WiFi cellphone, Boingo, and WMWifirouter

Boingo has a mobile device plan for $8 a month (world wide coverage). I travel a LOT so a cheap data plan is very useful. Their mobile laptop plan is a couple more $ a month.

My cellphone does wifi, and there is a Boingo plugin for it...there is an app for my iPod, but that one doesn't see the same networks my phone sees for some reason.

Well there is another program for my windows wifi phone...WMWifirouter. This program allows my phone to share wifi over USB (and other combinations). $20 (15 EUR)

So right now I am in Brussles, using my Boingo account, tethering my laptop via USB...so my phone battery charges. The hotel I am staying in (that Boingo works through) charges 10 EUR a day for this connection...more than paid for my monthly fee with this one connection.

Cheers

Ubuntu update oddness.

I do the usual updates with Ubuntu...but for some reason a recent update deleted my printers.

I tried to reinstall the Brother HL-2070N (which is a great cheap laser printer!) the way I always did...find it on the network, and install a earlier printer driver that Ubuntu already had.

Well that didn't work this time, so I had to search the internets...but luckily the fix was easy...relative for Linux...

First found this Tutorial (FAQ/Wiki?) at help.ubuntu.com.

That directed me to the Brother website, that I still had to wade through a bit to find this page, which directed me to these drivers and this page of directions.

The Ubuntu site's directions were the same as Brother's site...but Brother added a test command to make sure the drivers installed properly.

So now that the drivers (lpr and cups) were installed, I now had to go the the list of printers, and point the 2070N to the actual network location (properties).

And it works again...but I would like to know why it failed to begin with.

Some interesting Amateur radio links.

Doing some more SDR (Software Defined Radio) research and found some interesting links.

First is WebSDR.org. A list of SDR systems online...i.e. you can use via internet. The first one I went to is pretty amazing. WB4MAK.com seems to give full control of the radio to a nice Java interface...waterfall displays etc...you have to see it to believe it.

Next I found the SDR Monitoring System...listing the status of online SDR sets displayed on a Google map...I don't know if it has ever been updated, but the concept is neat.

Next is the VHF Propagation Maps, where APRS data is used to determine the propagation (range) of VHF and some HF sets...displayed on a map.

Texas VHF is a site of info and links for Texas based, and other Amateur radio.

Ham Radio University is an event on Long Island in January...I will have to see if my schedule will let me attend.


The SDR radio sites make me REALLY want to invest in this technology...