A small tool to generate a new wireless passphrase.

I was getting sick of my old wireless passphrase which took truly random to an extreme and made it nearly impossible to enter the WPA2 AES shared key correctly on a computer, let alone any of today's plethora of mobile devices. Who can successfully enter tons of quads like "A/eE uFDr 8#rw" on a phone or squeezebox without going insane?

So I broken down wrote my own silly tool to generate a random passphrase composed of words from a dictionary file. Nothing new, this has been done 10000 times before.

This one requires Python 3 and a /usr/share/dict/words file (apt-cache search /usr/dict/words for a bunch of those on Ubuntu or Debian).

Bored and want to see it?
You can download generate_word_key.py here.
License: Apache License, Version 2.0.

I really should redo it and put it up on appspot. Maybe later.

What would a blog post be without some silly samples using various entropy and maximum word length settings? Enjoy:

ocelot Walter Biko's soils tarry wader
Ann D Pele inane taper sons
Er v M Lu E ow Cm me as N q He
nearness's bogeymen lops disordered inclination Jeanne

I really do not recommend a maximum word length of two.

Suggested apps for Android phone owners

Friends are starting to get Android phones and are asking me what apps they should go get first. Rather than try and rattle off a random list to each one each time they ask in some less convenient setting I figured I'd put my current list of handy apps in one place for everyone.

The hyperlinks below are intended to be used on an Android device, they link directly to searches in the android market. Click them while reading this on your phone and it should show you the app in question.

Search and shopping related:

• Barcode Scanner - Scans bar codes, QR codes, etc with links to appropriate actions based on what they contain.
  
• Shopper - A handy shopping tool, can search for items by images.
  
• ShopSavvy - Another nice bar code based shopping tool.
  
• Amazon - A handy interface to Amazon.
  

Worthy of a home screen icon:

• Gesture Search - Search your phone using quick scribbles on the screen. Very handy.
  
• Google Voice - An absolute must have. Sign up for a Google Voice account first to see what it is all about. Send and receive SMS for free, get automatic transcripts of your voicemails, make cheap international calls, control which phone(s) ring when people call you, report spammy callers, etc. Replying to SMS and voicemails by email, quoting the original is fun when you've told people they should email rather than call.
  

Calculators (pick one):

• RealCalc - A nice RPN calculator.
  
• Droid48 - An emulator running HP48 roms, the awesome RPN calculator.
  

Mapping & Geography related:

• Google Maps - Install the version from the Market for a more up to date maps app than what came preinstalled on your phone.
  
• My Tracks - Records and save your tracks using the GPS, export to data files or upload them to Google Maps.
  
• Google Earth - If you don't already know what this is you probably don't care.
  
• Google Sky Map - Oh my god. Its full of stars.
  
• CardioTrainer - Similar to My Tracks, it records your movements but with a focus on exercise rather than mapping. Does calorie counting, can share workouts on fb, etc.
  

Finding places near you:

• Places Directory - Find places that are near you of any type, see ratings, get directions.
  
• Urbanspoon - Want to find a near by place to eat? Shake your phone.
  
• Layar - A 3D display of what is around you.
  

Social:

• Google Buzz widget - A nice home screen widget to post to buzz. The Maps app also supports Buzz.
  
• Facebook - Widget and app interface to FB.
  
• Foursquare - Strive to become the mayor of your favorite haunts.
  
• Google Latitude - This is built into the Google Maps app. If you turn it on, you can have your phone auto-share your location periodically with anyone you want. Its a nice way to see trusted family and friends.
  

Music & Audio:

• Listen - Subscribe to "pod"casts and auto download and manage them on your phone.
  
• Pandora Radio - Streaming radio of all types of music.
  
• Advanced Audio Manager - Auto-adjusts audio settings.
  

Utilities to install and configure once and forget about until you need them:

• Bubble - A bubble level using your phones sensors. Handy. Don't forget to Calibrate it from the menu against a real level.
  
• Pintail - Let your phone respond with its precise GPS location when it receives a text message containing a configurable PIN.
  
• Shazam - Listens to music and identifies the track & album. Most useful for popular music.
  
• Google Translate - Translate between languages, including voice recognition and spoken translations.
  
• Google Finance - If you want easy market updates.
  

Geek tools:

• ConnectBot - The canonical SSH client for android. Wifi Analyzer -
  
• Tricorder - Display all sensor data.
  
• SqueezeControl - If you have a squeezebox and run a slimserver (err.. squeezecenter) use this to control your music at home.
  
• Earth Live Wallpaper - Live wallpaper for your home screen of a spinning earth that displays live weather satellite images on the globe.
  

If you want to leave comments on this post, please do so over in the discussion in my Google Buzz stream.