Riddle me this:

I’ve had a Linksys Wireless Router (WRT54G) for about a year now. Everything’s worked perfectly, until the last several days. Now, it seems that after a short period of inactivity, my router dies. The only solutions I’ve discovered so far are:

1) Periodically unplug and replug said router (a pain in the you-know-what)

2) Launch the Terminal and constantly ‘ping’ the router (doesn’t work)

I’ve set up WPA security on my router and limited the address table to the MAC addresses of the machines on my network. I’m running two Macs with 10.5.1. I’ve searched around on the Intertubes and it seems that there are oodles of other folk on the web having the same exact problem. Unfortunately, finding a concrete solution by narrowing my search parameters has been something of a challenge. Perhaps someone can shed light on this?

-Krishna

Update: The problem, from what I’ve been able to discern, has something to do with WPA protection. Switching to WEP (the less secure of the two) seems to have fixed the problem. I also unplugged and ‘reset’ the router by hitting the button on the back of the unit. Alas, I’ve spoken too soon. The problem still exists.

This evening my stalwart Powerbook (Pismo 400MHz) died. (What is with these rash strings of hardware failures I’m having as of late?)

This one could have been prevented. It was my fault – I should have not precariously positioned the power cord of the Pismo near the entrance door of my office.

Silly me.

I was upgrading the OS on the Pismo from 10.4.9 to 10.4.11 and a quarter of the way through, Aarti came into my office, and accidentally tripped over the cable, knocking the laptop from the table to the floor. The hard drive never came back up after that. Surprisingly, the machine boots and the display is fine. There was no damage on the case of the unit itself, a remarkable testament to the Pismo’s durability. (It landed on the carpet from a nearly 3 feet drop!)

A new hard drive may bring this machine back from the dead, but at this point, it’s not financially viable for me to explore that option. So, it really is the end of the road for this laptop. Going out with a “thud”, so to speak.

R.I.P. Pismo.

-Krishna

Sonia’s 5 weeks old and doing very well. One thing Aarti and I have come to realize is how expensive baby items really are – like diapers and formula. We’ve stuck with the brand names thus far, but I would like to know from other parents out there as to whether generic (i.e. Target brand) items are just as good. There is a 50% mark-up between generic vs. brand name baby items, and I’m curious to know if going “generic” is okay and safe for my little girl.

Thanks!

-Krishna 

Samsung 30″ or Apple Cinema 30″ Display or Dell 30″? If you had to choose between one of the three, which would you pick for your ultimate rig, and why?

It’s been almost a month since the PCW switched to its new comic format, and overall, I think that the transition over from single-panel to multi-panel format has worked out pretty well.  Writing for a single panel comic is radically different than writing for a multi-panel. I’ve had some time to digest both approaches, and here’s what I’ve come up with.

1) With the single panel approach, the most effective comic is one where the visual itself encapsulates the gag – with no caption or word balloon needed. These are very difficult to pull off day-in and day-out.

2) Many single panel comics have captions or word balloons (or both). In this case, the visual should always serve as the set-up for the writing. What I’ve found is – the shorter the caption / word balloon – the better. The idea is to have the least amount of text to convey the gag when possible, with the golden ideal to have the visual completely encapsulate the gag by itself.  Many times I would begin with a single visual that encompasses the general point I want to get across (aka the gag), then work around it with the caption.

3) With multi-panel comics, writing is the key focus. I’ve found it very difficult to start off with the drawings, unless the comedy is slapstick in nature (and I avoid slapstick as a rule of thumb). When I prepare my multi-panel comics, I first create all the necessary text for each panel. The writing sets up the visuals. After penciling the comic, the writing may be further massaged or streamlined. Again, the goal I have for myself is: The fewer the words, the better.

4) After working in the multi-panel format, I find it rather difficult to switch back to single panels. Each week, I think - okay, maybe this week I’ll do a single panel comic, but so far, I haven’t created one for pcweenies.net. I think its largely because the approach to each is opposite from one another, and once I’m thinking in one mode, it’s hard to switch back to the other.

Anyway, that’s a brief look at the approaches I take when writing both types of formats. My next biggest hurdle is: do I want to work in some type of continuity and craft storylines? or simply keep each strip stand-alone? As I gain more of a foot-hold with multi-panels, hopefully I’ll be able to do both…

-Krishna

P.S. New Uncubed today!