Answers
A Visit to the Apple Store
marc:
I’ll be interested see reviews of the new Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station. (The Apple Store Short Pump doesn’t have any yet.) Apple claims:
Improvements in antenna design give you up to 50 percent better Wi-Fi performance and up to 25 percent better range than with the previous-generation AirPort Extreme Base Station.I’m not geeky enough to understand all the technology behind Wi-Fi. We have the dual-antenna AirPort Extreme Base Station that was the current model until this new one was announced. It’s very peppy for both LAN and and Internet stuff. I have a hard time understanding how the new device gets 50 percent better performance on the same 802.11n standard. If that’s true, wow. I know it has something to do with triple antennas (antennae?), but I still don’t really get it. Maybe my geekier friends will explain.
The big difference is that it has three antennas and radios instead of two, and (like the two-antenna version) can use them all simultaneously.
WiFi has 14 “channels” that APs can broadcast on, but it’s more like 14 different sliding-windows over a three-channel-wide space — there’s only enough space in the band for three channels (1, 7, and 14) without any overlapping. Usually, overlapping another channel isn’t a problem, but the interference and radio congestion does reduce performance and speed.
Triple-radio APs can effectively broadcast simultaneously over the entire block of WiFi frequencies in parallel. Not only does this increase potential throughput, but it increases the likelihood that client devices at long ranges will be able to pick up at least one of the signals. It’s great if you’re the only one using WiFi in the area. It’s not so great otherwise.
This is a test
Tumblr appears to be stripping my Markdown headings of their HTML tags in the Dashboard. Why? I don’t know.
It always has. The Dashboard only allows a subset of tags to maintain security and consistent appearance. Currently it’s:
a, b, em, br, br, p, strong, i, ul, ol, li,
blockquote, del, strike, code, pre, sub, sup
Tags are occasionally added to the list and styled appropriately in the Dashboard. Maybe the H-tags should be there.
Paper Towel Dispenser, Bathroom, Clif Dogs
If you meant Crif Dogs, I put that there, and it was one of the first Tumblr stickers.
Windows 7 showed up, so of course I had to do an unboxing.
I’m amused that your unboxing didn’t involve actually removing the product from its box, presumably because opening Microsoft’s new boxes is unintuitive and needlessly nonstandard in their effort to be flashy and innovative.
So I have a job interview on Monday. I’ve been in touch with the woman who contacted me to discuss details a few times in the past 24 hours. In the last email she sent me she addressed me as Stacy. In the empowering words of The Ting Tings, THAT’S NOT MY NAME.
GREAT. SEE YOU ON MONDAY XOX STACY
Maybe she works at Starbucks, Aimee.
Curse you, Apple Store, for believing that I’m smart enough to know that the Apple TV doesn’t come with an HDMI cable.
Don’t buy retail. You’ll pay out the ass. Instead, go here, scroll to the big “28AWG HDMI 1.3a Category 2 Certified Male to Male Cables” section near the bottom, and pick your desired length or color. Here’s a basic 5-foot black one for $3.40. Expect shipping to cost about $3.
The same thing in Best Buy starts at $30.
-Mrs. Butterworth
Sometimes, the most innocent intentions fail hilariously.
RIP my Xbox 360. November 22, 2005 - September 24, 2009.
It was only a matter of time, I guess…
Is that the HD-DVD drive on top? You got screwed twice… sorry man.
Double the price for an extra 3 inches. There must be something about 30” panels that makes them significantly more expensive to produce and it sucks.
Three things:
- They differ significantly in resolution. 27” monitors are usually 1920x1200, the same as 24” models. 30” monitors are 2560x1600.
- Very few manufacturers make the 30” panels. (I think it’s just one, actually.) Dell, Apple, etc. just put their shells and electronics around them.
- Very few people buy 30” monitors. There’s just not a lot of demand. So economies of scale can’t happen.
