The Belgian government introduced an electronic ID card in 2009. While I was a bit wary at the time - I always am when the government discovers the advantages (and seemingly neglects the security risks) of the digital age - I was intrigued. The new eID was touted as being cross-platform (not just Windows and Mac OS X, but also Linux), so I decided to purchase a reader anyway - if only to find out what info could be read out from the card (thus accessible to anyone with a card reader).

Why Arch and not Ubuntu? Why Linux at all?

Although my original intentions were to install Linux, I first tried XBMC on the AppleTV OS - mainly to see how it performed. I was quickly annoyed by the fact you cannot autolaunch XBMC anymore (you can, but it will lose focus with recent firmwares, and to my knowledge the AppleTV OS has no way of calling XBMC back to the foreground). I'm picky and demanding, so that's not the only thing that irritated me. The limited shell on OS X put me off too. Although the shell itself is more or less fine, the limited selection of programs (and their limited possibilities) was disappointing. The long-term maintainability is not all that either; you need to hack the AppleTV firmware each time a new one comes out; basically you'll be performing the same steps (installing the Broadcom CrystalHD kext, installing TurboKext Enabler, modifying startup files etc.) over and over. Although the AppleTV Patchstick creator takes a lot of work out of your hands, you still have to go through the same setup procedures. I for one am not looking forward to that, and if Apple decides to stop support for the device, you're on your own too (I know, I am a positive thinker). Pit that against a rolling release distro with a proven track record, the familiarity of a real Linux environment, the flexibility of the Arch build system, and you know the outcome... Also, what would be the fun in just buying a device and using it like the manufacturer intended you to? If you can't hack it, there's no fun in it!

I don't have any monies but that does not mean one can dream...

A few months ago, Netgear's latest 802.11n sibling hit the shelves. Sporting Atheros 802.11n dual-band wireless, dual radio, Gigabit Ethernet, a USB 2.0 port (for storage, not for printers) and - last but not least - an OpenWrt-based OS, this stylish device has everything a SOHO enthusiast would want. If that doesn't make you run to the store, you can always check this excellent Small Net Builder review that shows the WNDR3700 holds its own quite well.

Yeah you read that right! I got this fancy thing (TZ190N, pictures) a few weeks ago, but since I have to work too, it took some time to put the penguin on it ^_^. Sony was never known for its standard compliance and the Vaio TZ seems to be a prime example of that. None of the Fn keys work. In-depth coverage of the issues I have/had with this laptop are covered here. You'll find the specs there too. However, let's look at this marvel from the positive side :-).