average BG is 104.

Do I really need to join the collective.


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What the ... ?!

When will people learn not to trust this company. Microsoft spent miilions convincing consumers and media devices manufacturers to invest in its technology and then leaves its "customers" holding the bag. The funny things is their technology is called "Play for Sure". Yeah, right!

In other news, concerns over Vista are so "minor" that the US News and World Report had to write about it.

Imagine the training budget for a company like with tens of thousands of employes that must be trained, hundreds of in-house custom apps that must be tested and or rebuilt ( some software consulting firm will be swimming in the dough ), and hundreds of business applications that just do NOT run ( image how costly it will be to upgrade or replace Windows based manufactuing systems ) on Vista. My employers migration plans do not even start until 2010, which is when we expect that all of the current set of PCs would have replaced by "Vista ready" machines.

And the business productivity benefit is suspect.

Oh, and just to make sure we all feel the urgent need to move to Vista, Bill Gates has already started talking about Windows 7 which he expects Microsoft to release "sometime in the next year or so". That's just around the time I expect most people will have "Vista ready" computers. What the ....?!

Any idea on what your employers plans are for Vista? I say "Hasta la vista, Vista!"