My router is fixed :D

I have been having a huge problem with my internet. For several months whenever I would try to log into my yahoo email it would login and get to the front page but clicking the inbox resulted in "document contains no data". Similar things were happening on Ebay and Cingular's website.

Well Ashley was over today and insisted on me letting him try to fix the problem, he got in there and changed the MTU size, and everything started working. Apparently he talked to D-Link support (I have a netgear) a while back and they showed him this solution.

Niether of us even knows what an MTU size is and I especially cant see why it needs to be a certain size for some websites to work and others to not..... It really demonstrates how complex our system (the internet) is and how fallible it is.

I remember learning about the OSI 7 layer system years ago when I was studying for A+ exam. Even then I was blown away by the shallowness of most ppl's (mine included) knowledge of what makes networking work. I bet most sys admins never venture to learn about more than the first layer or two. That is to say, comprehensive in depth knowledge is often left to somebody else.

Shallow knowledge is becoming common in Chip design as well (of all places), these days the guys designing computer chips deal mainly in blocks. The blocks are composed of what are really higher level assembly commands, they know how to combine the blocks and make something work. But they dont really bother to delve into what the blocks are composed of, what really makes thier chips tick. It's the same thing that happened when every piece of electronic gear went from having discrete components to having chips everywhere. Previously in fact the blocks that modern chip designers fiddle with were chips that you would see in the previous gadgets.

Whats the problem?....your probably asking. Well when you put the blocks together and it takes 12 nanoseconds for the command to go through the chip, you just have to accept it, cause thats as fast as the blocks can go. If you knew the internals then you might be able to do something about it, but you dont, your professor never taught you that, and you just wanna go home and hang out with your kids anyways. So churn out another crappy/buggy chip and make the boss happy and go home. :P

Dont get me wrong I am all for standardized components and all that, yay for standardization. But I also TOTALLY believe in popping the hood and taking the covers off and tweaking things.

I also believe in full disclosure and fully endorse the idea of Open source Hardware.

Remind me to go off on more tangents...then maybe I would update more than every three weeks. :P

I hope any readers I may have enjoy my rambling...
And btw, Ashley, Thanks a ton for fixing my internet even though you SUCK!

Want some links?..hehe I have a month's worth to unload

http://www.mpja.com/ supply house for tinkerers

http://www.camerahacker.com/Car_Camera_Mount/index.html
Marshall...are you out there?
http://www.ranum.com/security/computer_security/editorials/dumb/
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia thanks cale
http://www.vintageprojects.com/ What a great website, I have thought of this website several times but never
followed up :P
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/ Their converters can up-switch voltage
http://forums.howwhatwhy.com/ubbthreads.php The perfect forum subject/format
http://jlnlabs.online.fr/ Crazy to hard to believe experiments
http://www.solutionscatalog.com
http://www.bbcworld.com/content/clickonline_archive_14_2005.asp?pageid=665&co_pageid=3
...do NOT do this...
http://www.abstractdynamics.org/archives/2005/08/27/web_20.html
Power in the new age of internet
http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml Give it a loose description of a word and it will
"hopefully" give you the word, I need a portable version of this implanted in my head. :P
http://www.corante.com/copyfight/archives/2005/09/02/the_latest_ip_crime_boxwrap_patent_infringement.php
This is getting really old and outta hand (but then you realize this guy misinterpreted the ruling)
http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/ The science hobbyist
http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html More than enough info on electricity
http://eio.com/resorcin.htm Robotics/Electronics Information/Article site
http://www.switch2hydrogen.com/h2new.htm Cool new gasoline to Hydrogen conversion company
http://www.uktech.freeserve.co.uk/report/report.htm An open sourced CNC mill
http://photobucket.com/albums/b124/jrou111/ A moment of silence for James' car
http://diybanter.com/ Diy internet forum
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=295 A guide to slipstreaming I can actually follow, see thier
article on putting it on a cd too
http://www.smh.com.au/news/icon/shoot-to-thrill/2005/09/14/1126377359164.html

Dontbuyjunk.com The name says it all
AutoSpeed This is what I am talking about, these guys dont only mind getting under the hood but they arent afraid to etch a circuitboard either, all to make thier cars faster...
New trigonometry I would like to investigate this more, because I never did get a good grasp of trig
MetaEfficient Blog about efficiency and cleaner living
boevhomyak.jpg Why didnt I think of this...

things I should read...
http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/
https://www.cs.tcd.ie/courses/baict/bac/jf/labs/scope/

Words dont cover this

Katrina came by, and didnt manage to blow our house down, and for that we are blessed. She did knock out power for about 3 days (at my house) and put everyone out of work for about a week.

Not sure what to say about everything that has happened to the west of Mobile because of Katrina. I feel like I should write something but I cant seem to get it started on the right foot, perhaps I will just hand you a dandy link instead. Read it if you have the time (warning: *some* offensive language (nothing unusual for the net though)).

I cant seem to wrap my head around the real problem and what should be done about it. Which is why I cant write about it. I just thank God for all the resources that are being thrown at it and pray the right ppl will get the right things done in good time. That is, rather than more patchwork and stopgap solutions.

I am also interested in what this will hopefully do to american attitudes towards our waste and use of resources (ie gasoline), and where we build our "homes".

I also wish I was a little greyer (see link above).