So lightning hit the pine tree next to the house yesterday during the insane storm. Left a gash in the tree, and then hopped onto the aluminum ladder for it's trip to the ground. The resulting electromagnetic wave tripped 3 circuits in the new part of the house, and tripped the feed from the main panel to the sub panel in the new part of the house. Not only that, but it also magnetized the CRT monitor in the sunroom. (One corner was green, the other corner was red). I fixed that by running the de-gauss fuction on the monitor, looks fine now.

I was in the Living room when it happened. Let me tell you that thunder was loud. For about 2 minutes the thunder and lightning were simultaneous and constant. Then there was a HUGE *CRASH* !BANG! and through the windows you could smell the electrical burn.

Now for the bad news:
The Surround Sound receiver and the Xbox are dead. They just don't work anymore. There's no detectable damage to either one. No smell, no charring, no popped capacitors nothing... The xbox was even plugged into a surge protector. The only common element is that they were both on the same shelf, but they weren't touching each other, nor were their cords touching each other. Everything else on the surge protector is fine, and the surge protector hadn't even been tripped. The outlet the receiver was plugged into has no damage to it, and still works fine.

So it's kind of a mystery, and expensive mystery... sigh... I'm hoping that the power cord (which has the step down transformer) got fried, and that a new one ($3.95) will fix it. I'll be testing that this afternoon.

Once the internet connection is back (the DSL got knocked out too) I'll post the pictures of the tree I took. Pieces of bark, and wood are lying 30-40 feet from the base of the tree...

Oh, and there's a Woot-off going on right now at woot.com. which is why my mood is woot / glum

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Here's some baby pictures:

Picture 1


Picture 2

Enjoy!

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I bought a laptop yesterday. At Office Depot on super clearence. MSRP of ~$1400 I got it for ~$575

15.4" Widescreen WXGA screen
60 gb Hard drive
512 mb RAM
DVD / CD-Burner
Built-in Wireless 802.11b/g
1.5ghz Pentium M processor (Yah, Intel has a good mobile market... wish AMD would catch up)
Centrino power saving

Dimensions: 14.4 x 10.8 x 1.61 inches
Weight: ~6.5 lbs (I think)

I need to get a case for it.. which I'll probably pickup this weekend for around $40
And a wireless mouse to use with it.. I'll probably get that today for about $20

If I feel the need I can get the Extended life battery for $130... supposed to give me ~7.5 hrs of battery life.

I'm pretty excited...

Oh yah, it's a Toshiba M35x.. and Toshiba just got the best rating for technical support (includes competency and customer interaction). Not that I'll likely need to call them...

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Well, no one reads this, but that doesn't stop me from posting on it, for some reason.

Erin had a baby boy on Sunday (July 17). So I'm now an uncle. His name is William Valen Ott. I have some pictures that Bryce emailed me, but they're still in my email, maybe I'll put 1 up here later...

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Man Arrested Article [sptimes.com]

So this guy has been arrested for using an unsecured wireless internet access point, and is being charged with the 3rd degree felony of "unauthorized access to a computer network." Of course the Police and the Court systems know nothing of technology or how a network works. The Access Point (AP) was unsecured and broadcasting its SSID. This pretty much is the same thing as sending an engraved invitation to every wireless device in range saying "You are cordially invited to connect to the network available at this address." Basically flat out AUTHORIZING anyone to access said network.

The analogy given by the Bright House Networks representative is complete BS; saying it's comparable to sharing copyrighted software (MS Windows). There isn't really anything that this is comparable to. The closest analogy I've seen is this: suppose you leave your porch light on, and it shines out onto the street. Somebody walks down the street sees the light, sits down on the sidewalk and starts reading a book. Now the police come by and arrest said person, not for loitering, but for using the light.

But if we're really going to get into this, let's say it is illegal to use that OPEN network access. Suppose my neighbor sets up an AP that broadcasts throughout my house. (Assume it's on the 2.4ghz freq, since 99% of them are). I buy a few cordless phones, a couple cordless Xbox controllers, and try to set up my own wireless network, because I don't want to break the law and use his. Suddenly my stuff doesn't work so well; why? the 2.4ghz freq (which all those devices use) has been saturated, and my signals don't get through. Can I now have my neighbor arrested for interfering with my stuff?

Similar to this would be a neighbor with a flood light that shines on your house 24/7. You have the right to ask him to shut it off. You should have the same right if his other electromagnetic devices interfere in a similar manner; after all light is just another frequency on the electromagnetic radiation spectrum.

Or maybe I build a device that just broadcasts garbage on all the useful frequencies, suddenly no one can listen to the radio, watch OTA (over the air) TV, use cell phones, or any other similar item. Or say I'm not that mean and just do that with the 2.4ghz range again. I'm doing the same thing as the guy with the Open AP; but you would expect that I should get in trouble....

Our legal system, and judges, and lawyers; are not able to intelligently decide these cases or pass laws about them. They like to compare everything to physical property. But those analogies are flawed, because the item in question is NOT physical.

Any unlicensed radio-type device has to agree to the FCC clause saying it will accept any interference it receives. So, say I setup a laptop with a wireless card that is set to "Listen" to any "interference" going through the air. This "interference" may be garbage, or it may be data someone is sending to an AP; there's no plausible way to know the difference without analyzing the data. Now this laptop is recording what it "hears" You could do this in a Condo complex and probably collect a good collection of usernames / passwords, and possibly credit card numbers, because people are dumb. Is it their fault for sending that information out to the world, or your fault for collecting it (NOT using it, just collecting it.)?

It's the same as if someone uses a cell phone in a quiet restaurant and reads off their CC number loud enough for the entire restaurant to hear. Anyone there could write it down. You don't tape multiple keys to your house on your front door with a little sign that says, "Come on in"; and then get mad when people do. It's exactly what you're doing when you set-up, and don't secure, a wireless Access Point.

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