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Is WordPress A Thankless Community?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. Many of the plugin authors I have spoken with throughout the community tell me that very rarely do they ever get a donation let alone a Thank You for releasing their work to the public. Based on the plugin authors feedback, end users demand more features, demand better support, and in the end, have this feeling of entitlement even if the plugin is available without a price tag. The reality is, that for a freely available plugin, you’re not entitled to anything. I don’t know about you, but I certainly would not like to be part of a community that is known as thankless.

via Is WordPress A Thankless Community? | Weblog Tools Collection.

I would err on the side of “yes, WordPress is a thankless community” with this one, but realistically, it could easily swing both ways.

I certainly don’t donate (but maybe I should), but I do try and help out exposure by blogging about awesome plugins/themes that I use.

To all those I haven’t mentioned, thanks. Thanks for all the hard work you’ve put in so that I didn’t have to. 🙂

Extreme wardriving with the USB YAGI WiFi antenna…

perspective

google maps screenshot

The USB-Yagi is a handy and high performance directional antenna which delivers a remarkable 1000mW+ horse power in the direction it is pointing with a HPBW (Half-Power BeamWidths) of 56 degree.

It connected to the WiFi signal 3.8km away from the University in direct line-of-sight and maintained a stable wireless connection at a sensitivity of -54dBm, which is amazingly powerful and have more rooms to go further than that.

via at danets, we enhance your wireless experience: YAGI WiFi antenna.

The Seven Types Of Employees You Meet At Best Buy

old sales guy

Grizzled Old Home Theater/Computer Sales Lifer

This guy has seen some shit. He’s a refugee from Lechmere or Tweeter or some other now-defunct retail outlet. He knows the most about the products he sells, which is why all the part-time high school employees send customers with actual questions his way. He’s got an air of resigned acceptance about his life, and while he’s all-business with customers, he’s got no filter with fellow employees. He tells inappropriate jokes and talks vulgarly about the managers behind their back. He has a strictly regimented cigarette break every 2.5 hours that he never, ever misses.

via The Seven Types Of Employees You Meet At Best Buy | Gizmodo Australia.

Substitute “Best Buy” for “JB Hi-Fi”, and you’ve got a winner =)

Internode Easy Broadband

Internode is well-regarded amongst serious tech users for its plans and customer service, but offers such a large range of plans that casual users might well be put off. The new Easy Broadband option costs $49.95, and involves pretty much a no-brainer installation with the fastest available speed from the exchange, and a 30GB data quota. The plan doesn’t include a standard hardware option, the notion being that users might well already have one.

The big catch, though, is that unlike most other Internode plans, the 30GB total includes uploads as well as downloads. Internode argues that this makes it easier to compare with Telstra and Optus, which both have the same approach. I still reckon it would be better not to endorse that kind of dodgy behaviour by emulating it.

via Internode Easy Broadband Has One Catch | Lifehacker Australia.

Yet another reason I love Internode.

The deal pretty much goes like this: I’m paying $50/month for 1500/256 with 10GB downloads.

This easy broadband plan from Internode will change that to a minimum of 1500/256 (the plan itself offers the fastest speed available on the exchange), with 30GB “usage”, for the same price.

What’d that, you say? Uploads are counted against quota?
Meh, that’s fine – when my largest month in terms of uploads was the small side of 7GB, I’ll be getting an extra 13GB of downloads for free – and a possible speed upgrade to boot. Factor in the fact that I’m getting all this for the same price that I’m paying now, and you can see why this choice is a no-brainer – you’d have to be nuts to not take it 🙂

Now, if only Internode started building ADSL2+ on the Kingston exchange… 😉

The impact of the iPhone 3GS RAM increase

The most significant thing that Apple’s been touting about new iPhone 3GS is its speed. Generally, when you think about speed improvements, you think of faster CPUs, faster GPUs, and such. But one very important difference in the 3GS that’s contributing to the overall performance is the increased RAM and that’s pretty much gone under the radar.

[…]

CPU (central processing unit):

  • original iPhone: ARM 11, 412 MHz
  • iPhone 3G: ARM 11, 412 MHz
  • iPhone 3GS: ARM Cortex, 600 MHz

GPU (graphics processing unit):

  • original iPhone: PowerVR MBX Lite
  • iPhone 3G: PowerVR MBX Lite
  • iPhone 3GS: PowerVR SGX

RAM (random access memory):

  • original iPhone: 128 MB
  • iPhone 3G: 128 MB
  • iPhone 3GS:256 MB

via tap tap tap ~ 256÷128=10?! The impact of the iPhone 3GS RAM increase.

Just goes to show, once again, that you can ALWAYS do with more RAM, regardless of whether you’re upgrading a computer or an iPhone – especially when you’re doubling the original amount of RAM to begin with.