I’ve grown up in a society that has relatively few people around named Nigel. I’ve kinda gotten used to being the only Nigel I know. This has just come under severe contradiction.
Recently, I was using NetStumbler on my laptop sitting happily closed in the back seat of the car as I was driving around doing some errands. No big deal, just thought I’d do a little survey. I didn’t actually look at the results until just now.
Like normal you find a bunch of completely unencrypted, non-password-changed networks that would be a breeze to log into, and per se change the SSID to something more fun. There’s also the bunch of networks where people have changed the SSID to something fun themselves. And of course, the myriad of networks that are boring, encrypted, and generally work related.
Then suddenly, as I’m scrolling thru the saved list of networks, I realize something. My name is in that list. Yes, there was a WiFi network named ‘Nigel’ that wasn’t mine, and wasn’t anywhere near where I live. This leaves me with two possible thought paths to follow:
A: There’s another Nigel out there who is narcissistic enough to name the network plainly after him.
OR
B: There’s some creepy ass stalker out there who is totally infatuated with me and everything I do and has decided to name their WiFi network after me just so they can get the small pleasure of ‘connecting with Nigel’, or ‘interfacing with Nigel’s system’.
Frankly, either way, I found it rather interesting to find a WiFi network that shares my name. Especially without my doing so. Maybe I’ll go see if I can meet this supposed other ‘Nigel’. Maybe.
