Food, Wine, and Linux may seem like a strange combination, but combining three passions can be a wonderful thing. I'm Marcel Gagné. Those of you who read Cooking with Linux, the multi-award-winning column that appeared monthly in Linux Journal magazine for 10 years, likely agree. With the help of my faithful waiter, François, Restaurant Chez Marcel serves up the finest in Linux and open source software paired with exceptional wines.
In that same spirit, this site features great Linux and Open Source software, ongoing wine tasting reports, recipes, and the occasional restaurant review. If you came here looking to read past Cooking with Linux columns, you'll find newer releases on the front page, a comprehensive list here and under the "CWL, The Column" menu link to the left. A votre santé! Bon appétit!
My Ultimate Linux Box - Delayed (high speed evdo-1x for linux)
It's another payday, and I had planned on buying more parts for the Shuttle. My big plan is to complete this thing on IN-come rather than IF-come, that means buying without resorting to anyone's easy payment plan. -Best laid plans and all that.
A little historical interlude. Up until this morning, I had DSL service to my home. It was low speed, expensive, and pretty much the only game in town. It also required me to have a copper line hardwire phone, whether I wanted or not, and whether I used it or not. I didn't want it, nor did I ever use it.
Finally, we have a viable choice. Today I bought a Kyocera KR2 3G wireless router, and a Huawei EC360 PC data card for the Alltel network - the only wireless data network in the area. Now, the card is only rated to work with Windows, but the awesome part of the router is that it has it's own PC Card slot. My linux laptop is using the same wireless card it always has, only it's going to a new router. I don't need any additional, or special linux drivers. I don't need any special wrappers. As far as my laptop knows, it's all the same as it was last week.
Only I know the change. I know my data bill went down by about 25%, and my download speed increased by almost 300%. And, I'm not paying for a copper line that doesn't even have a phone plugged into it! Hurrah!
Now, as a disclamer, I did have to initially set up the card in a WinXP laptop. Some of the addressing wasn't quite right out of the box. The provider could have fixed that for me if I didn't have access to an XP laptop. Since it was already connected, I also used the WinXP laptop to download new firmware for the Kyocera router, and installed it. I suspect that probably would have worked via linux, but I didn't try.
My desktop linux system is plugged directly into one of the four lan connections on the back of the router.
All in all, I'm really happy. I have faster service, for less money, and it's working with linux. Life is pretty good. I just have to wait two weeks before my next hardware shopping expedition.
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Huawei EC360