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Are There Wi-Fi Alternatives To 2.4GHz?
Adobe Flash Player 10.2 (Finally) Allows Uninterrupted Full-Screen On 2nd Monitor
Periodic Table Of Google API’s

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 03:30 AM PST

For the vast majority of people that use wireless connectivity, everything they do with datastreams is carried over the 2.4GHz band.

"Why not 900MHz? Isn’t that just as good?"

900MHz wi-fi is a bad idea because the band is only 13MHz wide while 2.4GHz is 83.5MHz wide. If you were to connect your wifi datastream using the 900MHz band, your stream would be ridiculously slow, as in around 1.5Mbit/sec slow while 2.4GHz can easily go up to 100Mbit/sec or more; this is why no vendors make consumer devices that utilize the 900MHz band.

As a side note, many wireless audio devices (like wireless headphones) to this day still use 900MHz because the band can handle an audio stream easily, but for data it’s a no-go unless you like life in the very-slow lane.

Wireless N @ 5GHz?

Wireless N can use 5GHz, however in order for it to work a very specific set of conditions have to be in place. Firstly, there’s ‘N’ and ‘Draft N’ concerning the connecting computer’s wi-fi card. The drafts are the ones to watch out for because some of them do not allow ‘complete’ connectivity on N. Secondly, the wi-fi router must be in ‘N-only’ mode and not share N and G, because when you do, you’re ‘downgraded’ to 2.4GHz since G doesn’t operate on 2.4GHz.

Said in simpler terms: The connecting computer’s wi-fi card must be fully-supported N, meaning it can support channels operating at 40MHz instead of the usual 20MHz; the router must be operating only in N mode so you have absolute confirmation it is using 5GHz and not 2.4GHz.

You can further confirm you are connecting @ 5GHz by using a utility like inSSIDer, which states up front what band you’re using along with a lot of other helpful information.

What about 802.16?

This is commonly known under the name "WiMAX", and is in general use on mobile networks. A well-written FAQ on how WiMAX works is here.

As for what bands WiMAX uses, it ranges from 2GHz to 66GHz. In the US, 5.8GHz is the band most used.

The question however is: Can you use your own ‘personal’ WiMAX at home?

Yes and no.

A search for WiMAX on Newegg shows there’s plenty of products you can buy that will utilize the technology, but as far as any technology you could personally use outside of a mobile network, probably not.

Your best bet to escape the shackles of 2.4GHz is Wireless N @ 5GHz.

"I like the idea of Wireless N @ 5GHz but I don’t want to lose my existing 2.4GHz G router."

You don’t have to as it’s possible to simply ‘piggyback’ the N router from the G router. Connect the WAN port of your N router to an available port on the G router via wire. The N router then acquires an address from G and it’s ready-to-go. Any devices that need 2.4GHz G connectivity can still connect to the older router, and for others needing 5GHz N connect to the N router.

"So.. I have to run both routers at the same time?"

Yes. Piggybacking an N router from a G router is the most cost-effective way to go about it. There are other wi-fi routers available that can broadcast both 2.4GHz and 5GHz at the same time, but at present they’re too costly to justify the purchase when all you probably want is to connect one laptop via N to overcome 2.4GHz band interference limitations. Furthermore you’re probably not really sure whether 5GHz is actually going to solve band interference issues, so it’s best not to sink too much cash into an unknown until it’s proven itself better or worse.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Are There Wi-Fi Alternatives To 2.4GHz?

Adobe Flash Player 10.2 (Finally) Allows Uninterrupted Full-Screen On 2nd Monitor

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 03:00 AM PST

I have two monitors in my desktop setup. Our illustrious leader, Dave, has 4 (yes, really). One of the absolutely mind-numbingly irritating things about Flash is that in a multi-monitor setup, if you set Flash to full screen on one, then click anywhere on another monitor, it auto-sizes back to regular size. For some time now people have been using hacked DLL’s in Windows to defeat this annoyance.

Flash Player 10.2 finally after all the time now allows uninterrupted full-screen on your secondary monitor and it stays that way while you work on your primary screen.

Sometimes Adobe does get things right, and they finally did with Flash Player 10.2.

Grab your copy of 10.2 here: http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Adobe Flash Player 10.2 (Finally) Allows Uninterrupted Full-Screen On 2nd Monitor

Periodic Table Of Google API’s

Posted: 09 Feb 2011 06:00 AM PST

It isn’t news to anyone here that Google has a lot of products and services it offers. But while most people only really know about their end user products (i.e. search, Adwords, Chrome, Analytics, etc.), Google also features loads of API’s (application programming interfaces) which developers can use to incorporate Google technology into their products. Just to get an idea of what is available, Google has put together their available API’s in a Periodic Table format.

You don’t have to be a developer to appreciate this as it is well thought out and put together. There are a lot of API’s here that I checked out just out of curiosity for what it is (i.e. Google Moderator, Social Graph, BigQuery, etc.) so taking a look for a few minutes is well worth it just to see what some of these are.

Developers will definitely want to bookmark this as there is probably something here you may be able to use in the future.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Periodic Table Of Google API’s