Dave's Tech Blog
A Third Eye on Technology

For about 4 years I’ve had a lot of faith placed in Netgear routers and networking equipment in general and had great luck with an old Wireless G router for years.  Until a couple weeks ago, when I began to notice that my downloads were actually being subjected to a tiny bit of packet corruption/swapping.  MD5 file integrity checks were repeatedly failing and I couldn’t get downloaded software to install, even if I used an Ethernet cable instead of a wireless connection.  Only a direct connect from laptop to the modem always did the trick, and so narrowed things down to the router.  Keep in mind that I troubleshot this problem for at least 5 hours across two days of experimenting using a PC and a Laptop, doing everything from full factory resets time after time, dismantling the router to blow it out with compressed air, to testing without wireless encryption enabled.  The sad fact became clear that if any data passed through the router at all there was a good chance it would be screwed up by the time it got to the computers.  And so began my quest for a replacement.

The dead router this little journey into hell all started off with was a Netgear WGT624 v3 with the latest firmware installed.  I’d owned this router for several years with nary a hiccup or serious problem the occasional power cycle couldn’t fix.  But as mentioned above, things started to get flaky and I had tried everything I and other forum crawling network experts could think of.  So I decided to head to my nearby Wal-Mart just a couple blocks away and pick up a new one; a Netgear WGR614 v9 router (and I installed the latest firmware after it arrived).  To my shock and disgust it had the exact same problem as the WGT624: data corruption.

So I exchanged it for a third router (a Netgear WPN824 v3) spending about 25 dollars extra after exchanging in the WGR614.  This new router solved the problem I was having with corrupted packets and I was relieved.  But then a new fucking problem cropped up!  For some reason the router would require a power cycle at least two or three times a day.  This was often because for some odd reason it would just randomly stop passing HTTP traffic between me and the Internet.  I could ping the modem (gateway) IP, as well as the ISP’s DNS server addresses, but I couldn’t ping Google nor visit any website except the routers internal configuration utility page (e.g., 192.168.1.1).  Even more bizarre was that one time this occurred after I had already accessed my computer by remote while I was away from home, using VNC on port 5900.  Let me say that again:  I had accessed my home PC over the Internet, and the router told me there was no active Internet connection when it went to check for firmware updates automatically after I logged into it to see if I could find the problem.

I put up with this router for a few days, hoping that after a while things would smooth out and I wouldn’t have to do power cycles so often.  They didn’t get better.  In fact, they got even worse.  I was already having to power cycle the router on a regular basis until one day PORT FORWARDING STOPPED WORKING!!  I couldn’t access my remote desktop over the Internet anymore and more importantly, I couldn’t accept incoming connection requests from Virtual Dave users.

Unfortunately I made the mistake early on (because the packet corruption problem had been resolved by the WPN824) that I was going to be happy with this router, and I threw the receipt away, so I couldn’t exchange it for a different router.  The only option I had left was to take this router back to Wal-Mart and exchange it for another one exactly like it.

Not only did this replacement WPN824 mimic all the problems the previous WPN824 had, but the packaging had evidence of actually being a refurbished product, sold off the shelf by Wal-Mart as a new item at full price!

I’m sure it’s one of the ways Netgear cuts corners for the sake of competing with other “rolled-back prices” in Wal-Mart; I hope they don’t pull this shit with other vendors.  I can’t assert that Wal-Mart is knowingly selling refurbished products at the same cost as a new item, but from the look of the professional shrink wrap job, they may not actually be aware of what’s going on.

Now you might say to me, “just because you have two seals doesn’t mean that you have refurbished rather than new. It may simply mean that at one point someone had to open the package for a customer, and the customer ended up not wanting it, or it was returned.”

Okay, I see your point, but it doesn’t change the fact that the router still didn’t work, nor did another one exactly like it I had purchased just a couple days earlier. Something odd I noticed between the two is the first of those two needed a firmware upgrade, but the second one didn’t. Just an observation.

There was one other suspicious piece of “evidence” I didn’t photograph and that was the “install the netgear software on your PC before you setup your router” sticker that covers the downlink ports on the back. It had obviously been re-applied before.

Also, the shrink wrap on the box wasn’t something you’d see from the standard cheap heat gun seal you’d find in most stores that will re-stock items with explicit “open-item” sticker with a reduced price on it; this LOOKED brand new from the outside, like it was sealed at the factory. So I guess the theory is, someone bought it from another Wal-Mart, found it didn’t work, returned it, Wal-Mart sent it to Netgear because they were told it was defective, Netgear put a new sticker on the bag around the router, and re-wrapped the packaging in house with little or no testing done on the hardware. I highly doubt Wal-Mart has spare Netgear stickers laying around to help disguise an open router bag.  And good lord, what does this say about the state of our economy!  I mean, if I were Netgear and I were serious about deception, I would still at least use a NEW replacement bag with a NEW tamper-sticker, instead of reusing an old one with a broken label stuck to it to save a few cents.

So to recap the sequence of routers I’ve been through:

Original Netgear WGT624 v3 (loved for years, dying of old age I thought), followed by a WGR614 v9 (which had the same problems as the previous router), followed by TWO WPN824 v3 routers. 4 Netgear routers, one old, two “new” and one that was obviously opened/returned/refurbished being sold as a new item.  They all failed me in the end.

I’ve said to hell with Netgear and Wal-Mart, caving in and going to pick up a Linksys/Cisco from Best Buy, but I’m not going to give it a thumbs up or down until I’ve had some time to test it out.  From what I hear, Linksys/Cisco’s are back up to snuff and have a better reputation than they did when I stopped using their products years ago.  We’ll see.

Ilan Rubin, Robin Fink, Me, Trent Reznor, my sister Sara, Justin Meldal-Johnsen

It all kicked off with a short drive from my friend John’s house in Lawrence to the Starlite Amphitheater in Kansas City, Missouri.  We arrived around 3:45 p.m. and joined a group of roughly 100-125 people who all participated in the donation drive for Eric De La Cruz and were anxiously awaiting for their opportunity to meet and greet with the band.  One girl I was standing next was so excited, she said, “I’m looking at the same sky Trent Reznor is looking at.”  I couldn’t help but laugh.

After passing through the gates and being handed my guest pass stickers (which only went to the top-tier donors) we were given a briefing on what to expect next.  We were then led down the hill and around to the back of the venue where we waited in line to walk into a pavilion area of sorts, shake hands with the band, have one item of ours signed by all the members of the band, have our picture taken and even give everybody a hug if we wanted.  From here, the group was split into two and the lower-tier donors were lead back out into the seating area of the venue while us top-tier donors were then lead to a dining hall for dinner.

I was personally expecting to see something like a series of tables pushed together with the band sitting down somewhere and everyone else surrounding them and having some lively table talk.  To our disappointment, we were sat in groups of 8 per table and more or less had to wait there for 50 minutes before Trent arrived to say thanks for the donations and open up for a few questions before going back to whatever it is he does before a show.  This was really the only minor annoyance about the entire experience.  Time constraints and what not are understandable, though the words “dinner with the band” was in the description, and I didn’t realize the word “with” was being used in the Mitch Hedberg-ish sense.  (Mitch Hedberg joked that whenever he goes to the bathroom to shave, he assumes someone else on the planet is also shaving, so he’ll say, “I’m gonna go shave, too.”)

We were then asked to go back out to the main seating area while Street Sweeper Social Club played the first act, and then return to the pavilion next so we could be escorted to the side of the stage and enjoy NIN.  It was surprisingly quiet compared to the loudness you’re pounded with in the seating area.  The staff throughout the entire experience were very kind and polite.  I really didn’t get any good pictures of the side stage area as most of my time was being spent video taping the show.  I’m not going to bother with re-encoding the video and posting it here because, well, I’m feeling kinda lazy, but also because I’m sure someone out there’s got better video than I do.  The view was somewhat obstructed, the camera is shaking from time to time, and the audio sounds a little muffled.

After the show was over we were escorted back out through the seating area because Janes Addiction didn’t really want anybody backstage (certainly not side stage) while performing.  But my sister and I snuck back around and actually caught a glimpse of the lead singer and guitarist head through the double doors we had exited from to go out to the stage and perform.  And that was pretty much the extent of anything exciting that could possibly happen.  I watched Trent walk through a hustling team of roadies loading crates of gear and equipment on his way to his tour bus never to be seen again.  Not being a big fan of Janes Addiction, the four of us decided to leave the show early and beat the traffic to have a small after party of our own back at home.

That was more or less it.  Like I said, I had my expectations high and it’s something I’m sure everybody does who has never participated in something like this.  You have these fantasies of a “best case scenario” of actually getting to sit down and chat with the band for 5 minutes and stuff like that, but it’s simply not the reality of these kinds of things.  I mean, you have to think about these things from the perspective of the band members.  What would you rather do after a show:  Hang out in a decked out bus while surrounded by beautiful women, or doing your best to gum it up with speechless fans who are skilled at the art of making social encounters totally awkward?

In the end, I had fun… I don’t think I’d call it jaw-dropping-awesome kind of fun, but that’s just me personally.  The novelty of the event hasn’t sank in just yet, I guess.  I also got this vinyl record I bought years ago autographed by the band (including their art director, Rob Sheriden, who is a perpetually depressed looking fella):

Overall review:  GOOD TIMES!

In the previous post I mentioned Nine Inch Nails organizing a fund raiser to help Eric De La Cruz get a heart transplant.  They’re doing this by asking for large donations and in exchange they give you and a guest VIP access to any concert you want to attend.  I’m here writing this to let everyone know that my sister and I are now officially VIP attendees of the upcoming KC concert on Wednesday the 27th, and it’s an experience I’ll be telling people about for years.

Now most of you out there (or at least anyone who isn’t really into NIN) are probably saying, “Why would anyone spend that much money just to get backstage and gum it up with people they may never see or speak to again?”  Well… let me put it this way.  Imagine you could meet any single person in the whole world who you’ve wanted to meet for over a decade but couldn’t. Just think of your favorite actor/actress, or author, celebrity, musician, mad scientist perhaps… I don’t care who, just think of someone who you’ve always wanted to say, “Thank you.” to in person because that’s just how much of an influence they’ve had on you and you want them to know.  Then one day, you’re offered that one chance.  That’s kinda what this is like.  An opportunity to do something you’ll never forget for the rest of your life.

Besides, all the money is going towards a worthy cause.  I’ll get to honestly say that I met my favorite musician of all time (one of just a small handful of life long goals/dreams I have) and contribute towards saving a human life in the process.  And I’ll be proud about it for the rest of my life.  I imagine myself decades from now thinking back on the life I lived and appreciate such an experience more so than, say, the experience I’d probably get from spending that kind of money towards something completely material, like an expensive HDTV.  I couldn’t imagine myself retired years from now telling my grandkids about the day I bought a new HDTV and expect them to marvel at my totally boring story.

For me, the things that matter in life aren’t things (stuff) at all.  The things that matter in life are experiences, events, people, emotions, passion, romance,  ideas, adventures, thrills, challenges and also remembering that one of these days you’re gonna die.  Because if you do like most young people and tell yourself it’s too far away to bother thinking about it right now, you might start to procrastinate and regret not doing the things that would otherwise hold their value to you forever.

So, here’s to being ALIVE and happy to finally get to do something I’ve always wanted to do but never believed would ever occur.

Oh, one last thing.  THANKS DAD!  You’ve always been there if I needed a favor or help with about anything and that means the world to me.

In the words of Trent Reznor himself:

This is for something important. Eric De La Cruz is dying and needs a heart transplant. He keeps getting turned down for a transplant list because he’s on Nevada Medicaid, and there are no transplant centers in Nevada. We want to get involved and hopefully so do you, so we’re extending a hand. His sister Veronica (former Anchor and Internet Correspondent for CNN) has started a campaign to save his life.

Eric’s situation shines a bright light on a broken health care system, and his particular set of problems are being addressed on the political front, aiming for reform in addition to the need for immediate financial help to keep him alive TODAY. I think we can help with the latter.

Here’s what we’re offering – three options:

If you have a ticket to a NIN/JA show: if you donate $1,000 to this cause, we’ll invite you to come hang out with us before the NIN/JA show of your choice. You and a guest can watch soundcheck, eat dinner backstage with us, take pics / get autographs and watch the show from the side of the stage if you’d like.

If you donate $300, you and a friend can join us for soundcheck and a handshaking / hug session before doors open at the NIN/JA show of your choice.

If you do NOT have a ticket to a NIN/JA show: if you donate $1,200 to this cause, we’ll invite you to come hang out with us before the NIN/JA show of your choice and provide 2 tickets (best available). You and a guest can watch soundcheck, eat dinner backstage with us, take pics / get autographs and watch the show from the side of the stage if you’d like.

100% of the money collected from this will go directly to Eric’s fund.

I hope you’ll consider helping out with this.

Sincerely, Trent Reznor

Go here for more info. If I’m lucky and can find the money, I’ll get to meet my all time favorite musician AND help save a life.

(Special thanks to this blog post for showing me how to get this working finally).

About 2 months ago or so I read the tutorial in the above link to help get my fingerprint sensor setup in Ubuntu.  The problem was that it left one simple instruction out:  Paste a line of  text AT THE TOP of a config file (and not at the bottom like I did).  The mistake has been corrected and I’m happy to say my finger print sensor is working in Ubuntu 9.04.  Based on the directions from the the link above, here’s how to set it up (these instructions are meant for version 9.04; see the above link for instructions for 8.04 and 8.10):

Step 1: Click Applications>Accessories>Terminal and paste in the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install aes2501-wy fprint-demo libfprint0 libpam-fprint

Step 2: Still in Terminal, paste in the following text:

sudo gedit /etc/pam.d/common-auth

This will open a text file called common-auth in Gnome Text Editor.  (Here’s where I screwed up last time).

Step 3: If you want to use both the password and the fingerprint to authenticate (more secure) add at the bottom:

auth required pam_fprint.so

If you want to use either the fingerprint or the password to authenticate (i.e. completely bypass the password through the fingerprint) the following string must be placed at the top of the file:

auth sufficient pam_fprint.so

Once pasted, save and close the file.

Step 4: Press Alt-F2, type “fprint_demo” without the quotes and press enter.

This will launch the fingerprint utility that you can use to enroll the finger you wish to use for future authentications.

That’s basically it.  Special notes:

• If you happen to screw something up in the config file by mistake and lock yourself out of your PC by accident, you can boot into Recovery Mode from the GRUB boot menu to access a root command prompt and edit the above config file using nano (nano /etc/pam.d/common-auth).
• Not all login screens are compatible with this feature.
• To test your finger print in fprint_demo, click on the verify tab at the top and use the verify button to compare an enrolled fingerprint to another finger (or the same finger) and you’ll see the difference.

As of Ubuntu 9.04, I’ve noticed the following quirks:

• Often you will not see an on-screen prompt asking you to swipe your finger across the sensor if the system is waiting for it.  Examples include the login screen, running Update Manager or Synaptic Package Manager, and otherwise most other programs that required your password to run them.
• The only actual on-screen requests I’ve seen so far is when you are unlocking a screen-saver, or are running a program with sudo privileges in a terminal window.

What can I say?  I’m leaving the country at some point in the near future,  NIN is on tour, and it’s allegedly going to be the last tour NIN (see Trent Reznor) will be doing from here on out (see “forever”).  Blah blah, NIN’s  music played a great role during my adolescence and I’m not about to pass up an opportunity to go see him perform one last time.  I’ll even admit to shedding a few tears while in Denver in 2001 thinking to myself, “What if this is the last NIN show I’ll ever see?” while he played The Frail on the keyboard.  I don’t know why I thought of that back then, but it was nevertheless something that stuck with me.

No, I don’t have a lot of money.  I would have bought tickets for this show via pre-sale a while back if had I’d know for certain I’d still be here in the states.  The catch about buying pre-sale is that you have to show ID, and the ID must match the name on the pre-sold ticket.  Now the concert is 8 days away and I’m certain I’ll still be around when it happens.  The difference being about $40 perhaps… so what.  For the occasion… well, who knows what I would have spent otherwise.  Like I said, it means a lot to me.

I remember being in 8th grade and not knowing about NIN at all until my best friend Bart showed up with an NIN T-shirt on and subtly keyed me in on the existence of such a band.  Before then I was trying my best to be cool by listening to Van Halen and Aerosmith (thanks for the misdirection, KQRC).  In fact, for a few months, I hadn’t heard a single NIN track until someone let me borrow Pretty Hate Machine for a few hours in between drivers education classes during the summer.  (Those were the days).

From their it spiraled out.  The Downward Spiral was the most intersting and inspired collection of music I had heard from anywhere (with the exception of Tool’s Ænima album).   At the time it seemed like Best Buy had the best supply of regular albums, and Circut City (no longer in business here) had the best supply of import singles.  I had purchased almost every CD put out there, with exception the rarest of imports from Japan which were redundant and overpriced.  There was already plenty of people out there who were ahead of me when it came to being collectors of memorabilia.  In all, I’ve probably purchased about 20 or 25 CDs from NIN, a few of which were duplicate (or triplicate) purchased, do to various lose of older copies I had once owned.  I am quite proud to say that none of the vinyl copies of albums I’ve purchased have needed to be replaced (last I checked, the vinyl copy of The Fragile I have was worth about $300… but I don’t regret opening my own copy).

So what did the tickets cost me?  $180 for a pair.  That’s not bad, considering it’s the second time I’ve paid that much for tickets to an NIN show (the first time was in Denver, and I actually got to meet Rob Sheriden after the show (though the friend I took with me who never paid me a cent got to meet Trent himself which really pissed me off); there’s even a video of me floating around the net of me screaming into the camera, “I love you, Trent!” after the show that NIN posted on their site, and I’m not ashamed to admit it).

Why did I like this music so much when I was younger and up till the present day?  Well… all I can say is that it’s just what I was naturally attracted to.  People who discount it as offensive or weird or strange probably haven’t actually taken the time to give it a glance and that’s their own problem or whatever.  Everybody should be able to enjoy what they want and like on their own terms, in their own space.  NIN, for me, kind of struck a chord because I was the kind of kid who was kind of lonely, but it wasn’t that bad.  I had friends, I wasn’t THAT  lonely, but I still felt like I didn’t fit in.  So, for some odd reason, I seemed to identify with the music Trent Reznor made.  It was abstract, abrasive, aggressive, intriguing, inspiring and sometimes an echo of what I felt back then.  I wouldn’t say that the music of NIN that was out back then is what I would identify with now, and neither would Trent.  He hates being asked questions like, “Why don’t you play “Down In It” on stage any more?”  because it’s something he’s moved away from, and I feel the same way when it comes to identifying with those songs.  My older brother on the other hand, who’s enjoyed NIN since the very beginning has said otherwise, and I would to if I were him.

I’m not sure what else to say about the music.  I don’t really think much should be said.  If you’re still reading this, you can preview his music via many ways (best of which is through www.nin.com itself), but otherwise, that’s about all I have to say.

Hopefully, since my girlfriend is stuck working that night, I’ll be able to steal her phone for the night and try out that new NIN iPhone app.

For the last three or four years my girlfriend has been using a Motorola V360 cell phone… two of them, to be exact.  The first took a nose dive into the bathroom sink while she was doing her makeup one morning before work.  I think the phone willed itself to fall in and die after sustaining an unbelievable amount of physical abuse over the years.  That thing had more divots in it than a golf ball.  Her second V360 actually used to be mine, and I passed it along to her after I got a new phone as part of a contract renewal deal with T-Mobile.  And that phone has been on its last leg for quite some time now; showing cracks, chipped cosmetic paint everywhere and an overused vibrate ringer that is a whisper of its former self.  The time has come again for her to get a new phone.

Her birthday was last Friday and I decided at the last minute to get her a new phone she’d be sure to appreciate.  I had to make my mind up between having her stick with T-Mobile and get her a Google Phone, or go for the gusto and get her an iPhone with her family’s minute plan they have with AT&T.   Her brother and sister both have iPhones and love them and I’ve envied them myself only holding off on getting one for myself because of the long term cost of owning one.  Being a penny pincher, I’d personally opt for a Google Phone with Android Linux running on it so I could save a few dollars every month while feeding my inner nerd; owning a phone that gives you access to a Command Line Interface of all things.  But I felt that in my girlfriends’ case, the best choice would be the iPhone.  It’s just easier to use and looks nicer that any other phone out there.  An added bonus is that her brother and sister already have one, and this relieves me of having to show her how to use the phone to its fullest extent.  I’m proud to say she loves it.

Now I’m keeping myself in the loop with the latest updates regarding the iPhone and I was happy to learn that in about a month or so iPhone’s OS version 3 will be officially released.  And with that release comes several major new features, the most important (in my opinion) being the integration of MMS messaging.  For years we’ve been able to send pictures and video to each other with plain old text messaging.  I was surprised to find out in the introduction of the iPhone, this feature was not built in.  Excuse me for saying this, but it seems pretty lame of Apple to leave something so common out of the feature list.  What’s more sad is owners of the first iPhone still will not get this MMS feature among many others, and will be subsequently be inclined to purchase a new phone just to take advantage of features they rightly deserve.  Considering the amount of money they paid when the iPhone first flew out the door before dropping in price by over 100 dollars in just a few months time, forever being called a “nerd tax”… anyway, I’m glad I didn’t buy into the first generation of the phone.

Bob Church was a father, grandfather, husband, friend, mentor and an avid writer with a strong following of fans. His blog, located at http://not-quite-right-bubba.blogspot.com/ serves as an archive of some of his best writings, numbered in the hundreds. Bob Church died of pancreatic cancer on Wednesday the 29th of April 2009. This video is a slide show of photos of Bob in chronological order taken from various sources. It was directed by the entire Church family and assembled by David Steinlage. If you would like a copy of this video on DVD, along with other videos that were shot at his 61st birthday party, simply email David at dave@davestechsupport.com