Upgrading my home’s WiFi

ByBrett Elliff

This month my home experienced a rare power outage.  It did not last very long but somehow during the outage my trusty ASUS router was powering up but it was not passing any traffic.  I tried various troubleshooting methods but nothing resurrected it.  So, now I am forced to use the WiFi function of my DSL Gateway.  This system is really great for range but terrible for speed and reliability,  My household suffers through this for a few days before we decided that now we are in the market for a new router so after doing some research at The Wirecutter to see what they recommend as they have a really good testing methodologies.

 

The clear winner was of course the Eero Mesh WiFi System.  So my Wife and I made a trip to our local Best Buy to pick up the system that works best for the layout of our ranch style home.  Before installing the new system I ran a few speed tests from my office on a desktop and in carious places through the house on my smart phone.  The results are as follows.

Speed tests from DSL Gateway.

Mobil test from the kitchen.
Mobile test from the living room.
Mobile test from the bedroom.
Mobile test from the office.

As you can see the signal strength is good but the speeds are terrible.  We were fin unless someone wanted to stream a video and we were buffering very often.

The setup process.

Setting up the Eero Gateway was very easy.  Unbox the gatewayy, install the eero application from your mobile app store of choice, and follow the prompts.

For my home I have the following setup.

  • 1x Eero Gateway in the Living Room
    • 1x Belkin undamaged switch
  • 1x Eero Beacon in the Kitchen
  • 1x Eero Beacon in the Master Bedroom

Once everything synced up and the app advised me everything was connected it did a quick firmware update and restarted all 3 devices.  Once they were all showing back online I ran the same speed tests again.

Speed tests from the Eero Gateway

Mobile test from the Kitchen.
Mobile test from the Living Room.
Mobile test from the Bedroom.
Mobile test from the Office.

I find the results pretty compelling and my household is much happier now.  This is not the cheapest router out there but it is a huge improvement  over anything I have used in a long time.  Additionally, this router will never need me to manually upload to

Cloudflare blocking rest API calls from WordPress’ Gutenberg editor.

ByBrett Elliff

Recently WordPress has updated their WYSIWYG editor to Gutenberg which is absolutely fantastic!  The only issue thus far is that when editing or updating a post within WordPress you see is the following.

This prevents the auto save and publish functions from working.  WordPress and Cloudflare are working on the issue and have a workaround in place.   The fix involves disabling two rules in the WordPress rules set in the Web Application Firewall settings in your Cloudflare account.

  1. Once you are logged in click on the domain that you need to edit.
  2. Click on Firewall from the top menu.
  3. Scroll down to the section titled IP Firewall Button.
    1. Click the button to the left titled Web Application Firewall.
  4. Look for the section titled Package: Cloudflare Rule Set.
    1. Click Rule Details.
  5. Scroll down to the section titled Cloudflare WordPress and click the link.
  6. Click on page 4 from the pagination at the bottom of the section.
  7. Look for the rules WP0025A and WP0025A.
  8. On the far right side of the section under the Mode heading you will see a drop down list.
  9. Choose disable for both rules.
  10. You should see a green par across the bottom of the screen indicating that the settings are saved.
  11. Click the Close button.
  12. Go back to your WordPress Admin area and try to edit a post.

Unfortunately this workaround has never worked for me even after Gutenberg was updated and Cloudflare pushed out patches on their end.  As a last resort I had to whitelist my IP from the Firewall Events section of the Firewall page.

Now I am once again able to edit posts and whatnot in WordPress!

LEGO has created a life sized and drivable model of a Bugatti Chiron

ByBrett Elliff

Shortly after LEGO released a $349, 3,599-piece scale model of the Chiron LEGO has upped their game with a fully life sized and drivable model created out of Lego Technic pieces.

The Chiron uses 339 different Technic elements, many of which are used as load-bearing components. It even has working headlights—featuring the first use of some new types of transparent Techic bricks. The car weighs 3,306lbs (1,500kg), and even the powertrain is made from Lego: 2,304 of the little electric motors to be precise.

This seems like an insanely complex undertaking and I am trilled that the folks over at LEGO were able to pull this off!  If you were wondering if the LEGO  model was able to reach the speeds of the actual Chiron I’m sorry to say that it cannot. 🙁

This gives the Chiron somewhat reduced performance compared to the ones Bugatti makes in Molsheim, France. One of those has 1,500hp (1119kW) and a top speed in excess of 261mph (420km/h); the LEGO Technic Bugatti makes just 5.3hp (3.9kW) and tops out at 12.4mph (20km/h).

LEGO has provided this video to see if in action!

Via Jonathan M. Gitlin @ Ars Technica

 

AirPods and the Three Stages of Apple Criticism

ByBrett Elliff

I stumbled across a very interesting article via John Gruber’s Daring Fireball by Jonathan Kim over at Medium:

Put another way: Apple’s products are successful because Apple knows how to market their products to a fanbase of deeply flawed individuals who don’t know what’s good for them.

I really wish I was exaggerating, but these seven reasons are the main ways Apple critics attempt to explain why someone would choose to buy products critics believe are both overpriced and inferior to their competition. Because if you’ve already come to the conclusion that Apple products are overpriced and inferior, but hundreds of millions of people still buy them, the only conclusion must be that there is something seriously wrong with the people who buy them.

This was a very interesting critique of well know Tech Reporter admitting over time that their initial impression of a product were perhaps hasty given.  I agree with the original author that people should be applauded for admitting they were wrong.  The author does a better job of articulating this than I.

Savov deserves credit for having the willingness — dare I say “courage”? — for not keeping his change of heart to himself.

Alexa, why are you being creepy?

ByBrett Elliff

Over the past few days, users with Alexa-enabled devices have reported hearing strange, unprompted laughter. Amazon responded to the creepiness in a statement to The Verge, saying, “We’re aware of this and working to fix it.”

I can’t say I am looking forward to going home tonight. 😛  I have four Alexa products through out my home and I do not need creepiness.

 

Via: Shannon Liao at The Verge

Bugatti shows off a $3 Million Chiron Sport at the Geneva Motor Show

ByBrett Elliff

“The Bugatti Chiron Sport costs some stupid amount of money north of $3 million. The only people who might care about the precise figure are the accountants at the Volkswagen Group, Bugatti’s parent company. Those who can afford the Chiron Sport don’t trouble themselves with how millions are rounded, and the other 99.99 percent of us will never be so fortunate as to have to seriously consider buying this instead of, say, multiple mansions. The Chiron Sport, like the rest of Bugatti’s historic lineup, is the automotive equivalent of unicorn breeding.

At the Geneva Motor Show, I got to pet the latest Bugatti unicorn, which was clad in a regal red-and-black outfit. Thanks to a diehard Verge fan on the Bugatti staff, I even got to step inside for a few minutes, and this is my account of what that most exclusive of experiences was like.”

I am super jealous of of this man.  I mean, look at this thing!

Via: Vlad Savov at The Verge

Blockchain All The Things!

ByBrett Elliff

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies have entered the mainstream discourse, but they’ve also been joined by a concept that is widely circulated, but poorly understood: “the blockchain” or just “blockchain.” The idea of a blockchain, the cryptographically enhanced digital ledger that underpins Bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies, is now being used to describe everything from a system for inter-bank transactions to a new supply chain database for Walmart. The term has become so widespread that it’s quickly losing meaning.

I agree that this word is used way too much these says.  I am starting to see this pop up in sales emails and calls that I receive at work.

Via: Adrianne Jeffries at The Verge

Apple will stop providing LP albums as of March 2018

ByBrett Elliff

“A small yet colorful part of the iTunes Store will be history by year’s end. According to an internal Apple email obtained by Metro, Apple will stop taking iTunes LP submissions this month. Apple confirmed the plans to The Verge, signaling the impending end of the paid multimedia album experience on iTunes.

The leaked email reportedly said, “Apple will no longer accept new submissions of iTunes LPs after March 2018,” and “existing LPs will be deprecated from the store during the remainder of 2018. Customers who have previously purchased an album containing an iTunes LP will still be able to download the additional content using iTunes Match.””

I only ever brought a few of these myself but it was a neat idea at the time and I will be a bit sad to see it go,

Via: Valentina Palladino at Arstechnica

The next version of Windows 10 will begin to incorporate machine learning.

ByBrett Elliff

“Microsoft is busy prepping developers for the next big Windows 10 update, version 1803, and it is putting the focus on machine learning. Due in March or April this year, the new version will include a new machine-learning framework for using machine-learning models in Windows applications.”

I’m not sure how useful this will be once it ships but it sounds like a logical next step.

Via: Peter Bright at Arstechnica