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Comment by jgrahamc | Hacker News Reader

I'd bet that this wasn't shut down for "national security" reasons but probably because the device wasn't what it was hyped to be. This has happened before, see Haystack[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haystack_(software)

ProxyHam seems like a neat combination of existing technologies, but it was just a Raspberry Pi + WiFi + 900Mhz interface. Probably was fun to make, but not necessarily something that deserves a lot of hype by Wired etc. Maybe the developer decided it wasn't worth all the trouble.

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I lived through the aftermath of 2009 Iranian presidential elections. This brings back many memories, none of which are good. I simply cannot fathom how someone could play with the emotions (and potentially lives) of a nation, all for personal gain, for fame and greed ...

I think the above commenter was trying to suggest that the concept was thought to be cool, but on further examination, turned out not to be able to help very much in situations like what you experienced.

What do you mean?

This set of stories from WNYC's On the Media captures the arc quite well.

You scarcely need to read (or listen to) the stories, though I recommend you do.

IN IRAN, NEW SOFTWARE TAKES ON INTERNET CENSORSHIP Transcript Friday, May 14, 2010 http://www.onthemedia.org/story/132777-in-iran-new-software-...

IS HAYSTACK TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE? Transcript Friday, September 10, 2010 http://www.onthemedia.org/story/132909-is-

AFTER HAYSTACK: SPEECH AND PRIVACY ONLINE Friday, September 17, 2010 http://www.onthemedia.org/story/132917-after-haystack-speech...

https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=8365&cid=207752

Perhaps it was meant from the very beginning to be nothing more than an a publicity stunt. If so, it did an excellent job at that, at relatively little cost.

> probably because the device wasn't what it was hyped to be

No reason to not release the schematics, unless they were embarassingly bad.

The guy behind this just hooked together two Ubiquiti 900 MHz bridges. Unless Ubiquiti wants to share their schematics, I doubt there's much to show on the hardware side.

Wow, I hadn't heard of Haystack. Sounds exactly like a crypto version of the ADE 651[1]

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651

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