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Snow! Snow, glorious snow, white snow, wonderful snow, fluffy snow, snow snow snow! We have snow! *races through the fluffy whiteness and propeller-wags like crazy*

Thanksgiving today was good. Had a walk in the park with the kids, saw Harry Potter 2, which I enjoyed, oddly enough; played a board-game and then stuffed ourselves to the point of “ooomph”

I finished two books in the last few days.

“The Emigrants” (“Die Ausgewanderten” im Original) by W.G. Sebald impressed me with its beautiful prose and its sad yet dreamy and light mood. It is a book about four people, their lives and often deaths, as researched by relations of theirs: Specifically however about memory, memory of Nazi Germany, and the way these four people struggle with this memory, lose it, and regain it to their detriment.

I liked this book so much I am probably going to buy the original and put it on my bookshelf.

And then an old favourite of mine, Robert B. Parker. “Death in Paradise” revisits Parker’s character Jesse Stone, police chief in Paradise, Mass. Jesse is tasked to solve the murder of a teenaged girl, and quickly finds that he cannot even find someone to claim the body. While this case is gripping, and the action and dialogue are good, what I liked best is the typical Parker-esque strugglings of his hero. Jesse, in this case, struggles with alcoholism, and with letting go of his ex-wife. In this regard I like him a lot better than Spenser; Jesse is less “clean-cut”. He will promise things and break his promise; he will threaten the very people he is sworn to protect with death if he thinks it justified.

I like the way the Paradise series is going, and look forward to reading more in that vein.

On the wireless side, I have ordered an Orinoco Gold card for about 50 bucks (well, really a Dell Truemobile 1150 … I hope to be able to flash firmware and will let ya’ll know , and a Belkin USB wireless PA for about 40. The Orinoco really does seem to be the best deal, price-wise. The Belkin I just got because it was cheap. And doesn’t require me to buy a hub and cables, we just network with a crossover right now and this way we can keep on doing that. It doesn’t have “eliminate weak WEP keys” and all those features, so if security is your thing and you have the money, maybe get an Orinoco AP-200 for your Access Point instead.

Oh. My.

Ionotter gave me a code, so now I have a LJ. Yay.

I was told to go rent and watch “Mystery Men”. It’s a spoof on superhero movies, featuring three nerds out to be superheroes, a potential female sidekick called the “PMS Avenger”, and a real superhero who does not fare well at all. Haven’t seen it, but will. Rutledge Dingo makes for a good advisor when it comes to wacky movies. ^.^

I’m pondering the merits of cantennas. Wireless Designs (or maybe they are called Securiflex Networks?) sells these babies on eBay, when you look for “war driving”, at between $50 and $85 a pop. Inside are, I kid you not, cans. What looks like bean cans, actually. Closed at the rear end, near where the connector is, and open the other side. And a bit of a copper rod sticking out of the connector into the can, rod looks like it is 1/4 wavelength. They are described as “yagi” antennas and are, of course not. Cans do not make yagi. “Securiflex Super Yagi patent pending” … it’s a cantenna. You heard it here, folks, though I’m not sure you heard it here first ^.^

But, and here comes the big but: These things actually work. The happy owner used one to pick up an open access point two floors above us in an office building. It was directional enough to pinpoint the signal … point the tube at the ceiling, and sure enough, the signal gets stronger. So now here’s the pondering: Maybe the fat lobes on these babies help in war driving? Maybe you want a cantenna rather than a real bona-fide yagi. Sure, the yagi is directional, and polarized (if true yagi and not the rod-and-washer design ), so it’ll go a longer distance. But, maybe, you don’t want it that directional, and not that polarized, so you can pick up lots of stuff around you.

Which means a cantenna is neat for this application. Maybe. The resident RF geek is building a yagi. We’ll do comparisons.

Still, paying $85 for a cantenna must suck ). And Wireless Designs are still scum for selling a cantenna as a yagi. Smart scum with an idea I wish I had had first, but scum nonetheless ).

Lesson learnt: This stuff is so easy it is scary. Orinoco card for $45, cantenna and pigtail for $85, plus some shipping and handling. Stick it in a laptop, load some freeware, and find 38 open access points downtown in an hour. I’ve read about the threat to business by war driving. It’s one thing to read it, and another to see it in low-cost, so-simple-even-an-AOL-subscriber-can-handle-it action.

Someone recommend a card for me? I am intrigued now and wish to play. Get an Orinoco, or better a D-Link or Linksys?