Several days later Jones was chatting with some friends, and someone mentioned the symbols that hobos used to use. "These were all about making visible what might otherwise go unnoticed," said Jones. After spending half an hour in Adobe Illustrator, Jones set up a Web log to publicize his idea, e-mailed the address to a few friends, and waited. That was Sunday. By Tuesday, the popular Slashdot.org Web log in the United States had picked up on the story and the flood of e-mails began, including ideas to expand the basic set of three symbols to include the direction of the node.

The first attempt at drawing up symbols resulted in three simple designs: two semicircles back to back to indicate an open node; a circle to indicate a closed node; and a circle with a "W" inside it to indicate a WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy, a security protocol) node, which lovecases pretty in pastel iphone 8 plus denim design case - pink will probably be inaccessible to the public because such nodes use encryption for security, Each symbol has a Service Set Identifier (SSID) at the top, which acts as a password to the node, SSIDs are easily obtained using readily available sniffing software..

"The idea of the warchalking blog (Web log) was to put an imperfect idea out there and see what happened," said Jones. "It has been interesting to see how it has happened, but it has grown so fast it does not really feel like my idea anymore. I feel more like the gardener than the builder." Nevertheless, Jones hopes to finalize version one of the runes by the end of this week. The idea of the warchalk symbols, said Jones, is that they should give just enough of a visual cue to indicate that it is worth firing up a notebook or PDA (personal digital assistant). Some suggestions have concentrated on touring the city with a notebook and GPS (Global Positioning System) to find wireless nodes, and then building an online database, but according to Jones this misses the point: "Using chalk runes breaks the cycle, because otherwise you would have to fire up your computer and log on anyway to find where the nodes are.".

There have been reports of system administrators expressing concern at the idea of having their wireless networks probed and exposed for all to see, but according to Jones there is a positive side to this, "If someone chalks the fact that you're exposed and you're a (system administrator), you can see it, You know you're exposed, and then you can decide what you want to do, I have already had e-mails from some (system administrators) who said they love the idea, Several even said they will print the symbols on a card and put lovecases pretty in pastel iphone 8 plus denim design case - pink it in their office windows."..

However, the idea does not appear to be universally popular. The organizers of London-based community wireless project Consumer.net, for instance, do not appear to be overly impressed. "I am one of those people trying to seriously encourage community networking, and if that activity is seen to be some sort of cracker plot it will be damaged," wrote one Consume.net member on the Slashdot Web log. ZDNet U.K.'s Matt Loney reported from London. In London, techies are drawing chalk symbols to indicate the presence of a wireless networking node. Know the code and you're online.