Synthesis Studios

Many people don’t realize just how important the channel on which they run their wireless network is. Changing the channel can make all the difference for spotty performance; you might be trying to talk over someone. Imagine trying to have a conversation in a crowded room — when the person you are talking to misses a word, you have to repeat yourself. Your computer can have the same problem. I noticed this sitting even at my desk in Porter Square. Eight of the fifteen networks I can see are on channel 6! Every time one of these tries to communicate, it’s going to block the others.

Imagine trying to have a conversation in a crowded room — when the person you are talking to misses a word, you have to repeat yourself. Your computer can have the same problem.

So how do you pick the best channel? Most consumer grade routes, your DLinks and Linksi (is that plural?) will pick channel 6 right out of the box. Channel 6 is right in the center of the bandwidth available for 802.11g, so most WiFi antennae are tuned for it. If you don’t feel like scanning the area to see what’s around you can pick something slightly off of 6. Moving just one number is not always enough to help, as the way the protocol is structured channels within 10 MHz of each other may overlap. This means you’re best off going with something less than 4 or greater than 8.

You might be wondering why this matters. This November (hopefully) the IEEE 802.11n standard will be finalized and we should start to see a lot more devices using it. The added bandwidth and range will be nice, but it is going to amplify this problem. Not only can this reach further, but it has the capability to use two different channels for more bandwidth. Luckily for those of us who want to skirt this problem, all 802.11n transmissions have to be wrapped in an 802.11b header. Because of this we’ll still be able to see and avoid them with our current cards.

If you’re having trouble with your wireless network, it might be worth your time to check out iStumbler, a great tool for seeing what radios are around you. And if you like colorful graphs as much as I do, you’ll be happy to see they have a dashboard plugin to show you what’s in the air.

There are a few things that have a special little place in my heart: bunnies, cheese and Top Chef. Oh, and also the environment. Now of course I know how very trendy it is to say such things, but what can I say? I’m trendy.

At Synthesis, something we’re incredibly interested in is maintaining as green a workspace as possible.

Honestly though, here at Synthesis, something we’re incredibly interested in is maintaining as green a workspace as possible. We’re still working on what we can do to make our little perch in Cambridge more eco-friendly. We recycle of course; most of us live within walking distance to the office; we use high-efficiency bulbs and paper made of post-consumer materials; if we could be happy living on an exclusively locally-grown diet, we would probably do that too.

That’s what I think is biggest the trick to being environmentally-responsible — understanding what you are willing to adjust within your lifestyle. Which is why this week we decided to give Poland Spring the ol’ heave-ho and signed up with Atlas Watersystems to get a water purification and filtration system hooked up in our office.

The whole process was so simple that it’s almost ridiculous. All we had to do was have a consultation — during which we were told that installation would be so simple that it would be almost ridiculous — and then sit back while the plumber did all the work. That was literally it on our end. Now we pay significantly less than we did with Poland Spring, we’re supporting a local business and we have fresh, great-tasting water that’s not being carted in from Maine. Oh, and I’m not tripping over the empties or spilling gallons down my front whilst trying to replace the ginormous containers. So basically, everyone’s happy.

I would say that it’s part of fall — leaves coloring, weather getting chillier, migrating birds – but in all honesty, it still feels like summer in Cambridge. In spite of what Mother Nature may or may not be doing, and no matter where you stand on global warming, my calendar says today is the first official day of autumn. I’m going with the metaphor.

Our new logo speaks to our company mentality: before, our swirls certainly represented the maelstrom of ideas flying around the office, and now our logo, with its three unruly cubes, symbolizes our ability to take that hurricane and harness it.

You may notice that things are looking a bit different here at the Synthesis. Our logo, for one, has been completely revamped. While we’ll always think fondly of our old logo, our new version speaks to our company mentality so much more eloquently. Before, our swirls certainly represented the maelstrom of ideas flying around the office; now our logo, with its three unruly cubes, symbolizes our ability to take that hurricane and harness it. In this day and age, it’s not enough to have the fantastic, groundbreaking idea. You have to be able to not only run with it, but also take that concept and breathe more life into it that even you thought possible. And that’s what we do at Synthesis. We take the idea, we take the theory – and we run with it. And we keep on running until we can bring back something solid, something substantial, something that’s bigger and better than what we started with.

We’re bringing order to chaos.