Speaking of wi-fi...

If you happen to be using OS X, eventually you'll wonder why in the hell you can't observe the SNR, RSSI, or channel of any access points, connected or otherwise. What's more, if you're familiar with iwconfig under GNU/Linux, you'll probably want something that works from a terminal session. Well, it turns out that just such a tool has already been provided; it just takes a fair amount of searching and a small amount of setup to start using it.

Wi-Fi and Chai

Free wi-fi and a cup of vanilla chai make up a favorite combination of mine. Though I hold no particular allegiance to any one, local cafè, I do tend to spend most of my time at Aroma. I think that has a great deal to do with my old friend, Brian, who left the area a couple years back to pursue his dream of breaking into the professional CG industry (e.g. Pixar). He used to spend a great deal of his time here (I'm in Aroma, now), laboring over his latest creation. Well, to make a long story short, I guess his fondness for the place rubbed off on me, and--well--here I am.

Silence Is Golden

When I first inherited my new MacBook--and I am forever grateful, might I add--it came with some very nasty fan noise. It turns out that some Geek Squad reject took something blunt and heavy to the top of the keyboard and smashed the underlying metal into the fan. Luckily, a quick stop by the Apple shop on campus and a few days away on a camping trip cured all of my fan woes--and at no cost to me, at that.

Now, it's quiet as can be: no more propping one corner up with a guitar pick or shuffling papers on my desk, a la Jenga. It truly is a beautiful thing.

Ssshh... Can you hear that?

...I didn't think so.

An aside

By the by, if you need a multi-protocol IM client for OS X, Adium is very sexy. I just have to keep staring at it, hoping wistfully that someone will find their way online and message me. I feel compelled to type things in it and watch it post messages for purely aesthetic reasons. Seriously, it looks great.

DynaMIPS + GNS3

I'm currently studying for my CCNA. I had put it on hold for some time, but recently decided that I was tired of not having it, despite my experience in the area. Having heard about the Cisco router emulator, DynaMIPS, from a couple of my coworkers, I decided it was time to give it a spin. After all, my two 2600 series routers are fine for setting up routing protocols, but if you want a real topology--specifically, a mesh--then you need a minimum of three routers, and more is better if you're practicing redistributing routes.