Authentication and Art

All my computers have passwords, and I use them. Amy's laptop doesn't have any password policy, and she's paying the price. Amy's machine serves as a delivery system for Pokemon merchanise fantasy-shopping on eBay, Pokemon video viewing, etc. Last week, the boys were interested in Mona Lisa. I went to Google Images and brought up several dozen photos of the famous work, along with some photoshopped curiosities. We were undertaking to discover the "secret" behind Mona Lisa's smile (Daniel had it figure out instantly - it's "a naughty smile") and I was researching Leonardo's technique and how he used the interplay of central and peripheral vision to create a smile that plays with your head. Very interesting stuff...

But the boys managed to discover a bit of "secret" Mona Lisa on their own - more than I had intended. I had stepped away from the computer briefly, and the boys had managed to find a Mona Lisa I had never seen before, or imagined, and certainly not one I would show children. Of course, they were very amused with their discovery and it was their laughter which led to discovery and a humorless crackdown on my part, slamming the laptop shut in disgust. Lads ten years older than them would have maintained quiet awe at such an image, and would not do anything to give away their little secret. And this discovery was made on Google Images in the default Moderate SafeSearch mode. And the boys are only 6 and 8. Passwords.

But Daniel is both intelligent and motivated, so the other day, he was determined to hack his way into my machine, in spite of the password policy and my own failure to provide him with the word itself - something I don't plan on ever sharing with the children. But he plugged away in a very logical way, and quite out in the open. He was diligently typing text into the password prompt on my laptop, but he needed to know the password, so he asked, for the spelling, letter by letter, as he winged it on his own: "P-A-S-S.." He was typing the password, presumably "password."

This morning, he told me that he had typed the password and it didn't work.

Computers are very mysterious things, which is good.

(February 11, 2012)