Dear Starbucks: The skinny on how you can be a security hero

The right question is this: why is public Wifi always synonymous with unencrypted WiFi? Encryption has been a basic component of WiFi technology since the first versions of 802.11 were approved. I wouldn’t suggest we go back to using WEP like we did in the early days, but even WEP is an improvement over nothing.

While Facebook and other companies should be providing us secure methods of connecting to their services, those companies kind enough to provide us with free internet access at cafes, airports and other public places are also part of the problem.

I propose standard adoption of WPA2 and a default password of free. Whenever you wish to connect to complimentary WiFi, you select Courtyard Marriott or Starbucks like you always have, but you are then prompted for a password.

Just type free. It’s not hard. In fact, operating system vendors could even program your PC to automatically try the password “free” before prompting you for a password on the assumption that you might be selecting a free service — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Martinho Les Neyres Residence / Bonnard Woeffray Architectes

Martinho Les Neyres Residence / Bonnard Woeffray Architectes

The dwelling is located in Les Neyres, a hamlet situated on the slopes above Monthey where the vineyards stop and the chestnut woods start – a situation that is neither plane nor mountain. That said, the planning requirements dictate an alpine vernacular in an area zoned for chalet-style building. In its composition of volumes and use of materials, the project engages with the requirements by reinterpreting the characteristic image of an Illiez Valley chalet. The lines of the angled roof are incorporated within the volume of the house. The plan takes the form of a deformed hexagon — via ArchDaily

Roof Made with Adaptive Reuse Records

Roof Made with Adaptive Reuse Records

Nashville-based musician Matt Glassmeyer sent us photos of this adaptive use roof built with unplayable old vinyl records.  Glassmeyer said in an email that he used his own collection and records collected via Craigslist.  After designing the patio roof, he put a dab of caulk in the record hole and nailed each disc down in an overlapping pattern using large washers and roofing nails.  And there’s been no leakage even in heavy rains — via Jetson Green

Bulgari Papillon Chronograph

Bulgari Papillon Chronograph

A resolutely original approach to short-time measurement lends the Bulgari Papillon Chronograph a truly distinctive face. The exceptional arrangement of the various items of information on the dial, as well as their actual read-off, endows it with an exclusive style bearing no relation to customary chronographs — via Watchluxus

Zoo Zoo / Hyunjoon Yoo Architects

Zoo Zoo / Hyunjoon Yoo Architects

Zoo Zoo is filled with too much content of reptiles’ exhibition hall, Crocodile Theater, Lion Theater, Sea Lion Theater, etc within a relatively small size site. It might be required four times of current size to accommodate all kinds of programs on the zoo. In spite of this limited condition, this zoo is always crowded with elementary students in Seoul and Geonggi-do area visit this zoo to have an experience of touching animals. The site is located near by the river and the site have a very high chance of flood during the raining season due to the low site level — via ArchDaily

Mentioning old friend Jeffrey Dahmer is a sure way to get out of jury duty

Judge John Sutula was conducting his usual screening session with prospective jurors last week when he asked a question everyone in the jury pool must handle: Has anyone you know ever been convicted of a crime?

After some routine answers about relatively minor crimes, the question was put to John Backderf, better known as Derf, the cartoonist and graphic novelist who draws The City for a number of alternative newspapers, including Cleveland Scene.

I had a close friend in high school who killed 17 people, he said — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Wood & White Swirl: Winding Up a Unique Spiral Staircase

Wood & White Swirl: Winding Up a Unique Spiral Staircase

Anyone else reminded of a chocolate-and-vanilla swirl ice-cream cone? In isolation, this stairwell looks like a work of art – a winding multi-story sculpture composed of rhythmic wood steps and a sweeping white curve. More remarkable than the staircase and handrail, though, are the way they wind into the rest of this interior design — via dornob

29 charged with sex trafficking

The Somali gang members, with nicknames like Fatboy, Forehead and Pinky, passed the girls around like chattel for sex with other gang members or with paying customers. One girl they sold for liquor. Another they pimped for a blunt. Sometimes, they picked the girls up from school, to have sex in apartments or abandoned garages or even in a restroom stall in a suburban shopping mall.

Twenty-nine people, mostly from the Twin Cities, are accused of running an interstate human trafficking ring that sold Somali girls — one as young as 12 — into prostitution. In a federal indictment made public in Nashville on Monday, officials accused gang members of running a decade-long prostitution business that included credit card fraud and burglary totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. Their alleged crimes crossed state lines, as investigators say girls were driven from the Twin Cities to Nashville and Columbus, Ohio. Another victim was allegedly sexually assaulted in Seattle — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Mobile phone kits to diagnose STDs

People who suspect they have been infected will be able to put urine or saliva on to a computer chip about the size of a USB chip, plug it into their phone or computer and receive a diagnosis within minutes, telling them which, if any, sexually transmitted infection (STI) they have. Seven funders, including the Medical Research Council, have put £4m into developing the technology via a forum called the UK Clinical Research Collaboration — via michaelsautter.newsvine.com

Extreme Crocheting

Polish-born artist, Olek, loves watching movies and making art; creating these crochet works allows her to do both at the same time. This is definitely not your granny’s crocheted doilies and toilet paper roll covers. Olek turns the traditional craft into something edgy by covering everyday objects with crochet, transforming them into installation pieces. She explains her work this way:

The movies I watch while crocheting influence my work, and my work dictates the films I select. I crochet everything that enters my space. Sometimes it’s a text message, a medical report, found objects. There is the unraveling, the ephemeral part of my work that never lets me forget about the limited life of the art object and art concept. What do I intend to reveal? You have to pull the end of the yarn and unravel the story behind the crochet.

— via Neatorama

Instead of Paying $60,000 for a Fancy Set of Speakers, Man Builds His Own

Home theater specialists Bowser & Wilkins makes a high-end model of speaker called the Nautilus. They’re pricey at about $60,000 for a set. Alfonso de Rojas wanted some, but didn’t have the money. So he spent 400 hours building a set on his own. The finished product, which you can view at the link, certainly looks like a Nautilus — via Neatorama