Damn you, Apple.

Stop teasing me with higher-cost hardware that has that extra "woah dude, woah" factor.

I can't afford to be tempted like this. Stop!

Ya gotta admit it, that nano is pretty sweet. Take the smallness they went for with the Shuffle (which, by the way, is about as useless as the stick of gum it's often compared to) and then put back all the cool stuff about the iPod (you know, like menus and the touch control) and then double or quadruple the storage capacity compared to the Shuffle, and there ya go. Oh yeah, and that color display is nice, of course.

Okay, okay - I'll think about it.

Grrrr...

This is how exciting my weekends are. Here I'm on IM with my next door neighbor this fine Saturday morning (which is weird enough, in an antisocial sort of way, now that I think about it):

Yeah, yeah whatever.   I have yet to see a "good chat client" that I truly want to use on Linux (we were discussing IM clients). Don't get me wrong - Linux is great. I have a couple of secret (I do have a rep to uphold ya know...) little Linux-y things going on. 

(And yeah, I know - my typing sucks)

The Linksys WRT54G is a great little WiFi (Wireless-G) home router, and there are a number of communities out there that  have created custom firmware to run on them. But one of the risks of flashing your router with new and different firmware is that you might just end up with a useless brick, typically characterized by red flashing lights and a severe lack of functionality.

If you can't get a SFTP upload of the default Linksys firmware to apply to the router using their utility, it's possibly toast. But there are still a few options (try at your own risk).

First of all, though: Have you tried to upload a fresh copy of the Linksys firmware using the Linksys utility you can download from their web site? Was your router running the Linksys firmware or one of the community firmware builds when the problem started? Depending on the firmware and router version, you might find that you need to go back to an older/original firmware file, then re-apply the custom one. Your mileage may vary, but if you're bricked you might not be worried about things like warranties. Just be aware of the fact once you start messing with stuff, warranties are often a thing of the past.

Here's a few links to try to help - feel free to leave a comment if you know of others:

• Red Diag or Power Light Blinking on the WRT54G:
  http://tinyurl.com/7al4s
• For the courageous:
  http://nino.net/blogs/nino/archive/2005/06/09/744.aspx
• More info on un-bricking it:
  http://www.barik.net/archive/2004/12/03/220751/

Ruth at RCM Technologies sent along an opening they have for a guru-level SharePoint business consultant in the Beverly Hills, California area. If you or someone you know if interested, give Ruth a call or send her an email (her contact info is at the bottom of this post):

RCM Technologies is a leading provider of comprehensive of Information Technology solutions for customers in the Financials Services, Healthcare, Insurance, Communications, Entertainment, and Pharmaceutical markets is looking for a Business Systems Consultant for a project in the Beverly Hills area. 

This is initially an 8 week project. There is a high likelihood of extension after the initial phase is completed.

This project is slated to start ASAP.

Job Description

Responsible for providing business solutions to enterprise-wide technology initiatives.  Candidate must be a self starter with excellent communication skills.  Background in web testing and training on web based systems.  Formal classroom experience is not mandatory. 

• Acts as a liaison between business/user and the technical developer 
• Plan and analyze business initiatives to be solved with business systems. 
• Provides technical expertise in identifying, evaluating, and developing effective procedures and systems requirements that meet business requirements. 
• Works with business user to provide assessment of developed system in respect to the user’s needs.  Also provide training and resolve issues and questions. \
• Participates in validating existing design features with specific system requirements and specifications. 
  Initiates systems testing. 
• Acts as internal consultant within technology and business groups by re-engineering technical processes for greater efficiencies with significant impact to the business.

Required Experience or Knowledge of the following technologies/functions

• Microsoft SharePoint 2003 - Candidates must be expert level in SharePoint
• .NET development
• SharePoint implementation/migration experience
• Please send your resume as a Word document. You may also reach me at the number below.

Thank you,
Ruth Lozano
RCM Technologies
Anaheim, CA
800-972-6269 x220
ruth.lozano(at)rcmt.com
www.rcmt.com

eWeek is reporting that eBay is in talks to buy Skype, a remarkably popular voice and text communication IM program.

Skype's popular and cool, but I have to say that industry references to Skype as a VoIP player are (IMHO) poorly thought out. Why? Because Skype uses no industry standards in their communication - they created their own proprietary protocols, which means they don't interoperate with other systems. What Skype needs to do in order to play the full VoIP field is add (note - I said "add" not change) SIP and other standards-based capabilities to their product for communication and connectivity. If they do that, they might just make some money and own a huge market. But they'll have to hurry if they haven't already started.

Also - why in the world would an auction company buy a IM and Internet calling company? Is eBay really that lost? Their share price after the rumor broke seems to show it may be a bad idea. Or maybe I'm missing something here, but on its face it seems a bit ridiculous.

Gateway's announced a widescreen format Tablet PC - cool design, and it has dedicated ATI graphics, which should be nice in the Vista world of Aero Glass. PC Magazine has a review here:

"The CX200 is a workhorse: It's loaded with the fastest Pentium M (770) processor currently available, 1GB of RAM, and the ATI Mobility Radeon X600 graphics chipset. Unfortunately, the system couldn't run our SYSmark 2004 SE and MobileMark 2005 benchmark tests because of the tests' limitations, but other systems with this type of configuration perform very well on day-to-day computing tasks. Both the Doom 3 and Splinter Cell games ran smoothly. The 3DMark 2005 scores were very respectable at 996 (1,024-by-768), something rarely seen on a tablet..."