lantern 'outernet'

[regulator 0]

http://digg.com/video/is-this-free-data-forever-device-too-good-to-be-true

This looks pretty cool.

[ryoder 1,590]

I tried to watch that video, but couldn't take all the vague handwaving.
It is apparently what is referred to as "Pillar" in this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outernet

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[billvon 3,070]

I am still waiting for someone enterprising to write a scatternet app for a smartphone - one that relies on the phone's peer-to-peer capable radios (802.11, Bluetooth) rather than the WAN radios. Then you can create a completely separate network with commercially available devices.

Here in the US this would just be a neat thing to do - but in other countries, where the government controls all communication, it could be a tool for communication of free expression, one that the government can't control.

[quade 4]

billvon

I am still waiting for someone enterprising to write a scatternet app for a smartphone - one that relies on the phone's peer-to-peer capable radios (802.11, Bluetooth) rather than the WAN radios. Then you can create a completely separate network with commercially available devices.

Done (sort of). There are a number of apps that use Bluetooth peer-to-peer to create ad hoc mesh networks. One that is popular during protests and can't be shut down by the government being protested is called YaYa!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/yaya!/id898337487?mt=8

Issue would be hooking in internet share. A LOT of companies don't allow "free" internet tethering (AT&T for example) and whoever is ultimately the internet connection is subject to being caught and screwed with by governments.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Arvoitus 1]

billvon

I am still waiting for someone enterprising to write a scatternet app for a smartphone - one that relies on the phone's peer-to-peer capable radios (802.11, Bluetooth) rather than the WAN radios. Then you can create a completely separate network with commercially available devices.

Here in the US this would just be a neat thing to do - but in other countries, where the government controls all communication, it could be a tool for communication of free expression, one that the government can't control.

We had a project at Nokia where this was implemented on phones as a feature. It was working but some upper level manager somewhere decided that 'fuck it, nobody wants this' so it never made it to an actual release phone.

Your rights end where my feelings begin.

[billvon 3,070]

>It was working but some upper level manager somewhere decided that 'fuck it,
>nobody wants this' so it never made it to an actual release phone.

or more likely "shit, if they use this to send data they won't use the carrier, and we don't want to piss off the carriers."

It's unfortunate that the WWAN radio can't be used as a peer to peer network; it would be much more useful. As it stands a scatternet of Bluetooth or 802.11 radios works only if everyone is fairly close. If you could extend this to (say) a few miles, then you'd have a method of communication that would work in many small communities.

I have often thought that the best way to bring a place like North Korea back to the rest of the world is to build a few million phones that can function as a wide area scatternet and just airdrop them into the country. Once the people have a means of communication that the government can't control, they will pretty quickly demand change in their own government (and have the means to implement it.)