Look Ma’ No Wires
1. Wireless Network: You have a laptop yet you are
still tied to your network cable. It is time you stepped
up to the plate and spent the piddley $250.
There are two pieces of equipment needed to set
things up. First you need an access point which
physically plugs into your network and has an antenna
on it. Second you need a wireless network card for
your computer.
I have the LinkSys WAP11 at home and an Intel
Pro/Wireless 2001 Access point at work. These are
Plugged into the LAN and can transmit data at a
maximum speed of 11Mb/Sec.
I've tried a couple of different network cards with
these and got mixed results. The Intel network
card (2201) worked great with both access point
boxes.
The LinkSys WPC11 worked fine with it's
own access point but had a variety of problems
with the Intel access point.
The third card that I tried was from Orinoco
and it failed to recognize either access point.
Where I was really able to play around was with
the positioning of the access point. I started with
the LinkSys access point on my desk. This worked
fine as long as I worked in the room. I then moved
it to the top of a book shelf and it worked better
but I would lose connection regularly when in other
rooms. Finally I put it at the highest point in my house
and things worked perfectly.
The down side to all of this is that you have to
be able to run a cable to where ever you want
the access point to sit.
With the Intel access point I placed it on top of
our server rack in our office and I've never lost
my connection.
As I write this new wireless equipment is
being released with about 5 times the
bandwidth. Prices will be initially higher, but
we all know they will drop quickly.
My onlyadvice is try to stay with one
manufacture and make sure they have
drivers on their website for the latest
Operating systems (Windows XP and
Mac OS X).
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MidiMan Oxygen 8 – USB MIDI Software Controller
I have this big honkin' keyboard sitting next to my computer
and I can barely play with two hands. I need room and I
need knobs to tweak my sounds.
This little keyboard fits the bill. All of the knobs are
assignable so as I change my synths, weather they be
software or the real thing, I have the flexibility to
manipulate my sounds.
The price is right ($140) and I can put a behemoth
bong where my full sized keyboard use to sit.
I will keep you updated as I use this more.
USB Audio Recording
I'm considering buying this but
am looking for someone else's review.
My goal is to add high quality audio recording to my
laptop for field recordings.