There are a lot of access points out on the market, and I have tried quite a few, been through 2 Netgear, 2 Linksys, 1 Belkin, and 3 D-Link. Out of all them I would avoid Belkin, probably the worst out of all the products, was horrible out of the box, worse support and I would avoid all their products period. Linksys are good but not what it used to be, I still prefer the older models then the new consumer models. Netgear is nice when its working but after a while it would hang, I would have to plug it and unplug it, and one of them just stopped working. Overall the best solid products with little nonsense and high features are D-Link products.

Models

• D-Link DAP 1160
• D-Link 2100 AP
• D-Link 7100 AP

What I like out of them is full security features, MAC Filter, DHCP control, simple setup, and reasonably priced.

I have tried a lot of shipping companies and very few have been as consistent as MyUS with all my products and taking care of the shipments. The best part of MyUS is consolidating all your items into one big heavy box and so the shipment comes out to be cheaper then expected. What I really like about them is that they pay attention to the details, they send you an email with all the items that they recieved and when they consolidate the items they either keep the invoices together in the box and list the accumulated value which makes it easier for customs. They ship through three options, UPS, FedEx and DHL, and usually Fed Ex has the cheaper charges and they are very consistent in their shipments always 3 to 4 days from the moment it hits their mailbox. For small items that I don’t care how long they take I send it over to Aramex since it cheaper but it takes an average of a week to ten days, another decent service is UShopWeShip from what I heard, but the nightmare I just heard about is DHL since they changed their pricing structure without notification from Mark’s post. Overall MyUS has been consistent and they are very accomodating, and I’m going to stick to them even though they are a bit more expensive in the small items, but what I do is try to order a few items together for a heavier weight one shot and then shipping them, it has worked out to be cheaper then Aramex. Whenever I ordered a model or a large computer part Aramex would charge me an arm and a leg but with MyUS its within reason.

Link: MyUS

This is an interesting yet simple concept, a website that has your four most important destinations as its main page. Cookies have to be enabled for this work, you can customize the list of websites from available and you can suggest a popular website to them but I’m not sure how long that would take to get done. Overall I really like how clean it is, surprisingly Bing & Google Search aren’t on the list but they plan on integrating it into the main page as searchable area, I think that would complete it.

Its a great start to the idea and cleanly implemented, the next step would be to let people customize their own links with their own logos, then at that point it wouldn’t just be cookie based, there would be users with their own load up page. The trick would to have full customization and still keep it that smooth.

Link: Fav4.Org

The simple way to explain Google Buzz is that its a feed of what your doing online, initially its all Google Related sites which is an automatic feature. Whats surprising is how Google launched this so silently with no buzz, contrary to its name. But it can be really interesting connecting all people on your list and friends list together, and following the activity of more people. Its getting a bit jumbled with Google Reader as its automatically following more people, and sometimes keeps adding them back in so Buzz is being integrated across all Google Platforms.

To Modify what your sharing go to the Buzz Page under your inbox in Gmail, right there click on view connected site to change which sites will show on your Google Buzz as well as how they are shared. You can even add individual websites so the website activity shows up on your Google Buzz. What you do want to do is stop other people who don’t know the people on your list from viewing them, its as if you are showing the world your contacts, that is a bad automated feature from Google. These steps are provided by Lifehacker but here is the simple breakdown:

Go to your Google Profile: Then click the link labeled “Edit Profile” and on that page just follow the steps below.

UnCheck: “Display the list of people I’m following and people following me”

What I Dont like:

• Automatically shows who is following you and who you are following
• Your Google Chat conversations are put up for all to see as well as other data automatically
• It isn’t intuitive in how to unshare certain features
• Slightly intrudes in your privacy if you don’t know how to control it

What I like:

• It sort of pools all your activity into one window for friends to see, from Google Reader, Flickr, Twitter, Individual Websites
• Friends can comment on your activity and your details are kept within the Buzz page
• For once Google introduced a new item which integrates across all their platform
• You can really customize the details that are presented but all these details aren’t on one page

You can click on individual people to remove them from following you or you following them, and in the grey notes just under that button it will say they won’t know that you did it. Or you can it turn off Buzz completely, its all about how comfortable you are sharing this kind of information. Google is pushing into the realm of Facebook and other types of social networking but not just communication, its based on your content and what your doing, people can see and comment as well as you can comment on what there doing.

Overall I like it because its connecting friends on a different level and I’m enjoying it.

QualityNet

I have upgraded my DSL account with qualitynet to the MAX Dsl package, which ranges from 5 to 24 MB. Basically it goes to the maximum capacity of your line and I am very happy with this package. Especially that the prices have dropped drastically over the years and Qualitynet leading the pack with the price drop.

Qualitynet does have its issues but their service is solid with me, and it seems if they don’t have any MOC issues then the connection works perfectly. When there is an MOC issue you are out of luck and most the time it won’t be resolved and you are stuck with what you have, the problem is that once that happens you have already paid for your connection and are stuck with it. But in my case these lines seem to be solid for now, sometimes the MOC does mess things up.

As of right now my download speeds are ranging from 1090 KB/s to 1210 KB/s which is fantastic compared to my previous connection. This connection have been consistently stable, and it has reduced my download time of large files by 20%.

Kems

My Kems connection was upgraded to the maximum possible speed of the line which is around 7MB, and at this speed I’m downloading from 780 KB/s to 920 KB/s. Kems has the best technical support I have seen from any ISP, the guy on the other side of the phone knows what he is talking about and can help solve the question or give you a realistic answer which helps not to frustrate you more when there is a problem.

After making the payment I get an sms two days later stating that my service has been upgraded and it is now active which went very smoothly. In this case it was 40% more expensive then the Qualitynet connection but this is the maximum capability of the this current line. Oddly enough I bought this line over two years ago and its of lower quality then the line we have had for 30 years and can support much higher speeds. Between the two ISPs Kems seems to have a better consistent upload speed, and this has been my experience with it.

Torrents:

• Demonoid
• BTJunkie
• isoHunt
• KickAssTorrents

I received a message on my Google Nexus One for update, I wasn’t sure what it was but I was too sleepy to think about it and just accepted it. I installed and restarted, right after I didn’t think much about it, I was reading an article on BBC then I was trying to move to things and the screen zoomed in when I realized they updated the multi-touch capability which is a very important feature to have but I was too lazy to root it or install a program for it. The update came from Google which fixes 3G issues as well as the multi-touch feature, a quick roll out for this service. Overall I am enjoying the Nexus One and all its capabilities, its interesting comparing it with the Blackberry which I will at a later point.

Thanks to UpTill1 I manage to see the pricing before heading over to InfoConnect to renew my internet service. Its the best time and best pricing, I have two connections at home, Qnet and Kems, I am happy with both ISPs and Kems still ranks #1 for customer support and resolving issues. I paid 720 KD to Qnet for a 7 MB connection and 299 KD for a 2MB connection for a Kems connection, but not it seems the price have been really reduced, its also due to them optimizing their networks.

ISP Ranking:

• Kems – Best Support
• Qnet – Best Pricing
• Fastelco – Best Improvement overall this year
• Gulfnet – Don’t even bother with them, the worst service possible

I have gone ahead with the Max DSL package from Qnet which ranges from 5MB to 24MB, the stipulation is that it will go to the maximum of line not reduced whenever they feel like it as I have 7MB currently and want faster. Its really worth it for 420 KD and my line supports 11MB so it will be a significant improvement, this increase is supposed to take place by Monday at the maximum so I will test it then.

Now for Kems I have a 2MB connection and I want to upgrade since their prices are very reasonable right now, for 399 KD I can have 4MB or for 599 KD I can have 8 MB. The combination of these two networks would be very much a reality with the ftp downloads at full throttle. I have managed to use each one for a purpose but the packages are enticing.

This is so true, everything Charlie says about how they report the news is very generic. They usually have diagrams or certain scenes or the way they present the information, but its fantastic how he has picked them apart and how some can be very useless.