I recently purchased an Asus WL-520GU wireless router. For the average tech user, this router offers little innovation. It serves as a typical 4-port router 802.11b/g (no 802.11n support!) that you probably already have connected to your cable modem.  This device loses points simply by looking ugly. As you can see from the picture, the box-like white case is an eyesore to any living room.

For the tech geek, this router is a beast–it has 4mb of flashable memory on a 200mhz processor. All for less than $50. What does this mean? For one, you can turn it into an Internet radio. Another guy made a wireless weather station out of it. You can definitely turn it into a mini-computer to run your crew of wirelessly-controlled lunar rovers. Or to brew coffee.

That’s right. Internet-controlled coffeemaker. The concept isn’t new. I’ve definitely seen coffee makers that can be controlled remotely in Skymall. Imagine telling your coffeemaker to brew a cup of coffee while you’re online. Don’t feel like coffee today? No problem, cancel the order. It would be damn cool to send a text message to my coffeemaker, “brew coffee 9pm”.

I had actually planned to put my toaster and coffeemaker on the Internet. Then I saw this article about hackers breaking into your house through your coffeemaker. Boy would that be humiliating…

computing tech