Little things please little minds (computer division)

Been playing around with a Fujitsu "Lifebook" tablet computer that Wife brought home from the nature center -- part of that technology infusion I mentioned a week or so ago.  Among other things, it includes built-in wireless networking.  As does this iMac, but I have that turned off.

Anyway, by moving the tablet machine from one corner of the house to another unto boredom, I can pick up six wireless networks from our neighbors.  Two of which are unsecured. This is without any external antenna or signal amplifier.  And I'd bet that if I tried some simple pokes and prods, like using "password" as a password or consulting with Elder Son about the defaults on common routers, I could get into a couple of the "secured" nets.

Folks, unless you want to share your wireless connection with unscrupulous neighbors, reset the default settings when you install a network.  Even in a neighborhood of detached houses, only a couple of apartments in range, that ether spreads farther than you know...

I'm not terribly impressed with the Fujitsu, by the way.  You have to fiddle with the power connector, or the machine switches over to battery while you type.

"Images they may not have meant" department

By the way, that Fujitsu has an icon on the desktop that says "Click Me."   I haven't clicked it.  Having read Alice in Wonderland numerous times, I tend to distrust that sort of thing...

They really ought to give a clue as to what it does.  Like "Tutorial" or "Self-Destruct."

"Initiating auto-destruct sequence.  Reactor will go critical in ten seconds.  Nine.  Eight...."

The shape of the world to come

We still have snow in the shaded areas of our back yard.  We only got about a quarter inch, but it hasn't gone away...

And for our next trick...

Well, swapped the snowblower out of the back corner of the garage, replacing it with the lawn mower until next spring.  Thus do we mark the changing of the seasons.  This is not as simple as the first sentence would imply, since the change involves moving three bikes and a garden cart as well.

And I adjusting the carburetor on the snowblower to run at full speed with the choke open, which it wouldn't do last winter.  We'll see if that effects a cure, or I may be compelled to declare the beast deceased.

Meteor shower (Leonids) peak tonight, and we may have a clear sky.