March 2007 Archives

... because I just swapped my winter tires for my summer ones on my IS300.

There is a fair bit of tread left on the winter tires, so I can get at least one more season out of them (probably more like two or three).

It always amazes me how much it feels like getting a new car when I switch back to the high performance tires. The Yokohama AVS ES100s are quite loud now, though.

I have to decide if I'm going to eventually replace them with OEM style tires (Dunlop SP Sport 9000) or something else (Pirelli PZero?).

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe

So, to blatantly borrow that joke:

I've just finished filling out the envelope, so I have to take a shit.

I mean, I actually have to make a deposit at an ATM.

Schneier on Security: FBI Issued Illegal National Security Letters Under USA PATRIOT Act

My new AirPort Extreme arrived today from CDW.

Since it replaces and original AirPort Base Station (802.11b & 40bit WEP only) I set it up for WPA2 (but with the same passphrase that I was using for the old one). Everything (including my old G4 laptop with its 802.11b-only card that Anne now uses) just works. (I did have to reconfigure the Wii but it was actually easier than the old way since I could use the passphrase instead of typing the WEP key AKA Network Equivalent Password).

After setting up WDS with my AirPort Express in the living room, I was able to bridge to ethernet and connect my self-upgraded ReplayTV 4000 thus allowing me to remove one of the two really long ethernet cables™ that cross my house. (I'll remove the other cable when I move P's TeamSpeak server to my office (after I clean up a little in here).

I still need to get/find an audio cable and determine how I want to connect to the receiver for AirTunes goodness.

Since Ben and I made a stealth run to Grand Rapids Sunday for a podcast/quiz at the Apple Store there, I have a new external Firewire/USB/Firewire800/SATA drive enclosure + 250GB drive that's perfect for AirPort Disk. It's pretty slick (and looks like the disk is available via afp and smb). It would be nice to have a good hardware RAID attached to it (0+1 or RAID5 with up to ~4 disks would be perfect) but I haven't seen anything suitable (yet). Ben and I even stopped by the CompUSA in Grand Rapids (since it's one of the ones that is closing) but I didn't see any really good deals. I'll maybe stop by again when it's closer to closing (although any good stuff will probably just be sent over to one of the stores that isn't closing -- like the Lansing store).

I'm sure I've got greater wireless coverage now (although I haven't taken a laptop down to the basement and walked around yet) and so I'm probably not going to go forward with my old plan of fishing ethernet to every room in the house.