So I thought I’d tinker with the Mt. Dew/WoW site to see what was going on.  They have some cool prizes and such, but I’m wary of getting marketed to death in the near future after signing up.

Anyway, here’s the lovely “recruitment” banner they get you to make to earn points.

There’s a red flavor, I guess modeled after the in-game Health Potion.  It tastes like the red Otter Pop™.

There’s also the above blue flavor that tastes like a generic “blue-raspberry” flavor.  Its claim to fame is the same as Boo Berry Monster Cereal … it turns your poop green (disclaimer: I have not verified this personally).

Not sure if that’s an intended effect or what, but I guess it is kind of magical.

I’ve experienced a personal change in people’s expectations of my personal “connectivity”.  They think I’ll be “always on” and somehow available because of my job and my background working with computers since I was a kid.  They don’t realize that my I’ve learned to be a sceptic with the early adoption of anything.  I’ve been burned over and over:

• I had an Atari Computer when it was cool to have a Commodore 64
• I had a Sega Master System when everyone else had a Nintendo
• I had an Apple IIgs when everyone was going with MS-DOS
• I had a Mac when everyone was progressing from MS-DOS to Windows 3.0 to Windows 95/98 and beyond

I always had the oddball and lesser “cool” things (well, mostly for games).  However, I kept up my knowledge of all the other systems and knew how to do pretty much everything in Microsoft Operating Systems.  Eventually I’d go through a owning all kinds of Windows systems along with Macs, Linux, whatnot.  I still screwed up with some purchases along the way.  The last time I was burned was the Playstation Portable (PSP).  I purchased one when the PSP first came out and probably sank a good $500 getting a couple of games and some movies before I realized it wasn’t really interesting.  I’ve got a DS Lite now.  But after the PSP, I’ve decided the best approach is to let something sit on the market for a good year or so and just sit on the sidelines.

So, as I’ve oscillated between the definitive purchase of an iPhone (here) and thinking it was a marketing gimmick (here), I’ve finally had enough of the waiting on the sidelines.  I bought an iPhone 3GS.

“Baaaah?”

I’ve been coveting the purchase of an iPod Touch for many many months.  Whenever I’ve had a doubt about this coveting, I’ve tinkered with a coworker’s.  I worried that the onscreen keyboard was tap, release, and hope you hit right button.  I thought it would be better if you could hold your finger down and the onscreen keyboard would tell you what key it was on.  Shift your finger slightly and it would go to the correct key.  Sure enough, that’s how it works.  The doubt was removed, it functions the way I wanted it to.  From Mobile Safari, how certain apps work, and on and on, my doubt would be eliminated because the iPod Touch just did it right.  However, I still have held off a purchase because of two little things.

I want the ability to use a bluetooth keyboard with an iPod Touch.  I like the portability of the iPod Touch.  Most of the time, just the iPod Touch would be all that I needed..  But, I’ve also thought it would be awesome to be able periodically tow along a light keyboard to do some writing.  It would be perfect, small when needed and a little extra weight when I need the keyboard.  I’ve almost purchased a netbook to do just this function but stopped at the last second.

I don’t need a full sized laptop (and its keyboard) for getting the words out of my head and into a textfile.  Something smaller would suffice.  A netbook would do all this, but they’re just nowhere near the convenient carry size of an iPod touch.   I could just pocket the iPod Touch and move along.  A netbook would still have to be stowed and towed.  And if the keyboard isn’t a non-standard layout, its teeny keys drive me away.   I’d still have to lug along a second keyboard to really work the way I’d like.  And it’s too bulky for the other times.  So … I want the ability to use a bluetooth keyboard with an iPod Touch.

I want a built-in camera.  There’s one on the iPhone, why can’t they just stick one in the iPod touch and be done with it?  I’m not in the market for an iPhone, but would like the ability to take a picture and write for my blog “in the moment”.  Even if I have to save the post for later when I sync’d the iPod, no importing photos from a separate device, finding and inserting the picture into the text.  I’d just post directly over wifi and be done.  It fits my mindset of having a task finished so I don’t have to remember to do something later.  It would just work right.  I want a built-in camera … please?

I’m cautiously optimistic that I’ll be getting an iPod Touch as soon as the next generation is released.  With the OS 3.0 unlocking of bluetooth, I have a gut feeling I’ll have my external keyboard wishes.  A camera though, that would be really be nice.

I watch TV through the Internet.  No over-the-air signal.  No cable.  Strictly over the Internet.  Online viewing sites like hulu.com, the network’s own websites, and my Netflix unlimited plan have set me free of my cable bill and Tivo subscription.  I watch everything through an old laptop that hooks directly into my TV rig via a standard old RCA jack.

The little ritual I have when I arrive home each evening hasn’t changed (much).  However, I began noticing something was amiss when I tried to start up a video to buffer.  Wifi had died.

I have an odd network setup.  I utilize two Apple Airport Extreme base stations (the flying saucer style).  One is located upstairs in my office; the other is located downstairs next to the AV equipment.  They’re also at opposite ends of the house.  This provides coverage pretty much where I need it.  To keep from having a phone line draped across my dining room and living room, I have the DSL modem hooked into the phone jack upstairs in the office.  The DSL modem then hooks into the Airport base station.  From there, it gets tricky.

The two Airport base stations form a Wireless Distribution System (WDS).  The one downstairs extends the network upstairs without the need for a cable.  The downstairs base station hooks into a switch I use for the laptop, my SlingBox, and other equipment.

Unfortunately, the downstairs comes to a crashing halt when I do something I just didn’t think would cause a problem.  I turn on the laptop and then proceed to cook dinner.  During any breaks while I wait for things to heat up, I return to the laptop to start the buffering.  Wifi dying was hit or miss and for awhile I couldn’t figure it out.  I thought it was the DSL modem flaking out.  Happily, as you probably can tell from the title of this entry, I eventually found how the process of cooking, specifically with my microwave, was the issue.

My über powerful (so awesome I can’t imagine being without it) microwave apparently emits RF interference on the same spectrum as the Airport devices.  I just lived timeouts for a week, but then I realized the solution.  It worked and I’ll share it with you now.

Solution: Change the channel of your WiFi Network
(That’s it!)

This should work for pretty much any wifi access point.  I like to muddle things so I’ll go into an even further explantion of the solution to the issue.  Find out where your channel selection is located and change it to another number.  Preferably in the opposite direction.  If you’re experiencing drops in connection on Channel 11, switch to Channel 2 or 3.  It may take a couple of changes to find that “sweet spot” channel number.  My novice hunch suspects that there’s some overlap between the RF noise and close Channel numbers.  Best to avoid anything close to play it safe.

Ever since I did this, I’ve had zero issues when nuking some food and buffering video from places like Hulu or Netflix.

Hope this helped someone!