IE WebKit Add-On - Part Duex (Google Chrome Frame)

Looks like someone at Google thinks a lot like me. They have announced an Internet Explorer plug-in that does just what I proposed in my blog entry from a few months ago.

http://blog.chromium.org/2009/09/introducing-google-chrome-frame.html

Not surprisingly, it doesn't look like Microsoft is too happy about it, although the reasoning behind Microsoft's objection (i.e. it makes IE6 less secure) is anything but logical. Come on MS, you got to be able to come up with something better than that!

A bit more surprising (at least for me), is that Mozilla is not happy about it either. Perhaps they don't like Google beating them to the punch, as Google Chrome Frame is an excellent Trojan-Horse for Google's Chrome browser. Not to mention, it builds name recognition for Google's Chrome OS coming in the near future.

Next stop, Google Chrome OS Frame for IE6?

2009 Bass Lake 250

A friend of mine pointed out that my 15 minutes of fame have started. Someone captured some pictures of me on the Bass Lake 250 dual-sport ride over the weekend and posted them here:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=512661&highlight=bass+lake

It was a great ride! Saturday was a bit dusty, and it was my first ride with using a roll-chart. We started as a group of 4, but were separated within the first 30 minutes. I guess we weren't the only ones a bit confused, as we ended up giving directions to several groups of riders that we encountered along the trail.

Sunday was cold and amazing, with a light snowfall dusting the trees, and an inch or so of fresh powder to keep the trails dust free. Unfortunately, we only completed the first half of the planned ride in the snow. At the time, there was no telling if the storm was going to stay mellow, or turn nasty.

Moon Landing a Fake?

My Mom told me that something like 28% of the population born after 1969 believes that the moon landings were a hoax. I'm so happy that a large chunk of my income is being so well spent on education. Some of the details can be found here:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/07/17/moon.landing.hoax/

Here's a link with some facts if you run across any idiots that think the moon landing was fake:

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/07/the-moon-landings-fact-not-fiction/

I also loved Ken Rockwell's article on the raw power of the Saturn V Rockets:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/2009-07-1-new.htm

1 billion HP, that's some serious power...

IE WebKit Add-On - A Possible Solution for Internet Explorer Compatibility?

As many web developers know, getting web sites working with Microsoft's Internet Explorer (especially IE6) can be frustrating at best. Unfortunately, IE is the most popular browser, so not supporting it is simply not an option.

As the newer standards based HTML 5 web technologies become available on browsers such as Firefox, Safari, and Opera, supporting IE will become an even a larger burden for developers. And in many cases, it is not in the best interest for some large players (Microsoft and Adobe included) to quickly rush adoption of these new standards. The recent InfoWorld article regarding HTML 5 explains aspects of this in detail.

This whole thing got me wondering if a plug-in approach could be used for adding alternative rendering engines into IE itself. All it would take is for someone to create an IE plugin (i.e. BHO or Content Extension) with the open source WebKit rendering engine at it's core. A little bit of redirection magic when IE is detected, sends the user to a page to install and launch the IE WebKit add-on, and we're done. This same approach works for Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight. Why not for viewing HTML 5 documents?

Overheard from the Bathroom

The following is a couple conversations between my son Nolan (he's 4) and Aunt Barbie while she was visiting a couple weeks ago:

Nolan (from the bathroom): "OH MAN! Not again."

Barbie (overhearing from the living room): (concerned)"What happened?"

Nolan: "I peed on myself."

A little later while dealing a friendly game of Uno (with only 10 cards):

Barbie: "We need some more cards."

Nolan: "How many cards you want?"

Barbie: "How about 150?"

Nolan (excited): "Thats the whole deck, baby!"

How Many Pipes Do You Have?

During dinner tonight, my son Carson (he's 8) had a minor coughing attack. When my wife asked him what was wrong, he responded, "My water went down the wrong pipe."

I asked, "Wow, how many pipes do you have?"

He responded with a straight face, "I have three pipes. One for food, one for water, and one for salsa."

Laughing ensued...

Improving Wireless Performance with Multiple Routers

If you are like me, you probably already have a few wireless routers sitting around the house. If you are also lucky like me, and your home is networked with wires, it's really easy to use those extra routers to improve your wireless performance.

The first step is to do a little site monitoring around your home. The goal is to find out what channels your neighbors are using and find the ones with the least interference. For Vista or Windows 7 I recommend inSSIDer. For 2.4 Ghz 802.11G there are really only three channels to consider: 1, 6, and 11. The channels in between overlap with these three, and should generally be avoided.

Choose a couple central locations in your home and use a laptop with inSSIDer to monitor which channels have the least amount of congestion.

Start with your primary router and configure as normal, choosing the best available channel and WPA or WPA2 security. For a password, I like to use a movie or book quote. Be sure that all of the routers you plan on using support the same level of security (this will be important later).

Give your router your preferred SSID name. I like to name mine something like VIRUS or RIAA just to discourage anyone from connecting to it. (Sidenote: these are especially fun names if you like to bring a travel router with you on trips.)

Once your primary router is configured, it is time to setup the secondary router. You will not be using the WAN port on the secondary router, only the ones marked LAN. To initially configure the secondary router you will also need to connect it to your PC directly. Once it is configured you can reconnect it to the rest of your network (be sure to use one of the LAN ports).

The first step when configuring the secondary router is to disable it's DHCP server functionality. Next, assign it a fixed IP address. Be sure to choose an unique IP address that is outside the DHCP range configured in your primary router, and different IP address than your primary router. For example, my primary router is configured as 192.168.1.1 and my secondary is 192.168.1.2. The DHCP range used by my network is 192.168.1.100-150.

Here is the critical part. The secondary router must be configured with the same security settings and SSID as your primary router. However, the wireless channel can (and should) be different, and be chosen based upon the optimal channel found during the wireless scan.

Now any time a device connects to your wireless network it should automatically find the strongest available access point. With this technique I'm able to get perfect wireless connectivity throughout my entire home with two low cost routers.

I also recently decided to upgrade to a 802.11n wireless router. I monitored http://slickdeals.net and came across a great deal on a refurbished Netgear WNDR3300.

The cool thing about the WNDR3300 is that it is two routers in one. It runs a 54 mbps G network at 2.4 Ghz, and a completely separate 270 mbps N network at 5 Ghz. This prevents the older and slower G-only devices from slowing down the speedier N network. Just keep in mind that the 5 Ghz frequency degrades faster with distance and obstacles (i.e. walls), so there are times when you might be better off using a 2.4 Ghz based network.

Finally, if your router is no longer getting frequent firmware upgrades, or you want to have a little fun, be sure to see if you router support the DD-WRT firmware. It's got an incredible amount of features and options, but is not for the faint of heart.