The Airport Express used to sit in my bedroom hooked up to some speakers, and the Linksys in my living room. By the time the Linksys’ signal reached my bedroom, it was spotty on my MacBook Pro, and streaming music dropped our frequently. (As did Skype, iChat video, etc.)

The Airport Express can be configured to extend a wireless connection (as opposed to joining it) using WDS, but there’s a lot of conflicting and outdated info on whether or how the it will work with non-Apple wireless routers.

After fiddling for a half hour or so, I got it to work. Here’s how…

1) Click on the Airport tab in the Airport Setup Utility

2) Select “Participate in a WDS Network” for your Wireless Mode

3) Type in the name of the network you want to extend, exactly

Things should look like this now:

Note: You can use WEP security (there are reports WPA doesn’t work when extending the network) but I encourage you not to. The dangers of opening up your wireless network are few (especially if you’re using a Mac) and completely overblown by the media. The benefits — letting guests online easily, not remembering another password, sharing your internet with others, etc. — outweigh them.

4) Get the MAC address of the wireless router you’re extending from its online configuration interface. With the Linksys, you’ll find it here:

5) Hop on over to the WDS tab in the Airport Setup Utility

6) Change your WDS Mode to “WDS remote”

7) Check “Allow Wireless Clients” and paste the router MAC address you just looked up into WDS Main

That’s it!

Update your settings, let your Airport Express restart, and once it reboots, it should be extending your Linksys network seamlessly. My connection’s no longer dropping in my bedroom and music is streaming wirelessly.

Amazon sells both the Airport Express and Linksys WRT54GL.

This blog’s in need of an update, and it looks like I may eventually move it over to Tumblr entirely.

For the moment, though, I’ll keep up with all three. If you’re interested in what I’m up to, I hope you’ll follow me on Twitter and Tumblr!

Link: Amit on Twitter (Why Twitter is worth using)
Link: Amit on Tumblr

A couple weeks ago, I tried finding out more about all the folks that were following me on twitter by asking them to introduce themselves. (Credit to Charlie for the idea.) It was awesome.

Stuck on a tarmac ahead of a 14 hour non-stop last week with nothing to do but wait, I wondered whether my twitter friends could come to my rescue with a joke or two to help me pass the time. Holy crap, did you ever!

I picked the number 5 randomly, so the fifth twitter wins: hilary. Let me know what you’d like and I’ll do my best to get it! :)

Thanks everyone for helping out!

	aliciak@superamit I’m emailing you a joke, b/c it’s too long. And you HAVE to bring me something back, b/c we are each other’s life coach. ;) 03:03 PM April 14, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	zingano@superamit: Q: What’s brown and sticky? A: A stick. 08:26 AM April 14, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	divabat@superamit what do you call someone skeptical about magic? Pessi-mystical. 02:25 PM April 14, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	drcw@superamit what do you call cheese that’s not yours? NACHO cheese! 08:54 PM April 13, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	tonymaro@superamit You hear about the murder in West Virginia they can’t solve? CSI says all the DNA matches and there’s no dental records! 11:05 PM April 13, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	hyermish@superamit – Jewish Presidential Dreams… http://tinyurl.com/5vfet2 10:15 PM April 13, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	stuboo@superamit Why was six afraid of seven? Because seven eight nine. (ouch) 10:09 PM April 13, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	hmason@superamit (badbad) Q:How do you tell an introverted computer scientist from an extroverted computer scientist? A: He stares at YOUR shoes. 10:05 PM April 13, 2008from twitterrific in reply to superamit
	jenningschris@superamit Going with the India theme….Who does a considerate cow think of? Udders HAHAHA 09:05 PM April 13, 2008from txt in reply to superamit
	tylerwillis@superamit how many people from northern california does it take to screw in a light bulb?? a: “Hella” 07:03 PM April 13, 2008from TwitterFox in reply to superamit
	organ_printer@superamit in his sleevies. 09:01 PM April 13, 2008from im in reply to superamit
	organ_printer@superamit where does the king keep his armies? 09:01 PM April 13, 2008from im in reply to superamit

I’d hoped sending twitter updates from India would be a snap as they’ve got their own shortcode. Not so.

No matter what I did, I couldn’t get the local shortcode to work or verify my number while using AirTel in Delhi. After a whole lot of research, I gave up for the night and twittered my frustration.

The next morning, Abhishek said it worked for him in Delhi, Puneet said the shortcode had changed to 55665, at least in Mumbai/Vodaphone, and Kathryn Yu suggested the international twitter #, +447781488126 and pointed to all the trouble folks were reporting with Twitter in India.

Digging in deeper, I found that Twitter’s shortcode in India only works on some networks, and in some areas. Pretty frustrating that this info is nowhere on Twitter’s site, especially since some of the most popular carriers aren’t covered.

What finally worked

• The international number +44 76248 01423. Apparently twitter changed it without updating their help pages. (I found out on Get Satisfaction.)

Cost

• International txts cost 5 rupees each, which is 12-13 US cents.
• Had the shortcode worked, it would have cost 3 rupees each, or 7.5 US cents
• Normal local txts cost around 1 rupee, or 2.5 cents.

Other options

• I found an Indian startup called Vakow! that’s building an SMS forwards service. They’ve got a Vakow-Twitter gateway that uses a local number to avoid shortcode and int’l fees. I might try this next.
• Chittr is/was an India-local Twitter competitor. There’s posts about it online but the site’s currently redirecting elsewhere.
• SMS GupShup is an Indian group SMS platform. The use case is similar to Twitter’s, except everyone belongs to specific groups instead of following people willy-nilly.

Much of what I found online was vague and inconclusive, but I decided to make some guesses and try it out anyway.

Here’s what I learned…

• EmPower outlets supply up to 75 watts of DC power. You need a custom adapter to use it with your laptop. I think there are two kinds of plugs, and this plane used the newer, smaller one.
• Here’s Seatguru’s guide to in-plane power
• EmPower powers your laptop, but does not charge it. Even on a Macbook, which draws less power than a Macbook Pro. Leaving it plugged in while the laptop was sleeping seemed to charge it VERY slowly.
• You can charge your iPhone while you’re using your computer. However, it’ll slowly tick down your battery. No big deal, as the iPhone charges pretty fast. But this basically means you’re using your laptop battery to charge your iPhone/iPod.
• I read that some laptops will refuse to work with EmPower unless you take out the battery. I didn’t experience this.
• Apple’s adapter costs $50. It’s decently well made and looks good. I’m sure it cost just a dollar or so to make, but for power for 29-30 hours of flight time, it was worth it to me.

Specific to my flight…

• Continental flight 82 (CO82) does have power outlets on their planes in coach, but only in rows 16-23. Supposedly they fly a newer version of the 777-200 on this flight that has power in all rows, but customer service didn’t know anything about it.
• The 777-200 Continental flies on this route has EmPower outlets (the newer version of the plane is supposed to have AC outlets, but again, I didn’t experience it.)

That’s what I asked Friday morning, and below is what I got back. All these wonderful strangers from all over the world (and a few familiar faces) writing in about their passions.

Something about twitter is exciting in the same way email was exciting 10 years back. It really does feel like the world just shrunk.

I don’t know whether twitter is supposed to be about connecting you with your friends, or with the world, but there’s a really exciting sense of energy here that’s inescapable.

	jmm403 @superamit Forgot to add I’m passionate about maths and TagHeuer watches too! about 19 hours agofrom twhirl in reply to superamit
	jmm403 @superamit Hi amit, Jean-Marie from France, nearby Tours. I’m passionate about politics, computers and internet marketing. about 20 hours agofrom twhirl in reply to superamit
	chunkymutt @superamit I’m Kelly. I live in San Francisco and sit across from you sometimes. I like sleeping and Japanese TV shows. And cheese. 01:39 PM April 11, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	rtsnance @superamit www.visitflorida.com www.visitgrandjunction.com golf.visitnc.com 04:08 PM April 11, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	attilacsordas @superamit very nice networking campaign, you have :) 02:26 PM April 11, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	twilightfairy @superamit the meet is scheduled for 20th. time and venue to be decided but most probably in connaught place. You familiar with Delhi? 12:50 AM April 12, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	ziadbc @superamit hows it been going from NYC to San Francisco 02:12 PM April 11, 2008from twhirl in reply to superamit
	tonymaro @superamit I’m out here! 03:02 PM April 11, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	mattcoop @superamit – your old pad I should say (house 2.0) 02:41 PM April 11, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	mattcoop @superamit – I’m awesome AND new. And I’m at your pad now. 02:40 PM April 11, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	joannou @superamit Me? 02:26 PM April 11, 2008from twitterrific in reply to superamit
	twilightfairy @superamit well my passion happens to be similar to yours – photography. Been following you for some time now. Care2attend a bloggers meet? 11:54 PM April 11, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	rtsnance @superamit in sarasota florida. i am an interactive producer for tourism sites. 02:16 PM April 11, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	couch @superamit Ha, hello to you, too! This is the beauty of Twitter. 02:08 PM April 11, 2008from twitterrific in reply to superamit
	attilacsordas @superamit I live in New Orleans, and my passion is a little, but reasonable lifehack called life extension 01:07 PM April 11, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	raghav @superamit big fan of photojojo. me: based in nyc especially, love b&w photography, tennis nut, launching winedrip soon. 02:06 PM April 11, 2008from twhirl in reply to superamit
	Archana @superamit what up amit! i’m a student/entrepreneur @ UT Austin & i love using my gorillapod to take photos – http://tinyurl.com/22h3m5 01:04 PM April 11, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	jenningschris @superamit I take pictures and ride motorcycles in Texas. That about sums it up. :-D 01:01 PM April 11, 2008from txt in reply to superamit
	blissink @superamit i’m a freelance geek, new musicologist and all-around peace-loving, artist-type…glad to meet ya! 01:57 PM April 11, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	gehernando @superamit Im a fan of Mike Chriswell, he’s a fan of you. Im from Orlando and I like to motivate people! 01:53 PM April 11, 2008from twitterrific in reply to superamit
	Mimistrobell @superamit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Many things :) To mention a few Classical Music, Gadgets, Boating, philosophy, Technology 07:52 PM April 11, 2008from twhirl in reply to superamit
	couch @superamit Metro DC area, photography, music, design tech. Found out about Muxtape from you and sent it to all my audiophile friends… 01:51 PM April 11, 2008from twitterrific in reply to superamit
	kaushal @superamit u know me as a friend of Nick/Zach/Meg. official intro – UX/UI designer, Mumbai. passion: creating value, tho it sounds cliched! 11:19 PM April 11, 2008from TwitterFox in reply to superamit
	meghunt @superamit I’m Meg! I live in AZ currently, and my passion is exploring things and drawing pictures. 10:49 AM April 11, 2008from twitterrific in reply to superamit
	davidgiesberg @superamit I’m an engineering student/blogger in Austin, TX (actually attending Austin Jelly right now) 11:49 AM April 11, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	alexknowshtml @superamit that’s a GREAT idea! Hey followers: introduce yourself with @alexknowshtml and tell me something interesting about yourself! 01:48 PM April 11, 2008from twitterrific in reply to superamit
	ziadbc @superamit I’m Ziad, I live in Chicago I’ve heard your name a few times from guys like sean johnson. My bag is ubiquitous computing 12:48 PM April 11, 2008from twhirl in reply to superamit
	robot_operator @superamit Oh, and you once sent me a postcard with a picture of you inside a giant lizard’s mouth. 01:47 PM April 11, 2008from twitterrific in reply to superamit
	robot_operator @superamit I think we may have met at NYCPB a couple of years ago. I gave a talk and you were giving away free stuff. I also like Photojojo. 01:46 PM April 11, 2008from twitterrific in reply to superamit
	BrooklynHilary @superamit: you know me, but I’m saying hello anyway. Come back to NY! ;) 01:45 PM April 11, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	stuboo @superamit – what a great idea. I’m Ryan Stewart (search your gmail). Changing careers now. Going to medical school this fall. Age = 31 01:44 PM April 11, 2008from web

I love this video for so many reasons, and it makes me excited to be making digital things. There’s so many ideas left to explore!

From a game called Crayon Physics. [via Jackson Fish Market]

Today we hit 2,000 sign-ups.

When Photojojo launched almost two years ago, it took us 45 days to reach 4,000 subscribers. That was good. Seeing Time Capsule hit 2,000 in a tiny fraction of that time is really good.

Thanks to everyone who’s sent in kind words via email and via twitter. And extra thanks to the folks who blogged it early: Paul Stamatiou, Hilary, Tina at SwissMiss, Natalie Zee at Craft:, Heather Champ on the Flickr Blog, and Kareem Mayan. You guys are awesome!

If you’re new to the Time Capsule, I encourage you to check out the about page. As we create more and more media — photos, blog posts, twitters, tumblrs, etc. — services that can intelligently sift through that data and find you the stuff that matters most become incredibly useful. I think we’ll be doing more with this.

Link: Photojojo’s Time Capsule

From the wiki:

Let’s get a bunch of Gulf Coast geeks together and build something for someone who needs our help.

Maybe it’s time we do a BarCamp here in New Orleans. In addition to connecting digital folks, sharing what we know and what we’re working on… I’d like to find a struggling small business we could help immediately with a new site or enhanced Web services. Spend a weekend cranking as a team and launch the thing at the end of the weekend.

It’s coming up next weekend, and I think it’s a great idea. Attend or sponsor if you can, and if you’ve got a worthy project or know of one, let ‘em know.

Link: BarCampNOLA Wiki

Last week we launched CommandShift3, and we’ve had an amazing response.

Silicon Alley Reporter was first on the scene, 37Signals linked to it, Wired blogged it, calling it a “refreshingly quirky twist on a popular online face-off model.” (And they liked our About page), SEOMoz mentions CS3 in their weekly roundup, saying “It’s a great way to prove to bosses obsessed with look and feel that those things matter…”, Women Tech blog geeksugar declared it their Website of the Day, LVHRD wrote it up, and so did Metafilter (thanks Matt!).

Dan Cederholm (SimpleBits), Jeffrey Zeldman (Happy Cog), Cal Henderson (Flickr), Airbag Industries, Cameron Moll, Ben Brown, Josh Spear, and Elliot Jay Stocks (Carsonified) also gave us some link love.

We were also #1 on Delicious Popular, on the front page of Reddit, and got lots of friends twittering.

Today, we hit Read/WriteWeb (Thanks, Marshall!)

Thanks times 60 million to everyone who’s spread the word and checked out he site. We love you, and we’re working on a lot of awesome new stuff for CS3 for you. Stay tuned.

It’s like Hot or Not, but for websites.

Started on a lark during a NYC Jelly session with Adam Varga, Darrell Silver, Dan Lurie, Erin Sparling, and Lee Semel, we’re really proud to open it up to the world today.

Much thanks to everyone who’s given us advice and support, including the celeb designers who recorded short videos we’ve hidden in the site for you to find. (Khoi Vinh, Matt Linderman, Taylor McKnight, Derek Powazek, Brad Smith, Ryan Sims, Dan Cederholm, Chris Messina, Ben Brown)

From Apple. Go figure! :)

[via MacRumors]

I’ve been experimenting with Facebook ads. Like Fred Wilson, I found I was getting very few pageviews and no clicks at all until I created this ad that started last night, and bumped my CPC bid from $0.10 to $0.15. Within a few minutes, it had 1000s of views and started seeing clicks.

In a couple hours, I’d reached reached 138 clicks ($10 worth). Then Facebook banished my ad, and I have no idea why.

Today the ad page updated to tell me my ad was in violation of Facebook’s Advertising Guidelines, sections 4, 5, and 6. It’s strange… you can see my ad in this screenshot, and I can’t really see how it’s in violation.

Here are sections 4, 5, and 6 of Facebook’s Ad Guidelines:

4. Grammar, spelling, and capitalization

Ad text must be in logical sentence form and contain grammatically correct spacing.

Ads must use correct spelling.

Ads may not include unnecessary capitalization (such as ‘FREE’). Acronyms may be capitalized.

Ads may not include excessive repetition.

5. Punctuation and symbols

The use of all symbols, numbers, or letters must adhere to the true meaning of the symbol.

Repeated and unnecessary punctuation or symbols is not permitted.

Symbols may not be used to substitute for letters (e.g., “$ave” instead of “save”).

6. Language and image content

Provocative images will not be accepted.

Ads may not contain, facilitate or promote adult content, including nudity, sexual terms and/or images of people in positions or activities that are excessively suggestive or sexual.

Ads may not contain, facilitate or promote offensive, profane, vulgar, obscene, or inappropriate language.

Ads may not contain, facilitate or promote defamatory, libelous, slanderous and/or unlawful content.

Any ideas?

With all the attention on 2.0 tech and RSS and the like, people tend to forget that for most people, even the leading-edge, email is still the killer app for the Internet.

I wanted to share this example of well-thought email usage on Meetup.com

Meetup already makes heavy use of email once you join a group (sometimes too heavy) but I love what they’re doing to encourage you to join and create groups that don’t even exist yet. This is such a smart way to increase engagement among the users they already have.

You indicate topical interest, and when a meetup starts within X miles of your location, they tell you about it. Even better, their “Pledges” increases your commitment to the group and the likelihood that you’ll attend the meetings and help promote and grow the group. Beautiful.

That includes Houston, TX (#1), Austin, TX (#2), Stockholm, Sweden (#2), New York City (#29), Boston (#2), and Cincinnati (#2). Whew!

Here’s the Jelly update email I just sent out, via Campaign Monitor, who’s sponsoring Jelly with free email lists for each city’s event. Thanks guys! (Thanks also to pbwiki, which sponsors with a premium wiki account.)

p.s. If anyone knows how we can get a copy of the Today show interview on Jelly on November 4th, please email me! (I haven’t seen it yet.)

I’ll be running HalfBaked.com at MobileCampSF this Saturday at 11:30. I’m looking for one more judge if you happen to know someone doing awesome mobile work.

So far, we have:

• Jed Stremel, Head of Mobile at Facebook
• Doug Garland, Exec in Residence at Kleiner Perkins and former SVP of Mobile at Yahoo!

The event’s sort of like entrepreneurial improve theater. :) Here’s a description.

Hope to see you there!

Are people really going to maintain multiple sets of front-end pages for their web sites for Facebook, Open Social, etc.?

I think so, yes. I think any web site going forward that wants maximum distribution across the largest number of users will have a single back-end, and then multiple sets of front-end pages:

• One set of standard HTML and Javascript pages for consumption by normal web browser.
• Another set of HTML and Javascript pages that use the Open Social API’s Javascript calls for consumption with Open Social containers/social networks.
• A third set of pages in FBML (Facebook Markup Language) that use Facebook’s proprietary APIs for consumption within Facebook as a Facebook app.
• Perhaps a fourth set of pages adapted for the Apple iPhone and/or other mobile devices.

From Mark Andreessen, [via Lee Semel]

Four versions of every front-end! It’s worse than the great Browser (incompatibility) Wars of ‘99-’97. This sounds like hell.

I’ve been sworn to secrecy about it, but I’ve been using it for the past year, and it’s AWESOME.

Eye-Fi is new. It adds wifi to any digital camera.

Your photos get uploaded straight to Flickr, AND downloaded to your computer when it’s next online. $99 gets you 2GB of SD storage and antenna-free, cable-free, subscription fee-free wifi heaven.

Buy it now at the Photojojojo store! (We’re psyched to be the first to ship it.)

UPDATE: We’re gonna offer an SD to CF card adapter that makes it work with any camera that takes CF cards. Probably next week. (We’re testing.)

This kind of attention to detail is what makes me *love* Apple. [via Daring Fireball]

• Dan Peguine revealed the most common word used by people sending anonymous messages to others through Honesty Box: “Love”
• Zachary Allia, developer of one of the most popular facebook apps, Free Gifts, when asked why his competition had not seen the same success: “He’s a jerk.”
• The developers of the most popular apps shared a strategy: just start coding and put it up. Some admit this strategy may not work any longer.
• App developer after app developer says the “Invite friends” page is dead. Notification and invite saturation has rendered it useless.
• Akash Garg, CTO of Hi5 (3rd-largest social network in the world) started the day announcing that Hi5 is the latest to join the platform bandwagon. They plan to open their site in 6-8 months. I hope all these new platforms mimic Facebook’s API to make it easier to port apps.
• Dean Moss, CTO of widgetbox, gave me a demo of their App Accelerator — a tool that lets anyone make a quick Facebook app with all the invites, notifications, and other Facebook-specific functionality built-in. They’ll even sell ads and do a rev share with you. Neat idea; I bet many will use this tool. They’re currently seeing 30-40 new apps a day created through the service.
• Overall, people seem really, really excited about the Facebook platform. Working on it, putting money into it, etc. Perhaps a little too much so. Many are starting companies focusing solely on Facebook apps.