Blog Archives
Call Big Brother, Maybe?: Police Locating WiFi Moochers Without Warrants?
Do you pay for your internet or do you piggy-back/mooch-off your neighbor’s WiFi? Well, if you fall into the latter, you should be made aware of a ruling made from a federal court in Pittsburgh, who said that the government can track you to your location, WITHOUT a search warrant, using free anti-moocher software wizardry. The courts ruled that internet subscribers shouldn’t expect privacy protection with their IP addresses (you know, those funny numbers assigned to devices that can be connected to the Internet), even the information customers give to their internet service providers (ISP). So, let the prize match between protecting the investment of private citizens and the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable search-and-seizure BEGIN!! Read the rest of this entry
Have A Spare Coffee Can? Turn It Into A Long Range Wi-Fi Extender
After digging through the remainder of coffee grounds for your morning ”cup of joe”, you realize that your large metal coffee can is empty and bound for the recycle bin. But wait, what about re-purposing that piece of metal can into something that you can get a a lot of use from? That sounds like a novel idea! In only an afternoon (assuming you have the hardware parts necessary), you can turn a metal coffee can into an rustic-looking and fashionable Wi-Fi antenna or signal booster with an surprisingly long range.
Lifehacker Debunks Popular 10 Tech Rumors; Still No Bigfoot Coverage
Also, Unicorns Poop iPhone 5′s…
We’ve all heard, talked about, and even fell for these assumptions/myths concerning computers, the internet, smartphones, and various other gadgets. Thankfully, the wonderful crew at Lifehacker has put together a list with supplemental information that takes ten of those tech rumors down a peg. Hopefully, after reading their list, you will all be able to enjoy your techno-gizmos and whosey-whatsits without feeling duped and unprotected.
The list includes some favorites, such as: fully discharging your battery to prolong its life, jailbreaking and/or rooting your phone is illegal, wait for the newest processor since it’ll be “so much faster,” Macs are 100% safe from malware/viruses, public wifi is always safe, those “download this to make your computer run faster” programs, and those pesky retail store extended warranties. In reality, these myths just result in wasting your time, money, and risk messing up your precious gadgets. Click the link below, and check out Lifehacker’s top ten worst offenders in consumer technology myths.
[Thanks "Top 10 Pervasive Tech Myths That Are Only Wasting Your Time"]
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Super Wi-Fi!!
Some number of years ago, there was an announcement of the wonderful technology called Super Wi-Fi. It was proposed to off fast, high-speed internet through the vacant spaces between TV network transmissions. Currently, the first public network that is now actively using Super WiFi is in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Now, why Wilmington exactly. Well, it’s pretty simple; Wilmington (mainly its county, New Hanover County) was the first area to transition to digital TV broadcasts from analog. Based on that, they were able to start ahead over other areas (including larger cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, etc.) to get their local Super Wi-Fi network up. Ugh.
[Thank you NetworkWorld]
Broadcom’s New Gigabit-Speed WiFi; BEHOLD THE POWER!!
Wireless card manufacturer Broadcom just released the news of their first gigabit Wi-Fi cards that are reportedly up to three times faster and six times more efficient than WiFi cards that are already available. They plan on revealing the new technology at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Their new 802.11ac chips are based on 5G WiFi, the soon-to-be next generation standard of Wi-Fi. The three (3) chips in particular —BCM4360, BCM4352, BCM43526 and BCM43516—use an 80 MHz channel bandwidth which is two times wider than the channel on similar types/styles of existing products. It other words, that creates a great opportunity to undertake very bandwidth-hungry tasks like downloading HD video (from Netflix, Vudu, Hulu, YouTube, etc), as well as online PC gaming (via conventional methods, flash browser games, Steam, Origin, etc.).
Broadcom’s new WiFi chips should also have a great effect on mobile a well, as content can be downloaded at a faster rate, switch handsets to low-power mode quicker (thus saving battery life since using LTE won’t instantly drop your battery’s charge in half.
[Thanks Broadcom & Engadget]
