WiFi

I've Been Busy

in ,
Among other things, installing Linux on my new Windows XP pre-loaded Dell Inspiron 5100 notebook - and I managed it without nuking the XP install - actually I'm quite impressed with myself after resizing a live Win XP partition on my disk, installing Red Hat 8.0 on the resized balance of my HD after the resize operation and everything still seems to be working.

Apart from the following - I have a mini-PC WIFI card in my notebook which linux is recognising fine, it's just that it won't activate due to some shenanigans I don't understand in the vicinity of DHCP, apparently it can't obtain something from the other PC it's trying to connect to - which is running Windows XP with an internet connection that it shares perfectly well when I'm running WinXP on the notebook / WIFI config - like as I'm blogging this right now - I'd love to set up linux on the notebook to be able to access the web in the same way? I've tried the Dell forums but not a great deal of helpful information there.
1 x Windows XP box with a modem dial-up connection, WIFI USB Adapter
1 x Red Hat 8.0 notebook with an Orinoco mini-PCI WIFI card
Any pointers gratefully appreciated.

Wireless In Seattle

in , ,

I got power! Sitting in a WIFI Starbucks having breakfast and catching up. So, I've decided that we Euros now do the American thing better than the Americans do it. There are so many things we have in the UK now that previously were USA only, that I think we do better. Like?

Salted AND sweet popcorn at the movie concessions, the little sauce tubs in McDonalds here are paper serve-yourself versions, in the UK you get the hygienically plastic sealed variety, we got Starbucks, we got Baby Gap, cheap good DVD's, great cellphone directory services, dare I say it better TV (quantity, content, fidelity and aesthetic) judging on what I've seen in the hotels here, our SUV's are better e.g. Land Rover, Merc, BMW & Porsche, having said that I WANT a Dodge RAM - is that the ultimate symbol of repressed manhood or what?, no turning on a stop signal - too dangerous and confusing, from what I can gather at least as cheap if not quite as far-spread and fast yet broadband. And US audiences laugh much more openly in cinemas, e.g. watched Matrix Reloaded last night and where UK audiences may have chirped or quietly chuckled at explicit humour in the movie, the US audience laughed at virtually everything that wasn't dead-pan serious, a phenomenon that was particularly disconcerting and eventually annoying, for me a least.

I really do think that I wouldn't have been saying this 10 years ago. I think us Euro's have actually nailed it, a fine blend of American culture with our own disparate cultures mixed in. Y'all be sure'n have a nice day, y'all.