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May 16, 2005
My little wireless AP problem - Netgear MR814v2 not connecting
I've had off and on problems with my wireless access point for several months now. I've blamed just about everything BUT the access point until today when I brought home a brand new wireless card that just refused to work. I've seen many many many many many wireless cards have the exact same issue, and it doesn't matter who the vendor is. Ultimately the one same issue was the router.
So, I decided to track down the issue with the router this evening. I plugged up the laptop directly to the device and went looking for a firmware update. Unfortunately, I found that I already had the latest and greatest version of the firmware. I decided to look for the latest and greatest previous version of the firmware. Looking for that software is like looking for the holy grail. It ain't happening.
While I was looking for the firmware, I came across a Web page that had some interesting information.
Seems that the fix to the problem was quite simple: Universal Plug-And-Play. Apparently some wireless cards happen to have issues when the UnPnP is disabled. After turning on the service, I was able to get my new wireless card up and running within a matter of seconds. It literally found the AP 3 to 5 seconds after being plugged in. I'm writing this post on the laptop with the wireless card on the wireless router.
Nifty. Now to save before the battery dies...
~out...
Posted by ed at 08:09 PM | Comments (0)
May 09, 2005
Crusade for Children - CALL TO ARMS
It's almost that time of the year again ... the first weekend in June ... the WHAS Crusade for Children. Yup, I'm still part of the Crusade, and in a big way. It will always be this way, until the day I die.
I've been a part of the Crusade since 2001, roughly 15-20 days after 9/11 when some asshat decided to erase the Crusade Web site because he disagreed with then head honcho, Dan Miller. Instead of handling it like a true professional, he took his ball and went home. Did it hurt Dan? Yeah. Did it hurt the Crusade? Not really. I had a working, interactive Web site that was 100% better up and running within 30 days of the old site going down.
Anyhow, UCANweb has been a part of the Crusade since that point in time. Kyle and I shared our first Crusade as members of UCANweb, working mostly on the Web side of things and making sure everything worked properly. After all, it was the first real test run of the site.
The second Crusade was a bit different though. By this time, I was the IT admin for WHAS and Kyle had just joined as my assistant. We spent the next two Crusades flushing out the IT side of things and making them something truely different than what had happened in the past.
When I left WHAS in Feb of this year, I knew I was going to be back for Crusade. I made sure that both the Crusade was aware of this fact, and that my new boss was aware as well. This past week, last Tuesday to be exact, I went downtown to join the Crusade management to have lunch and get a feel for this years event.
It's a bit different than what it has been in the past though. Amy, the new IT admin for WHAS, is going to be just as big of a part of this project this year as I have been since 2001. I've made Crusade a very important part of my life, and it's going to be a bit difficult to give over some of the responsabilities that I've had in the past to someone who's never been there or done that before.
But that's okay though, I know she's going to do well.
The only real thing that sucks this year is that my right hand and very close friend, Kyle, will not be able to participate due to a medical issue. This will be my first Crusade without him, and it really sucks. He's just as much a part of what's happened in the past 4 years as I've been.
So, this leaves one experienced and one totally unexperienced IT persons with the task of getting the IT infrastructure of Crusade up and running. This is my call to arms, so to speak.
TO ANY IT PROFESSIONAL WHO WANTS TO HELP THE CRUSADE FOR CHILDREN:
Please send me an e-mail to ed @ thisdomain (ee dot com, if you can't guess what I mean by that) and let me know if you're interested in participating this year. Any help will be truely appreciated, and you'll be helping a great cause. Remember, it's all about the kids!!
~out...
Posted by ed at 08:42 PM | Comments (0)
SkyFinder update
Just an update to my previous post regarding SkyFinder.
Today, I purchased an updated zip code database that includes the latitude and longitude of the zip code in question. Because of this update, we now have over 30,000 possible zip codes in our database.
I'll probably update this database twice a year, as I really don't see a need to update it on a regular basis. After all, how many zip codes really get added in a year anyhow? Not that many, and there's always a zip code that's close by to someplace that should give the proper latitude and longitude anyhow.
Oh well ... go and give SkyFinder a try and let me know what you think. I think that it's a good piece of work.
Posted by ed at 08:23 PM | Comments (3)
May 07, 2005
SkyFinder to the rescue
In addition to all of the work I've been doing getting the new SkyWay service launched, I've been working on a few other side projects that will ultimately make life easier for me. The one I'm the most proud of at the moment is something I call SkyFinder.
http://skyfinder.skywayusa.net
Here's the jist of it:
A customer purchases the SkyWay system. They know their zipcode and we give them the name of the satellite that they're going to be directing their dish to. So what then?
Well, in order to get any dish aimed, you need to know the azimuth and elevation for your location so you can point the dish to the proper satellite.
EDUCATION INSERT: The azimuth is the left to right alignment of the dish, and the elevation is the up and down alignment.
SkyWay purchased a list of zip codes and the latitude/longitude of the zip codes, which I then placed into a SQL database. That allows me to get the proper latitude and longitude where a customer lives. They don't need to know all the difficult stuff ... just their zip code.
We also need to know the longitude of the bird that we're aiming the customer's dish to. This part is simple though. Every satellite in orbit has a unique longitude assigned to it. A simple Google search of the name of the bird and you can find the longitude. To make it easy on our customers, I just assigned the longitude to the name of the bird and populated a drop down menu.
Now, based on a series of geometry equations (which I had to remember how to use sin, cos, and tan from high school, bleh), I was able to get the proper azimuth and elevation for our customers. To make the tool even more sweet, I even added a height calculator so that customers can determine how far away from the base of any object their dish needs to be in order to clear that object.
Say, as an example, that I have a tree that is in my back yard. That tree happens to be in the way of me getting a good lock on the bird I'm aiming at. Based on some educated guesses, I have a good guess that the tree is roughly 150 feet tall. I plug that height into the SkyFinder, and in addition to the azimuth and elevation, it will also tell me how far out need to put the dish from that tree.
For those that do better with graphical examples, I even put together a "this is a tree, this is a person, stand the person on their head to get the height of the tree" kinda charts. Needless to say, I think that at this point you can't possibly get any more dummy proof than what I've made it. If someone doesn't understand, then they need to have a professional come out and do the installation and be done with it. :)
~out...
Posted by ed at 08:30 PM | Comments (0)
May 06, 2005
Google ads ... continued
Okay, so today marks the first full day of the Google ads on my site. Thus far, I've seen nothing but "Public Service Ads by Google". I'm just kinda curious as to what might be up with all of these PSA banners. I was thinking that I would be seeing banner ads with images and colors.
Bleh. Thus far, I've seen nothing of the sort.
In other news, I continue working on the SkyWay USA Web site. Eventually, we're going to be redirecting the dot com site to dot net and have all of our customers e-mail addresses and dial-up realm moved over to dot net as well. I outlined the process yesterday afternoon, but it's going to take a few days for the realm to take effect over multiple networks. We're wanting to do this all in one swoop.
Anyhow, back to work. Maybe I'll update some more later this evening.
~out...
Posted by ed at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)
May 05, 2005
Google has invaded
I've sold out.
Yup, I've added advertising to my Web site. Not that I think it'll really get me anywhere or actually end up paying out any real money. But, I've seen alot of other people state that the Google ad program has been able to bring them in some cash, so I decided to give it a go and see what the heck happens.
Make me some money. Click the link. --->
So, besides my selling out, what else has been going on?
Well, not a terrible amount. To say that I've been busy would once again be an understatement. I've been putting in some crazy hours over the past few weeks and they're starting to pay off. SkyWay USA is almost ready to launch with the new platform. I've been working on the site today to get it ready to go in anticipation for this launch.
To get ready for this update today, I took some pictures of the SW10 modem and did a little bit of creative work in Fireworks to get it looking nice. I put it up on the site and got the pre-registration database and form ready to go. We're ready for people to start signing up now! So, if you're in a rural area and need a decent satellite internet service, give SkyWay a try. I don't think you'll be dissapointed in the least.
Hey, look at that ... I've sold out twice in a matter of three paragraphs! A new record!! :)
Seriously though, I'm really excited about what SkyWay is becoming. If there was ever a doubt in my mind after I left WHAS back in February, it has long since vanished. We will be launching in a matter of weeks and moving all of our people from our existing piece of shit platform to our new and improved one ... which I built. ::whistles::
Oh, and before I forget ... for those people who visit this site and "report" on me. Fuck off. I don't answer to anyone but myself, Amanda, and God.
On to other things ... Steven is getting a house and got a new car as well. I spoke to him the other day and he told me all about his newest ventures. I'm so damn proud of him. Not only is he doing well professionally, he's doing well in his personal life as well. I only hope that I can one day achieve the things that he has been able to do. I just need to get to college and get a degree.
Amazing what a little piece of paper can do for someone. It's even more amazing to think that I've done everything that I've done in life without that little piece of paper.
I've been very lucky and fortunate.
~out...
Posted by ed at 11:15 PM | Comments (2)