I'm going to address just one snippet - and hope that the google discussion goes off somewhere else, as, while it, too, is important, this discussion will get lost in the trash if it doesn't...


On Wednesday, September 19, 2012 1:09:12 PM UTC-4, Free Willy wrote:


An inanimate object like a computer or a cell phone that has a wi-fi

transceiver can and does 'automatically' log onto open wi-fi networks. All a

user has to do is turn the machine on. What the machine does after an owner

turns it on is not the owner intending to 'steal' data. In many cases an owner

might be completely unaware that a connection has been made.







Wilbur Hubbard

That premise was what I got out of one of my cited articles. Yet the learned Dave Skolnick says that's patently untrue - that, unlike a cell connection, WiFi enabled devices require specific input from the user before a connection will be made.

Those with a different experience could do me a favor by logging into either the G+ or the FB conversation thread on the subject and disabuse him of that notion, because, not owning such a device myself, I can't, at least with any authority. He asserts that Wired has its head up its ass and is mistaken. That would be surprising to me, given that it's a techie publication, BICBW...

The preceding, clipped, discussion about theft is left out here; as seen in my original, there's some conflict about it. However, Dave Skolnick is on a mighty charger, let alone a horse, to say that it's WRONG - JUST WRONG - to log onto any open signal to which you personally have not been specifically invited by the owner...