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May 30, 2005

Weak Wireless? 10 Tips for Improving Your Wireless Network

I happened to read this article at Microsoft web site. This is not new. Most of the tips are not so lightening and you may say "Oh, I knew that already". Anyway I hope it may be some help to you, just in case. Among the 10 tips, there are a few that I would like to highlight here, as they seem to be most likely to be overlooked yet to be most easily done:
* Position your wireless router (or wireless access point) in a central location
* Move the router off the floor and away from walls and metal objects (such as metal file cabinets)
* Change your wireless channel
* Pick equipment from a single vendor
The full story is here.

Posted by Ji He at 8:46 PM |

May 23, 2005

Top 10 Cities Where Paychecks Go Far

According to the latest report from Salary.com, your paycheck is most stretchable in small/medium towns which "enjoyed various forms of revitalization in the past several years since the cost of doing business is low and new employees are brought to town". Financially speaking, the top 10 places where you'll get the most mileage out of your paycheck are:
* New London, Conn.
* Huntsville, Ala.
* Baltimore
* Harrisburg, Pa.
* Tulsa, Okla.
* Rock Island, Ill.
* Troy, N.Y.
* Corpus Christi, Texas
* Schenectady, N.Y.
* Las Vegas, Nev.
CNN Money has the full story.

Posted by Ji He at 11:33 AM |

May 19, 2005

DVD Rental Market: They Are Fighting!

It is quite interesting to read the following two news on the same day:

1. Wal-Mart, the world's largets DVD retailer, said today it has shut down its online DVD rental service and will offer its online customers the oppertunity to sign up with Netflix (only) at their current subscription price for one year. The alliance between Wal-Mart and Netflix makes Netflix's share jumping 30% in today's premarket trade (CNN Money).

2. Blockbuster said it was offering two free months of unlimited DVD rentals to Netflix Inc. and Walmart.com customers who switch to its rival online rental service, for which it aims to have 2 million users by the end of the first quarter of 2006 (CNN Money).

It looks like yet another war in the DVD rental market is on. The only question to me is, do I have enough blank DVD-Rs? :D

Posted by Ji He at 3:30 PM |

May 16, 2005

Free Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 DVD medias

Today I received a free copy of Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 in my pigeon box. The package contains two DVDs for Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite Beta 2 and one DVD for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 beta, and was shipped directly from Microsoft. The medias were ordered online about one month ago and were put in back-order due to high demand. If you also want a copy of these fancy discs, it is yet not late to order now. This beta is also free downloadable to MSDN subscribers.

Posted by Ji He at 7:48 PM |

May 13, 2005

Open-Source Divorce for Apple's Safari?

Two years after it selected open-source rendering engine KHTML as the basis of its Safari Web browser, Apple has proposed resolving compatibility conflicts by scrapping that code base in favour of its own. One analyst said the meltdown between KDE and Apple was the exception, rather than the rule, when it came to corporate-open-source relations. One KDE contributor said the demise and divergence of the Apple-KDE relationship was no surprise. (ZDNet News)

Posted by Ji He at 3:29 PM |

May 12, 2005

Google Puts Brakes on Accelerator

Google has stopped allowing downloads of its Web Accelerator software, just days after it began offering the product. Accelerator, which was released in beta, is set up to automatically work with Firefox and Microsoft's Internet Explorer once it has been downloaded. The software was launched Thursday but within a day was causing concern among people when it transpired that the software cached more data than many people felt comfortable with, enabling individuals in some cases to log onto secure online pages of others. A Google representative denied on Wednesday that the removal of the tool was connected to the security fears. "It is a limited beta," he said, "and we reached the capacity of users." (CNET News)

Posted by Ji He at 5:03 PM |

May 11, 2005

Life is Fragile

Last evening, a security of our Foundation, former sheriff of the county, Mr. Bill Noland, passed away following a two-car accident which happened on Sam Noble Pkwy, just downstair of my Plant Biology building (link 1, link 2). I am so stunned by Bill's sudden death. Life is so fragile. May he rest peace in the heaven...

Posted by Ji He at 5:16 PM |