Leo Laporte hosts a popular radio talk show called “The Tech Guy” where he answers quesitons about computers and the Internet.

During Saturday’s show of February 20, 2010, Jennifer from California called Leo to complain that the free Linksys wireless access point she had been using at home had disappeared.

Jennifer had also bought a Linksys wireless extender, hoping that would help her regain access to the free wireless service she had been using for 18 months. Leo’s notes about the call are posted here.

Problem: it seems that “free” Internet connection Jennifer was using was really from one of her neighbor’s unprotected routers. that person finally changed their password or turned off the router, and then the fun started.

See this Mashable article called Clueless Woman Calls Tech Show When Her Stolen Wi-Fi Disappear for some additional background.

Below is Leo’s video of that call – he also streams his talk show on the web at

Click here to view the embedded video.

Inspired by this year’s First-Year Seminar common book “Little Brother,” the topic will be personal privacy, surveillance, and counter terrorism monitoring systems.  HPU students, faculty, staff and interested community members are welcome to come and observe and participate in this event.  Speeches from the audience and discussion will be held after the conclusion of formal speeches.

Participating faculty include:

• Jarod Buna, International Studies
• Matt LoPresti, Philosophy
• Serge Marek, Geography

The Mixed Plate Debate is a series featuring students and faculty from multiple disciplines debating on topics relevant to the HPU community.

For more information on Mixed Plate Debates or future topic suggestions, contact Rose Helens-Hart, Director of Debate at (808) 544-9378 or rhelens@hpu.edu. Also see http://www.hpu.edu/debate for information about the HPU Debate Team.

Image courtesy of Jonathan McIntosh on Flickr via a Creative Commons license.

Erping Zhang, Director of Association for Asian Research in New York City, will examine the role of the Internet in China’s social change today, especially in light of the government’s strive to censor certain websites and the Chinese netizens’ effort to counter the censorship. He will explain why Beijing is so concerned with information control on the Internet and what are the available solutions to the censorship.

Zhang’s research focuses on social change, political economy, and human rights in China. He has also spoken for the rights of Falun Gong and written on Internet censorship in China. He graduated from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

Contact Professor Carlos Juarez at cjuarez@hpu.edu for more information.

The most recent version of Google’s Terms of Service was published on 16 April 2007 and state that users must be “of legal age to form a binding contract with Google”. As CNET correspondent Chris Soghoian points out, legal age in the USA is 18 years and older.

Does this mean that underage users are violating Google’s policies? Perhaps – but it depends on whether Google is enforcing its own policies in a consistent manner.

Under the recent versions of their user agreements, both Facebook (28 August 2009) and MySpace (25 June 2009) require users to be at least 13 years old. See the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and the MySpace Terms of Service page for the details.

Image courtesy of jessamyn on Flickr via a Creative Commons license.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This video is a brief description of RFID actually is.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This last video explains why the Mythbusters television program will not broadcast a program about how to hack RFID chips.

Click here to view the embedded video.