A $59 router for only a buck?

Just got my FON router after 18 agonising days of waiting, or should I say a FON-firmware reflashed WRT-54GS (the most expensive flavour of the WRT-54G series). First thing I did was to register my $1 router (FON subsidised the difference; the $1 even included FedEx shipping!).



This router, which would normally retail for 55 times as much, was found by yours truly to be around $65 on Ebay. Goodness me. Why don't people do a little hunting before going to ebay (Amazon.com, NewEgg.com, TigerDirect.com). This is what puzzles me about Ebay.

Oh well. I have already been a bad boy by reflashing FON's firmware on this machine with a more powerful one, DD-WRT, thereby rendering FON's subsidising my router useless (their goal is to create a planet with free hotspots). Oh well. Maybe I'll flash Linksys's original firmware and cash it in on Ebay ($50 profit after shipping and handling and Ebay and PayPal's cut of the share). Muihaha.



UPDATE: Fon is now shipping routers for $5 but you have to add shipping charges of $8 if you are in the continental US. Europeans have to fork out more but it still is a rather good deal. Should be interesting to see if Ebay gets flooded with WRT-54Gs ...

Support TPB! Send a free postcard to the RIAA /MPAA / Anti-Piracy Bureaus

Sending emails MPAA/ RIAA/ Anti-Piracy Bureaus ineffective? Well, I suggest you use snail mail (i.e. a postcard) to get the message to them. Best of all, the whole process is free (yup, postage and the postcard).

4 Simple Steps to send a postcard to those folks for free.
1) Find a free postcard, from a hotel or airline, lying around (usu. 10 * 15cm). I used one from Singapore Airlines.


2) Print out the The Pirate Bay postcard (pdf). Link
Trim off the unused white parts of the A4 sheet until you get the following.
Then glue the cut-out onto the postcard. Stapling it is optional :)


3) Go to stamps.com to get free stamps (wait for the stamps.com kit to arrive and then print out the maximum postage you can print ($5 worth, not $80 as they claim; the fine print).


Be sure to print out a 24-cent stamp for the postcard.



4) Affix the stamp to the newly created postcard and fill in the address and whatever message you want those RIAA/ MPAA/ Anti-Piracy folks to hear. (Long live TPB?)


*Don't forget to cancel your stamps.com account after 4 weeks. I cancelled mine after I maxed out my free postage (i.e. print all your free postage at one go), being 5 days after I signed up, and I advise you to do the same.*

If you have money of course, you can purchase the real deal at http://www.cafepress.com/boombam.59960454

List of Addresses
MPAA
Office of the Chairman and CEO
Washington, DC
1600 Eye St.,
NW Washington, DC 20006

RIAA
1330 Connecticut Ave.,
NW Suite 300
Washington, DC 20036

Anti-Piracy Office
One Executive Blvd.
Suite 455
Yonkers, NY 10701