I bought a laptop. It has a wireless network card. I like the idea of getting something for nothing – the nirvana for infinite value for money. It turns out that ‘ethical security advisors’ coined a phrase for the activity of trying to get free internet access (and more) using wireless network cards – the grandiose ‘wardriving‘. This involves trying to discover and use wireless networks provided by other people. Not like at Birmingham airport, where it costs eight quid an hour to use the internet from your wireless network equipped equipment.
I spent some time trying to get free internet access in Spain without the benefit of a car. More like ‘warwalking’, which sounds a bit naff. More ‘battlestalking’, I liked to think. But then I thought of the perfect term for attempted wireless hacking – ‘w-hacking’ or ‘whacking’. Because it sounds rude. Turns out some other wifi mofos have coined the word. I don’t care, because right now I am on the wrong side of some Special Brew, and the right side of some free internet access in a guesthouse in Cambridge. VFMtastic.