If you didn’t happen to visit the Kanabec Broadband Initiative booth at the Home Show, you missed out on untold measures of fun and excitement. And if you didn’t happen to attend their Community Broadband Forum, your chance to witness history in the making has passed.

But though all the fun may be over, the documentation lives on. This is the ISP list we created for said events – a very valuable one-page flyer that was passed out at both events. It has current info on various Internet service providers that operate in the Mora area, including available speeds, prices, and pros/cons for different access mediums. We created it in hopes that it’ll make your quest to obtain broadband Internet access easier. Enjoy!

Oh, and by the way: Kanabec Systems is a member of the Kanabec Broadband Initiative group. That means we’ll be there to bring our customers’ perspectives and point of view to the table when the decisions are being made. We’re happy to be involved, and plan to do our part in bringing the promise of broadband closer to reality in rural Kanabec County.

At the request of the Kanabec Broadband Initiative group, I was updating our List of ISPs for 2011. There wasn’t room for the lengthy advice section anymore, so I had to chop it off of the print version. But it’s still good info – so I’m making sure it gets preserved here.

Some of the info is a little dated (first written in 2007), but most of it still applies today.

Who do we recommend? Tough call – they’re all good. If you are already a customer of one of these companies, you’ll probably want to stay there. If you want to switch, remember that the two telcos (Qwest and NorthStar) will only give you the rates shown if you have their phone service. If you live more than a mile or so out of town, Qwest may be your only choice. If you have need for additional Web services (such as website hosting, co-location, or wireless broadband) or insist on giving your business to small businesses only, go with NCIS.

Choose the kind of provider – ISP, ILEC, or CLEC – that you’re most comfortable with. After all, it all goes into the same Internet.

What should I watch out for? Be sure to ask lots of questions, and make sure that you are comfortable with the service you’re choosing.

Ask what kind of modem you’ll get. We highly recommend avoiding internal modems and/or any modem whose only interface is USB. Don’t be too quick to judge, though – some providers’ modems will primarily discuss USB in their documentation, but will still support Ethernet (which is far more desirable, especially for use with older or multiple machines). Qwest’s new modems are a prime example of this.

Ask how the modem is paid for – do you buy it, lease it, or is it included in the service price? What happens if it should break down? Are there any restrictions on how you can or cannot use it (i.e., only on one computer at a time)?

Avoid services that require proprietary software be installed on your computer, as such a setup limits flexibility. It is our opinion that an Internet connection should not come with minimum requirements (outside of having an appropraite hardware interface and TCP/IP support) or force you to run extra software (other than a PPPoE client or similar). Having a connection that requires proprietary software may limit your ability to use the connection directly on your older computer, and will almost always prevent you from using off-the-shelf networking products (such as routers) directly with the connection.

Also, be aware that proprietary software is often (but not always) optional. For instance, Qwest’s MSN software only provides access to enhanced content, and is not required to get on the Internet.

Examples of GOOD modems would be: NCIS.com’s Netopia modem/router combination devices (the standard issue), Qwest’s new ActionTec modem/router combo devices (also standard), and NorthStar’s basic Ethernet-based modems.

You should also inquire about installation charges and any other non-obvious fees, as well as whether or not the price offered is part of a promotion, and how much the service fee will be after the promotion ends. Qwest is known for offering lots of promos (free installation, special pricing for the first year, etc). NorthStar isn’t a stranger to such deals either, but doesn’t use them quite as widely or frequently. NCIS.com does not typically run any promos, but they sometimes are willing to negotiate their pricing.

Be sure to read and understand the provider’s Acceptable Use Policy before signing the contract. Some providers may place restrictions on the amount of data you can transfer, what applications you may and may not run, and so forth. Also, find out how long your contract will be, and if there’s a trial period during which you may cancel the service if it doesn’t work as you expected.

If you will be using the connection in conjunction with any Kanabec server solutions, for running other servers of any sort, as a VPN endpoint, or to access a corporate network from home, ask whether or not you’ll get a static IP address, and if it costs extra. NCIS.com and NorthStar assign static IPs for all their customers at no additional cost; Qwest will lease them for $5.99/mo and charges a $25 fee to do the setup.

Once it’s complete, the List will also be linked here.

This would be the floppy disk icon on the Mac OS X desktop, as displayed on a brand-spankin’-new MacBook running 10.6.4.

We’ve seen this icon a few times back in the early days of OS X – you know, when beige Macs were still a common sight. (Yes, kids, Macs never used to be made out of aluminum.)

Back then, customers would routinely try and talk us into “tricking” the latest build of, say, 10.1.x, into running on their Power Mac 7300 with 128MB of RAM and a Sonnet Presto G3 card – and sometimes we would. Such machines actually had floppy drives built into them, so on the rare occasion when someone would insert a floppy disk, said icon would appear on their desktop. Even then we were a bit surprised not to see the generic “white drive” icon instead.

But today, as we connected a USB SuperDisk drive to a thoroughly modern Intel Mac, we were utterly shocked to see it. No AppleTalk, no Rosetta… but yet somehow the floppy icon lives on.

Now if only the Happy Mac would once again show its smiling face, or we could be lulled to the beat of a thousand flying toaster wings on these new Macs, all would be right in the world again.

Or maybe not. (But we still want to see After Dark get ported… hint, hint!)

One of the Intel iMacs we use here at the shop needed a new hard drive this week. Turns out the old drive was one of those that contains a built-in temperature sensor, and the new drive wasn’t (see this for the complete lowdown). End result? The SMC no longer knew what the drive’s temp was, panicked, and ran the hard drive fan on full speed – continuously. The noise was bothersome at best, and deafening at worst.

If this had been a customer’s machine, we would’ve cracked it back open and installed one of the many sensors we’ve saved from junk iMac G5s and other such machines. But since ripping the Mac apart again just wasn’t high on our list, we opted to solve the problem in software instead.

First, we took the smc utility (included with various fan-monitoring apps) and crafted a set of arguments for it that would limit the fan to running at a much more tolerable 2000 RPM. Then we wrote an XML file for LaunchServices that would run our command four times a minute (since the fan speed is re-set every time the machine powers off or goes to sleep, we need to ensure it never runs at full-speed for long). Hey, we said it was quick and dirty!

All in all, our hack did the job. It’s by no means elegant, but at least we can stop shouting over the fan noise.

There’s a ZIP file, which contains smc and our launchd script, at http://www.kanabec.net/blog/FanSpeed.zip. Feel free to use it at your own risk. Our settings are plenty safe for the machine in question, but could have unintended consequences if used with other models or configurations. You have been warned!

Since our anonymous FTP service was retired in the spring of 2010, we figured it’d be nice to put together a list of the freeware applications that were formerly stored there, so that they’ll be easier to obtain in the future.

The FTP service at shop.kanabec.net was created to provide a one-stop destination for getting up-to-date versions of all these applications. But as their sizes and update frequencies continue to rise, it becomes less and less practical to keep mirroring them. So instead we will begin keeping a directory of links – links that will allow you to download these things directly from their creators, thus ensuring that you always get the latest and greatest.

Spoiler alert: given the following applications, along with the right know-how and a small storefront, you too can become as rich and famous as we are! (Which is to say, neither rich nor famous at all. But then, there’s worse ways to pass time…)

The Basics. These are the things we install on every new and refurbished machine we sell, and which we recommend every customer make use of. They’re all good, and – better still – they’re all free!

• Firefox – the king of browsers. Like Internet Explorer, only more stable and secure. Install it and never look back.
• Thunderbird – an able replacement for Outlook Express or Windows Mail that’s infinitely more secure.
• AVG Free – perhaps the best anti-virus software available today – and it’s free.
• Malwarebytes – virii aren’t the only kind of nasty ‘wares floating around out there. This app finds and destroys adware, spyware, and various other flavors of malware.

The Extras. We’re not big on loading machines up with extra fluff, but there are a few goodies we think you might find useful.

• Adobe Reader – PDFs are everywhere. If you want to view them, you’ll need this.
• OpenOffice – if you need an office suite that won’t break the bank, look no further. It looks and works like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc… but it’s free!
• iTunes – organizes your music, converts your CDs to MP3s, syncs up your iPods, and (not surprisingly) offers a vast library of music to try and buy.
• VideoLAN Client – the Swiss Army knife of media players.
• ZoneAlarm Free – if you’re not behind some sort of hardware router or firewall, you really oughtta run ZoneAlarm.

We’ll be adding more things to the list as we discover/uncover/remember them.