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http://www.fonerahacks.com

Yep, that’s what I’ve been up to lately. Many people seemed interested in the aircrack video I had posted here a few weeks ago so I figured I’d make another website dedicated just for the Fonera. I also noticed the lack of comprehensive, easy to understand tutorials regarding flashing procedures, so I decided to make some myself.

The site has many tutorials and guides with screenshots to help you flash the firmware. There is also a growing forum where you can get your questions answered.

I also have 15 invites to give away for people who register for the forums and follow these simple instructions.

Soon after buying a new TV or any other expensive electronic item, the cashier will almost immediately ask you to purchase an extended warranty plan for a few hundred dollars. I know many people who always get warranties regardless. The thing you need to ask yourself is:

1. How likely is it for the item to fail?
2. How long is the manufacturer’s warranty?
3. Do any of your credit cards add warranty to the manufacturer’s original warranty?
4. Will you actually need the additional years of service?

Here’s my explanation of why I always deny extended warranties.

• I do my research. Some manufacturers have a notoriously high return rate while others don’t. Depending on the item, do your research, read reviews, and then determine if the likeliness of failure exceeds your threshold.
• The manufacturer’s warranty is adequate. Most warranties for electronics items are one year, which is more than enough time to determine if the product will last. Many electronics break within their first year, thus it is safe to say if it didn’t break in the first year, it probably won’t in the following year.
• It is simply too expensive and does not pay off. For my $700 TV, the extended warranty was $300, almost half the cost. Say my TV somehow breaks in three years. Since I didn’t buy the warranty, I’m up $300. I can then sell my broken TV for about $300 and recoup $600 of the $700 original dollars. Note, this is in the minute likelihood of the TV actually failing.
• This isn’t the ’90s anymore. With improvements in the manufacturing process, electronic failures are getting increasingly rarer. In my years of IT, I’ve never seen an LCD monitor break, but CRTs are a different story.
• Instead of buying the warranty, save your money for when you might need it. In the event that your item does break, you may be able to get it repaired for less than what the warranty would have cost you.
• And finally, to be blunt, I simply don’t buy extended warranties because my electronics don’t break. Take care of them and they will take care of you.

Here is a great article that covers some points I’ve mentioned. It’s a good read as they go into more detail on a broader array of items.

I’ve been doing research on domain names lately and it hit me. .mobi domain names are going to be popular very soon. Look at prices for PDAs/smartphones, they are dropping rapidly. Right now the prices are free to $99 for an entry level device. For example, the Blackjack 2 and Treo Centro are two devices costing less than $100, or even free in some instances. With PDAs/Smartphones, the #1 thing people will want (besides the phone service) is a data plan. Without that, the phone is almost useless and functionality is reduced.

That’s when I got to thinking, “What do people need? What will people want?” The answer, a functional web page that serves a purpose. With that in mind, I decided to buy http://www.nettest.mobi and make it into a network testing site. You can ping, run a whois, check domain availability, etc. all on that page. You don’t need to download anything either. I thought it would be quite handy for IT professionals when they don’t access to a computer. I can even think of a few instances when I needed such a tool.

Another website I plan to build is http://www.birdguide.mobi for all of the bird watchers. Think about it for a minute. You’re outside with no computer, but everyone keeps a phone on them. Wouldn’t it be great if you could pull up a web page on your phone that had pictures and descriptions of the birds you were looking at? It also eliminates the need for a field guide if you’ve got an all in one reference in your pocket.

So, in order to succeed, I went from thinking, “I like this, I like that,” to, “What do people want? What do people need?”

Be sure to checkout http://www.nettest.mobi on your phone!