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Sys-Admin Dispenses Passwords With a Banana (thenewstack.io)

Posted by timothy on from the difficult-to-defend-against-bananas dept.

An anonymous reader writes: A network administrator in Denmark is requiring users to perform a finger press on a banana to receive their Wi-Fi passwords. "The banana is mounted and in production," he posted Thursday, sharing two pictures. The banana uses a special new circuit board from Makey Makey to form a connection between the banana and a cheap Raspberry Pi computer with a screen attached, according to one technology site. They note that it could also detect finger presses on a doughnut, an apple, or even Jell-o, and offer this quote from the sys-admin about his motivations. "It's fun... It'll make people smile. It beats a static WPA password in funnyness." And most importantly, "When people leave our office, they can't access our WI-Fi because there's no banana to touch." This guy deserves some kind of award, come July 29th.

6 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. It's fun until... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    ...the banana rots or attracts fruit flies to the office.

    1. Re:It's fun until... by ArsenneLupin · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Obviously, the banana will be replaced from time to time...

      That being said, time flies like an arrow but fruit flies like a banana :-)

  2. Slow news day? by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So the banana's just a switch? It's not producing any randomness to feed into the key generation?

    Also, I don't see how they can't use the wifi from outside the building once they have the password. Unless they expire, which you can do without any fruit at all.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:Slow news day? by Jack+Griffin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So the banana's just a switch?

      Yes, it looks like it just replaces the WPS button.

      Also, I don't see how they can't use the wifi from outside the building once they have the password. Unless they expire, which you can do without any fruit at all.

      I'm assuming the controller is on a timer, which is fairly standard these days. The banana is merely a supposedly more fun way of pressing a button (yes lame in my opinion, but that's all you need to make the front page these days - and because Raspberry Pi!)

  3. Re:Oh, sure, this guy gets the accolades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The OP never made any such suggestion that sysadmins are male. That bit of sexism is all on you. Further, if you think that female sysadmins have no use for a banana then maybe mom should let you out of the basement more often.

  4. Re:Oh, sure, this guy gets the accolades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Then please explain the "if you squeeze any sysadmins banana hard enough" in a gender-neutral way.

    Either way it was just unnecessary and not particularly fun.