The Coburn Blog

So what do you think about this new draft wireless-N series?

My computers at home are still running Comcast on a Linksys WRT54G. I also have the NSLU2 storage link, for Network Attached Storage. I was a user of the NSLU2-Linux 3rd party firmware project for awhile, and was able to turn the device into a standalone webserver for awhile just for something fun to do, but I found the device froze on me alot, and is mostly a paperweight for me now. I mean, it still works, and I think Susan still uses it, but I don’t use it all that much anymore. Same with these Linksys printservers they have out now, bought one of those too for my home about a year ago, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, freezes on me half the time, but I’m always nervous about leaving a Computer on overnight, esp because our electrical system here at home isn’t all that reliable at times. I end up having to replace my surge protectors once every couple months because of our electrical system here, its a pain sometimes.

anyway, just wondered what you thought of the N draft. Actually what I do here at home, is connect my PC’s wired thru a Gigabit switch, then the G wireless router runs thru that, mostly so my Notebook and pocketPC can get wireless access. I know Netgear has wireless-G Gigabit switches though, seen ‘em at Best Buy in Ft Wayne a couple months ago.. I go GIgabit at home, because we do alot of file sharing here between computers, or we play games thru the LAN alot, Susan likes to play Frogger with me over the LAN sometimes, or backgammon or something. I think I’m still going to wait on N-draft though, even though its supposed to be closer to Gigabit speeds, still 54g is plenty fast enough for me, although with Cable coming close to 10mbps speeds now, the need for N speeds will be upon us soon I think. My old pocketpc I bought like, an eon ago, still runs at B, which I guess is ok for a pocketpc, but theiredically my Cable Access is faster then what the internet pipe can go thru over B already.

I tell yah though, things are getting more and more complicated in the Computer world though. I read the Announcement about Intel’s Extreme and Bearlake Chip sets, like AMD’s aren’t confusing enough to keep up with.. I’m still not a big fan of the 64-bit line of AMD Processors. My main PC runs an AMD 64 3200+, and I have to run a dual-core Optimizer driver in the background just to get my games to run with it. its really a pain, made me wish I had settled for a high end 3300+ or something at the time, but Asus 32 bit motherboards are getting harder and harder to find nowadays, and I’ve always been a big Asus fan anyway. I’ve used other boards before, but Asus has always been my fav. Shuttle’s are crap I have found that much out the hard way.

Its just like Operating Systems, ever since Vista came out, there has been some controversy as to the direction they’ve been heading towards. I think, as far as Computer hardware has come, that software still hasn’t quite caught up yet. Vista, for instance, still makes 2 different versions, one for 64bit processors, another for 32bit, you’d think after all this time, and how expensive that OS is to begin with, that they would bundle the two together. I mean, one of the reasons I went 64bit when my shuttle AK32 took a dump on me last year, was because even a year ago, 32bit processor boards were hard to find, all the major manufacturers are going 64bit now, which means if you upgrade to a 64bit processor, you can still run a 32bit OS and 32bit apps, but if your an AMD user for instance, then you have to run a Dual Core Optimizer driver in Windows, I don’t know why, well I read why but I still don’t understand it fully. its something about the architecture of the processor so that the right instruction goes to the right Core. Its not so much a big deal in Windows apps, but alot of games won’t run without that Dual Core Optimizer installed, and its something I found out, that doesn’t come with the OS, I had to download it from the AMD website. I only found that out after not being able to run my bowling game, which they ended up going out of business, because they couldn’t figure out a way around the problems they were having with Vista. Its the way the world is going though, is how I look at it. Mac’s are great, but there still more expensive the PC’s, hardware wise, and the only alternative is Linux, which would be all fine and dandy except the business world still uses Windows, so its a skill I always have to keep up on. I, like most others, aren’t too crazy about going the Vista route, but at least my Zoomtext software is Vista Compatible, that right there is half the battle. Now if they can just get the games to work, I might just be happy with it. Supposedly, there is a SP1 being released for it in a couple of months, I don’t know if that will fix the problems with it, or not, it’ll be interesting to see. I’m sure eventually they will though. I can’t see them ignoring customer complaints for too long. Right now, its putting alot of programmers out of business, but I think in a way, this is my point about keeping up on current events, and how important it is to keep up on current trends, because even though alot of people are upset with the direction Vista is heading towards, its not surprising either. From what I read, this is just the start of things to come. I think this push for better hardware will eventually bring hardware prices down, enough to where upgrading your system for Vista will become affordable in the long run. The law of supply and demand, but it will take some time. I think thats why our college decided to wait until next year to move over to Vista. They realize eventually they’ll have to, because MS will stop supporting XP before too long anyway, windows updates and all that, so in another year or two everyone will have to upgrade anyway, because of MS’s 5 year policy. Its 5 years they support windows updates, which is their end of life term. I’m trying to think of when XP was released, I’m thinking it was 2002, which means at the end of this year is when there stopping windows updates, so its not that far.. I know for Vista its only covered until 2010, which alot of people are saying is far away, but really isn’t when you think about it, but I think its actually 2012, its got to be, because its their 5 year policy. I guess my point is, we’ll have to deal with it eventually.. I know, I gripe about Vista too, but unfortunately, we’ll have to deal with it, because its not like they’ll ever go back to stable trusty XP anytime soon. From what I read, Vista is only the start of things to come, next version is supposed to be even more hardware intensive, and the interface even more redesigned, so it sounds to me like its only going to get worse and not better. Will it be enough to move people over to the Mac, is anyones guess, but I can forsee the Mac platform moving towards better hardware too eventually, all thanks to MS unfortunately, isn’t that how it always works though?