smarter than a fourth grader but not much

My Fourth Grader had this for homework:

1562 _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ 1874

Fill in the missing numbers on the number line above, and write down the strategy as you would explain it to someone else.

(To be fair, this was the last problem. The first two made it possible for even a dullard like me to work out the rule. This was a test to see if I, erm, the student got it right.)

Continue reading “smarter than a fourth grader but not much”

stumbling

taking a cue from Josh, I just walked my block with KisMac sniffing the air. Only 23 networks advertised. The first three are mine, and number 3 is my neighbor to the back. 4 and 5 were ones I had not seen before, but the TiVo did when I plugged it in. Number 7 is the business office at Temple Beth Am, I assume: pretty strong if I could pick up where I was walking.

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A bit worrying how many of them are using WEP. I assume anyone with no security turned on knows the risks, but I expect the people with WEP are operating under a false sense of security. Think they would take it badly if I ran aircrack on those networks and left them a note telling them how long it took to derive their key, with the key, and suggested they tighten up?

And only one named “linksys.” Excellent. I guess ACTIONTEC and 2WIRE are brand names as well, so points off to those people.

links for 2007-10-31

links for 2007-10-30

omnibus

Various notes, if you see something you want to know more about or can expand my knowledge, feel free.

I added a network interface to my TiVo series 2 this afternoon. Couldn’t have been easier. Interesting that, in my basement, the antenna for this device picked up 3 more local wireless networks than I had seen before. I need to move the antenna(s) up into the attic to make sure they present the strongest signal. The TiVo showed up in my ZeroConf services list (sorry, Bonjour is a dumb name and I’m not using it) right away.

Judge of my delight when I learned that I need to buy third-party software to actually make a networked TiVo worth anything. That was outsourced to Roxio, apparently. <grumble>

Still seeing weird wireless network dropouts on my G5 iMac, perhaps due to authentication, but it seems more to do with signal strength. Did I mention moving the antennas?

I wanted to turn remote syslogging on for the dd-wrt-enabled access point, but the standard syslog seems unwilling to take remote messages. After seeing syslog-ng presented as the solution damn near everywhere, I installed it and it works right out of the box.

Oct 29 20:35:54 erewhon root: is this thing on?

(erewhon is the name of the access point/firewall/hub. Maybe now I’ll have a better idea what’s going on there.)

Got an old LinkSys BEFW11S4 access point via FreeCycle today. No, I don’t know why. I’ll see if I can get dd-wrt running on it and then see if it can be used somewhere. Maybe at my kids’ school, so parents who drop in can get network access. It’s only wireless-B but it was free, assuming it works at all. [update: it seems to work but it’s too old to upgrade the firmware properly. The web pages don’t render properly in any of the browsers I have tried. Wonder if there is another way?]

Also got a 4×5 negative carrier. As soon as I make a lens board to fit the enlarging lens I picked a couple of weeks ago, I can see if I can make a print. Hmm, I need to locate a bulb too, I just remembered.

And I got a 2 channel 27MHz R/C receiver so I can perhaps someday finish making that Mugi EVO I started on a month or so ago.

The KEXP.org pledge drive is making me crazy: my need/desire for funds was bad enough but not I feel guilty for now ponying up something to cover the cost of entertaining me. When they’re good, they are amazingly good.

I had no idea

Lots of people wrote and told me I could order Marmite from Amazon.com — and I did! It just arrived. Unfortunately two bottles (of twelve) were smashed in shipping, and I discovered that Amazon won’t let you return or refund grocery items, so I don’t think I’ll be ordering groceries from Amazon again. [From the simplicity of black…]

And what is Amazon’s recommendation engine trying to tell us about Marmite?

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The Stuff is cheaper there than anywhere else, so I may have to poke around and see if I can find enough to make an order worthwhile.