Comment by femto | Hacker News Reader

Comment by femto | Hacker News Reader

No need to hide them. All you need is a "data limpet", sort of like a limpet mine, but it serves data instead of explosions.

Take a small single board computer, with meshing WiFi, data store and solar power. Put it in a tiny flat cylindrical case with a solar panel on one circular face and a nice strong rare earth magnet on the other. Make them cheap, so they can be mass produced.

The challenge is to then place as many as possible in the most inaccessible spots possible. Attachment methods might include:

* Throw them

* Dangle them from an RC helicopter flying close enough to the target for the magnet to attach.

* Launch them from a trebuchet

* Air canon or rail gun

* Use your imagination. Coolest and most spectacular idea wins.

Locations can be anywhere there is ferrous material, the higher and more inaccessible the better:

* Tops of tall bridges

* Radio masts

* Transmission towers

* Buildings

* ...

Even if the data limpet is in full view, if it is on a sheer face hundreds of metres off the ground, it'll probably take ages to sort out the access difficulties, both physical and legal, to remove it. It would also be an unequal contest, in that removal is a major deal, but placement isn't.

The tech could be applied in any situation where a powerful entity is trying to silence a powerless entity.

Edit: formatting

The police (etc.) are likely to assume, though, that it does serve explosions - like in Boston in 2007. All the more so if the devices are placed on bridges, transmission towers, large buildings, public transport vehicles, etc.

Electronics would have to be rated for high operating temperatures this sort of device would see outdoors. That depends on local climate and on details of physical construction, of course, but, by and large, industrial temperature rated (-40C to +85C) electronics would have to be used.

Also, this (and the original LOSS proposal) would run afoul with the FCC and similar regulatory agencies outside of the US. This will make it yet another government agency to cross swords with.

The best way to stop something like this would probably be to claim that they disrupt other important, life preserving services. That would probably keep most people from putting them up.

I doubt that would make much difference. They still have to walk round and tell everyone to switch their laptops and phones off on planes even though they claim the plane will crash if you don't.

Probably because many people don't believe that anymore.. Last time i flew (in Europe) most people did turn off their cell phones etc.

Well, at least it seemed like they did.

I usually turn mine off, not because the plane will crash, but because it'll waste it's battery looking for a signal from a tower that it can't find. That's actually part of the reason that there's so much variation in cell phone battery life is that if you're in an area of lower reception it'll take more power to transmit back to the tower. If there's no towers to respond a lot of phones (used to anyway, can't confirm 100% if they still do) would try to transmit at maximum power to get a ping back from the tower and start getting a connection to the network.

How would that work? "the wifi device will cause society to end, but the one in your house and in the Starbucks on the corner? Those are just fine." I doubt the type of people who would put these up are the kind of people to buy that line of reasoning.

BREAKING NEWS - TERRORISTS FROM ANONYMOUS AND PIRATE BAY SEEN PLANTING BOMBS ALL OVER CITIES

You mean this: http://wiki.daviddarts.com/PirateBox_DIY ?

Wouldn't a sniper rifle "remove the mine" from the MPAA's perspective?

Doing that in an urban area will get you in a lot of trouble, even if you're police.

If these things are cheap ($<20), and there are hundreds of them scattered in various not-so-easy-to-find places around the city, good luck trying to snipe them all. Or even find them. (Imagine hiding one inside a vent shaft inside a building. Or in the sewer.)

This idea is brilliant. True decentralized piracy without a a network to connect them all. Impossible to stop!

The MPAA isn't allowed to use sniper rifles on bridges. The police have better things to do.

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