WhackArnolds – Technology, Politics, Pop Culture, Life commentary delivered hot and fresh!

I was planning on starting this post off nicely and without vitriol, but I don’t think that is going to be possible.  I currently own a Linksys WRT54GS2 router and thought I was going to be happy with it, but now I am disgusted with Linksys altogether.  Here is the story behind my new boycott for Linksys and all of their products.

Since I started working with home networking, I have used Linksys for my routers.  The main reason for this was because of brand recognition and some reviews I have read about their products.  I had a Linksys WRT54 for a very long time, but I had to get rid of it when WEP got hacked.  I have told countless friends to purchase Linksys products as well, and I never had a problem with doing so either.  That was, of course, until I purchased the WRT54GS2 router.

I came home and installed the router like any other and thought I was fine.  I got on my PC and Mac, which are wired, and everything was super fast as expected.  Then I decided to try setting up a WPA AES wireless environment.  That was when I realized that my connection speeds were ridiculously slow.  Not only were my wireless speeds slow, I was also having problems on the desktop machines.  They were now running slow and at first I thought it was because of my ISP throttling me.

After tons of investigation and speed tests, including DNS speed comparisons, trojan checks, and checks for network compromises I realized that the speeds were fine if the laptops were not actively sending outside data packets.  That was when I thought it was a bug in the implementation of WPA2 on the router.  I reset the router to a factory clean shine and still had the same problems.  My final conclusion is that Linksys has hosed the wireless interface for this router version.

I have been online for days now and I have seen countless people baffled as to why their speeds were so slow.  I had no other option but to write a blog post and hope that others find and read it.  I have vowed to never again purchase a Linksys router, or any other Linksys product.  I am going to go out tomorrow and purchase a Netgear router and say farewell to Linksys for good.  Additionally, I will be informing everyone that I come in contact with, and who asks me for advice, to never buy Linksys products.

I have installed firmware updates, disabled IPv6, shut down IP Helper services, turned off windows tuning protocols, and tested packets using wireshark.  After all this I have to say that the Linksys WRT54GS2 is crap and I can’t trust any other Linksys routers.   Buy Linksys products at your own risk.

1. Stormy Daniels is still running for office!
2. GOP health plan covers abortions
   http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29456.html
3. Josh Duhamel gets pwned by stripper
   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/12/stripper-nicole-forrester_n_355519.html
4. Overdraft fees require customer consent
   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/12/overdraft-fees-require-cu_n_355442.html
5. Government people and their look-alikes
   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/12/separated-at-birth-10-pol_n_354188.html
6. Hannity apologizes for fake footage
   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/12/hannity-jon-stewart-was-r_n_354887.html
7. Orly Taitz gets pwned by the people she paid to lie.
   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/12/birther-lawsuit-witnesses_n_355550.html
8. South Park goes after Glenn Beck
   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/12/south-park-takes-on-glenn_n_355570.html
9. Carrie Prejean goes on Larry King and effectively kills her book while looking like a moron
   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/12/carrie-prejean-threatens_n_354891.html
10. Freecreditreport.com is sheisty
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/13/spokesjerk-revolution-fai_n_357300.html
11. Stripper mobile
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/13/deja-vu-showgirls-strippe_n_357718.html
12. Hit The Bitch’ Anti-Violence PSA Stirs Controversy  – Made by a Danish advocacy group as a web campaign (www.hitthebitch.dk), the site allows you to use your computer’s mouse to move a gigantic hand so that it repeatedly strikes a female model in the face. The site then rates each hit on a scale beginning at “100% pussy” and ending at “100% gangsta.” As you hit the woman her face begins to show bruises, and once enough blows are struck and the user reaches “100% gangsta,” the woman falls down and the phrase “100% IDIOT!” appears on the screen. It then shows her sobbing and grabbing her neck in agony on the floor. The spot’s message about violence is then presented in Danish while mournful music plays in the background.
13. Rebecca Meyer from the Biggest Loser
14. Police: Facebook site may have led to beating of 12-year-old [Soluth Park reference to "Ginger Kids"]
15. Tiger getting beat up by his wife, do you believe it? [EDIT: Tiger was allegedy cheating with this chick from Tool Academy before his recent jumpoff with Rachel Uchitel] [Addl EDIT: A third woman is named??]

Steve Jobs, the greatest of all time, once asked, “Who would want to watch video on their phone/mp3 player?”  This was one of the classic, ‘no one wants it until we have it ready for release’ approaches that Apple uses all the time.  It’s pretty stupid, especially when the tech media eat it up and go nuts about how ridiculous it sounds.  Well, I am curious about why people would buy music from iTunes.  I just don’t get it, it doesn’t seem like it would be worth the time to do it.  Let’s look at some of the pros of using iTunes.

1. First off, the system is pretty sound and it’s designed to milk you of your cash in small increments.  It’s so easy to use, find music and click buy…bam there’s your music.
2. The software works perfectly with your iPhone or iPod.  What’s better it automatically syncs your music across to the devices.
3. You are already used to the interface and have no interest in changing because change is scary and scary things are too scary.

Ok, there you go three things that are keeping you from broadening your horizons.  I couldn’t think of anything more than those, if you do feel free to comment and let me know.  iTunes works well and works with your devices, but what about listening to stuff you don’t want to buy?  I guess you could use Pandora, Last.fm, Rhapsody, or you could use MySpace music.  These are great, but they aren’t all that great when you look at them.

Pandora was the greatest thing since sliced bread, heck I use it from time to time and I am listening to it on my iPhone right now!  Last.fm is like Pandora for kindergartners, so that isn’t worth the time.  Rhapsody, is pretty good in that you can listen to whatever you want, but once you end your subscription you are up shit’s creek and that just stinks.  MySpace music is, well, MySpace.  If you enjoy poisoned ads that will infect your PC, then go ahead with that noise.  So, what’s left?  Zune and Spotify of course!

Just so you know, I am by no means into getting my knees dirty for Microsoft but every now and again they do something not dumb.  The new Zune is quite a beautiful piece of hardware, on top of that it is part of the Zune store which is simply sick!    Picture this, being able to download whatever you want and listen to it on your device and get ten songs per month that you can keep forever?  That would be awesome, and I can hear you Apple fanboys hoping now, “Maybe Apple will give that to us in a couple years and I can massage Steve Jobs’ sack”.  Well, this is a Microsoft thing.  Zune Pass gives you this deal and I think this is how music should be distributed.  If you don’t have a Zune, you should think about getting one, unless of course Apple pulls the douche out of their butts and goes to a subscription model.  Who knows, apparently pigs do fly so Jobs could get some cool back.

What about Spotify?  Well, Spotify is basically a Zune Pass, but without the downloading thing.  Spotify is an internet streaming site much like Rhapsody, however you only stream the music and it’s fricken free.  I think this service, once it comes to the US and is legit will change things a lot.  I just hope that the record execs don’t decide to prove that they’re inadequate as they usually do these days.

I am interested in the news about Hulu charging for content.  Why would I be intrigued about something so lame?  Well, truth be told, big media companies need to come to the conclusion that no one wants to pay more to watch a television show.  That’s right, all these programs are on tv for free over the air or on cable.  With the prices that people already pay for cable television and the seemingly endless amount of stupid channels, it’s not hard to believe that no one wants to pay another subscription online.  I know for a fact that this guy won’t be paying to watch Hulu.  I’d rather spend some money on converting my PC to a DVR or buy a Tivo.

The only real reason I go to Hulu is because the show is online with fewer advertisements and usually the commercials that they do run are better.  The sad part about this whole move is that Hulu will probably make some good money, even with their traffic greatly reduced.  When I used the site I would Like/Dislike the commercials, and I know I am in the minority there!  I wish them luck on this change, but not really.  I hope they fail royally and all these stupid companies can open up their minds and get creative.

I think there is going to be a significantly uptick in piracy the moment Hulu starts to charge.  I expect to see more shows getting put up on Vimeo, YouTube, and sites like that.  BitTorrent is going to start rocking even more than it is now.  I would love to have a sit down with some of these suits that think they have the internet solved.  I bet they have their MBA degrees on the wall in nice frames.  What a bunch of idiots you guys are.