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Warchalking

 
 
Wyrd
16:34 / 28.06.02
Hey folks, I spotted this interesting article on ZDNet today. Apparently in London there is a new trend of chalking areas where you can connect to a wireless network node with a certain set of symbols. The idea was invented by Matt Jones.

Anyone actually see any of these symbols in London?
 
 
Tom Coates
19:51 / 28.06.02
Warchalking is everywhere at the moment. Absolutely everywhere. It might amuse you to know that Matt Jones is an occasional Barbelite...
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
08:02 / 29.06.02
I'm pretty sure I have noticed something like this once or twice, but I don't recall where or when. I'll be keeping an eye open in future.
 
 
Wyrd
09:39 / 01.07.02
Well, this topic must be on people's minds at the moment.

Check out today's cartoon at the Joy of Tech.

It will probably change tomorrow so look in the archive for it if you are reading this after today.
 
 
blackbeltjones
12:18 / 01.07.02
Hello - it looks like a lot of people went warchalking this weekend - i have a few pictures to put up on warchalking.org

If any barbelites do - please mail/message me the URLs! Want some non-london ones... particularly interested in rural variations on warchalking...

war-cropcircling anyone???
 
 
Fist of Fun
17:31 / 01.07.02
Good God the BBC has got an article on their website about this already!
 
 
Tom Coates
10:47 / 09.07.02
That's probably because Matt works for the BBC and one of his best friends works in News. Not to say it's not a good story of course... In the meantime, I got bored with life and made this....
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
12:57 / 09.07.02
If anyone needs me, I'll be Bulwer Lytton.
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
15:07 / 09.07.02
Whence the 'war' part of all these?
 
 
MJ-12
16:07 / 09.07.02
the term evolved from 'wardialing', which is calling phone numbers at random, or sequentially (765-0001, 765-0002, 765-0003) trying to find computers to connect to. It later became wardriving, which was driving around with an antenna looking for an open wireless acceess point. warchalking seems to be the latest iteration.


It may well end up being fairly short lived, as telco's seem to be stepping up their crackdown of free wireless bandwidth at about the same time that this is taking off.

http://news.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-20121726-0.html?tag=ltnc
 
 
Naked Flame
06:51 / 10.07.02
Fasckinatin.

Anyone point a reasonably tech-savvy but newtwork-newbish Flame at a how-to? (the networking part. I figured out the chalking part.)
 
 
Tom Coates
07:07 / 10.07.02
Better still - the word 'war-dialing' some say is derived from the way Matthew Broderick does a brute force dialing of every number waiting for a computer to pick up in the movie Wargames, which I now so entirely have to buy on DVD. The link in my post above that isn't working at the moment is for my own personal invention - Whorechalking!
 
 
tom-karika nukes it from orbit
07:40 / 10.07.02
Wireless networks are always hopelessly insecure. But how long has this been around? I swear I saw something like those symbols chalked outside a large office block in Portsmouth last weekend.

Does anyone have a dictionary or something to decrypt them with?
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
08:09 / 10.07.02
From my blog, Friday 5th July:

First there was warchalking (yay pioneer Ben). Now, in the first of many parodies (Remember the Megway? Do you? Do you?), we have pubchalking. Whoever wins the race for warhawking (marking wireless networks with artful decorations of thick, chainsmoker phlegm), whorestalking (following ladies of the night around until eventually the excitement gets too much, and then in a twist worthy of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation using the chalk to draw a line around their bodies in your role as a police forensic analyst) and goreporking (shoving your penis into a big pile of entrails) also wins fluffy teddy bears.

Tee tum.
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
11:18 / 10.07.02
Christ, it's a scary place inside that pointed head of yours.
 
 
captain piss
17:08 / 10.07.02
sheesh, it certainly is everywhere. One of the techy mags I work for has just asked me to get something for them, for tomorow marn.

Hmm, didn't realise it was based on that Wargames dialing-in business
 
  
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