Where's the Convert Table To Text command in Word 2007 and 2010

A Word table is a great tool for organizing related data. They’re easy to create, format, and manipulate. My favorite method is to convert existing text to a table, as follows (in Word 2003):

1. Select the text.
2. Choose Convert from the Table command.
3. Select Text To Table.

Converting a table to text is just as easy:

1. Select the table.
2. Select Convert from the Table command.
3. Select Table To Text.

This arrangement of providing both commands on the Table menu makes good sense to me. Unfortunately, you won’t find the two commands together in 2007 and 2010. The Text To Table is where you might expect, on the Table dropdown–but notice that there’s no Table To Text command.

James Barash recently exposed the elusive command’s hiding place for me (although Jody Gilbert wrote about it as well in 10 Things I Can Never Find In Word 2007). The table to text conversion command is on the context Layout tab. This tab is available only when a table is selected. You’ll find the Convert To Text command in the Data group. The new placement makes sense in an after-the-fact way but frankly, I think it’s going to confuse people. I know it confused me!

Use PowerPoint animation to assemble puzzle pieces

Puzzles can represent a problem that needs solving, so it’s an interesting concept that you might want to animate in a PowerPoint presentation. Although the technique sounds complex, the details are actually very simple. By assigning a fly-in entrance to each puzzle piece, you can give the illusion of snapping puzzle pieces into place. Of course, the number of fly-in positions limits the number of individual pieces you can have, but a few puzzle pieces is all you really need.

The first thing you’ll need are a few puzzle pieces. You can be creative as you like, but keep in mind that adding complexity will most likely distract from your technique. I’m going to use just a few simple AutoShapes to create a composite, in order to keep the example as simple as possible. The figure below shows two squares and two rectangles forming a rectangle.

To animate solving the puzzle, assign a fly-in entrance for each piece as follows:

1. Select the square in the top-left corner. That’ll be the anchor piece.
2. From the Slide Show menu, choose Custom Animation. Then, Click the Add Effect button and choose Entrance and then choose Fly-in. In 2007/2010, click the Animation tab. Click Fly-In in the Animation group.
3. Make sure the Start option is On Click. In 2007/2010, you’ll find this option in the Timing group.
4. Choose From Top-Left from the Direction dropdown. In 2007/2010, click the Effects Option in the Animation group.
5. Choose any option from the speed dropdown. I don’t recommend the slower speeds though.
6. Repeat steps 1 through 6 for the remaining three AutoShapes and set the following options:

• Top-right rectangle—Start: With Previous; Direction: From Top-Right.
• Bottom-left rectangle—Start: With Previous; Direction: From Bottom-Left.
• Bottom-right square—Start: With Previous; Direction: From Bottom-Right.

To see the puzzle-solving technique in action, press [F5] to run the show. Click to start the action—clicking executes the fly-in for the square in the top-left. The remaining pieces are all set to With Previous, so they’ll all seem to fly-in simultaneously. You could, just as easily, use clicks to assemble the puzzle, piece-by-piece.

Because the puzzle has no inter-locking parts, a great deal is left to the imagination. Of course, you could create inter-locking pieces. If you use a fast speed, the fact that the pieces don’t actually snap into place won’t be noticeable.

File servers: Windows, Linux, SAN, or cloud?

Way, way back in the day my file sever of choice was Novell NetWare. It was a good network operating system that had a robust file system with commands that Windows still can’t match. But, as you know, NetWare has moved on from mainstream roles and Windows Servers are the most popular file server platform. A lot of administrators go the Linux route for file servers, and some even use storage processors or the cloud for housing general purpose data. With all of these options, there are positives and negatives to each. Here are some thoughts for each platform — both for and against as a file server:

Windows Server: Windows is an “okay” file server, with its ease of integration into Active Directory being a big plus for the everyday administrator. The cost of a Windows license plus the client licenses can add up over time, however.

Linux Server: Interoperability with Windows systems is important, and this is easier for Linux today with options beyond the simple Samba server. Packages can be added on the server to make it more seamless, and of course work fine for other Linux systems. The cost of software acquisition would be lower than the Windows alternative.

SAN: The SAN can take on file server duty as well. This can be basic roles of simply running a CIFS engine on the storage processor, commonly done on NetApp storage systems. You can take that further and manage a content lifecycle with a robust product like the Hitachi Content Platform. These solutions may cost more in terms of the hardware involved, but additional features such as replication and lifecycle management can aid in getting a handle on content sprawl.

Cloud: Utilizing cloud storage as a file server is available in a number of means today. Today, solutions such as the Nirvanix CloudNAS or Nasuni Filer can present a file server on the local network with unlimited backend storage on a public cloud. These solutions maintain a cache of what is accessed most frequently, and that is a good idea as file servers are notorious for holding tons of data that no one ever accesses. Costs for cloud storage can add up and there are security and encryption questions that make this jump take a little more planning.

Better troubleshooting capabilities with Windows 7 Event Viewer

An overview

As you know, Event Viewer maintains logs that record information about program, security, and system events that occur on your system. While XP’s Event Viewer is an effective tool that you can use to view and manage event logs, gather information about hardware and software problems, as well as monitor security events, it does have some shortcomings. Perhaps the biggest drawback is that XP’s Event Viewer does such a good job at logging events, that the number of items in the log can be staggering. As such, sorting through the logs can be a very daunting task. To add insult to injury, not all the events are documented very well and many aren’t documented at all — often leaving even the most experienced troubleshooter puzzled.

Another drawback in the system stems from the fact that Windows XP has other logs that are stored as text files on the hard disk. This means that when troubleshooting problems, you may have to scan through a bunch of text files in addition to scanning through Event Viewer.

Fortunately, Windows 7’s developers have spent a great deal of time and effort on improving Event Viewer. Let’s take a closer look.

The new Event Viewer

To begin with, the Windows 7 version of the Event Viewer has been completely rewritten with a new user interface that makes it much easier to filter and sort events as well as control which type of events are logged. In addition, you can now perform some basic diagnostic tasks right from within Event Viewer itself.

Microsoft has stated that they are going to impose stricter standards in order to ensure that events logged in Event Viewer are more meaningful, actionable, and well-documented, thus providing better information for troubleshooting. In addition, Windows 7’s Event Viewer will be the central point of inquiry for all the operating system’s logs. More specifically, those operating system components that store logging information in text files will add events to the event log in Windows 7.

Other new features in Event Viewer allow you to create and save custom views so that you can easily focus in on the problem you are currently troubleshooting, create event subscriptions that can collect information from other computers on a network, and allow you to more easily correlate problems that affect multiple computers and assign tasks that are to run when a certain event occurs.

A tour

Let’s take a look around the new Event Viewer in Windows 7. As you can see inFigure A, the new user interface provides access to more pertinent information than Windows XP’s Event Viewer, as shown in Figure B.

Figure A

Windows 7’s Event Viewer provides access to lots of information.

Figure B

The user interface for Windows XP’s Event Viewer looks pretty stark in comparison to the Windows 7’s Event Viewer.

As you look at Windows 7’s Event Viewer, you’ll notice that the left pane contains an expandable tree that provides you with easy access to all of Event Viewer’s logs. The two main categories are Windows Logs and Applications and Services logs. The Windows Logs category includes the logs that were available in Windows XP, such as the Application, Security, and System logs, while the Applications and Services logs are a new category of event logs that store events from a single application or component.

In the center is the View Pane that provides you with an easy way to view both the list of events as well as the information that each event contains, as shown in Figure C.

Figure C

The View pane does double duty, showing you both the list of events and details about the selected event.

On the right side of Event Viewer is a new area called the Actions pane, which contains a list of actions, or commands, that are associated with Event Viewer. As you can see by comparing the Actions pane in Figures A and C, the Actions pane changes to provide relevant tasks depending on what is selected.

To make focusing on specific events easier, you can create a Custom View that essentially allows you to create a very detailed event query that can span several logs. To help you create a Custom View, Event Viewer provides you with a very detailed form, as shown in Figure D. Once you have created a Custom View, you can then save it and reuse it later.

Figure D

Creating Custom View can be a real time-saver when troubleshooting problems.

Attaching tasks to events is also a great troubleshooting feature. To make this a simple procedure, Windows 7’s Event Viewer employs the Task Scheduler Wizard and provides you with several relevant actions to attach to the event, as shown in Figure E.

Figure E

Five tips for creating content building blocks in Word 2010

Do you find yourself creating the same content over and over again in your Word documents? You can easily save and organize content you use regularly by creating Quick Parts and inserting them in your document at just the right point.

1: Automate your text entry tasks with AutoText

You’ll find AutoText in the Quick Parts gallery in the Text group on the Insert tab, and luckily, the tool does just what it sounds like it might do — it automatically inserts text you use often. If you find yourself repeatedly using certain product descriptions, mission statements, or disclaimers, for example, you can set up an AutoText entry with that text and quickly insert it in the document when you need it. To create an AutoText entry, select the text you want to add, click Quick Parts, AutoText, and then Save Selection To AutoText Gallery. In the Create New Building Block dialog box, enter a name for the AutoText, add a description if you like, and click OK.

2: Create a Quick Part

A Quick Part in Word 2010 is another kind of element you can create and save to use again later. You can create all kinds of Quick Parts — sidebars, callouts, text boxes, watermarks, and more. Quick Parts enable you to save both content and format, so if you create a sidebar with text in a style and color you particularly like, you can save the sidebar as a Quick Part and use it again later in other documents. You’ll find the Quick Parts tool in the Text group of the Insert tab. All Quick Parts in Word 2010 — including the ones you create — are available in the Building Blocks Organizer, which is in the Quick Parts list.

3: Save your favorite table style

If you’ve spent a lot of time customizing a table for a report and you really like the way it turned out, you can save it as a Quick Table so that you can use the style again in other documents like this one. Prepare the table just the way you want it and then select the entire table. Click Table in the Tables group of the insert tab, point to Quick Tables, and choose Save Selection To Quick Tables Gallery. In the Create New Building dialog box, enter a name and a description. Click OK to save the new table style.

4: Keep it together with the Building Block Organizer

Word 2010 is a bit confusing when it comes to Quick Parts, because what the program thinks of as “quick parts” it calls by all sorts of names: headers, footers, cover pages, tables, text boxes, and more. No matter how the saved content is named, you can find all the elements available to you by displaying the Building Block Organizer (Figure A). Click Quick Parts in the Text group of the Insert tab and click Building Block Organizer. Scroll through the list to find the Quick Part you want and click Insert to add it to your document.

Figure A

5: Weed your Quick Parts regularly

One thing you’ll discover quickly if you’re a big Quick Part enthusiast — they accumulate quickly. If you love saving content blocks, headers and footers, quotes, etc., as you go, you’ll need to remember to clean out unused items in the Building Blocks Organizer on a fairly regular basis. Do away with the Quick Parts you never use and make room for the good old standbys. It makes your list shorter and easier to navigate and lessens the margin for error if you share your creations with others.

Font with Indian Rupee Symbol - Download and Use Free

Click here to download:

Rupee.ttf (14 KB)

Download Version 2.0

We have made the first font with support for Indian currency symbol.

How to use ?

1. Download the above attached font Rupee.ttf or the new version Rupee_Foradian.ttf

2. Install the font. (It is easy. Just copy the font and paste it in "Fonts" folder in control panel)

3. Start using it. :)

1 of 2

How to type the Rupee symbol ?

We mapped the grave acent symbol - ` (the key just above "tab" button in your keyboard) with the new Rupee symbol. Just select "Rupee" font from the drop down list of your fonts in your application and press the key just above your tab button. It will display our new rupee symbol. Try it.

Limitations

The "Rupee.ttf" font is necessary to view the currency symbol. So as long as the new symbol is not encoded in to unicode font by default, we cant use the symbol universally.

Windows Phone 7 Revealed: What You Need to Know

Microsoft officially unveiled its new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, at a press event held this morning in New York City. CEO Steve Ballmer described the new line of Windows Phones as "different" and more modern, in both design and principles. With Windows Phone 7, the focus is on how "real people want to use their phones," he said.

Besides being different, a key point Microsoft needs to drive home if wanting to compete in a crowded mobile landscape, there was also a big focus on personalization. "We also wanted these to be wonderfully mine, or yours, or yours, or the next person. Here's my phone, the way I've made it wonderfully mine," explained Ballmer. "My photos, my email, my start screen, my activities, my world... and of course, my avatar."

The Software

Microsoft Corporate VP Joe Belifore described the phone's final software as an operating system that helps you get things done. "We wanted to figure out how to build a phone that simplifies the basics," he said.

One of the ways WP7 achieves this, explained Belifore, is through the use of something called Windows Phone Hubs. These live-updating tiles display on the Windows Phone 7 homescreen, alerting users to new text messages, missed calls, voicemails and more. But hubs can deliver non-phone related info too, like live Twitter and Facebook updates, Internet news and new photos uploaded by friends. One hub even connects the phone to Xbox LIVE, Microsoft's online service for its Xbox 360 gaming console.

The tiles can be moved around and deleted, so as to allow complete customization of the homescreen.

The Camera

Another major feature with the new mobile operating system is how the camera works. Instead of having to launch an app, WP7 users will just press a hardware-based camera button to snap a photo. Then from within the camera's onscreen interface, you can access the photo gallery and immediately upload those photos to the cloud.

Office Integration

Microsoft's Office software is deeply integrated into the new device. In the phone's mobile version of Outlook, viewing Office documents is supported right from within an email, as is standard on many of today's smartphones. But editing Office files is also supported, explained Belifore, which is more of a unique feature.

Outlook calendaring is available, including free/busy information and conflict detection, the ability to accept meeting requests on the device, different view options (e.g. "today's agenda") and a one-touch "I'll be late" button which signals to meeting attendees that you're behind schedule.

He also demonstrated how auto-correction works - instead of automatically changing a misspelled word, the OS offers suggestions for word correction to choose from.

Bing Onboard

Microsoft's Bing search engine, whose team recently gobbled up the group from Microsoft's Live Labs, creators of SeaDragon, Photosynth and data visualization technology Pivot, is also baked into WP7.

Addresses in emails or calendar invites take you to Bing Maps, which also includes the traditional mapping application features like search, walking and driving directions and more. It also offers street-level images, similar to Google's Street View, and real-time traffic updates.

The integrated Bing service itself provides Web search, voice search (via Microsoft's TellMe), instant answers (short answer search results for things like airline flight info, sports scores, etc.) and local search, the latter demonstrated by way of a search for a local restaurant and its related reviews and star ratings. From the reviews, another tap will dial the restaurant's phone number.

The Hubs

There are six Windows Phone Hubs that ship with the device, which you can think of as Microsoft's take on homescreen widgets: the People Hub, Pictures Hub, Music + Video Hub, Games Hub, Office Hub and the Marketplace.

The People Hub connects to social networking services like Facebook and Twitter, pulling in status updates from friends and providing contact info and phone numbers. Users can respond to updates, like sending a text message or commenting on a status update from here instead of launching an app.

The Pictures Hub displays photos from your friends, including those on Facebook. Here, users can share their own photos with friends or view and comment on friends' photos.

The Music + Video Hub connects with Microsoft's Zune service offering access to music, video, podcasts and FM Radio. The Hub supports both streaming and downloads.

In the Games Hub, users can customize their Xbox LIVE avatar, send and receive gaming invites to friends and, of course, play games on the phone. Games like The Sims 3 and Ilo and Milo were demonstrated. Other launch titles include Bejeweled, Uno, Game Chest (a collection of card and board games), CarenyVale: Showtime, Halo:Waypoint, Crackdown 2: Sunburst, Rocket Riot, and more.

Windows Phone 7 will connect to Xbox LIVE, allowing users to earn achievements on the phone and track their gamerscore.

The Office Hub offers mobile versions of Office applications including Microsoft Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile and OneNote Mobile. SharePoint Workspace Mobile 2010 allows business users to access their company's SharePoint workspaces from the device.

The Marketplace has its own Hub, where users can search and download new apps.

Third-party developers can also build their own Hubs using Microsoft's provided development tools.

Apps

During the today's demo, Belifore showed off some big-name apps including those from eBay, IMDB and AT&T's Uverse Mobile, a media app. More apps are showcased here including games, an official Twitter app and others. We're also aware of a Netflix app, Slacker radio app, a pre-loaded T-Mobile TV app on select devices and Fandango app. No word yet on the exact number of apps available at launch.

Copy & Paste

When Microsoft announced that copy & paste was not going to be initially available on the new phones, there was a big outcry. Today, Microsoft said that the feature would be available "in early 2011" via a software update.

The Hardware

Windows Phone 7, like Android, will ship on a variety of hardware devices from multiple manufacturers. There will be nine phones arriving by WP7's November U.S. launch date (WP 7 will debut in some European markets on Oct. 21, however). Devices from HTC, LG, Samsung and Dell will be available. The form factors will vary, with some phones offering keyboards, phones with very large screens and even a ruggedized device for heavy-duty users like the one from Dell.

For hardware specs and reviews, see Engadget.

Mobile Operators

Windows Phone 7 will arrive on 60 mobile operators worldwide in 30 countries including AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S., Orange, SingTel, Telstra, Telus, Telefonica, Vodafone and more.

AT&T

President and CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets Ralph de la Vega also spoke on stage at this morning's event. He said that the network, known best as the sole iPhone carrier in the U.S. was committed to offering customers a wide range of devices. Regarding WP7, he said AT&T "knew this was going to be a winner."

According to de la Vega, AT&T will launch three WP7 devices, the LG Quantum, featuring a full QWERTY keyboard for $199.99, the HTC Surround with 16 GB of onboard storage, 5 megapixel camera and two Dolby Surround Sound speakers, also $199.99 and finally, the Samsung Focus, with a super AMOLED screen, Snapdragon CPU and 8 GB of onboard storage, again for $199.99.

The Samsung will be available on November 8th, the others a "few weeks" later, but no specific launch date was given.

AT&T also announced Uverse Mobile for Windows Phone 7 customers, which will be available for a monthly fee.

Everyone at Microsoft Gets a Phone

Noted at the bottom of one of Microsoft's WP7 press releases is news of Microsoft's internal commitment to Windows Phone. "[Microsoft] has arranged for every full-time employee worldwide to be able to switch to the new phone as soon as it launches in their market," it says. While that's obviously great news for employees, it's also an indicator of how much Microsoft wants and needs the new OS to succeed. By offering everyone at the company a phone, Microsoft is, to some extent, making all employees accountable for the phone's future. "There's so much more of Microsoft we've got to bring out in the phone," says corporate vice president of Windows Phone engineering at Microsoft Terry Myerson. "We've got a lot of work to do."

Top Apps on iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Palm, Nokia & Windows Phone 7

Mobile analytics firm Distimo has released its September report detailing the most popular mobile applications of Q3 2010. The report covers the top apps, both free and paid, for the iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android, Nokia (Ovi), Palm's webOS and Windows Phone platforms.

Below are the findings.

Keep in mind that the lists below aren't ranking the top applications overall for these platforms - it's a look at what's most popular right now, for Q3 2010.

The Most Popular Free Applications

• iBooks (iPad)
• Type n' Talk (iPhone)
• Blackberry Messenger (Blackberry App World)
• Pandora Radio (Google Android Market)
• ZumZum (Nokia Ovi Store)
• Facebook (Palm App Catalog)
• Microsoft My Phone (Windows Marketplace for Mobile)

The Most Popular Paid Applications

• Pages (iPad)
• Angry Birds (iPhone)
• BeBuzz - LED Colors and Audible Reminders (Blackberry App World)
• Beautiful Widgets (Google Android Market)
• ToonWarz (Nokia Ovi Store)
• mCraig - Mobile Craigslist Browser (Palm App Catalog)
• Meon (Windows Marketplace for Mobile)

The report also lists the top 10 apps by platform for this quarter, both free and paid. You canread through complete lists of those apps here.

Highlights: The Popularity of Games and Top App Publishers

Some of the highlights from this report include the popularity of games by platform and stats on the top publishers.

Games

Distimo found, for example, the iTunes App Store for iPhone had the most games (55% free, 55% paid) among its top 100 most popular applications. Windows Marketplace for Mobile had the second most games (23% free, 45% paid) in the top 100 followed by the iTunes App Store for iPad (25% free, 40% paid). There is only one game among the top ten most popular free applications for the iPad (Real Solitaire Free for iPad) compared with four on the iPhone's list.

Games are least popular on Blackberry (12.5% free, 28% paid) and Palm devices (33% free, 16% paid).

Top Publishers & Apps

• RIM: On the Blackberry top ten list of free applications, Research in Motion (RIM) publishes four of the top ten apps including Blackberry Messenger, Blackberry App World itself and apps for Facebook and Twitter. Microsoft and Palm are also the publishers of the popular Facebook applications in their own stores. IM & social networking applications are, in general, popular free apps for Blackberry, with four slots in the top ten list. However, none in that category made its top ten paid apps list.
• Lupis Labs Software is a top publisher for Android this quarter, with its Robo Defense app among the top ten most popular free and paid applications (#7 and #1 spots, respectively). Both versions of the app have over 250,000 downloads.
• The Angry Birds game ranks well on many platforms including the iTunes App Store, Nokia Ovi Store and Palm App Catalog. It's the second-most popular paid iPad app in iTunes, even though its price is high.
• Polarbit, Gameloft and I-Play are popular publishers on Nokia's Ovi Platfrom each having 2-3 apps in the top ten paid apps list.
• Apple: iBooks has ranked between #1 and #10 slots during the July - September time period.
• Netflix is popular on the iPhone, iPad, Nokia Ovi and Windows Mobile platforms. Netflix on the iPhone ranked between #1 and #10 63% of the days it was ranked.The Netflix Queue Manger ranks #4 on the free apps list for Nokia and the Mobile Manager for Netflix is #4 on Windows Mobile's top ten free apps list.
• WeatherBug is also popular on many platforms, with both a paid app (#8) and free app (#5) on the Windows Mobile top ten lists and a #2 app on Google Android.
• Shazam Encore is #7 on Windows Mobile and #4 on Blackberry.

On Android, games and apps were ranked separately because Google splits them up in its app store. Distimo found that there was a greater diversity of categories in the top ten free apps list and in the top ten paid apps list, apps from the "Tools" and "News & Weather" categories did well as did emulators, like the GBA Emulator GameBoid and the SNES Emulator SNesoid.

Beware 'Free Public WiFi'

Free Public WiFi -- too good to be true.

It's in your airports, your coffee shops and your libraries: "Free Public WiFi."

Despite its enticing name, the network, available in thousands of locations across the United States, does not actually provide access to the Internet. But like a virus, it has spread — and may even be lurking on your computer right now.

Wireless security expert Joshua Wright first noticed it about four years ago at an airport.

"I went to connect to an available wireless network and I saw this option, Free Public WiFi," he remembers. "As I looked more and more, I saw this in more and more locations. And I was aware from my job and analysis in the field that this wasn't a sanctioned, provisioned wireless network, but it was actually something rogue."

Free Public WiFi isn't set up like most wireless networks people use to get to the Internet. Instead, it's an "ad hoc" network — meaning when a user selects it, he or she isn't connecting to a router or hot spot, but rather directly to someone else's computer in the area.

Though it doesn't actually provide Internet access, the network has spread across the country thanks to an old Windows XP bug.

How It Works

When a computer running an older version of XP can't find any of its "favorite" wireless networks, it will automatically create an ad hoc network with the same name as the last one it connected to -– in this case, "Free Public WiFi." Other computers within range of that new ad hoc network can see it, luring other users to connect. And who can resist the word "free?"

Not a lot of people, judging from the spread of Free Public WiFi. Computers with the XP bug that try to connect to the Internet will remember the name, create their own ad hoc networks and entice other users wherever they go.

Microsoft is aware of the issue and says it has eliminated the network in more recent versions of Windows. It also created a fix to the problem for the older version of Windows XP — Windows XP Service Pack 3 — but many people still haven't updated their computers.

How To Protect Yourself

"Free Public WiFi" isn't inherently harmful, but if you connect or unintentionally create the ad hoc network you could expose yourself to hackers. Here are two steps you can take:

Step One: Regardless of whether you're on a Mac or PC, or which version of Windows you're running, resist the urge to connect to "Free Public WiFi" or other unknown wireless networks.

Step Two: If you're still running Windows XP, make sure your computer is up to date so that you won't unintentionally broadcast the ad hoc network in the future. Here's a statement from Microsoft:

"This issue was fixed in Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Customers who wish to install Windows XP Service Pack 3 can do so by visiting this site.

Learn More At Wlanbook.com

That means, Wright says, the network continues to spread across the country like something from a horror movie — the kind "where a zombie takes a hold of one person, bites them and they become infected by this zombie virus."

It's not the only zombie network out there, either. Others you may have seen go by such alluring names as "linksys," "hpsetup," "tmobile" or "default."

A Trick That's A Treat For Hackers

No one knows for sure where Free Public WiFi began. One theory, Wright says, is that someone may have set it up as a joke. It might have been created to trick a friend into connecting "so he would get a Web page with some kind of a gross image or childish prank."

Unintentionally creating or connecting to the ad hoc network isn't inherently harmful, despite its virus-like spread. It does, however, provide an access point for hackers to come in and check out the user's files.

Part of Wright's job is to hack into a company's wireless network in order to expose vulnerabilities. When he sees Free Public WiFi, he says, "we break out the champagne."

"Because I know at that point I will be able to get unlimited access to internal resources just from that one starting point."