New CarGFX.com products!
March 20th, 2010 / 1 Comment » / by Sean
I’ve been selling a lot to the VW TDI community so I’ve been working on some new designs.
Clean Diesel #2
Biofuel
TDI CLEAN DIESEL (VW Style)
Oh the humanity!
March 17th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Sean
This is a new Best Buy in Addison, TX off Beltline Road. In the EXACT same location of a former Circuit City. I miss competition.
Review of Clear 4G WiMax in DFW/North Dallas
March 17th, 2010 / 2 Comments » / by Sean
So I’ve been chomping at the bit waiting for Clear to deploy in DFW. I purchased the card back in December 2009 pretty much as soon as I could in the area. So far I have been pretty impressed by the service. I work in IT and it’s always such a pain in the butt to be on-call and having to stay near an internet connection. I have been tethering my iPhone for this purpose for some time but 3G tethering leaves much to be desired. Specifically 3G speed barely provides enough bandwidth to run a decent Citrix desktop connection, and even then it is still very sluggish. With Clear 4G technology when I have a good connection in excess of 3Mbit downstream most of the time.
Sprint 4G vs. Time Warner Road Runner Mobile vs. Clear?
It’s all the same technologies, same towers, mostly the same devices. Clear is consolidation of many different companies and backers and therefore the same service is sold under different names. Pick whichever gives you the best deal or offer. Clear.com does appear to give the best offers though.
Hardware:
I opted for the Motorola USB modems (the only option at the time). They are pretty basic and have only a single LED that flashes on the front. The LED flashes red with there is no signal or it is not connected, or the flashes green if it is connected based on traffic. There is no visible way to determine signal strength on the device itself. They include a cheap USB adapter that allows you to angle the modem, left right etc. This little cheap USB adapter is junk and I expect it to break over time. At which point there is not really a way to angle the modem up. There is a newer design USB modem available which seems to have a pop out USB adapter which is a better solution.
Plan:
I was enticed by the two mobile devices for $50/month (which they have already increased the price to $65/mo). This is unlimited downstream, and 1Mbit capped upstream. They offer plans as cheap as $30/month for 1.5Mbit capped downstream speeds. However, the bundle plans appear to be the best bang for the buck and maybe it is worth sharing a plan with a friend.
No Contract Please:
I highly recommend ordering this from clear.com due to the fact that there are no contract options available for no additional cost. If you buy this from Best Buy, Frys, or Radio Shack they will get you in a 2 year contract with early cancellation fees.
Install:
Clear modem on Mac OS X Snow Leopard. First snag right out of the gate was that the Motorola USB Modem did not support Mac OS X Snow Leopard, thankfully they did release a client for Mac OS X Snow Leopard on their website as soon as I had it so that was quickly resolved. I also tried the Windows client and that also worked well. I kind of wish that I didn’t have to run a client application all the time while connected but this is standard fair for 3G adapters.
Coverage:
This is the real sticking point with any wireless technology. The coverage for Clear is pretty fairly good where I have tested it in DFW. I have heard that they do not yet have all the towers active in the metroplex. The coverage gaps do seem pretty widespread and while their advertising gives the impression you can stream TV on the train I highly doubt this is possible. I’ve had my laptop on trying to stream This American Life down the highway and it cuts in an out and that is a much less bandwidth intensive (and cached) technology. However, at the point of writing I have tested this in as many locations in the area as I feel to and it works either very well or not at all. Unfortunately my house in Frisco, TX I can barely get a workable signal and get pretty terrible stream rates, however just a mile away I can nearly triple my bandwidth. In my testing it appears Clear is putting preference to more heavily trafficked commercial areas more so than residential areas. It seems as though even a mile away from great signal you can just about drop off and not be able to connect at all.
Other Markets:
So WiMax currently is only in a handful of markets. And for the heavy traveler there are many gaps which don’t make sense. I did use my Clear card in Houston, TX (even though they have not official launched there) a few weeks ago and it did work quite well.
Hardware Considerations:
So I did talk with a Clear representative at length and the short is that the USB modem is the weakest in their arsenal. The powered WiMax Modem/Wifi Routers pump out the best signal strength and have the best antennas. Therefore simply moving to a different device may very well yield 100% better speeds. The new Mobile USB modem I am told runs cooler and has a nifty external antenna attachment which should help things. I am trying to get my hands on on of these devices and perhaps running around town and doing another round of testing.
Conclusion:
Overall I am very impressed by Clear WiMax technology in North Dallas. The coverage while some areas is almost nonexistent the majority of areas that I tested did beat 3G tethering devices by a longshot. 3G tethering in my experience pretty much maxes out at 1Mbit regardless of carrier. And the cost seems very reasonable, while 3G cards run $60/month plans (for 5GB usage), Clear offers better service for $30/month for a single device. And with the bundle options for two devices it’s cheaper per device. I personally think the Business 3G/4G service is a huge bargain at $55/month (which is dumbfounding considering Sprint offers a 3G only device for $60/month). So long as you stay in the area for the most part the mobile device works great. The last caveat is Verizon is supposed to roll out LTE technology later this year and maybe these coverage gaps will be nonexistent, but at the monthly rate I’m sure Clear will be competitive.
Tested Locations:
Plano – US Highway 75 & Plano Parkway – Tested 3-17-10
- Downstream = 1.47Mbit
- Upstream = 1.03Mbit (capped at 1Mbit)
- Ping = 78ms
Dallas – North Dallas Tollway & Trinity Mills Road – Tested 3-17-10
- Downstream = 8.65bit
- Upstream = 0.98Mbit (capped at 1Mbit)
- Ping = 89ms
Carrollton – Keller Springs & Marsh Lane – Tested 3-17-10
- Downstream = 1.22Mbit
- Upstream = 0.04Mbit (capped at 1Mbit)
- Ping = 137ms
Addison – Belt Line Dr & Marsh Lane – Tested 3-17-10
- Downstream = 8.02Mbit
- Upstream = 0.98Mbit (capped at 1Mbit)
- Ping = 75ms
Addison – North Dallas Tollway & Belt Line Road – Tested 3-17-10
- Could not connect
Richardson – Preston Road & Frankford Road – Tested 3-17-10
- Downstream = 3.84Mbit
- Upstream = 1.05Mbit (capped at 1Mbit)
- Ping = 84ms
Plano – Preston Road & Park Road – Tested 3-17-10
- Downstream = 4.15Mbit
- Upstream = 0.98Mbit (capped at 1Mbit)
- Ping = 82ms
Frisco – Highway 121 & Preston Road – Tested 3-17-10
- Downstream = 4.16Mbit
- Upstream = 1.05Mbit (capped at 1Mbit)
- Ping = 76ms
Frisco – Preston Road & Lebanon Road- Tested 3-17-10
- Downstream = 3.5oMbit
- Upstream = 0.98Mbit (capped at 1Mbit)
- Ping = 71ms
Frisco – About a mile from Preston Road & Leabanon Road- Tested 3-17-10
- Downstream = 1.41Mbit
- Upstream = 0.04Mbit (capped at 1Mbit)
- Ping = 158ms
The Goods:
The Economy of a Price Mistakes on your eStore
March 17th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Sean
So I recently tried to partake on someone else’s error. I tried to jump on some Mushkin DDR3 (3x 2GB) RAM. I found the deal through Slickdeals naturally. It’s no real surprise that Mushkin isn’t honoring the hot price. Especially considering they easily have 2000+ orders. Sure since they are a manufacturer they aren’t paying the same price as some online retailers have it for sale for but you can pretty much bet it’s still somewhere north of $120 per set. So a cool $80,000 or so would be lost by honoring the deal.
What to do if you have a price mistake…
Legally…
You can bet 99% of estores on the web have disclosures basically protecting themselves stating they they have discretion to cancel orders for any reason they seem fit to do so. So on a legal standpoint the retailer is within the right to cancel an order. And potential lawsuits would be pretty frivolous and not very likely due to the cost of court fees and hiring a lawyer.
Goodwill approach:
You can honor the price mistake. Hopefully it won’t eat your lunch and make you lose money for the quarter/year. There may be a good reason so maybe only a handful of people go in on it. Potentially they are longtime customers. However, don’t delude yourself into thinking that these kinds of customers will potentially be repeat customers. In general price mistakes make the rounds on the internet like a hot video on Youtube it gets passed around like it’s on fire. It is very likely you’ll have a flood of new customer’s and very likely 95% have not ordered from you previously. However, just because you honor the deal this time doesn’t mean they will return, at least not until your next price mistake. At best your looking at 10% of the customer base even looking at your website ever again.
Compromise approach:
You admit to your new customer base of the error. And offer them the product at a higher but still reduced price (one where you are still making money). Some customers will obviously resent this action but you make actually have some takers on the deal. So long as your making something on the transactions the customers whom follow through may have a good feeling in their mouth about you and actually be a return customer.
Slash and Run approach:
You can be a Republican and never admit an error and simply cancel the orders and go about your day. Don’t do this at least tell your customers in a nice email that you are not honoring the order.
The I’m asking for chargeback hell approach:
You put in the orders at a higher price and charge their cards for the normal price. This violates just about every credit card merchant agreement and your asking for pissed off customers, chargebacks, and potentially a lawsuit.
Admit mistake and move on:
This is the most popular in that it costs the least amount of money. Just admit mistake send a nice email and then cancel the orders.
Getting Zonet ZVC7611W / ZVC7611 IP Cameras to work in ZoneMinder
March 16th, 2010 / 5 Comments » / by Sean
Newegg had a sale on the Zonet ZVC7611W IP camera for $40 shipped. Since I’ve been looking for a replacement for a dead camera this seemed to fit the bill. The web UI for the Zonet camera is well painful to use I tried to get the image capture as quickly as I could into ZoneMinder. There isn’t any documentation on how to actually accomplish this. After some sleuthing and analysis of packet traces I figured out these cameras are electrically identical to Edimax (some French company) IP Cameras.
- Edimax IC-1520PDg = Zonet ZVC7611W
- Edimax IC-1520DP = Zonet ZVC7611
Their documentation sadly is about 1000% better than any documentation that Zonet gives or allows you to download. Full documentation is available from this pdf.
ZoneMinder Configuration:
- Remote Host Name: admin:1234@192.168.x.x
- Remote Host Path: /jpg/image.jpg
Screenshot:
Buy from Newegg:
Hello World
March 16th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Sean
Hi all my name is Sean Furukawa. I started this blog to document the random stuff that I do, interests, technical conquests, and anything else I can think of.