• Social Networking

    List of all the Swarm Stickers

    Yup, more social media weird lists. If you’ve ever wondered what you have to do to get that one sticker on Foursq… er, Swarm, here goes: https://krypted.com//utilities/list-of-all-swarm-sticker/. A few things I’ve learned about these things: You get stickers if you check-in through third party apps that have API plug-ins to Swarm (such as Untappd). You get stickers if you check-in through the Foursquare app instead of Swarm. The distance limitation for stickers seems to be removed (so if your GPS picks you up a mile from a spot and you are checking in there, you’ll still get a sticker if appropriate). There are no more levels of stickers/badges like there were…

  • Active Directory,  Mac OS X

    Snow Leopard + SkyHook = Kerb Problems?

    In the Date and Time System Preference pane there is now an option to enable “Set time zone automatically using current location”. Assuming you have a Mac OS X computer with Wi-Fi and you use this option (which is not enabled by default) then your portable looks up your location automatically using the wireless access points surrounding you, which can then be looked up against the Skyhook database API and then changes your time zone based on your physical location. However, if your system looks back to the IP address of the KDC and sees a time offset that is greater than 5 minutes a few people have asked me…

  • Network Infrastructure

    MiFi

    MiFi, a product from Novatel Wireless, is a credit card sized device that provides a 7 Megabit connection to the internet as a portable wireless hotspot. It’s GPS-enabled and it can serve up to 5 devices using WiFi. Nice little device overall. In my testing it was about twice as fast as my Sprint USB card.

  • Mac OS X,  On the Road,  Travel

    On the Road: Sprint SmartView

    When I’m on the road, I use a Sprint Sierra card. I used to pay for Internet access in my room, fish around for Wi-fi networks, etc. But no more. Now, when I’m at the airport, in the hotel or even when I’m at home and both of my Internet connections go down (sadly, it happens) I’m able to use my laptop and be online. Right now, I’m using the Compass 597 from Sierra, which has a top speed of 3.1 Mbps down or 1.8 Mbps up. I look forward to the day when I can upgrade to the Sierra USB 306/307, which actually bumps that top speed to 21…