tea time with meowkins

OpenGarden vs Barnacle WiFi Android Tethering

Ok, I'm pretty new to rooting, and I did it because I just got an iPad but I don't want to get another data plan, but I've tried these two tethering apps, and I've found that OpenGarden works on myTouch 3G rooted with ginger yoshi 1.5 (32b), but Barnacle didn't work for me. To be fair, rooting is all hackery. There's a lot of variables involved and there's different stuff to do on each device, so just because Barnacle didn't work on this particular device doesn't mean it's bad software; from what I've seen, it's quite popular. It's also possible I just didn't configure it properly, but of course, I can't find very good documentation on any of these apps, so maybe that's not all my fault.

Anyway – OpenGarden. At first neither my iPad nor my fedora 16 linux laptop connect, but both could see the SSID. I changed the encryption mode from Auto to wpa_suplicant, and that seems to work. On the fedora box, I had to restart the wireless for whatever reason. Why wpa_suplicant? No idea. When I first tried OpenGarden, I got an error saying something about failed to activate wpa_supplicant, so I switched to that, but I still got that error. But I figured I'd give it a shot with the new setting anyway, and it worked.

Barnacle. I tried Barnacle first. It seemed to work fine when I first tried it at home, but I didn't really test it much, just hit google and called it good. Then I was here at work, and the wifi was down, so I fired it up. It seemed to be working at first, but for some reason, the linux box would reconnect as an unknown client (name says "[none]"). Anyway, it still seemed to work, but then after a bit, the phone would reboot and the networking got messed up, so I would have to reset it. I think the phone was only rebooting after I actually went and checked my text messages, but I don't really know what caused it. Like I said, maybe I didn't configure it right, but I don't know what anything in there does, and it should definitely not reboot the phone, so I tried OpenGarden.

Well – I hope this helps someone. If you have any more info please do post, but if you have questions, I probably won't be of much help because I'm not too familiar with rooting and android hackery.

Happy Tethering!

Come Work With Us – We’re Awesome

Ok, here's my pitch on why working here is awesome, because I know you're dying to know. Seriously though, it's a good place to work.

 

Always Training, Always Improving

The main thing that has kept me here is the continuous education and the challenging work. I've been learning new technologies, and developing new skills ever since day 1. I started out as an intern years ago, and just to give you an idea of some of the highlights, I've developed an HTML parser, a printing system, an entire SharePoint reporting solution, and a backend data and payment system. And of course, I've worked on a whole slew of other things across the board, developing not only my software skills, but also my business and communication skills.

 

Flexible Hours

Another awesome thing about working here is the completely flexible work hours. You just have to show up to the meetings, put in your fair share of time, and deliver.

 

Good, Smart People

Also, there's no office politics or drama here. Everyone's cool and hard-working, and we're always working to do the best we can rather than achieve some ulterior motive.

People listen to what you have to say, whether you're the CEO or an intern, whether you're a developer or a sales person or a marketing person. Again, we're just trying to be smart and do our best, and that means listening to people's ideas and concerns.

 

Fun Stuff!

And then there's the fun stuff. We get fresh donuts, Monday mornings, have company lunches twice a month, free soda and snacks, and we do these fun social events from time to time. Like we just had our winter holdiay party last month (we all got iPads!). And then there was this time we went out and had a big picnic at the park, and just hung out and played volley ball.

And one thing that's been really cool for me is that if you want to do some project that you think will be helpful, it's no big deal, you just do it. Actually, we're always encourging people to try new things and think outside the box. We have these Get Out Of Jail Free cards, and the idea is you can do some wild idea, and if it doesn't work out, you can just trade in your Get Out Of Jail Free card.

One cool project I did was a SharePoint list adapter, which was basically making it easier to access the data and hook it into our system. And what's really cool about that is that it really took off and became a greatly demanded part of our SharePoint solution.

We also have this Friday project thing, so you can dedicate Friday afternoons to a different project of your choosing, provided it's remotely interesting to the company, and it's a plus if it helps you develop personally. It's fun because you can do a lot of different things, even if it's not your area of expertise. People have made videos, done blog series, made new apps, and some other things.

I also like the fact that the company hosts blogs for everyone and encourages the whole social media thing. It's a nice outlet, and I think it sort of gives a way to give back sometimes because you can share what you've learned.

 

 

So that's it from my perspective. If you have any questions, feel free to post it in the comments.

Happy job hunting!

Status Update & Apologies to My Recent Commenters

For some reason, I haven't been receiving notifications of comments except for spams, which I've been ignoring so that I can just take a bunch out at once. I've approved the real stuff today, so sorry to those of you that put something legit and I didn't approve it for a while.

A little info about why I've been slacking on the bloggage. This fall/winter has been intensely busy for me. I've been working furiously on charting stuff for the Windward Reports Engine, and working on Code War and self-improvement projects in my free time.

Speaking of Code War, it's coming up in just a couple of weeks - check it out! I did the C++ client, but there's still some stuff that I'm hoping to get worked in before the 28th.

Happy New Years!

PS - I'm working on a new personal website (I don't have one). Hoping to have it up this weekend, but might have to wait a couple weeks otherwise. Stay tuned...