"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.  ~Albert Einstein"

There's something to be said about stubborness.  It can make you waste time, it can make you bitter, it can make you look like a fool.  However, It can also have it's benefits.  It can drive a person to persist against exceptionally difficult problems even when everything else seems to be screaming to give up.

Comment (0) Read More...

Quick, if I ask you what frequency your wireless network operates in what would you tell me? 2.4GHz?  More than likely. What’s wrong with that you say?  Well, nothing really, but why just 2.4GHz?  Everyone I talk to (outside of a few folks) seem quite content to pretty much completely ignore the 5GHz band.  Most times, I’ll ask them why and usually they respond with something like “it’s more supported”, or they “get better coverage”, etc…  True, while both of these arguments do (or did) have some fact behind them; it’s a pretty weak argument on both counts.  A lot of new devices (especially laptops) are simply opting to install radio hardware that supports both the 2.4 and 5GHz spectrums.  In fact, in a lot of cases the cost difference is negligible, so why not?

There are numerous reasons that the 5GHz spectrum should be leveraged.  First and foremost; there is so much more of it:

Comment (0) Read More...

Of course... the bleeding edge is almost always advanced by baby steps now isn't it? :-P

I truly feel privileged to get tasked with an opportunity that can basically be categorized by phrases like: "Hey, wouldn't it be really friggin' cool if we could get X to do Y, based on Z!" or "I really wish that I could make X do this.  It would save us so much time!"  (Blue Sky, Green Field, etc...) Effectively, any high-level idea that involves the application of several distinct technologies woven together to create a specialized solution to a given problem... and to be honest, its exhilarating to work on and seems like magic when it all comes together in the end.

Comment (0) Read More...

It's absolutely no secret that computing power is getting exponentially more powerful (and inexpensive) every passing week. However, it is also getting smaller, less power hungry, and more ubiquitous. Combine these things together and it's no wonder people are finding novel and niche ways to use this additional computing power for specific embedded tasks.

For instance... cameras. Specifically, security cameras. To many people, increasing processing horsepower in an IP camera doesn't immediately make much sense. That is, unless you have some insight into the actual process that takes place within a network enabled camera. Basically, the camera acquires a digital image (frame) of a given resolution and then encodes it, via a video codec into a stream of data that is then passed via TCP/IP over the network to one or more destinations.

Comment (0) Read More...

... well, not exactly. When it comes to your wireless network there are two wildly popular practices that people still believe provide additional security for the WLAN. Those are:

1 - Choosing not to broadcast, or "hiding", the SSID (Service Set Identifier)

Comment (0) Read More...