SSIDs and Political Preference

Many of us can see the wireless networks of our neighbors.  Some are secured and some are not.  If your wireless is "open" your neighbors (and anyone driving by) can freeload off your system.  And, if they are doing anything nafarious it tracks back to your system.  It seems I am protecting myself by my technological backwardness.  One of my neighbors has commented that they wouldn't bother freeloading off my wireless because it is too slow.

One of the things I have noted is the names folks give their wireless networks.  It turns out that there is a technical name for these names—Service Set Identifiers, SSIDs.

Ms Anne Sorock has a post at Legal Insurrection, "SSIDs: The New Political Lawn Signs?".  It is about how some people are naming their wireless networks in pro- and anti-Obama ways.  Referencing a webpage she gives some examples:

To give it a test, I zoomed in on my part of the country.  It seems like they got it pretty right, “Obama08,” “ObamaMama,” and “ILoVeObAma!!” were designated as pro.

“OBAMA SUCKS,” “Obama Bin Biden,” and “Obama_is_a_huge_clown,” and my personal favorite, “OMG-ObamaMustGO-Wake UP People!” as anti…

Some people are out there in their views.

Hat tip to the Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff