Friends don’t let friends surf unprotected.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Upon the realization that we’re about to install our ninth WiFi-enabled device in our home, I decided now would be as good of a time as ever to patch up the holes in our wireless network and get a little more secure.

I’ve lived in several places over the last few years, and it seems like every neighborhood/apartment complex in which I open my laptop, there are literally dozens of wireless networks available for my choosing, most of which are left open and unsecured. Since wireless routers can be kind of daunting if you don’t have certified geek blood in your veins, I think most families do well enough to just hook up their modem to the router and don’t think twice about securing their high-priced internet connection from neighbors and folks up to no good.

Since I do have the aforementioned geek blood pulsing through my veins, all of our wireless connections have been pretty secure since I set my first one up in college; at least I thought that was the case. Do to it’s wealth of documentation at the time, I’ve (apparently unwisely) stuck with 128 bit WEP encryption over the past few years. This level of encryption was popular years ago, mostly because it was the highest protection that most devices supported at the time.

After a little research this afternoon, I decided it was time to make a switch. Apparently, even this level of protection can be completely bypassed by a middle school hacker with too much free time these days, in some cases in less than a minute! Yikes! What does this mean to you? If you’re using an unprotected or weakly protected WiFi connection, all of your online shopping, online bank accounts, etc are wide open for prying eyes to peak at. Given that some of my close relatives have had their identities stolen twice over the last two years, that has me a little paranoid.

So what to use? It looks like WPA 2 (with AES) is the bees knees right now. It’s compatible with most modern internet devices and actually seems to run a little faster than my old WEP encryption. If your router doesn’t seem to present that as an option, be sure to check for a firmware update that may enable it for free.

Lolcat voiding your warranty.

Does everything I discussed above seem like complete gibberish to you? It really is worth your time to grab your friendly neighborhood computer geek and have them secure your router (hint: we like comic books and gift certificates to Best Buy). Make sure to set it up with a solid alphanumeric password while you’re at it (and for Pete’s sake, don’t use your kids names, anniversaries or birthdays!). It also wouldn’t hurt to go ahead and turn your SSID broadcast off too so no one even knows you have a wireless network unless they know to look for it.

Identity theft sucks, and you can never be too careful these days. Need help/further explanation on this? Post it in the comments below.

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By Eric in Geek Stuff, Interesting

For your amusement…

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Everybody has their favorite eBay story… selling a rare action figure for a couple thousand bucks, people selling ghosts trapped in jars, etc. I’ve decided to embark on a fun little eBay experiment of my own that I figured I would share with you guys on here.

My Super Soaker on eBay

On a whim earlier this summer, I searched the going price on a 12-year old super soaker gun I purchased for 25 bucks in 1996. It’s a huge beheamoth of a water toy, and I knew it had been discontinued because it was a little too powerful for your typical 10-year-old. To my astonishment, the gun was going for about 50 bucks in a few auctions!

I forgot about it until this weekend, when I search again, and found auctions ending between $75-$150! Ridiculous! Needless to say, I decided to list mine last night, and have already had 2 bids. If you want to follow along and monitor the ridiculous bids with me, check out the link here.

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By Eric in Interesting

My Birthday Gift

Thursday, August 21, 2008

I may have told some of you that Eric got me a new sewing machine for my birthday. Since then I’ve created 3 pillow covers (one for practice). So I figured I’d share my progress. If I didn’t have to work to help put food on the table, I would sew full-time for fun! I think I’m going to move on to more challenging projects once I’ve finished our living room pillows. Also, just to update you on house stuff, Eric’s painted two bathrooms recently - they both look good. We’ll post pictures at some point. Last Saturday the rest of our living room furniture arrived and it’s starting to look like a finished room - YAY!

Pillow numero uno

Pillow numero dos

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By Lauren in Design, New Place

Returning from the Gauntlet.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Whew. This summer has been absolutely crazy for me, and this blog ended up being an unintentional casualty. Between Lauren’s switch over to freelancing full time, some crazy hours at my job and finishing up a big project I’ve been working on since February, what little spare time I’ve had recently has been devoted to reading and sleeping.

This has very little to do with anything, but makes me laugh, so deal with it.

Hypothetically, my level of busyness should slow way down as Summer comes to a close and the Fall months begin to sneak up on us, bringing with it my favorite weather of the year and hopefully some time off for a well-needed vacation. 

There have been all sorts of things I’ve wanted to post about over the last few months, but I just haven’t had a spare second. Let’s see… I’ll start with a few movie reviews…

The Dark Knight. Yeah, it’s pretty stinking good. Not “second coming” good, as I think many folks are making it out to be, but Heath’s Joker makes me never want to see another person in that role again. 91/100. This brings up a few quick points that I’ve already discussed with many of you, but will post on here anyway for discussion’s sake. (SPOILER ALERT) So does everyone thing Two Face is dead, or are they just throwing a fake funeral? Thoughts?(END SPOILER)

Also, where do we go from here? What villains make sense in the world that Nolan has created for Batman right now? There’s a lot of buzz about Maggie maybe becoming Catwoman somehow, which would be interesting given where here story arc ended up in this one. My money’s on The Riddler, portrayed as some sort of zodiac-like serial killer. 

WALL-E. Loved it, but it’s been months now since I saw it, so I’ve forgotten why. 90/100.

Let’s see… what other geekiness have I neglected to post about? Oh, got the new iPhone 3G after Moon made me a great offer on my old one. (Sidenote: If you’re on the fence about upgrading from your old one, sell that bad boy on eBay… they’re averaging between 200-450 on there right now! You can pick up a new one and make a profit.) I’m definitely a fan of the new phones, specifically the built in GPS (way better than the old skyhook based faux-GPS in the old one) and surprisingly, the better audio - I can actually hear my phone ringing now. I still wish I could switch back to Verizon for their phone coverage, but besides that, there’s no other better device on the market right now in my opinion.

In other news, Lauren’s been enjoying her first few weeks as a full-time freelancer. Outside of posting pictures of animals on our blog, she’s been doing a ton of work for lots of different clients. In the time she’s saving by not having to drive downtown everyday, she’s also becoming quite the expert at sewing and home decorating (I got her a sewing machine for her Birthday last week).

I just wrapped up a few freelance gigs, so I finally have some money to put towards a mountain bike. Anybody have any suggestions toward a low end model, purchased new? I’ve heard good things about Haro and Gary Fisher bikes. 

Oh, and did anybody else catch the opening ceremony for the Olympics? Holy moses that thing was nuts. What about Phelps already setting another world record?

That’s it for now; hopefully I’ll get back on the horse and update this thing on a regular basis again. 

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By Eric in Geek Stuff, Life, Reviews