“apparently i needed to help pay for the growing internet bill,” says our anonymous submitter from boston. “this was the only way i was notified: no connection and a wireless LAN reprogrammed with a new password.”
but password-protecting your network is actually a relatively direct (and dare i say, more effective) approach compared to this…
reddit!
stumble it!
100 responses so far ↓
#1 Mishee
$5 to check PAN? Hell, I’d pay it!
Nov 7, 2007 at 10:24 pm rating: 0
#2 Mike
That internet connection was fucking delicious!
Nov 7, 2007 at 10:24 pm rating: 0
#3 Mishee
How does an internet bill “Grow”? I mean, I am pretty sure it’s just a flat rate a month, right?
But either way, submitter needs to pony up
Nov 7, 2007 at 10:26 pm rating: 0
#4 Writer, Rejected
Both Safari *and* the roommate got PA in Beantown with a little notification about no more access to PAN….that’s clever. If I couldn’t get on PAN wheneer I needed to, I’d throw the computer, the roommate, and the cat out the window.
Nov 7, 2007 at 10:29 pm rating: +1
#5 Gidgidonihah
Haha,
Yeah, submitter needs to help out, but that’s one hell of a P/A way to tell him.
Team Password!
Nov 7, 2007 at 10:31 pm rating: 0
#6 Amperage
lol, i’d be pissed if that happened to me.
the many uses of Mac and their built in Grab software.
Nov 7, 2007 at 10:36 pm rating: 0
#7 morpho aurora
it would have been a lot less effort to just say so, but this is funnier.
not something i’d try at home, t would toss the laptop in the driveway
Nov 7, 2007 at 10:38 pm rating: 0
#8 Troy McClure
Hatari!
If you plan on going on Safari
And it’s my network you want to use
Don’t spend your money
On an extra pair of dancing shoes
Pony up with some dollars
If you want Passive Aggressive
Notes dot com back in action dork
Nov 7, 2007 at 10:42 pm rating: 0
#9 Rupert
Five bucks? Heck, that’s cheap. I’d charge ten. Well, maybe $7.50 just because I’m a giving kinda guy
Nov 7, 2007 at 10:51 pm rating: 0
#10 raiseyourglass
Airport turned on. Now, I don’t own a laptop, but doesn’t it have to be turned off to connect? It’s kinda like your cell phone like that isn’t it?
Nov 7, 2007 at 10:52 pm rating: 0
#11 Andy
raiseyourglass: Nope, you have to have it on first.
Anyhoo, boo to WiFi moochers. That’s an awesome router name.
It would have been better if the router name was just “FuckOffCheapie”.
Nov 7, 2007 at 10:56 pm rating: 0
#12 melanie
why are you all saying $5? I think it just says “internet costs $”. Am I missing something here?
Nov 7, 2007 at 10:56 pm rating: 0
#13 Wry Exchange
Someone would DIE if they did that to me. That’s cold.
Nov 7, 2007 at 11:00 pm rating: 0
#14 raiseyourglass
Thanks Andy!
Nov 7, 2007 at 11:02 pm rating: 0
#15 Andy
I agree, melanie. I don’t know where that came from, either. Mishee, ’s’ and ‘5′ are different characters. They mean different things.
Just run a ethernet cable to their internet router, and there ya go. Mooch away! To be fair, does the submitter pay some of the bill now?
If that’s the case, then router locker is a douche, though it’s still funny all the same.
Nov 7, 2007 at 11:02 pm rating: 0
#16 Andy
Oh, also. Is that OSX 10.5, perchance?
If so, you can plunk down $130 for a new OS, but not chip in for internet service?
Damn, I knew my cornflakes tasted weird. Someone pissed in them, obviously.
Nov 7, 2007 at 11:06 pm rating: 0
#17 raiseyourglass
Hey since ya’all know about this stuff… any warnings of brands of laptops to avoid? I was going to get one since my building gets free wii fi.
Nov 7, 2007 at 11:12 pm rating: 0
#18 Andy
Well… the only problem is that I’m a Mac goon, so I have no idea about Windows PCs. Slightly revised MacBooks came out just recently, that’s all I know. I only buy desktop computers — I have a 24″ iMac right now, so I can type and get a tan at the same time. Yay, radiation!
Nov 7, 2007 at 11:15 pm rating: 0
#19 raiseyourglass
I went to the mac store here when I was shopping for my ‘puter when my last one crashed (lucky I had been saving for a new one…I told the guy what my budget was and he tried to sell me one 2x as much. MAN he taked fast….worse than a used car salesman
I ended up with the HP IQ
which I LOVE - although I still haven’t figured out how to use half the stuff it came with. LOL
Nov 7, 2007 at 11:26 pm rating: 0
#20 Mishee
Melanie #12 - my contacts are blurry….
Nov 7, 2007 at 11:27 pm rating: 0
#21 Naomi
Safari? Who still uses Safari?
Nov 7, 2007 at 11:39 pm rating: 0
#22 WanderingPenguin
Well, I sure hope another note is forthcoming really quickly. This one, for some reason, just bores the piss out of me. I can’t even think of a thing to comment on with the information at hand. Oh, except for this: if the non-access enraged “anonymous in Beantown” until he/she was red in the face, would that make him/her “Crimson at clover”?
Bleah. Maybe after a good night’s sleep something better will occur to me.
Nov 7, 2007 at 11:43 pm rating: 0
#23 WanderingPenguin
Hmm. Things seem to have changed. My last post - even though I was still logged in - showed up in the “Stirring up Trouble” section.
Nov 7, 2007 at 11:47 pm rating: 0
#24 Mishee
If anon submitter was locked out of the internet access, then how the hell did they submit this note??
Nov 7, 2007 at 11:53 pm rating: 0
#25 todd
Fail: Using Safari over Firefox.
Epic Fail: Not helping to pay the internet bill.
Nov 7, 2007 at 11:54 pm rating: 0
#26 Juliet
I just love it when they use a dollar sign in lieu of an ’s’ like “InternetCo$ts”.
I haven’t been charged for Co$ts … unless we all pay to use this site, good luck getting it from me.
Nov 8, 2007 at 12:23 am rating: 0
#27 Oti
Have there been any regulars’ missing from this sight lately?
Nov 8, 2007 at 12:44 am rating: 0
#28 Coke-aholic
This note is pretty boring so I am going to go back and read some of the first ones. Seems they don’t have many comments yet.
Nov 8, 2007 at 1:41 am rating: 0
#29 Troy McClure
Yeah I went to the very first one a few days ago to see what it was. There weren’t any pilgramage posts; I was a little surprised. But then, I didn’t leave one either.
Nov 8, 2007 at 1:45 am rating: 0
#30 Coke-aholic
Well, maybe we will start a new trend, back reading the old posts. I shall return soon.
Nov 8, 2007 at 1:53 am rating: 0
#31 Troy McClure
Safarit’s been a free ride—but now it’s payback time!
Nov 8, 2007 at 2:33 am rating: 0
#32 Wade
There is a kind of minimalist beauty to the passive aggression in this note. Apparently the router owner had given anonymous access up to this point, because anonymous had the previous password. So rather than ask for help on the internet bill, the owner just changed the password and the access point name to InternetCo$ts?
Living in Boston must raise passive aggression to an art form.
Nov 8, 2007 at 6:35 am rating: 0
#33 Andy
They weren’t being cute with the s as a $ — it’s “InternetCosts$” as in “Internet Costs Money”.
That’s why I approve of the name, no cutesy dollar-sign s, or zero for an O, or, heaven-forbid, z or s.
Anyhow, this is what I get for being woken up early.
Nov 8, 2007 at 6:51 am rating: 0
#34 Wade
Gue$$ I $hould have maximized the $creen$hot.
Good catch, Andy.
You should have a font named after you.
Nov 8, 2007 at 7:07 am rating: 0
#35 Wade
Maybe anonymous should make friends with clover.
Nov 8, 2007 at 7:13 am rating: 0
#36 Reality
Not much to be said about this note. Except pay up if you owe. Sending bill is not to passive aggressive,how many times was it ignored before service was revoked. Did I read that right, too early Good Morning to any who are here I have to leave see ya later.
Nov 8, 2007 at 7:51 am rating: 0
#37 KB
True story: in my apartment complex one of the wireless internet connections is named “Can’t Touch This.” Ironically, it is unsecured.
Nov 8, 2007 at 8:26 am rating: 0
#38 Team Cassandra
I WISH! I could have done this. A story:
This guy was staying with me for a while - it was supposed to be a sweet deal for both of us - he was on a touring contract for 3 months which would take him out of town for 2-3 weeks each month and back here for the last part of each. He was moving out of his *awful!* apartment anyway, so we made a deal that he could store his stuff here and crash in my not-exactly-empty bedroom (I doubled up with my kid while he was here) and then he’d only have to pay me a small fraction of what he would have paid holding his place.
Well.
After we made the deal things changed, of course. I know it wasn’t all his fault - they switched the contract on him…the only thing was that he failed to let me know. So his one week stay turned into 2 weeks, then 4, then 5 (I did ask, in the second week, what was going on).
Also, when he got here he insisted that he be able to set up his computer. I told him I’m out lots and he can use mine whenever but he wanted his own. OK, fine. I let him set it up on the table (big) next to mine.
Now, I work at home. My living room is an office is a studio is a living room. There *are* 2 big bedrooms, with one almost like a rec room, at the back which makes this bearable with my little family.
But that guy was on his computer 24/7, no word of a lie.
He just had nothing better to do on his days off. 5 weeks of days off. He wasn’t noisy or annoying or anything, but he did want to chat all the time IRL as well as surf and, well, I have a life to tend to.
On top of it all, he never offered me any cash for the extra time he was here, never washed a dish or helped with anything else and my own latent aggressive aggressiveness (we had it out once) coupled with passive aggressiveness (when I got my new printer, I put it on the table beside my computer and I put his computer on the little printer table in the corner - it was extra funny cuz he’s really tall and thin; I WISH I could have put a dunce cap on him) meant we didn’t end up on good terms.
He was fun to hang out with but, sadly, I don’t miss him.
Nov 8, 2007 at 8:40 am rating: 0
#39 Denielle
My wireless name, on my secured network of course, is GoAheadandTry! I cant take the credit though, it was my boyfriend’s brilliant idea.
Nov 8, 2007 at 8:43 am rating: 0
#40 Mitsu
Eh, not much to say here…I’m going to look for some cat-related PA notes…
Nov 8, 2007 at 8:43 am rating: 0
#41 FickleGal
Bleh.
Nov 8, 2007 at 9:09 am rating: 0
#42 Mishee
TC - too bad you didn’t end up having to leave him a note that would’ve eventually ended up here!
Nov 8, 2007 at 9:13 am rating: 0
#43 Mishee
I do like the addition of the other screenshot - but ironically like a comment here earlier, STOP Stealing my Internet is unsecured and on top of that, the signal strength is low! Who would want to piggyback on that??
Nov 8, 2007 at 9:15 am rating: 0
#44 Katzndogz
Weird coincidence - I was just reading a chapter in my book last night where one of the characters was explaining to another character about how people will drive around with laptops in order to find a wireless signal they can use. In this case someone had used it to send her a threatening anonymous e-mail. Dun dun DUN!!
Nov 8, 2007 at 9:25 am rating: 0
#45 Writer, Rejected
WiFi moochers? Free Ride? What? Are you people insane? WiFi should be free like the air we breathe. Like the radioactive waves giving us cancer at this very moment. Come on. We don’t have to put a capitalistic damper on everything, do we? Let (a *little*) socialism exist, please.
Nov 8, 2007 at 9:34 am rating: 0
#46 A.A guy
What’s wrong with safari? I just bought it in July. Is it out of date already? I HATE being new!!!!
Team bring back the abacus
( is it really that passe)
Nov 8, 2007 at 9:38 am rating: 0
#47 WanderingPenguin
WiFi won’t be “free”, W-R, until nobody has to pay for the connection in the first place. Roaming around neighbourhoods looking for “hot spots” so you can hook into a private individual’s fully-paid-for high-speed service is both rude and potentially harmful to the individual in question. To me it’s exactly the same as plugging your generator into a neighbour’s outside outlet and running your big-screen TV off of it. Especially if you happen to be using that “free” WiFi to download anything.
Nov 8, 2007 at 10:09 am rating: 0
#48 WanderingPenguin
You know what’s fun when a PAN offering runs out of steam early? Checking back over a few postings to see all the trolling, flaming juveniles who appear for one thread, post a lot of crap and then disappear again. It’s funny to watch - it’s almost as if they don’t realize there are any other notes on here except the one on which they are commenting. Or maybe they just can’t figure out the hot links. Whichever.
Ah, good times, good times.
Nov 8, 2007 at 10:19 am rating: 0
#49 Wade
wait, plugging your generator into a neighbor’s outside outlet is rude?
Nov 8, 2007 at 10:26 am rating: 0
#50 WanderingPenguin
Depends on the neighbour, Wade. If he’s the kind of guy whose Christmas lights burn your retinas 24/7 then I would say steal all the power you want!
Nov 8, 2007 at 10:37 am rating: 0
#51 Wade
I mean, if the outlet is outside…
Nov 8, 2007 at 10:41 am rating: 0
#52 Wade
It is funny. I have a Palm TX. I never cease to be amazed at the people who not only leave their routers unsecured, but leave it up as linksys or belkin. You just know they never reset the factory password. Dumb.
I turn off my SSID, so no one but me can even see it.
Nov 8, 2007 at 10:46 am rating: 0
#53 WanderingPenguin
…then they’re just begging for it, right Wade?
Nov 8, 2007 at 10:47 am rating: 0
#54 Wade
http://netsecurity.about.com/od/quicktip1/qt/qtwifinossid.htm
Nov 8, 2007 at 10:48 am rating: 0
#55 Wade
Well, it is outside….
LOL
Nov 8, 2007 at 10:49 am rating: 0
#56 Wade
most independent (read non-Starbucks) coffee shops around here have free wi-fi, so I really am not tempted.
Nov 8, 2007 at 10:51 am rating: 0
#57 WanderingPenguin
I, too, turn off the SSID but the encryption is a little trickier. I have friends and family passing through with laptops that need to access the ‘net from here occasionally. They all are running different operating systems from each other and from me…it gets to be quite a headache. For now I have only turned off the SSID but am trying to get a workaround for the encryption issues. I have a network traffic monitor running all the time; it appears to be working out so far but yes, I know I am flirting with disaster.
Nov 8, 2007 at 10:54 am rating: 0
#58 WanderingPenguin
re: #56 - that’s exactly it, Wade. It’s really that simple and so much more comfortable than driving around dark neighbourhoods in a van as if you were on a stake-out. Though, I suppose, not nearly as cool. I mean, you get to wear that fake beard and glasses and stuff….
Nov 8, 2007 at 10:55 am rating: 0
#59 Mishee
I can’t believe this thread is still alive and kicking.
Nov 8, 2007 at 10:58 am rating: 0
#60 Wade
just as long as homeland security doesn’t catch me deeply carving passwords into that table in the back of the coffee house.
Nov 8, 2007 at 10:59 am rating: 0
#61 Wade
We are doing our best Mishee
Nov 8, 2007 at 10:59 am rating: 0
#62 Wade
Oh, hell yes, Kerry!
The second photo is the BEST!
Nov 8, 2007 at 11:04 am rating: 0
#63 Wade
I think I would rather steal from Pro_Star_Broadband anyway … they have one more bar, lol.
Nov 8, 2007 at 11:06 am rating: 0
#64 morpho aurora
ya know, the police get really upset when they catch you sitting outside the local bank at 2 a.m. - they don’t believe you are just trying to get online!
second photo is great
Nov 8, 2007 at 11:07 am rating: 0
#65 Mishee
Wade, I guess I can believe it… that damn clump of cat hair is in the 300s I believe!
What a world we live in!!
I need more Grosso v. Hall type action… that would be awesome…
Nov 8, 2007 at 11:08 am rating: 0
#66 Dawn
I just found this website and can’t believe how funny all the comments are! Keep ‘em coming, folks! I have a lot of reading to catch up on.
Dawn
Nov 8, 2007 at 11:38 am rating: 0