For the first time in my life, I'm speechless

@Barney

@galmaegi and @hollboll may want to keep that.

@Barney
Thought you were scared of horses.

@f00l We have a screaming goat…

@f00l I am scared of horses, @galmaegi and @hollboll and keep him/her/it.

@Barney

Check your fencing.

This is next:

@Barney As long as you’re getting purple ponies…

@Barney I’m cracking up imagining a pony with one of those dinky Amazon gift notes stuck to it…

@brhfl Enjoy your laughter, 'cause I’ll re-route it directly to you!

@ruouttaurmind A purple pony still would not convince me to own one.

@Barney Danggggg… that is one serous dislike of ponies!

@ruouttaurmind You betcha!

@Barney
Cool. The PURPLE herd of ultra-sweet ponies and adorable horses can live just next door, and they can whinny and nicker at you in greeting, every time you appear.

@f00l Has anyone told you that you are a little obsessed about horses? Have you talked to a shrink about this?

@Barney
You are the one who mentioned ponies.

When I was young I was obsessed with horses. This was normal. Esp in a place with lots of horses.

Now I’m just obsessed with tormenting people. How am I doing? Am I making progress?

@f00l I think you’ve finally found your calling. You are most excellent at tormenting people.

@Barney
/giphy curtsy

@woodhouse Uh-huh. Did Meh do a background check on you before they hired you?

@Barney
I already have one (which I love), and I could never bring myself to keep gifts from people!

I’m still field testing the defensive perimeter around my desk. I was worried someone may have found a flaw in my security.

@woodhouse
I must ax if you have your ax handy for intruders.

@f00l It’s more of a booby trap. Think Goonies-style

@PlacidPenguin The cover is pretty close to the color of @f00l’s saddle, but a little darker. It looks pretty doggone good!

@Barney

Pic?

@PlacidPenguin I’ll have to take a pic at another time. The inside light is not good for this little tracfone camera and outside it has been very windy and blowing dust and smoke from the prairie fires we’ve been having here in Kansas. It’s really hurting my sinuses.

@Barney

Is this the case?

https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Kindle-Paperwhite-Leather-Purple/dp/B008IJR79W

@PlacidPenguin Yep, I think so.

@Barney
Not sure if that’s purple enough. What do you think? Is it purple enough?

@f00l It’s a purplely purple and I love it.

@Barney Well, I just switched phone provider to save money. They assigned me PIN with 11 numbers.
That’s too many

@compunaut Wow, I could never remember that many.

@Barney
Use something that you can remember but that can’t be easily connected to you. Is it numbers only?

How about 2 friend’s birthdays - pref people who aren’t on facebook or people who faked their birthdays on facebook. Not a relative’s birthday.

Or a phone number you remember from childhood. Or a meaningful word or name to you, transposed into the numbers on a phone keypad.

@f00l Yes, it is numbers only. So you are saying I should use how many numbers as a minimum?

@Barney Why do you need a passcode? My Paperwhite has the option, but I declined.

@OldCatLady Hmm, I’ve always used passwords on all of my computers and stuff. I have a password on my Kindle keyboard. I guess I was told to do it. I’m guessing I should use a passcode (numbers only) on my Paperwhite?

@OldCatLady And where in the heck is this Paperwhite Kindle guide they keep talking about? I can’t find it. -sigh-

I’m hopeless, totally hopeless.

But I really like the light on it.

@Barney

You can easily reverse any fraudulent purchases of Kindle books by calling Amazon.

So the critical info this device will have on it will be your book and reading prefs, your name, and your Amazon email address.

Although I want my Kindle to be reasonably secure, it’s far less critical than other devices. I don’t put personal docs on mine.

If you also put personal docs onto the kindle, or have them accessible by kindle, then the kindle becomes a more critical device to secure.

More #'s is better, obviously. A four digit code could, obviously, offer 9999 options. Or 10000 if you count 0000 as a code.

If you just read books and news on it, 4 digits may be fine for you. Some people don’t put a code on theirs at all.

You have to be able to live with the code you choose. Don’t choose anything you can’t live with, or you’ll have to reset the device every time you forget how to unlock it.

@shrdlu, and other security people? Thoughts?

@Barney
The guide is somewhere on the Kindle. But there are a lot of YouTube videos and whatnot.

@PlacidPenguin The Kindle was from you??

@f00l Yeah, but I know there is a guide on it, I had one on my keyboard. I just can’t find the darn thing. Believe it or not, I’m one of those people who LIKES to read instruction books.

@Barney old street address numbers strung together? phone number of a friend? bra size, shoe size, clothing size strung together?

@Barney

1. The note says “friends”.

2. The package appears to be from Amazon.

@Kidsandliz But how many do I need?

@PlacidPenguin The package came from Amazon. Someone ordered it and sent it to Meh. @woodhouse then mailed it to me, as he agreed to do.

@Kidsandliz
No old street # or phone # if a person or their parents had those #'s. Family and friend info can be fished for.

@f00l The good thing about all of these non-answers is that I can now go and read my books.

@Barney

No clue then.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Enjoy this Paperwhite though.

@Barney

If you don’t plan to put personal docs on it, the main risks are your name and email.

I am fairly casual about my kindle passcode.

Just find a word you like. Transpose of word into phone keypad #'s. Don’t forget the word. Write it down and put the piece of paper into your safe deposit box. Or put the word and numeric code for it into an encrypted software password locker.

I use LASTPASS.

PS. Two or three apparently unconnected words you can remember in order transposed into numbers is better than 1 word.

@Barney don’t have a kindle so I don’t know. If you choose the clothing/shoe example, start either from the feet and go up or the other direction so you remember what order you used them.

I just did a google search (number of digest in a passcode)and it wasn’t definitive either (not to mention most of what came up was “forgot passcode”). One example gave 4 digits, parental controls gave 9… I saw a user guide but I can’t give you the url because when I click on it it downloads a pdf rather than open a page and I didn’t see anything in that which would tell you.

So I would suggest putting what you want, the length you want and if it isn’t happy it will yap at you (and if you are lucky a pop up screen will tell you the passcode rules).

I did read if you forgot your passcode you have to reset and you then lose everything personalized, contacts, etc. in there. So maybe park your password on your phone notes or something if you think you will forget it.

@f00l yeah but the amount of fishing that would need to happen would be time consuming - especially if two are strung together - getting that would be really unlikely - eg you lived at 2788 and 3057 so passcode was 27883057 - that requires more than just fishing. And if nothing private was kept on there it wouldn’t really matter either.

@Kidsandliz Thank you.

@Barney you are welcome!

@Barney

/giphy encryption

@OldCatLady I finally found the user’s guide. Doh! They don’t make it easy for us idiots.

@Barney …Well, now I’ll go look on mine. I seldom read the things, but you’ve inspired me.

@OldCatLady @Barney

@Barney I’m sworn to secrecy!

@woodhouse I dunno, I think I can break you.

@Barney

Threaten his axes.

@PlacidPenguin I keep reading that as exes.

@Barney

That might be crossing a few legal lines.

(And since we all know you wouldn’t carry out your threats in this case, threatening @woodhouse’s exes would just be transparent.)

@Barney All his exes live in Texas?

@jqubed Aw gee, I wouldn’t wish THAT on them.

@Barney

Ok, I did some investigating, and I have names of mehmbers involved. If @woodhouse says which Mediocre staff members were involved, I’ll release the names which I have.

@OldCatLady Well?

@jqubed Fun fact - there is an Australian folk band called All Our Exes Live in Texas. They’re phenomenal. Proof:

@woodhouse @jqubed

Australia + folk music + Texas in the name = Interesting combo.

@PlacidPenguin I know, I love it.

42

@f00l I’m still back on the idea that I would bother with a pass code for a Kindle. No, not kidding. The Amazon account has a strong password, and that should be enough. Then again, I mostly buy books made from actual paper. I quit buying the digital version of books some time ago, unless it was something I REALLY wanted to read, and it was ONLY available on the Kindle. That’s maybe one a year. Maybe.

Kindles with passcodes. I just checked the menu on mine, and it turns out there’s a setting for a device passcode. Who knew? Still not setting it, though.

@Barney

@Barney All his exes live in Texas?
jqubed said 35 minutes ago

@jqubed Aw gee, I wouldn’t wish THAT on them.
Barney said 33 minutes ago

Lone Star State. Good place for wishing on stars.

/image Lone Star

@Shrdlu
I buy mostly Kindle books now because my habitat and life cannot accommodate any more physical books. : )

@Barney

It was all @f00l (and @narfcake I believe).

(Oh, and technically @woodhouse and a bunch of other people.)

@PlacidPenguin
Hmmm. That’s not how I remember it.

It’s not me that causes various exes to live in Texas.

@f00l

@PlacidPenguin

@Barney …Well what? Good? I didn’t have anything to do with your package, but it’s fun reading this entire thread. And I still haven’t read the Paperwhite manual.

@OldCatLady But you found the manual? Am I the only one who didn’t know where to look?

@Barney Your bank probably still protects your atm card with only 4 digits.

Not saying that’s secure, but they do.

Also, congrats on the kindle! You are loved by many here.

@djslack Yep, it is a 4 digits code, now that you mention it. Aww, thank you.

@Shrdlu
Just because I “understand math sometimes” (figure of speech, of course) does not mean I understand security in practical terms. At all. (I understand, in practical terms, quite a bit less than the contents of the null set.)

I also don’t worry much about Kindle device security. And I am probably careless about all sorts of serious security constantly, without realizing it. However, when @Barney wanted info on “how many digits”, I thought there might be some sort of snazzy elegant answer by formula, known only the the elite. So lucky you got pinged to add some sense to the conversation.

@Barney I asked Google. https://kindle.s3.amazonaws.com/UserGuide/Paperwhite_V2/Kindle_Paperwhite_V2_UserGuide_US.pdf

@OldCatLady Cheater. You are supposed to find it on your Paperwhite.

@Barney …Oh. I’ll keep looking. Tomorrow.

@OldCatLady @Barney

@Barney When I bought my kindle the manual was the only thing on it because I hadn’t bought any books yet.

@PlacidPenguin

@jqubed Yeah, it was the same when I bought my Kindle Keyboard.

@Barney

Not too familiar with Gone with the Wind.

@PlacidPenguin But you knew where the gif was from.

@PlacidPenguin @Barney They re-released it to theaters when I was in 8th grade. I didn’t really like the movie, but I thought Vivien Leigh was pretty hot in it.

I also realized a girl who was in several of my classes looked a lot like her. I now think this was another early clue to my strong preference for brunettes.

@jqubed

@PlacidPenguin Are these llamas or alpacas?

@jqubed

Yes.

Although this is a question for @thumperchick since I believe she once had to figure out the different between the two.

@jqubed
So you like the brunette?

@jqubed @f00l @Thumperchick

https://meh.com/forum/topics/show-me-your-best-llama-gif

@f00l I prefer human women

@Barney i’d suggest you use 634634634, that’s MehMehMeh

@shruggie Yeah, so there!

@Thumperchick Me, too.

@Thumperchick needs more 's

@2many2no @Thumperchick is a

@2many2no
OK
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

@2many2no @Thumperchick

@Barney
As I mentioned, I am completely innocent regarding various exes that live in Texas.

I am also completely innocent regarding Penguins.

/giphy "guilty penguin"

@PlacidPenguin Go to your room! I’ll deal with you later. (And thank you, too, for your role in all of this.)

@Barney The real mastermind …

@Barney

Apparently @f00l decided to implicate me. If I had any involvement in this, then it was minimal.

@narfcake

Found the blue one?

@PlacidPenguin @narfcake @f00l I guess I’m going to have to take fingerprints and require lie detector tests on all of you.

@PlacidPenguin Nope, but I did find the purple/red pandas.

@PlacidPenguin
I detect the sure signs of an instigator.

@woodhouse

I’d ask how much it would hurt to burn off my fingerprints, but I found this:

@PlacidPenguin Have you ever been fingerprinted?
@narfcake? @f00l? I have.

@PlacidPenguin
Might not help.
There might be traces of a butterfly effect.
/giphy butterfly

@Barney

I want my lawyer.

But don’t you humans require that when a baby is born?

@PlacidPenguin I was footprinted.

Edit: They couldn’t footprint @f00l. She had her foot in her mouth.

@Barney
Only using my replica hands.

Actually the State of Texas scans your fingers or something for driver’s licenses. It’s been so long that I don’t remember exactly what they did.

@Barney
/youtube Animaniacs fingerprints

@Barney
@PlacidPenguin
I was footprinted. Only the county lost the records or something. Dunno if the hospital still has them.

@Barney

@PlacidPenguin Gee, Mom is going to be so surprised.

@Barney

@PlacidPenguin I was footprinted.
Edit: They couldn’t footprint @f00l. She had her foot in her mouth.
Barney said a minute ago

Libelous, that. And my lawyer is on speed-dial.

It was my elbows and my head that I had in my mouth. My feet wouldn’t fit.

@f00l I can imagine that you have to have your lawyer on speed-dial.

@Barney
Yeah I guess I kinda need lawyers on speed-dial jic.

My brother, my cousin, my cousin-in-law, my other cousin, my other cousin-in-law, and are all the ones still in school and the ones that are deceased but are still perfectly capable of filing a lawsuit and making a damned nuisance of themselves.

I didn’t claim any of them would necessarily answer the phone, if they saw I was the one calling.

I’m easier to understand on the phone with my elbow out of my mouth. So they say.

@PlacidPenguin
You know…

If @Barney is a Dino, or a Dino/Grinch cross, then perhaps all @Barney’s exes do live in Texas.

@f00l Nope, only in California, where the rest of the strange people live (besides Texas).

@Barney
A lot of DIno’s hang out here. So I thought …

And as for all the strange sorts being in Texas and California …

I take it that you have not spent much time in Florida, have you?

/giphy "weird florida"

@f00l Never been to Florida.

@Barney
When you are ready for weird … Florida.

Elmore Leonard, John D MacDonald, and Carl Hiaasen all play the weirdness down bigtime, so as not to impact the tourist industry.

@f00l Nice animated Lego bunny! Maybe I’ll see one when I take the grandkids to Legoland (in Florida!) next week.

@f00l RE: fingerprints - state of TX does fingerprint you when getting your drivers license. State of WA does not. Source: just moved from WA to TX

@woodhouse
Did they do the ink fingerprints? Or did they just scan your fingertips? I am remembering some sort of scanner …

@f00l It was just a little scanner pad thing (next to where you do your signature for the card). They didn’t do the ink on paper thing.

@chienfou @f00l it’s actually a dog, from this commercial:

@narfcake Still the dirtiest thing I can recall seeing in a children’s cartoon.

@mossygreen that was dirty?

@RiotDemon Was it… not? For an afternoon children’s cartoon? Did I infer an implication of what the late great sitcom Community termed “butt stuff” where none was intended? Or are you saying that kids’ cartoons are super hardcore now? I don’t have cable. Anything is possible.

@mossygreen Animaniacs was broadcast, not cable. And that’s why I love it. The writers regularly threw in jokes to see what they could get away with. Sometimes, they added some obvious ones that they knew will get shot down by BS&P in hopes that the subtle ones get to stay.

@mossygreen I guess the joke went over my head in that clip.

@conandlibrarian Thank you. I never expected anything like this. I’m not even sure why they decided to do it – I’m lucky to have such great friends here.

@Barney

If I had to guess:
@f00l wasn’t thinking (about anything in particular), and @narfcake just went with the flow (as Californians are known to behave).

@PlacidPenguin said:

If I had to guess:
@f00l wasn’t thinking (about anything in particular)

FTW!

@PlacidPenguin Yep, that figgers.

@Barney @PlacidPenguin @f00l

http://shirt.woot.com/offers/i-have-no-idea-what-im-doing

@narfcake That’s pretty obvious.

@f00l hmmm, i’ve always seen that as WTF, or the variant, NFW. FTW is new to me…

@Yoda_Daenerys I remember when FTW used to mean, Fuck the World. I’m still not used to For the Win.

@RiotDemon
@Yoda_Daenerys

It works for me both ways. Simultaneously, I guess.

FTW!