By now most of us know what Twitter is. Of do we? I spent more than a few months with a Twitter account and no real idea how to use it. At first it seemed a lot like re-branded Instant Messaging and I already have plenty of choices for that. Did I really need another one? My business partner Nick kept telling me, “Dude, you need to get on this. It’s big.” I wasn’t initially moved.

And then came the revelation: Twitter is not about instant messging. It is about promoting yourself to others. You can do it for business reasons or for personal ones, but one simple fact is true: Sell yourself 140 characters at a time. I’m not talking about spamming people. We’ve got plenty of that via other avenues (and Twitter is a victim, too). It’s about saying things that are quick, concise, relevant and interesting about what is happening in your world. If you say things that are not boring, people will follow you. You don’t have to find followers, they will find you. All you need to do is tweet. Dare I say it? “Tweet, and they will come.”

To date I have three Twitter accounts, each for a different facet of me. Admittedly I use one more than the others but I don’t like to cross-brand who I am. But that works for me. I tweet about business things with my business Twitter account. I tweet about more personal things with my personal twitter accounts. I don’t like to muddy the waters (which is the primary reason I despise Facebook). That may not work for you. Do what feels right.

The single biggest thing you can do for yourself on Twitter is to make sure you don’t get lured into using it as another IM client. I follow more than a few people who use it to chat about where to go to lunch or what time a movie starts, etc. That’s annoying. To them I suggest a little app called Skype. If you use Twitter as an IM client you are likely to lose followers in a hurry.

Twitter is a phenomon. It’s still misunderstood by many, though. More famous twitterer’s like Ashton Kutcher have increased their celebrity by making them more accessible to their fans. Having a direct line like that to people who have historically been so unattainable is a powerful, powerful thing. While you may not be hooking up with Demi you still may have interesting things to say. Tweet them. You will develop a following of your own.

A final note: Just because someone follows you does not mean you have to follow them in return. If you get a new follower, look them up. See what they tweet about. Read their bio. Are they interesting to you? If so, follow back. If not, that’s cool, too. If you do follow someone, see who else is following them. You will find that many of their followers are interesting to you. Follow them. Some of them will follow you in return. It’s viral.

Now go. Tweet.

Cheers,

Colin Weaver

I get a lot of emails from Cisco every week.  A whole lot.  They aren’t spam, really.  It’s just that the frequency with which they arrive in my mailbox makes me think of them as such.  Here is how the subject line of each and every message reads:

End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Announcement for the <Insert Latest Product Being Kicked to the Curb Here>

For example:

Nobody plows through products like Cisco.  They release and kill products faster than a developing fetus churns through cells.  It’s ridiculous, really.  Because I view our industry with a tiny pinch of cynicism I often find myself a teeny bit disenfranchised with Cisco over such things.  Their products tend to cost some noticeable duckets.  And they tend to get EOL’d pretty quickly.  Combining those two truths together means that Cisco is always wanting me to buy new gear before I’ve gotten sufficient ROI (Return on Investment) on what I’ve got.

But that’s part of the business model for Cisco.  The big players, the one’s with really deep pockets, can afford to keep up with Cisco’s shennanigans.  In fact, because the checks getting written aren’t usually having any impact on the paychecks of the people writing them they often don’t care one way or the other.  What’s a hundred grand here or there?  I mean, really?  It’s the smaller businesses that can’t hang.  Dropping $4K on a switch is a major deal for a small business.  Being told that it is end-of-life a year or so after you buy it stings more than just a little bit.  But this is the nature of the business.  Things move on.  Technology develops .  Features evolve.  Stockholders need dividend checks.

Don’t get me even a little bit wrong.  I straight-up LOVE capitalism.  I don’t believe that the big boys should have to play nice to give the little upstarts a chance.  That’s crap.  Crush them if you can.  Because if you don’t, they will crush you.  If I was Cisco, I would crush everyone.  Every Friday my employees would wear shirts to work that read “Cisco” on the front and “Monopoly” on the back.  I’d have custom Monopoly board games made where the objective was for Cisco to dominate the board, crushing all competitors.  Well, that’s the America I want to live in, at least.  It’s better to be the crusher than the crushee, of course.  And it sucks to be you if you find yourself getting smooshed.

I have a word for small businesses who want Cisco gear but don’t want to pay premium prices.  Either get out your checkbook and try to keep up or do what this word implies.  Pick a path and follow it.  I can tell you this because I am a small business.  I know what it is to want the toys of the big boys but have the bank books of an upstart.  I don’t like this word any more than you do.

So what’s the word?  You already know it.  You don’t like to say it.  It’s like buying bo-bo brand sneakers or Sam’s Choice Cola.  It’s buying Hyundai because you can’t afford Mercedes.  It’s like buing Inspiron because you can’t afford XPS.   As much as you don’t want it to this word shouts out to the world, “Hey, I can’t afford it!”

The word:  Linksys.

Cheers,

Colin Waver

There’s something about the smell of popcorn that disrupts the flow of data across 802.11 WLANs.  It’s an interesting phenomenon.  Workers in the office, particularly those who sit close to the break room are finding that there is a direct relationship between the smell of someone making an afternoon popcorn snack and poor/diminished performance of their wireless computers.

We are currently trying to ascertain whether “Movie Theater Butter” popcorn has a greater impact than “Lite” flavors.  The results so far are inconclusive.  Tests are also planned to see if Crunch-N-Munch and other candied popcorn implementations will have a similarly disastrous effect.  We’re hoping that the caramel/butter/popcorn combo produces a synergy that allows for a more effective WLAN disruption mechanism.  We’re optimistic that the exact chemical composition that is disrupting the data flow will be identified.  With a little luck we may be able to weaponize a synthetic formula that allows for pinpoint WLAN DoS attacks by law enforcement and military officials.  Patents are pending.

Wait…..

Seriously?……

Uh…., no.

The symptoms of a network problem can often be misleading and even confusing.  If you don’t have a deep, fundamental understanding how a certain technology works you’ll be hard-pressed to be correct in your diagnosis.  All too common a reality in this day of GUI’s, automated set-up’s and plug & play devices.

Imagine how confused everyone will be when we decide to test the ability of popcorn cooked on the stove (What? You can do that?) to provided similar levels of 802.11 disruption.  They are sure to be baffled by the results.

Sometimes, just sometimes, you just need a new microwave…

For several years now I have been using access points at my house that were purchased at Best Buy (or Newegg).  I haved used Linksys, Netgear and Buffalo.  I constantly switch them around for one reason or another.  The one thing that has been consistent in all that time is that each of those APs has actually run the same custom code:  DD-WRT.

There was a long period of time when I would only use Cisco APs at work and at home.  Cisco’s wireless gear is a little pricey but is consistent and feature rich.  Having Cisco at home is a little more that most people want to spend so most have been stuck using off-the-shelf stuff from vendors like Linksys (owned by Cisco), Netgear, Buffalo, D-Link, etc.  What makes DD-WRT so cool is that it allows you to take the inexpensive APs you buy at Best Buy and replace the pre-installed vendor code.  Doing so unlocks a whole new world of features that weren’t there before.

The other thing that DD-WRT brings with it is stability.  Many of you out there have to regularly power cycle your APs.  They just stop working and won’t respond to anything except a pronounced lack of electricity.  Placing DD-WRT on your AP all but eliminates this.  In this regard DD-WRT is very Cisco-like (e.g. plug it in and forget about it for months or years at a time).

This exceptional coolness comes only with a little effort.  DD-WRT is not supported on every device out there (but the list is pretty big) and there is a possibility that you can brick (ruin) your access point.  That has never happened to me (and I have installed DD-WRT multiple dozens of times) but it is a risk to consider.  The risk is worth the reward.  If you aren’t using DD-WRT today you should visit the DD-WRT site and see if your AP is supported.  If it is, give some thought to making the switch.  The DD-WRT web site has detailed instructions on how to upgrade. Follow them precisely and you’ll be a happier person.

Colin Weaver

So I just read this article.  In it they say that Erik Tews and Martin Beck (the guy who does the decidedly awesome aircrack-ng stuff) have found a way to semi-compromie TKIP in just a few minutes.  They haven’t claimed to be able to do key recovery just yet (the way we can do with WEP) but I’m guessing that it’s just a matter of time now.

My first reaction was this:  So what?  They are cracking TKIP.  While it’s exciting news it shouldn’t be the earth shattering kaboom that the article insinuates.  WEP is busted.  Bad.  WPA was released to let us limp along until WPA2 (802.11i, or whatever it is that we’re calling it these days) was released.  Both WPA and WPA2 have AES support.  Yes, I know that not all WPA devices support(ed) AES but all WPA2 devices do.  If you are using an AP that doesn’t support AES, especially in a business setting, you deserve to get punked.  It’s a little thing I like to call due care.  You are responsible for knowing the implications of a technology before implementing it.  If you know that AES is currently considered the most secure solution available and you choose not to implement it then you deserve the consequences.

Businesses still using WEP or TKIP are victims of either their own laziness or the breakneck speed with which technology evolves.  Or both.  AES has been readily available in even the most inexpensive of wireless equipment for several years.  If your gear doesn’t support it, it’s too old.  The idea of not fixing it because it isn’t broken simply doesn’t apply in the WLAN arena.  The technology has changed a lot over the past ten years and you need to keep your gear up-to-date.

Colin Weaver