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- Hacker News
- The ending notes about a mesh network remind me of the Reticulum Network Stack[1].
As far as I can tell, RNS is a networking protocol that attempts to provide a mesh network that can run over almost any bidirectional connection (and interconnect different types of connections) without centralisation (basically random addresses using encryption, and announces to make that address reachable).
It's kinda similar to Meshtastic and Meshcore but designed to be more generic for any connection. Compared to Meshcore it's less bandwidth efficient since it uses larger addresses but I like RNS more because it's more generic (it's intended to be fairly bandwidth efficient but at a larger more internet level scale than just kilobytes per second) and less proprietary than the Meshcore official ecosystem. Compared to Meshtastic, RNS is much more efficient since it doesn't use flood routing for every packet.
by Panda_ - For someone so mindful of efficient software and use of energy, it's showing that images on that post are 5MB PNGs...by ktzar
- if anyone's writing a script with a nerd in it, this line would killby towledev
- This project and especially one of the closing notes[1] reminds me of a more mature DIY project to make a mesh node using a simple solar lamp[2]. I love the creativity on display here and I especially appreciate all the links to the other blogs and sites that helped you along the way.
1: > I was talking with a friend about this idea and the storage limitation and he thought it would be cool to have these devices form a mesh network
2: https://meshtastic.org/docs/community/enclosures/rak/harbor-...
by samtheDamned - Data transfer is so, so extremely limited over Meshtastic it probably wouldn't be worth it for anything larger than a few dozen kB. There are a lot of documents and books that could fit into such a small size perhaps but no novels.by Schlagbohrer
- Really cool project!
I can't wait until it's formalized enough that I can just buy a $20 light bulb, update it wirelessly somehow, and then have my own little "light bulb library" server.
by hungryhobbit - That's exactly what this project is. You can buy the same tasmota bulb I used and flash it over the wifi. No disassembly required.by rickoooooo
- Nice, but:
"Since the device is a light bulb, it would be difficult to detect and likely to go unnoticed."
I doubt it would be any harder to shut down than any other public-access WiFi device, just a bit of experimentation with turning off power / devices would find it.
by incompatible - New device design: battery backup for the computer, light still operates based on external power.
- I think the point was that it's difficult to notice in the first place, not that it would be hard to find once you know you're looking for something. You don't have a black WiFi router with antennae dangling down from the ceiling.
If you went the other direction and didn't worry about it being noticeable, it would be kind of a fun project to break up a book into a series of QR codes. A scavenger hunt, with each code's text ending with a clue of where to find the next?
by sfink - while true i think it's extremely unlikely to be suspicious of a light bulb. especially if it doesn't seem out of place, like if it's on a light socket why think that it's an wifi access point?by takipsizad
- Just walk around with a Wi-Fi analyzer on your phone, playing hotter/colder until you find it.
Modern enterprise access points even have built-in functionality to physically locate devices, and automatic warnings for rogue access points. The latter is often ignored or disabled though, because it'll go off every time someone prints or screen casts over Wi-Fi Direct.
by dlcarrier - I'd be interested in the banned book list. A glance at the socials with the biggest one missing suggests there will be no interesting books on it. Just the ones you can find in "banned books" stands at mainstream bookstores. Absolute mediocrity of thought free of meaningful diversity.by unselect5917
- Per the article, the bulb only had 4 MB storage and the idea is that each bulb's library would be a reflection of its creator. So there is no one list. Put whatever you want on it.by aarond0623
- It's here: https://codeberg.org/rickoooooo/BannedBookLibrary/src/branch...
For the curious, the "banned" books are (it's a short list):
Stunning and brave.- Call of the Wild - Jack London - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain - Women in Love - D.H. Lawrenceby arrowsmith - Android loves to auto-disconnect you from any Wifi network that doesn't provide Internet. You need to go through a bunch of arcane settings to disable that feature.by Dwedit
- You can spoof internet by responding to http gets on any IP. Last I checked phones didn’t require a valid https certificate as part of their portal detection.by hdgvhicv
- Settings, Network and Internet, Adaptive Connectivity - if anyone’s looking for it.by petepete
- This was my thought as well. I think the workaround is to have the device present itself as a captive portal type of thing, like you might encounter at a Starbucks, so that when the user is prompted to "Sign In" they immediately find the dead drop.
However I haven't actually played with this and don't know if that would work, or if the network would require DNS to function properly.
by stackghost - I have seen these described as Pirate Boxes before, way back around 2012. The basic idea is a box that throws up a wifi network and web server letting people upload/download files to it, while remaining disconnected from the wider internet. A geographically limited digital sharing library.by Schlagbohrer
- A hidden “book server” like this could be set up in just about any electronic device with a sufficiently powerful microcontroller. But I think there is something delightfully poetic about using a source of light to spread suppressed knowledge.by rootbear
- Years ago there was PirateBox: flash a small Wifi access point with a custom firmware that's a webserver that hosts a forum/filehost. Their website is dead, but here's a mod of the project; https://www.jasongriffey.net/librarybox/
Although, I dread to think what sort of files one would get when user uploads are allowed.
by netsharc - I built a PirateBox with an old Asus access point once. It was a bit of a dissapointing experience. Mostly because people were scared to access an open wifi point. Plus it did not 'give one free internet' so people usually immediately disconnected. Unfortunately the Library Box mod is also no longer an active project.by b3lvedere
- “As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth’s final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.”
- Commissioner Pravin Lal, Datalinks
Alpha Centauri pertinent as ever.
by N_Lens - Is it really a safeguard?by ninalanyon
- The "information wants to be free" discourse of just under 30 years ago feels so charmingly naive now that we've seen how lies are also information and can travel even better using the same flow.by Pxtl
- "We are no longer particularly in the business of writing software to perform specific tasks. We now teach the software how to learn, and in the primary bonding process it molds itself around the task to be performed. The feedback loop never really ends, so a tenth year polysentience can be a priceless jewel or a psychotic wreck, but it is the primary bonding process--the childhood, if you will--that has the most far-reaching repercussions."
- Bad'l Ron, Wakener, Morgan Polysoft
by akurtzhs - Get off my land, you peacekeeping son-of-a-bitch!
Best 4x game of all time. The 2060 that game envisioned seems closer everyday.
- "Already we have turned all of our critical industries... over to these... things... these lumps of silver and paste we call nanorobots. And now we propose to teach them intelligence? What, pray tell, will we do when these little homunculi awaken one day and announce that they have no further need of us?"
Sister Miriam Godwinson, We Must Dissent
This game and its ideas are so timeless.
by chaostheory - GREATEST strategy and philosophical game I have witnessed in the past 30 years...
Peak of complexity and maturism in games...
by iberator