It is interesting to read people's responses. A lot of people don't seem to get that we don't all do their job. I would never buy a soldering iron. I suck at soldering and, at my hourly rate, it would be criminal to bill a client for having me try to fix something.

A few things that I have found.

A headlamp is generally better than a flashlight. You can take a headlamp off and use it as a flashlight, but it is a lot harder to mount a flashlight on your head. I have a great big thing that is designed for construction workers. I look like a fool when I wear it, but it works great.

The "network testers" that are really continuity testers annoy me. They cost a lot for not much information. I use a Byte Brothers Real World Certifier. http://www.bytebros.com/bb_pdf/RWC1000K_Real_World_Certifier_RS.pdf It gives you a lot of information for not a lot of money. Their LowVoltage Pro looks even better, but I haven't ever used one. I don't know what they mean by "pass/fail" on the cable test.

ifixit's 54-bit driver kit is nice to have around. http://www.ifixit.com/Tools/54-Bit-Driver-Kit/IF145-022 It doesn't replace real screwdrivers, but it is always there when I need it. I'm embarrassed by the number of times I have used the #2 Phillips out of their kit because I can't find a real screwdriver.

I believe in PC attached label makers. I am much more likely to label things when I don't have to find the labelmaker and type on a chiclet keyboard. I still have a Brother 1500pc, but there are current models. Get one that does 1" labels. You don't use them often, but when you do you are happy to have them.

But it all depends on what you do. For me, a USB to PATA/SATA adapter and an external power supply that will spin a HD is invaluable. Maybe not so much for you.

This is marked funny, but it really works. I was constantly having my 6-n-1 screwdriver disappear until I bought a yellow one with pink flowers. I've had it for years.

I worked with a shop foreman who got tired of losing tools and bought a complete set of things people would want to borrow and painted them all hot pink. Everyone knew that they were welcome to borrow anything pink. If you saw a pink tool left somewhere you knew to return it. It worked great.

MAYBE.

On channel two you are competing with the side lobes of two channels, but your peak has little competition.

If 1 and 6 are heavily congested you might be better on three. You can get an idea using a spectrum analyzer, but do real world tests. I often go off the "big three" in a downtown office.

Most people I know use MetaGeek tools, but I also like to drop an Aerohive AP in an office for a while as part of my network assessment. It can gather a lot of useful information and is completely managed from the web.

It isn't just a hardware problem. You can increase *transmit* power on the AP but not receive sensitivity on the AP or transmit power on the client. (Unless you can increase it on the client; I run networks for other people, I don't get to tweak their equipment. I don't think you can tweak iOS devices at all.)

So, best case, you end up with in a situation where the client hears the AP fine but the AP might, sometimes, barely, hear the client. In a single AP network you are dramatically increasing retransmits. In a multiple AP environment you might be preventing the client from roaming to an AP that can hear it fine. Again, best case scenario, your throughput probably goes down. Don't believe me? Fire up a sniffer and check for yourself. You can use Wireshark under BackTrack really easily. You need linux (or expensive hardware) if you want to capture the management frames.) Or FreeBSD? ;-)

The reality is worse than that. As you increase transmit power your signal distorts. Just like a stereo; it gets fuzzy when you crank it. Just like a stereo, better equipment can go higher without sounding like crap, but I bet the people who don't already know this aren't running high end hardware.

You are much better off getting a good antenna. Antennas help both transmit and receive power.

But there is nothing to stop you from doing a little experimenting. Wi-Fi is funny. You might do better running hot and replacing your AP every year. I generally have happier users when I *decrease* power. YMMV. HTH. HAND.

JonKatz was the reason I got a /. login. I had stopped reading because his blatherings annoyed me too much. Someone let me know that if you had a login you could filter out his crap.

It is fitting that his reminiscence is a grammatical and logical train wreck. "If convention media had followed the idealism and values of Rob and Jeff, they might not now be such a shambles."

If he had started writing sooner I could have gotten a four digit ID

Thanks for the added info. I think most of the people talking about dedicated HVAC are used to bigger installations, from challenging climates, or both. I occasionally have cold air run into a server closet, but ambient works for a few switches and a couple servers.

Dedicated power is easy and you should always have it. Just get as many 15 or 20 amp circuits as you need. I don't know the AC side of the business, but I have never had a problem getting an electrician to rearrange circuits. You just don't want your gear on a breaker that can be tripped by someones personal heater.

I haven't seen anyone else mention wiring trays. I've used them a few times and like them a lot. It makes it easy to add and subtract and, depending on your decor, can be a fashion statement. But i have never worked in a high noise environment.

Do install lots of conduit that is bigger than you want. Consider having your electrician drop conduit to your network locations and then stub it out over the ceiling. That can make MACs a lot easier.

You know your building better than we do. I think you have this covered.

"It's like "Track changes" in Word, but way geekier. We need it and it's cheap. It'll pay for itself by the end of the month."

> full time lawyer and part time nerd doing most of the IT support

I am clearly biased since I am one of the horde of consultants to small business, but I suggest talking to someone who has done this at least a dozen times before.

How would you respond to someone who posted "I'm a full time sysadmin and part time (self-taught) lawyer who handles the contract work..."

Plus your billing rate is probably higher than an IT guys.

You expect to learn something in the comment section? You new around here?

I'll be drinking pirate sherry with me shiny friends! Arrrrr.

http://whedonesque.com/comments/27812

Passwords are, it is said, like underwear.

http://www.umflint.edu/its/units/initiatives/publicity/password.htm

If you are willing to share your underwear with a partner, why not your password?

In my case, I was dating a woman who had been cheated on and had trust issues. I made sure she had access to my email and a tracking location on my phone. She says she never checked up on me, but I hope the gesture was appreciated.

I went through this a few years ago. The church is a medium sized (5,000 - 6,000 members) church in Silicon Valley. The Children's Department library had been on the honor system. A decision was made to automate it. After a lot of research and talking to people we went with SurpassCL (http://www.surpasssoftware.com/surpass-cl.html)

It was slick and worked well. Getting all the media into the system was quite easy. Eventually they decided not to have a Librarian available during check-out times and went to Surpass's self-checkout system. That worked OK too.

Finally we went back to the honor system with little slips of paper. After all, we're a church. If someone wants to keep a DVD, it isn't the end of the world.

I thought Surpass was a little pricey, but the quality of the product is really high. Most of the software I found is *extremely* ugly and non-intuitive. Be sure to get hands on with whatever you choose. More importantly, get your librarian hands on with whatever you choose. I have no problem with ResourceMate, but it was too much for the part time library lady.

And don't discount PaperOS too fast. The licensing fees for your automation software will pay to replace a lot of copies of King George and the Ducky.

(Now where did I leave that hairbrush?)

The US center is also left of center.

I wish I could find the citation, but I read a large survey (Pew or the like) which showed that on average American's are slightly left of center.

This shows what an amazing job of defining the issues the right wing has done. I disagree with the right on many social and economic issues, but they sure do get things done.

I consider myself libertarian. Which I define as being so far to the right I ended up back on the left, but I'm not sure how I got here.

Expanding on the person who suggested personalizing.

You can also uglify your kit. A couple wraps of duct tape and some paint will make your equipment look undesirable. This is a technique used by a lot of journalists who work in third world countries. They make their real camera look like trash and, if space allows, carry a nice looking bait camera. Once you are targeted you have lost, but not looking like a target is a good thing. (Obligatory XKCD reference http://xkcd.com/538/)

Regarding putting valuables in the trunk... It has been 20 years since I was a cop, but at the time we had a lot of parking lot thieves targeting trunks. They would sit in a parking lot until they saw someone pull in and put things in the trunk. Then they would pop the trunk with a stubby screwdriver and steal what they found. By pulling into a parking lot and immediately putting something in the trunk the tourist was advertising that they had something valuable enough they didn't want it in plain sight.