I’m greatly enjoying Windows XP Hacks by Preston Gralla (from O’Reilly). There are at least double that number of hints and tips. These are mainly ones I’d never heard of. And to think all these years I never knew about the Group Policy Editor! (Type gpedit.msc into the Run menu.)

Note: “Get a Mac” does not count as an XP hack.

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Anyone know how to actually turn off the XP FilterKeys setting?

I have a lazy habit of resting a finger onf the shift key when I’m pausing between words. If I do that for more than 8 seconds, XP asks if I want to turn on FilterKeys. It does this even if I un-check the “Use FilterKeys” box on the Accessibility settings. The box stays un-checked, but the feature doesn’t turn off.

Note: Saying “Get a Mac” does not constitute help. Thank you.

As one of the commeters notes: Hold down both shift keys.

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My Netgear USB wifi adapter works! Simple install and baddabing! It’s the MA111 model, on sale at NewEgg for $39 after rebate. Cool.

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Don’t ask how, but a small bit of plastic got jammed into the PC Card slot on my ThinkPad X22, so when I put my wifi card in, I bent the pins inside the slot. I’m going on the road for much of October in a few days and need muh wifi.

So, does anyone know of a solution? I have USB 1.1 slots. I’ve found some wifi dongles that look like they’ll do the trick. Are there gotchas? Do they work?

Let me rephrase that: Heeeeelllllllppp!

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I’ve been listening to people who know stuff talk about PON (Passive Optical Networks), a bit of infrastructure that (perhaps!) threatens to provide a strong incentive to providers not to scale up the amount of bandwidth they grant us. But I’m in way over my head. Here’s what I think I know:

A connectivity provider uses PON to split light (data) over multiple lines. Each subscriber receives all the same data, ignoring the packets not tagged for that particular subscriber. So, you have to build security into the network — Smart! Bad! — to keep A from reading B’s bits.

The insidious problem: PON is difficult/expensive to upgrade. As a result, the PON network suppliers will have an incentive to keep traffic down by filtering and limiting services.

(There’s no unique problem with PON with regard to the fact that it centralizes control, for whoever owns the cable is in a position to control content whether they use PON or not.)

PON is not yet widely deployed. There is a set of towns in Utah entertaining PON bids for providing municipal-licensed cable, and there are maybe some other examples. Primarily, PON is now showing up in responses to RFPs from the ILECs.

Corrections and slap downs gratefully accepted.

(If you’re not sure why smart networks are bad networks, read the original End-to-End argument, Isenberg’s “stupid network” or Doc’s and my World of Ends.)

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Jane Black at BusinessWeek has written an article about why Voice over IP isn’t normal telephony and shouldn’t be regulated in the same way, despite the nefarious intentions of the incumbent telephone companies:

The rush to lump VOIP in with phone services obscures the larger problem: The 100-year-old regulatory structure for telephones is no longer adequate for today’s advanced telecom services.

Scott Bradner has written on the same subject, and is particularly scathing about the hook regulators are trying to hang VoIP providers on: They don’t offer 911 service. He writes:

Maybe these regulators should insist on truth in advertising, such as requiring ads to say that 911 is not provided, and let customers decide what they want. That seems to work in many other areas.

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JiWire decided to tell bloggers about their new service before telling the “real” media, so I’m rewarding them for their blogginess by writing up the conference call we just had. See, guys, it works! (On the other hand, this morning I got spammed with a press release announcing anti-spam software. Oy, the irony!)

JiWire is a directory of hotspots in North America and Europe (so far) with some marked as “certified,” meaning they’ve been vetted by actual human beings. The directory shows useful info about each hotspot, including whether there’s a power outlet nearby. The site is aiming at being the leading place for info of all sorts about wirelessness. And the’ve snagged Glenn Fleischman as their editor-in-chief, a coup.

The site, on a quick inspection, looks really useful. In fact, it’s an idea that seems obvious once someone else has come up with it. (Too bad I have to connect to find out where to connect. Some of us don’t plan that far ahead… :) From a business point of view, I worry that the site will lose its value if wifi ever actually gets easy. That’s one reason it’s good to have Glenn on board; the site will quickly accrue ‘zine-y value.

BTW, the name “JiWire” comes from “Join Invisibly” and the company hopes it’ll catch on as a general purpose word. (It won’t.) And the “JI” in the logo is supposed to looks like the warchalking symbol for open access.

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AKMA worries about what will happen to web sites when their owners die. (We will skip the part where he uses my own demise as his example.) I’ve been thinking about that for a while also. So, being of sound mind and body (well, the old 80:20 rules applies, of course), I hereby name AKMA the executor of my site. When I die, my heirs will pay all reasonable expenses (up to $30/year) to keep my site publicly available as well as a small stipend to AKMA to prune the hedges and scrub the grafitti off every now and then.

Thanks, AKMA. And feel free to pick a couple of pairs of socks for yourself. They’re in the second drawer of the dresser in our bedroom.

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TIP: In Windows, typing “command” into the Run box brings up a DOS window. Typing “cmd” also brings up a DOS window, but with “cmd” you can use the arrow keys to cycle through previous command lines, etc.

Why “command” even exists beats me. If it’s for backwards compatibility, then why not add the basic set of user interface facilities in “cmd”?

Oh well. Some things we just aren’t meant to understand.

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Glenn Fleishman has a clear explanation of a way to bridge wireless networks, Wireless Distribution System.

What will they think of next!

And who are “they” anyway?

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