Imagine you’re in a field of whispering grass, beneath a beautiful moon and a wide open country sky, so full of stars they look like they might start sifting down under the weight of their own sparkling plenty. The smell is that big wide open country air smell, air freshly but so gently scrubbed by the tiny hands of the coalescing dew. Imagine a growing sense within you that something is about to happen, something is headed this way, and soon will crest the distant horizon, an enormous something with lights and bells and a hundred carnivals contained …

If I was a black-hat-wearing college student and you were a university professor whose email account (or credit card or bank) I wanted access to, the first passwords I’m going to try are your birthday, the birthday of your family members, and your partner’s, pet’s, and children’s names. In the unlikely event that one of those doesn’t work, I’ll try your wedding anniversary. If that doesn’t work, you’re a stastical anomaly, and I’ll just move on to the next account I want to crack because there is absolutely no way I’ll get two of you in a row.

Nope, not really. Just a temporary boo-boo. To be restored to its usual appearance soonz0rs.

If you’re a Mac user and if you’re a geek, AND especially if you’ve ever used any other reasonably recent operating system including Windows XP for God’s sake, you’ll probably want to check out WiFind from TastyApps.com. It basically brings your AirPort menu bar item into the 21st century by providing exciting, color-coded information about each detected network, including signal strength and whether the network is closed or not. A must have for the traveler: no more trying each network in turn until you find an open one!

Stewart Copeland’s deconstruction of the amateurish and accident-riddled second gig of The Police’s reunion tour. It’s a compelling read both for its car-accident-in-slow-motion morbid fascination, and because, well… I mean… it’s Stewart telling the story.

You know, the construction ain’t much, but the designs are nice, and they did a great job of filling a niche, but the name of their latest product line has made it clear that TIMBUK2 has officially jumped the shark.