Why I'm an Apple Fan Girl

Airport Express

We have a 2005-era apple G5 which is blindingly fast for offline gaming but suffers from wifi inadequacies. This weekend, mom gave me an old Airport Extreme she wasn't using anymore (one that I gave her as a holiday gift in 2008, natch) and I undertook to get the G5 a better connection speed. Even I was surprised at how much better it turned out.

Speedtest.net results after the changes

The following instructions assume you have a healthy, secure wireless network already in place.

Airport Utility

1. Factory Default Reset on the Airport Express as noted here http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3728
2. Launch the Airport Utility. Wireless networks in range will appear - your existing network and the Airport Express.
3. Update the firmware on the Airport Express (if needed)
4. On your main wireless unit base station (in my case an Airport extreme), select Manual Setup then go to the Wireless tab. Check the box next to "Allow this network to be extended" then click Update to apply the change.
5. On your airport extreme wireless unit, select Manual Setup then go to the Wireless tab. Change the Wireless Mode drop down to "Extend a wireless network." Select the Wireless Network Name corresponding to your existing network. Select your existing network's Wireless Security from the drop down menu. Finally, enter your Wireless Password for your existing network and Verify Password also. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1731 has more details, and an explanation for how to do this with the Airport Setup Assistant.

This didn't take long at all, but as it is a simple alternative to a wireless distribution system I thought it was worth sharing. It demonstrates that even 3 and 6 years out, Apple equipment retains a lot of value and ease of use.

Related articles

• Apple software update hints at new wireless gear (news.cnet.com)
• Discouraging People From Joining Your WiFi Network (joemoreno.com)

Update Twitter with Flickr photostream via Twitterfeed

Wondering how to update twitter with flickr status? Here's the steps:

1. Set up an account with Twitterfeed
2. Find out your flickr photostream's RSS feed. Go to your photostream (as an example, here's my photostream and look for the "Subscribe to ____'s photostream" text on the page. Obviously, fill in the blank with your own flickr name.
   
3. Copy the RSS link by right clicking (or control clicking) on the link by the rss icon. Note that the link should end with "&format=rss_200."
   
4. Go back to Twitterfeed, and click the link to "Create New Feed." Fill out the easy form, and you're set.

Some further advice: don't irritate your twitter friends by blasting out 5 updates at a time via twitterfeed: that's the default option but I don't like it. Their interface shows: Post up to 1 2 3 4 5 new updates each time by default, I change that to 1 for my feeds. If you want to be chattier on twitter, then change the update frequency to more frequent intervals.

Yes, this works for any service which is rss-able, even Facebook.

I'll be looking for you on twitter. Find me there at twitter.com/ejly. Prior twitter tools posts:

• Update twitter with facebook status via twitterfeed
• Twitt(url)y
• Twitpic
  
• Twitter grader
• Tweetstat's Twitter Cloud
  
• Twirvana
  
• Twitter Counter
• Mr. Tweet
• Twitter widget

Thanks @CharityHisle for the inspiration to write these instructions up.

Update twitter with facebook status via twitterfeed

Wondering how to update twitter with facebook status? Here's the steps:

1. Set up an account with Twitterfeed
2. Find out your facebook page's RSS feed. Go to your facebook mini-feed and look for the "My Status" link on the page. If you have trouble finding it, go to Your facebook notifications page and copy the link from Your Notifications, which usually appears at the end of the second column.
   
3. Copy the "My Status" link. Note that the link should end with "&format=rss20."
   
4. Go back to Twitterfeed, and click the link to "Create New Feed." Fill out the easy form, and you're set.

Some further advice: don't irritate your twitter friends by blasting out 5 updates at a time via twitterfeed: that's the default option but I don't like it. Their interface shows: Post up to 1 2 3 4 5 new updates each time by default, I change that to 1 for my feeds. If you want to be chattier on twitter, then change the update frequency to more frequent intervals.

Yes, you can have twitter updates posted as your facebook status too. Just log in and access the Twitter application in facebook. Check the application settings on that app and make sure the checkbox by "Publish to streams" is active.

Thanks Andy Walters and Techlifeweb for the tip on finding the facebook page RSS

I'll be looking for you on twitter. Find me there at twitter.com/ejly. Prior twitter tools posts:

• Twitt(url)y
• Twitpic
  
• Twitter grader
• Tweetstat's Twitter Cloud
  
• Twirvana
  
• Twitter Counter
• Mr. Tweet
• Twitter widget