Review of wireless adapters

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Maxime Devos
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Joined: 01/15/2017

Technoetic(al) kindly requested me (well, rather my mother) to write a
review, so I'll write one. But also a review of ThinkPenguin, as my mum
bought comparable (of the same kind) products there for me. My memory of
this is a bit flaky, so maybe the products were ordered in a different
order and I got the shops mixed up a bit.

1. This year (2017) or some years earlier[1], we ordered a wireless
adapter at ThinkPenguin[2]. As far as I remember, there were no
issues and it worked perfectly until it didn't. I plugged in the
adapter, saw some wireless icon appearing on GNOME (warning: flaky
memory, don't take me upon my word) and could choose a network from
some menu. After entering the password, the web lay at my fingertips.

Then the adapter went flaky; sometimes it just worked, sometimes it
need a slight twiddle[3] to get it recognized again (as per lsusb).
For some period I couldn't get it working, some time later it worked.
It ultimately died. I still have it and occasionally wave a dead
chicken over it. I think the warranty expired.

Verdict: as long as it works, it works greatly. Maybe some contact
broke. If these products are only sold once in a blue moon, there
is no problem. The price were a bit against my mum's financial
tastes, although the same can be said of Techoetic.
2. Bought another one of the same model, from Techoetic. Delivery time
~one week, but it is far from Western Europe to Roemenia, so that's
OK, methinks. According to my mother[5], the duration is the same for
ThinkPenguin. If they haven't changed location in the meantime, TP is
seated in the US, so their delivery time should so OK as Technoetic's
is.

I put my laptop *with the new adapter still in it* into a laptop case
that is too small for my 'laptop + adapter'. Ergo, broken.

Universe, could you *please* fix that bug? I'll provide a patch, if
you publish your source code as free software and is not too
complicated[4].

Verdict: don't do that, then! Get a bigger laptop case.
3. Bought one from Technoetic.

I lost it somewhere while on vacation. Apart from that, works
greatly! Maybe I'll find it when we go back some time.

Verdict: could you (ThinkPenguin, Technoetic, others) by default or
as an option attach some relatively large thing to the adapter, made
out of some cheap material such as carton, with "DON'T LOSE OR YOU'LL
PAY" written on it in big red bloody shoutcaps? If this is done with
some adhesive tape, the user can remove it if it turns out to be
obtrusive for some reason. Otherwise, great job!
4. (last one) Bought one from Technoetic.

I attached a red thread to it with adhesive tape, to make it more
noticable such that it doesn't get lost. At time of writing, it's in
my lappy.
5. Some adapter I've forgotten about.

Concerning customer support, I can't tell, as we have never asked. My
mother is rather suspicious of it, whichever company it be of.

My mother got a mail from Technoetic:

> Your order has been updated to the following status:
> Shipped
> [...]
> Hi [Name scrubbed],
> Sorry for the lack of communications. [...]

Off-topic, but Communication-*s*? As worse as information-*s*! It's like
'a soup' instead of '1L of soup' or 'a bowl of soup'. 1GiB communication
is fine for me, although I don't say that generally. You may or may not
agree with me, doesn't matter.

> It has been a busy time for us, and sadly we missed notifying some of
> our customers. Thank you for being a *returning* customer.

(Emphasis added) I wish it were less often.

> The tracking info shows that your N150 [...] was delivered X days ago.
> Did you receive it? How about the other two you have previously
> ordered from us?

A bit dead (my fault), but apart from that ...

> Then, please, would you be so kind and share your experiences while
> using the *Technoethical* wi-fi adapters. [...]

(Emphasis) Whether the 'ethical' suffix is applicable has been brung
into the mailing list. Got a bit hot, no need to repeat the discussion
here.

> ... Posting a review on the product page would also be very nice!

Irrespective of who behaved wrongly, in the light of no-so-long-ago
events on the mailing list, an email would be more convincing.

As far as I can tell, both companies have great products. The price is,
according to my mum, a firm tad on the high side. The quality of the
customer service I can't tell, although it seems Florentin does a great
job! Trisquel forum doesn't load, but as far as I remember people are
very positive about ThinkPenguin's support!.[6]

> Thank GNU, and have a great time!
> Happy hacking!
> Florentin

Reciprocally, and the same for ThinkPenguin and trisquel-users.

--- Footnotes
[1] Somewhere in 201X, I'm no good with time.
<(coreutils)Date input formats> has a great quote about this.
[2] Probably this one:

[3] Like: pushing the adapter a tad forward and backward until it works.
[4] , or somewhere else.
[5] in praise of her fine memory
[6] Does anyone know of a character in between an exclamation mark and a
full stop in semantics? If yes, what is its Unicode code point?