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I am. Every time I try to use their service it is always really slow and parts of it are not working. My solution: go over to Identi.ca and sign up with their service. It’s not as well known, but it’s an open source platform that spreads the user load over a number of servers.  If you have a dedicated web server you can install your own instance of Identi.ca which you can then either limit access to or eventually will be able to link into the overall identi.ca network.  Identi.ca is still early in development so it will only get better as more people use it and the developers improve it.  Oh, and did I mention it supports OpenID?  Well it does.

I’m a big open-source software fan. Not gonna lie, I might be addicted to testing, configuring, and using it. My most recent find (well I knew about it, I just hadn’t tried it yet) is Songbird. It’s a media player similar to Windows Media Player or iTunes, but that’s as far as the similarities go.

The Songbird developers basically integrated together a media player and a web browser. Since the application is built on Firefox’s Gecko rendering engine the interface and extensibility is very similar to that of Firefox. Extensions expand the application beyond anything that iTunes could dream of doing by allowing users to customize the media player’s interface in just about any way possible. Some cool extensions that I installed immediately are Last.fm, LiveTweeter (Twitter support), Lyric Master (downloads lyrics), Mac Remote Control Support, Media Keyboard Support, SHOUTcast Radio, Song Notifier (displays song and artist info every time the song changes), and then a couple of different skins to customize the interface. Oh, did I mention its not bloated and slow like iTunes!

Another outstanding feature of Songbird is it’s ability to import your current iTunes library. Songbird will import all compatible files, but not only that, it will also keep up with changes you make in iTunes. This is critical for me since I have an iPhone and want all of my media available in iTunes. Now I can use iTunes when I must and the rest of the time I will use Songbird. Man I love open-source!!!

Hacking your Firmware on any device is always risky but that’s part of what makes it fun. On one hand if you mess up you are left with a “brick” (a damaged/not working device that is about as good to you as a brick) but if you succeed you gain some amazing capabilities.

So for those of you who enjoy a bit of a challenge and the benefits of enterprise grade routing software check out DD-WRT. It’s an open-source firmware platform that extends the functionality of consumer grade routers. I had flashed my router to it about 4 months ago and after struggling with it gave up and went back to the original Linksys firmware. The only problem is I’ve noticed a very large difference in the quality of wireless the router puts out. Today I set out to fix the problem and flashed back to DD-WRT. After about 20 minutes of installation and configuration I was back up and running with my WPA/AES encrypted wireless network. The speed difference is incredible. I would say at least a 100% boost in bandwidth. Why I went back to the original Linksys firmware I’ll never know.  If you have installation questions or want to know more hit me up in the comments.

So yesterday I got my invite to the Boxee alpha.  It is based off of the XBMC (Xbox Media Center) platform, and currently runs on Mac OS X, Ubuntu Linux, and the Apple TV.  For still being in alpa I’m really impressed with the interface, functionality, and lack of crashes.  I’ve used it for probably 3 hours and so far not a single crash.  There are a couple of bugs in the features (scrolling issues mainly) but other than that I have been able to stream Netflix and Hulu as well as listen to internet radio.  Here are a couple of screenshots:

If you want an invite to Boxee leave me a comment.