I “accidentally” won an eBay auction for five single board computers, four of which are Raspbery pi’s. By accidentally k mean I bid on an auction and didn’t expect to win. Lo and behold, colour me surprised when I get a notification I now had to pay for my order.
 

After bricking the last wifi repeater in my last post, I was determined not do that again. At least not intentionally.

This time around, I purchased the same model as before (U13) as well as three more units of a different model, for $10 and $7 CAD respectively. The goal here is to get root access via SSH/telnet and use these devices as general purpose Linux single board computers. With an ethernet port, built in power supply and wifi, these boards are great for single-purpose servers.

New hardware

I have a fixation of buying little electronic trinkets and gadgets on foreign websites for cheap prices. Something about the cost of such little things, and that it takes 3-4 weeks to arrive to my door, provides me with excitement when I visit the post office to pick up my parcels. Lately, I purchased some ESP32 and ESP8266 boards for around $3, and various other programmers and jumper cables for around the same price point. It makes experimenting with a new project fun and inexpensive (great if you like to drop projects after a month too).

In the hot summer we're having out here, I like to sit in my yard and read online tech news and blogs on my phone. Being the hedonistic person I am, I cannot wait 3-4 seconds for a page to load. The wifi coverage at my house is sufficient in doors, but when I go 150 yards away, it can be abysmal. 

I found a couple sites documenting the vulnerabilities of WorkSimple. This will be fixed immediately, and WorkSimple 1.2.2 will be released.