I installed the former Wavelan Silver PC Card guts in my friend’s mom’s iMac G3 last Thursday evening. The card isn’t fully seated, but it appears to be functioning correctly! For people concerned about getting the card fully seated, it would be best to clip off one of the plastic AirPort card holder’s that is attached to the board (its whitish-transparent plastic that is only useful if you want to give the true AirPort card more support). Still, without clipping this plastic support, the card seats 90% of the way.

AirPort Card for $30. Done.

If I ever stop back over there, I’ll snap some pictures and post back.

A friend of mine wanted to install an AirPort Card in his mother’s old iMac G3 so she could get wireless internet access. We checked on eBay and the going rate for an AirPort card was well over $130. Online stores weren’t any better with one place listing a card at $180! Great Zeus! This made me pretty mad knowing that an elderly lady couldn’t get wifi on her Mac for less than a hundred dollars. So, when I got home, I vented my anger by tearing apart a Lucent Wavelan Silver PC Card. After the guts of it were exposed, I tossed it into my iMac G4, rebooted, and BAM! The iMac acknowledged it as a native Apple AirPort Card. I haven’t installed it in her iMac G3 yet, but I’m very confident it will work. The great thing about this is, these cards can be had for less than $25 with shipping via eBay, so this solution even trumps the silly Sony Vaio PCWA-150S as the cheapest AirPort alternative I can find.

Unfortunately, yes… Dr. Dreamy called today and confirmed my MRI results. Torn ACL on my left knee and a partially torn meniscus. Doh!!! I scheduled surgery for February 22 and I’m going with cadaver parts this time. I plan to begin the countdown to soccer in earnest on February 23.

For people using an old HP/Compaq Omnibook 4150B that are having difficulty getting their DVD module (f1653b) to work with Windows XP, install Mediamatics DVD Express using your OEM CD from HP (drop me a note if you need a copy) and then run the free upgrade to version 5 that IBM is still circulating: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4GV37K. Works like a champ for me.

So, I’ve been deploying wifi on older Macs for my extended family. Here’s what I’ve found… A TrendNET TEW-403PIplus (or TEW-403PI+) works fantastic in a stock beige G3 PowerMac with a revision A motherboard (OK, we suped the G3 from 266 up to 300). I’m also looking to add USB 2.0 and firewire to this machine, so I bought a revision B ROM for it, and that works with the TrendNET card as well.

For my mother-in-law and administrative assistant at work, I popped a hardware version B1 DWL-G122 USB wireless adapter (with Ratoc driver) into their G3 iMacs, and their both chugging away happily now.

OK, so this comeback stuff is getting old, but 7 and a half months out from my ACL surgery, I ran my first 5k, cold turkey, with my brother, Wes. The grand opening for the new 17-35 runway at the MSP Airport was the occasion for the race, hence it won’t be happening again. The winners of gender would be rewarded a couple of airline tickets. With a flat course ahead of us, we figured we’d PR. I trailed Wes in the first lap, hanging back in about 7 place, and then he just pulled away. He went on to PR at 15:49 with a third place finish! Just out of a cash prize, but nice time… I was hoping to break 20 minutes and surprisingly, I galloped past three women at the end of the race to post an 18:56. Sweet! Not to mention I biked 8 miles on either end of the run, I was pretty happy. Soccer tomorrow. I hope I’m not too sore 🙂

After much deliberation including the consideration of Emmitt, Elliot, and Stryker 🙂 we wiped the slate clean and decided on a name and arrived at Liam Davis. The name “Liam” is considered by many as a person who is strong, smart, and athletic. There were many other reasons why we chose this name, but the details won’t interest anyone outside the family. Still, I find it hard to look at him and not call him Stryker.

Late last night, we had a little Mexican food with the Bode’s and Larson’s before Kate and Greg’s big move to Chicago. On the way home, Tina started feeling a little gas around 11 PM. When we got home, things got a little more serious, and we soon realized she was experiencing contractions. At first they were 5 minutes apart and by the time we left the house this morning, they were only 2-3 minutes apart. With not a minute to spare, Tina and I arrived at United’s ER around 12:40 AM. They tried giving her drugs to stop the contractions, but her cervix was fully dilated. Great Zeus! Dr. Wu showed up shortly thereafter and concluded after an ultrasound the baby was breach, Tina was going to deliver it shortly, and it would have to be c-section. By 2:42 AM our baby boy was born, albeit 10 weeks early.

I re-entered the world of soccer this week. Beginning on Sunday, I played 3 straight days of soccer. It was like seeing friends I hadn’t seen in years (5 months since the injury and 4 months and a week from the reconstructive surgery). Sunday was kind of a disappointment, as we fell 4-3, but Monday was a much better story. Deney, our goalkeeper who battled a tumor on his brain the better part of the winter, made his comeback the same day as me. The Vandals hadn’t won a game this year, but that changed on Monday. We marched to a 4-1 victory (we didn’t give up a goal until the final second of the game) and I was lucky enough to get an assist on the 1st goal of the game. Tuesday was more of the same, as my Free Agents rolled to a 4-0 win. The knee feels good, despite falling on it in the Vandals game. A few days off should fix everything.

Today I rode in the Minnesota Ironman Bike Ride, a 104 mile expedition across the southern burbs of the Twin Cities. “The Team” I rode with was composed of a 5-time Northfield teacher of the year recipient, a Harvard soccer All-American, a Wayzata hockey ringer, and a freak with a bionic knee (yours truly). During all rest breaks, “The Team” could be found huddled together discussing strategy of “sticking together” with an “all for one, one for all” mantra that would make a great like Bud Grant beam with pride. After each meeting, Northfield wonderboy Ben Danielson and west-side Ward Schwie bolted out of the rest areas like bats out of hell, leaving the rest of “The Team” peering through the dust. Only the times when Keren Gudeman devoured a Snickers bar at the rest stop did she emerge leading “The Team” (this occurred once). Things appeared to work out though, as we all finished and returned home in one piece (sans Keren’s brutal fall on the hill before reaching lovely Lonsdale). Like clockwork, the Bianchi performed admirably and my bionic knee once again stepped to the plate.