Teknocalypse » Teksumer Guide

Wifi this, Wifi that: Still Just A Lie

Saad Riaz — Tue, 19 May 2009 07:25:18 +0000

When it comes to wireless networking (more commonly Wifi), I’m sure you have come across, or at least read about, “802.11 g/b” and/or “54mbps” products. Numbering aside, what’s the deal with the g’s, b’s, and n’s? The (n)erdy (g)ay (b)oys at the institute of virgins, the sort of people of who think it is a cool idea to throw in random alphanumerics to anything civilized, just don’t get it do they? Just say that this is fast and that is crap, move on. Why make things so complicated? For a breakdown on technical garbage, Wackypedia is full of (sh)it. What you really want to know is whether your dollar is worth reading this article, and I can assure that it is.

Wifi-N vs Wifi g/b (802.11 g/b/n vs 802.11 g/b):

Let’s cut to the chase straight away. Wifi-N touts itself as the fastest wireless solution providing speeds of up to 300mbps. The more common resident is limited to a speed of just 54mbps. If I were a marketing Nazi, I would claim that my Wifi-N product “does Internet 6 times faster”- a tribute to American porn for HD lovers. It’s true that Wifi-N offers 6 times the bandwidth (or speed) compared to its aging sister, does your Internet actually run at 6 times the speed or anywhere near it? The answer
is as good of a ‘yes’ as a 747 crashing into the Pentagon.

How fast do you want it to be?

Wifi-N at 300mbps translates into approximately 38MB/s
Wifi-g/b at 54mbps is about 7MB/s

To put the numbers into perspective, an average MP3 song is 5MB in size. A standard definition movie is about 700MB, and a DVD movie, as you know already, is approximately 4500MB. Surely if your downloads deserve the best, Wifi-N appears to carve the path ahead, doesn’t it?

The catch is: Your Internet shit provider (ISP) doesn’t offer speeds that even come close to flooding the older Wifi. For example, Comcast- the largest superbowl-porn cable operator in the States, signs you up for a usable Internet bandwidth of just 6mbps, which is “drop the pants, no genitals” compared to any modern standard. In fact, the fastest speed that you could subscribe to in this country maxes out at 16mbps, which is still pathetic knowing Nuclar-Korea averages nearly 8 times more. Corporate networks are a different story, however.

The fastest Internet nations in the World only just about stretch the older Wifi to its limit. Furthermore, high speed data transmission is best done over cable anyway. Even so, it’s fairly beyond the reach of a website and server to provide a huge chunk of its alloted bandwidth to a single user. This is primarily the reason why websites often seem slow even though your Internet is relatively brisk. So the talk about Wifi-N being the best Wifi holds no importance. Would you buy a Ferrari for the streets of London? Unless of course you actually bought one for the divine purpose of picking up prostitutes, you’re not much faster than public transport. By the same token, you might buy Wifi-N thinking your downloads will be faster, which is also practically nonsense. I think you get the idea by now.

Upon your next wireless purchase, make sure you go through user reviews. You want a wireless card that gets you the best signal reception, not necessarily the one with the highest speed or more antennas. Having previously used its products, CISCO makes the best of the lot, but their price doesn’t include a free vacation to Hawaii- neither does Dlink’s or Trendnet’s, but at least the smaller brand is light on your wallet.

Not the end of the story: Wifi-N shines, if:

1. You run a wireless corporate network on makes-me-jealous Internet speeds.
2. PC-to-PC file transfer
3. A busy local network

No wireless adapter will make your Internet run any faster, possibly better, but definitely not any faster. Wired networking will always be faster and more reliable compared to Wifi.

Compatibility:
Wifi-N products are backward compatible. A Wifi-N card will work with Wifi g/b routers, and vice versa. The maximum data speed is limited by the slowest element in the loop.

Update: It came to my attention lately that some brands are selling wireless products targeted at gamers. Correct me if I’m wrong, online gaming gives precedence to pings (time it takes for information to transfer from point A to B), and we’ve already established that wired networking is more reliable than wireless, it’s certain that claims of better gaming on wireless products is bogus.

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HDMI vs HDMI: Let’s Go For That One

Saad Riaz — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 06:50:36 +0000

You are at local electronics store, puzzled in excitement, and with that dorky face of yours- doesn’t help you look less intimidating to the woman waiting behind you for you to move your sorry butt out of the way. To hell with her, you are about to make the decision of your life. Should you buy the gold plated HDMI cable for $35, or the one less exotic for only $25. Unfortunately, the answer is “NO” to both. As with any other type of cable, HDMI is your standard 19/29-pin “ordinary” copper cable insulated in a thick layer of rubber. There is nothing magical going on the inside- the terms “gold plating”, “high-bandwidth”, “Full-HD”, and countless others are just there to fill the gape in between [Company name] and [HDMI cable]. You’re smart enough to know what I’m talking about- a “Belkin gold-plated HDMI cable” sure sounds erotic compared to “Generic piece of shit”.

For a display screen sitting a few feet away from a multimedia source, you need not spend a fortune on “gold plated, high bandwidth, super shielded, [insert irrelevant details]” HDMI cables. A quality HDMI cable won’t make look your TV any better if your display is grainy to start with. The converse is also true, a cheap HDMI cable won’t make your viewing any worse. It is ultimately the quality of your display that matters most.

In the end, just go for the cheaper cables and feel proud of yourself that you made the right decision. And for the remarkable savings you made, buy yourself some protection before you book a happy-time on Craigslist.

Recently Posted

Blu-ray Monopoly; Suck Your Wallet Dry

Saad Riaz — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 09:13:53 +0000

Let us first put down some of the many undisputed facts about Blu-ray so as to leave no doubts in our minds that Blu-ray is the best multimedia technology of our time.

Blu-ray is not an audio/video technology
Blu-ray is not a High-Definition technology
Blu-ray is not better than HD-DVD
Blu-ray limits your viewing experience than it adds to
Blu-ray movies can be played on non-HD displays
Blu-ray movies are infected with DRM software
Blu-ray movies will only play on HDCP-compliant devices (old HD-displays/players obsolete)
Blu-ray players, in near future, may require Internet connectivity whilst watching Blu-ray movies
Blu-ray cannot replace existing storage technologies
Blu-ray is an impractical storage medium
Blu-ray disks are easy to break/damage
Blu-ray is relatively expensive

What Blu-ray is, exactly:
A high-density optical storage technology developed by one of the bigger homosexuals of our imperialist corporate industry.
That’s right Sony boy. Blu-ray is just a storage medium- no different to CD’s, DVD’s, and HD-DVD’s alike. And just for the record, Sony does not wholly own Blu-ray.

Capacity	Blu-ray	HD-DVD	DVD
Single-Layer	25GB	15GB	4.7GB
Double-Layer	50GB	30GB	9.4GB
1080p-HD movie?	yes	yes	yes (Doub-L)

Hi-Def- not to be confused with Bluray:
Simply put- HD is a general term for high-resolution displays/videos, but not the highest. Generally, Hi-Def follows a set standard, namely: 1080p, 1080i, and 720p- where 1080p being the highest supported standard among modern LCD and Plasma technologies. Some of the larger LCD monitors targeted for PC extend resolution beyond that of 1080p to what can be called Ultra-HD. Since Blu-ray is just a storage technology, it holds no claim over Hi-Def. Any storage medium can store HD content, even if it is a floppy disk from the era of dont-use-condoms.

Blu-ray HD vs 1080p HD:
There is no difference between 1080p HD and Blu-ray HD, the later being a fancier name of the previous.

Play Blu-ray movies without a Blu-ray player/disk?
Blu-ray movies can be run off your PC hard drive, provided you have any stored on the hard drive itself. It’s a slightly troublesome method, but at least you’re not limited to a $1000 Blu-ray player. Even better, why not use NetFlix’s HD streaming service instead?

> Download sample 1080p HD clip for your PC (WMV format): Download

HD-DVD is no different to Blu-ray:
If the whole purpose of having BR is to aid in higher resolution (sharper, vivid) visuals, it is an expensive one, and frankly, not worth your time or money. Like BR, HD-DVD is also a high-density storage medium- and likewise, it can store full-HD content up to 3 hours in length. In essence, HD-DVD technology makes more sense over Blu-ray due its relatively low manufacturing cost. Sadly, HD-DVD is no longer with us (courtesy the BR mafia)

Blu-ray playback is possible on non-HD displays:
Any modern day PC, equipped with a Blu-ray drive, can be hooked up to any non-HD display for a perfectly smooth video playback. The only thing stopping you from doing so comes in shape of HDCP (High-bandwidth Content Protection), a security system that is easily broken.

Blu-ray is intentionally bugged; Welcome to HDCP-monopoly
HDCP, as mentioned above, encrypts video/audio streams as they are transmitted through Displayport, HDMI, and DVI interfaces. Older HD-ready displays with only component video interface (RGB) are not compatible with HDCP (and hence Blu-ray). This protection system prevents a users from copying digital content, even if it were for backup purposes. The more tech-savy users know that it is not hard to break HDCP. In fact, several no-name devices can be bought off ebug and craplist that make it possible to run Blu-ray movies on VGA-type/non-HDCP displays.

Blu-ray copyright protection is reportedly a big failure:
How else would the Internet be full of downloadable Blu-ray rips? Like always, P2P is the culprit. Let’s us not dwell on this subject any further as I want this site to live.

Blu-ray is popular among gays:
This is an absolutely absurd claim. People shouldn’t confuse the fancy-ness of Blu-ray with that of the iPhone.

Blu-ray is almost a worthy storage medium:
There is no denying Blu-ray disks store massive chunks of data, however, BR-disks don’t come cheap, and it’s not like the disk is small in size that you can slip it down your pocket.

Flash memory: The best alternative to high-capacity storage
Comparatively, Flash memory is rewritable, cheaper, smaller, faster, reliable, and more compatible. Can you think of one reason a $50 32GB flash drive is in any way inferior to a 25GB Blu-ray disk? Our future lies in silicon. It is expected that most mechanical storage devices (for ex. hard disks) will be replaced by flash storage by 2012, by which time Sony will patent its bragging rights to super-ray; Welcome to the PlayStation 4.

Teknocalypse » Teksumer Guide

Wifi this, Wifi that: Still Just A Lie

Recently Posted

HDMI vs HDMI: Let’s Go For That One

Recently Posted

Blu-ray Monopoly; Suck Your Wallet Dry

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