I get the impression that the Windows 7 launch is a lot like seeing an old girlfriend suddenly show up on your doorstep wanting to get back together. She’s had some work done, apparently: stomach stapling to take off some of the weight, breast augmentation, and a radical nosejob to make her look as much like your current girlfriend as medical science will allow.

I had a meeting in a local coffee shop recently and when I opened my MacBook it found the shop’s wireless and connected straight away. This got me interested in getting this to work again. It is kinda nice when I can leave the office and take the MacBook with me and work from my big comfy chair…

I did some more searching and found my provider’s troubleshooting page. I almost moved on when I read stuff like “Unplug the router and count to 10″ and “make sure the AirPort is turned ON”, but pressed on and found that the examples of the setup pages in the tutorial were very different from the setup pages that my router was showing me. A little more poking around turns up a firmware update for the router (Actiontec 701-WG).

Let me say here that I am not very fond of flashing BIOS and updating firmware. I know, I know… Its generally safe and people do it all the time but to risk bricking something that works so you can get wiz-bang new UI isn’t something I support. In this case I went ahead and downloaded the update and flashed the firmware.

It worked right off, the flashing program even remembered all the settings and replaced them after the flash.

Now, you might say that I owe Apple an apology for this but I disagree. The MacBook worked just fine with the old router firmware and failed only after installing 10.6/Snow Leopard. My iPod and Vista [spit] Notebook worked fine with the old firmware as well. The only thing that failed was the Snow Leopard AirPort connection, so I still contend that Apple was the cause of the problem, even if flashing the firmware “solved” it.

Anyway…

Now my MacBook is finally fully functional under Snow Leopard and I am happy with it. It would be nice if Apple would have been able to fix the problem, but at least there is a workaround.

I can’t believe the shear volume of information “my” Government wants from me at gunpoint.

Why does the Government want to know how many toilets I have in my house? I understand the need for the Census and that it is Constitutionally mandated, but really…

Shouldn’t it be a postcard asking me how many people live at this address? (fills in 1 blank with “3″… DONE!)

What is the minimum I can fill in to avoid the $5000 fine for non-compliance?

One gay man, two lesbians, a three-legged cat and a poisoned curry plot.