Well, I put it off and put it off, but I finally broke down and replaced the hard drive in my old laptop. By the sounds it was making, I knew it was only a matter of time before it would crash, but I’m kind of a cheep bastard so I waited until I really didn’t have a choice anymore. I had kubuntu on it, so I had the pleasure of downloading the latest version (Gusty) and installing it on the new drive I got yesterday. Of course, a Linux install isn’t a Linux install unless you have to pull a few ear hairs out along the way, and this time was no different. For whatever reason, all the update repositories were marked to be ignored, so I had to arm wrestle with a terminal window and google for a while before I finally laid a beat down on the thing and got it updated. For anyone in a similar situation, it helps during the process if one has a stuffed pooh bear handy to throw against the wall a few times, as long as their aren’t any children present. I’m actually kind of pleased with myself for getting it all done in one evening, considering my Linux skills are probably on par with your average first grader. Oh well, the meat of the matter is that I got it up and going in pretty good order, so of course I had the motivation to mess with something else (warning, boring screed below the fold).

That something else, in this case, was my wireless router. When I lived in Conrad, I never worried about locking down the signal because, well, if a sheep was out back with a laptop I’d probably notice. When we moved to Helena, I knew I needed to secure the signal, but I also knew that I had some wireless peripherals that don’t know WPA from a CPA, so I was limping along and generally being very careful about what I did and didn’t do on the computer. What motivated me to get it done though, was not just my latest successful Linux install. My brother in law’s latest experience finally convinced me that my bandwidth should be my bandwidth. He enjoys iTunes, and he thought he’d try renting one of their movies via download. When I asked him how it worked out, he was despondent; it took over five hours to get it on his laptop. I told him if that was the deal, then I wouldn’t be trying it anytime soon; I could take a ride to Spokane to watch a movie in that time.

The next day, he called me with a sheepish laugh, saying that he realized why it took so long: his laptop had grabbed a neighbor’s weak wireless signal and proceeded to suck all of its bandwidth away. Security aside, I get annoyed when my bandwidth isn’t where it should be, and the prospect of handing it over to some unknown neighbor who wants to download the directors edition of the complete Rocky series finally motivated me to break down and lock up the router. Unfortunately, now I have to figure out a work around for all of my peripherals, but it beats the hell out of a 56k connection. I suppose I’ll have to put up with a few angry glances from my neighbors now; something like a freeloaders remorse. I know, I know, we’re all in this together, even though I’m the one paying for it. To that I just say, let them eat cake, or someone else’s open wireless connection, I’m done providing the giveaways.