<![CDATA[[SecurityRatty] tag: webkinz]]> http://securityratty.com/tag/webkinz Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:36:12 +0000 iRatty Engine http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss <![CDATA[My kids get XO's, I go to the command line]]> http://securityratty.com/article/3a9e8d231a2aaed129e3cb1c93e2a03a http://securityratty.com/article/3a9e8d231a2aaed129e3cb1c93e2a03a Xo They finally came! My friend Raj Bhargava bought my two sons laptops from the OLPC project around the holiday season. Unfortunately due to the high demand, the project ran out of laptops and we have been waiting 3 months for them to arrive. They finally came on Friday. This was part of the buy one, donate one program so two other lucky children in the world have computers now too thanks to Raj's generosity. For those of you not familiar with the project, this was born out of Nicholas Negroponte's MIT lab to bring a $100 dollar laptop to children the world over. While they have not quite hit the $100 dollar cost, they are under $200. The laptop's are called XO laptops.

The laptops use low power, are extremely rugged and kid friendly and run Linux. The interface is called Sugar and is very different than a Windows type of metaphor. It takes some getting used to, but my kids seem to have picked it up pretty quickly. The wireless networking is great. In addition to regular wireless access points, the computers network in a "mesh" network that allow them to share information and chat with each other with the pre-installed software. My kids discovered chat pretty quickly and now sit next to each other chatting away over the computer. Why they just don't talk to each other I guess is part of the magic of computers. It also has a nice Mozilla based browser, a word processor, video camera and a bunch of other software. The boys are having a blast using the machines and take them everywhere. All of their friends who see them want one too, so maybe it will lead to more folks joining the buy one, give one program.

My kids are also really into webkinz. One of the first things they wanted to do was get on the webkinz site with their new machines. The webkinz site uses flash extensively. The XO laptop though only comes with open software, free is not enough. So they use an open source flash plug in, but it does not play all flash files. You can download and install the flash plug in for Linux, but this takes a little behind the scenes Linux command line work. So Dad told them to go to sleep and when they woke up, their machines would play webkinz in the morning.

It has been years since I had to work on a Linux/Unix system in the command line. Actually since I first started TriStar Web hosting with my partners and a few nights a week, I was the designated graveyard shift technical support dude. Even then, I knew only enough to get myself in trouble. Kill a process, grep files, chmod permissions, stuff like that. These laptops, while they run Linux, have a different kind of file and directory structure as to where they keep and store files and the naming system is weird. Files are truncated into numeric named files that bear no resemblance to the file name that shows up in the Sugar GUI. You have to go by the date created and size to recognize the file you are looking for and then you can rename it. The script I was trying to run got messed up in the word processor that comes with the laptop, so I had to go into Vi and fix that. It has been a while since I have used Vi too. Than the script did not have execute permissions set, so I had to do that. Well I have to tell you that this all took a few hours, but when the boys woke up in the morning, they turned on their computers and went to webkinz world and just as Dad promised, everything worked fine. I wish all of their wishes and wants were solved so easily!

]]> Sat, 22 Mar 2008 22:30:39 +0000 webkinz world world files grep files webkinz flash files webkinz site store files chat pretty quickly My kids get XO's, I go to the command line <![CDATA[Is security in the genes?]]> http://securityratty.com/article/8d2e12cd66a5908db7f92fe958c1d1f8 http://securityratty.com/article/8d2e12cd66a5908db7f92fe958c1d1f8

Dna Interesting thing happened tonight. My oldest son Landon, 8 years old, was trying to log in to WebKinz world (both of my boys are into these webkinz things, but that is another story).  There was a problem with the page loading so he called me over to help him get on the site.  I was able to get the log in page and asked him for his user name, which he gave me. I than asked him for his password and he said, "sorry Dad I can't give you that, I don't want you hacking into my webkinz account".  He would not even type in his password until I moved away from the keyboard. Can you believe this!  I asked him where he learned this.  He said a lot of kids in school give out their passwords and other kids hack into their accounts, but he is too smart for that and changes his password every 2 weeks anyway, just to be safe.  I was duly impressed, but questioned why he would not even trust his dad.  He told me that he trusts no one with his password, not even his dad.  Though slightly miffed that he didn't trust his dad, I was very impressed and proud of his security awareness.

]]> Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:35:39 +0000 webkinz webkinz world password dad webkinz account kids hack kids page trust Is security in the genes? <![CDATA[Is security in the genes?]]> http://securityratty.com/article/66c3a7cd46bcd5e65188b41d0c380164 http://securityratty.com/article/66c3a7cd46bcd5e65188b41d0c380164

Dna Interesting thing happened tonight. My oldest son Landon, 8 years old, was trying to log in to WebKinz world (both of my boys are into these webkinz things, but that is another story).  There was a problem with the page loading so he called me over to help him get on the site.  I was able to get the log in page and asked him for his user name, which he gave me. I than asked him for his password and he said, "sorry Dad I can't give you that, I don't want you hacking into my webkinz account".  He would not even type in his password until I moved away from the keyboard. Can you believe this!  I asked him where he learned this.  He said a lot of kids in school give out their passwords and other kids hack into their accounts, but he is too smart for that and changes his password every 2 weeks anyway, just to be safe.  I was duly impressed, but questioned why he would not even trust his dad.  He told me that he trusts no one with his password, not even his dad.  Though slightly miffed that he didn't trust his dad, I was very impressed and proud of his security awareness.

]]> Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:36:12 +0000 webkinz webkinz world password dad webkinz account kids hack kids page trust Is security in the genes?