Eye candy as it is, Ubuntu+Beryl on my Acer TravelMate 2482NWXMi didn’t allow a resolution change higher than 1024×768. The problem is solved with the 915resolution package. So, if you have the same problem I was facing, just install the package, restart your X server and voilà: 1280×800.

Search for the package:

marius@OliveJuice:~$ sudo aptitude update

marius@OliveJuice:~$ sudo aptitude upgrade

marius@OliveJuice:~$ aptitude search 915resolution
p 915resolution - resolution modification tool for Intel graphic chipset

Install the package:

marius@OliveJuice:~$ sudo aptitude install 915resolution

And now restart your X server by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Backspace on your keyboard, or just reboot Ubuntu. After restarting X, or reboting, go to System > Preferences > Screen Resolution, and select 1280×800.

My second problem today with my lappy, was that I tried watching a movie and couldn’t do it without plugging in my headphones since my laptop speakers wouldn’t work. Everything was fine with a jack plugged in, but the speakers just didn’t want to work, so I did a little bit of digging. First off, let’s see our sound cards:

marius@OliveJuice:~$ lspci | grep Audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)

If this matches, you should be on the right path, by following up here. I found on the Ubuntu Bug tracker bug number #94373. Long story told short, I read there, modified 1 file, and voilà: I have sound on the laptop speakers.

root@OliveJuice:~# echo "options snd-hda-intel model=auto" >> /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
root@OliveJuice:~ # rmmod snd-hda-intel
root@OliveJuice:~# modprobe snd-hda-intel

The important thing here, is the first command, the echo redirected to the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base file. It adds the snd_hda_intel model=auto. The rmmod command might say that the module is in use, and cannot be unloaded, but that’s hardly a problem. Just reboot, and your speakers should work. Mine sure did.

Now, that was easy wasn’t it? tweak here, tweak there, and thanks to the Open Source community out there, amost everything can be fixed in a matter of minutes if someone already had that problem, or in a matter of days, if this is a new bug. Developers are always ready to help out.

Last night Alexandra wanted a song so much, that I decided to look for it. It’s “Lissie – Bright Side“. The reason for this was this commercial: http://youtube.com/watch?v=4Reb_l8Zw-U or, the second version: http://youtube.com/watch?v=U1ZHk-NZWLw
Gotta wrap it up now, since my Whisher Beta Tester invite mail just popped into my inbox, and I was looking forward to that since yesterday.

Tha! Tha! and don’t forget, Wireless is FUN! ;-)

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Whisher decided to go back to the drawing board soon after the release of their first WiFi sharing a while back. That development cycle is now over so the Ferran, Mike and their dev. teams invite you to participate in a beta program.
To join in you have to -
+ be knowledgeable in WiFi technologies and networking, we’re not asking for gurus, but we need people who know what an SSID is
+ have at least one laptop computer with WiFi, be it a PC with Windows or a Mac. A desktop with a USB or PCI WiFi adapter is also good.
+ have at least one WiFi access point or router, and be knowledgeable in its configuration and management.
be willing to test a software application and report frequently and consistently using an online bug tracking platform

The guys also offer two prizes, one for the most active tester, and another randomly drawn amongst all participants. The prize for each winner consists of a Linksys WRT300N Wireless-N router and a matching WUSB300N Wireless-N USB adapter, so that you can enjoy Wirelessisfun.com better! :))

To reach the team email them at beta@whisher.com! And don’t forget to tell them we sent you there! ;)

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Whisher, a device-agnostic WiFi sharing startup, has been a little silent since their debut but they are about to launch the new version of their application. Everything happens in Zaragoza, Spain, at Innovate!Europe 2007 and Mike Puchol, Whisher CTO and co-founder, is blogging live from the event. Go check his updates here!
We’ll come back with updates and a full report.

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No intro, no closing bells, just a really illuminating talk I had with Mike Puchol (Whisher.com co-founder) and Chad (AustinTX of elfonblog.fondoo.net), a WiF pod regular. They were really nippy about recording but I was really lazy about editing and posting. Sorry guys!

We discussed topics ranging from Apple to Fon and Gizmo Project. Then, in Part 2, Chad and Mike went on their own bragging their thorough knowledge of wireless tech. Worth listening to! Big time!
We had fun and I’m sure you will too. :)

Get the topics here: Podcast.txt

Download MP3: WiF podcast / 1 of 2 for April 9th ‘07
(running time 25:50)

Download MP3: WiF podcast / 2 of 2
(running time 49:35)

Update: Yeah, the audio feed doesn’t really work (hey Feedburner, thanx!) like snooz_bar pointed out in the comments. If you don’t mind doing this the old fashioned “Save as..” way until I get to the bottom of it we’d be really happy.

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Getting a job in the Internet era is trivial if you’re serious about your skills and really want to go the next mile. It’s a personal matter to choose fun over paycheck, relocation over your home town or country, alternative crew or 9-5 army. Since I deal with the following companies in various ways, I’ve settled on which I’d say yes or no to if they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Not all of them are in the wireless field, but they are all Internet players.

The beloved-

1. Skype, because they preserve identity and stimulate individual development, while managing to hold a functional team. Plus, working for Skype is fun.
2. Moo, because they use Macs, are innovative and have a good sense of humor.
3. Meraki, because they’re still young and I could get there in time to make them work.
4. Apple Inc., only if i took Steve’s job. It’s the only decent/thrilling job in Cupertino.
5. A Chinese OEM. I bet that’s fun! :)

The ‘no so much’-

1. Google, because they’re big and matte. Individual identity? What’s that?? So what if they pay, give you free candy and loundry? The paycheck should cover that plenty anyway.
2. Yahoo!, oh no! These guys have lost touch with the 21st century realm.
3. T-Mobile, too big and slow moving, lost in the incumbment’s junkyard. I’d say yes only if they gave me an innovation team to work with and took us seriously.
4. Fon, because they’re only cool on paper. I’m into really changing the WiFi world!
5. Cisco, because only the Japs know the secret of the do-it-all company.
#. Dell, nope! Don’t ask!
#. Boingo. Nope! Innovation??? Ring a bell?
#. Vodafone and the like. No way! Clock tickin for you guys! ;)

I’m off to my favorite caffe downtown to sip on a latte! Which employer would let me out of the cubicle before 5pm?

Update:

I knew my friend Dennis of wirelessjobs.com, senior recruiter at T-Mobile USA will have a word against my “uncool employer” tag next to T-Mo’s name. :)
I give him that! Plus, he makes my point shake further by touting a 4PM out-of-the-office Latte! But still, have any of you ever used T-Mobile hotspots in airports or caffes around the world? Don’t you just hate those hours you have to keep an eye on the bill instead of staying productive or simply relaxing online? Yeah, WiFi should be free! Or nearly! Not 8 Euros an hour ($6 in the US)! I just love Budapest’s Feriheghy Airport where there’s a T-Mo hotspot and a *free* Pannon aside! :)
Since Fon wants to place a router next to every Starbucks in the US I fear T-Mobile has to figgure out something else for their WiFi branch. I haven’t seen a counter-move on their behalf, the one and only reason I placed them in the “not so much” section of my picks list.

Off the record, Dennis: make me an offer I can’t refuse and I’ll prolly say yes! :) But make sure we fix that 20th century pricing. This is 2007!

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Fon’s founder just blogged about a new IM client that arose his interest.
Whisher has spooked Fon with its social component and I predicted they will pursue a path to replicate the service and integrate it with the current WiFi sharing business model. It’s obviously wiser and faster to brand an existant application, so by blogging about AIM Pro Martin Varsavsky points out he’s interested in finding the developer to buid his social engine. Having the WiFi sharing tools in place, Fon only needs to go the next mile and integrate an IM/content sharing tool with multimedia capab. There’s no official statement about Fon’s will to do this, but sometimes it’s easy to read between the lines!

FON is the largest WiFi community in the world. Our members share their wireless Internet access at home and, in return, enjoy free WiFi wherever they find another Fonero’s Access Point.

Whisher is a software application that you install on your computer and helps you get free WiFi access all around the world.

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There’s been a flaming but rather silent war between Fon’s and Whisher’s hot shots since the former’s market debut. The two products should not really be competing but it came clear that Whisher was exactly what Fon missed – a real social component!
The hot shots fighting over WiFi sharing supremacy, it was just a matter of time until somebody won the first battle. We give the first token to Fon’s CEO, Martin Varsavsky by winning the media war. Alas for him we have to hand out the second token to Ferran Moreno of Whisher for striking hard and making the score even.

Freddy, a prominent part time hobbyist hacking into Fon’s Linux firmwares just released a patch that enables a third signal for the Spaniards’ proprietary router called La Fonera. By Freddy’s words:

“You might have heard about Whisher.com, the idea is similar to the one FON has.
But Whisher is hardware independent and the signal is encrypted.
That’s why I like it, but I would have to use the “MyPlace” signal of the Fonera.
That would allow everybody to access my private LAN and of course I don’t want that.
Due to this I added another signal to my Fonera.”

The patch will add a third WPA encrypted signal to La Fonera.
You’ll have “MyPlace”, “FON_AP” and the new one: “WHISHER_AP”
The new signal prevents access to your private LAN thus making it perfect for use with Whisher.

The score is even now: 1-1! We’ll keep an eye on this war! Great stuff for a wireless news blog, I tell you that much!

Let the hostilities begin! :)

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The live coverage of the Whisher demo at DEMO has been moved here due to the specific needs of a live coverage.

Stay tuned as we’re constatly updating Whisher exclusive coverage, including video and pics from DEMO!

More to come in the future hours, so stick to your refresh button!

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Whisher came alive sooner than we anticipated. They already posted a beta program on their website.
Frankly, we don’t know much about it and… don’t even know what it’s all about! Our registration for the beta login was never answered.

Ferran, Mike? Wtf?!

Update:
Mike Puchol (whisher) got in touch and told me they had to freeze the beta due to corporate espionage and some other cool 007 stuff. I mean there’s a lot of buzz around this enigmatic Whisher – “we share” :) – and it appears they have something of great interest for all WiFikind. Fact that they denied all pre-launch beta accounts and got a rigid stand proves they have a duck laying golden eggs in the backyard. And the bad guys want it…bad!
I’d take the duck for the paté though..
But here’s what Mike told us in quote: “We have been keeping this project under wraps, as it caused some controversy a few weeks ago, and so we wanted to be very careful about how much and to whom we let information go. We even had a case of attempted corporate espionage against us, so you must understand our position. Whisher is launching next week at DEMO (http://www.demo.com), so from the 31st the project will go live and public.”

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After postponing the launch of their service a few times, Whisher seems to have gotten their game right and are about to hit the market in February.

Whisher.com is a WiFi sharing product (but not limited to) which is going to be compatible with existing wireless initiatives. More information is scarce but that’s just fine because we like secrecy for the sweet adrenaline rushes.

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