DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

802.11b, aka WiFi, aka Airport, aka wireless networking, delivers the promise of mobile computing. If you are only online a few minutes a day, to check your email and debris.com (thank you very much), you may not be interested in this. But if you’re online around the clock, whether to work or play, the ability to do this from anywhere in the house, or the coffee shop downtown, expand’s one’s environment in a way that cannot be fully appreciated by anyone not chained to a workstation 8-12 hours per day.

Wireless networking is a hardware geek’s nirvana. Like audio gear, it’s all about the numbers: milliwatts of amplifier power, decibel gain of antenna, distance from access point.

Most consumers needn’t worry about any of this. Macintosh users, especially, have an easy time because Apple’s Airport is a tightly-integrated, minimal-configuration WiFi system.

But 802.11b has other uses, such as providing wireless broadband access in remote areas, where DSL and cable-broadband are not available. The local wireless-networking group has created a handful of public access points, providing inexpensive DSL-equivalent bandwidth to anyone with line-of-sight (that is, to anyone who can “see” one of the group’s antennas). The basic methodology for determining whether one can see the network is to walk around one’s property with a laptop configured to sniff out available networks.

In performing such a survey, maximizing sensitivity to any present radio signals is crucial. To maximize sensitivity, the group uses high-power 802.11b radio cards and high-gain antennas. At the moment, the highest-power radio cards are the 200 mW Senao EnGenius NL-2511CD Plus EXT2, which have connectors for external antennas. The best antennas for surveying are directional; the most common one used here is the 24 dBi parabolic grid.

I am attempting to create a Mac-based (OS X) survey kit. I’ve purchased a Senao EnGenius card and matching pigtail. I’ve built a low-cost cantenna. But I’ve hit a wall: although the free, GPL’d WirelessDriver supports basic 802.11b connectivity using the Senao card under MacOS X, network scanning is not supported.

The WirelessDriver for OS X will no doubt support network scanning at some point. But the dates in the CVS archive seem to indicate that the project has stalled; the most recent code check-in was four months ago.

At MacWorld Expo I discovered another possibility: the folks at macwireless.com have created a driver for Prism-based 802.11b cards, such as the Senao EnGenius line. The driver supports network scanning. But it’s not commercially available yet. If you would be a customer for this product, please contact macwireless.com to encourage them to focus their efforts on this.

Either of these would provide my hardware with the ability to scan for networks. I’d still need scanning software. There are two NetStumbler-like scanners for OS X: iStumbler and MacStumbler. At the moment, neither supports 3rd-party radio cards. But I believe both authors would quickly incorporate support for scanning, once the underlying driver offered the capability.

A third scanner, KisMAC, appears to include its own Prism-compatible driver software, but in my experiments it was too unstable for real-world use.

Die-hards who want to scan their neighborhoods right away could instead attach an external antenna to the Airport card built into their laptops. This is too much work for too little payoff in my case, but I mention it here for the people more desperate than me.

I wrote about HomeData Corp recently — they’re the folks responsible for the flood of junk-mail (especially catalogs) you receive after purchasing a home.

I have established contact with someone there who can remove victims from the HomeData mailing list. I won’t publish her email address; I have more respect for her privacy than her employer has for mine. If you want the address, email me — or just call HomeData at 800-628-9456 and ask to opt out.

Realtors, take note: you could provide your clients with a service they’ll truly appreciate, if you give them this piece of information at close of escrow.

The SUV/terrorism debate continues. The Chronicle reports on reactions to the ad campaign: Gas-hogging SUVs aid terrorism, new TV ads say / Columnist Huffington starts campaign

Still more news from the front lines in Huffington’s recent column, How Corporate Greed And Political Corruption Paved The Way For The SUV Explosion (thanks to Bim for the link)

SUVs: you either own one, or you hate them. To anyone who has no opinion, I extend an invitation to sprout a backbone. Take a stand! It’s good for your circulation, or pancreas. One of those.

I am personally against SUVs for these reasons: they are the least fuel-efficient vehicles on the road, and therefore responsible for a disproportionately large percentage of the pollution and environmental toxins generated by automobiles; therefore these vehicles are poisoning me. They purport to be safe, but in fact are less safe in some respects (e.g. single-vehicle rollovers) than standard passenger vehicles; therefore they represent a victory of marketing over common sense, which always gets me down. They’re difficult to see around on the road, making driving less safe for others. They sit higher than passenger cars, which reduces the surviveability of collisions for anyone in a regular car who hits an SUV. (While in general I’m not against allowing citizens with means to fortify their environments against perceived risks, I do not condone any such measures at the expense of the neighbors’ safety. So, go ahead, build a bomb shelter if it makes you feel better, but don’t install an electric perimeter fence on my property line, where my family might bump into it.)

In America, automobiles are used for much more than personal transportation. Big cars are practical in some cases, and required in others. Moreover, American society embraces the right of its members to express their individuality by purchasing fancy cars.

But it seems unusual for society to accept such a destructive expression of individuality. I can think of a few examples of self-destructive behaviors that are legal but restricted — restricted specifically to not endanger people in the vicinity of the person who has decided to risk his or her health or safety in pursuit of individual expression. One: drinking is legal, but drunk driving is not. Two: smoking is legal, but (in California) not in any public area. I think SUV driving should be treated the same as alcohol and cigarettes: legal but restricted. Maybe that will be a new business model for when the oil executives leave the White House… offroad parks where citizens can safely exercise their rights to drive big-ass trucks without endangering the rest of the population.

The inspiration for today’s rant was this story in the Chronicle: New TV commercials link gas-guzzling SUVs to terrorism funding. The ads were created by the Detroit Project, aka http://www.americansforfuelefficientcars.org/, whose website currently contains the two commercials in question.

I’ve just watched them. They’re not brilliant. I guess I should not have expected too much from the creative team whose mighty grasp of form-over-function saddled us with “Got Milk?” Still, I like the concept, eloquently summarized by Arianna Huffington in her introduction: “Why not turn the tables and adopt the same tactics the administration was using in the drug war to point out the much more credible link between driving SUVs and our national security?”

Billed as “moderately strenuous,” the hike to the Upper Emerald Pool contained the most difficult few feet of trail I encountered all week: a five-foot stretch of ice on a mild incline. Theoretically I could cross it in two steps, but every time I’d lift one foot the other would slide backwards, and I’d flap my arms and twist around in a spastic attempt to keep my weight centered above at least one leg.

The vistas were remarkable; my photos didn’t capture the majesty. Here is the view of Red Arch Mountain (or, possibly, the Great White Throne).

The trail leads to several pools and waterfalls, most of which were frozen. I’d like to return here on a warmer, sunnier day.

Another neat image: a ledge of rock hanging over a long fall. Remember the stick figure!

The cold weather presented this interesting juxtaposition: snow on a cactus.