USB 'Dead Drops' 322
Okian Warrior writes "Aram Bartholl is building a series of USB dead drops in New York City. Billed as 'an anonymous, offline, peer to peer file-sharing network in public space,' he has embedded USB sticks as file cache devices throughout the city. Bartholl says, 'I am "injecting" USB flash drives into walls, buildings and curbs accessible to anybody in public space. You are invited to go to these places (so far 5 in NYC) to drop or find files on a dead drop. Plug your laptop to a wall, house or pole to share your files and data.' Current locations (more to come) include: 87 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn, NY (Makerbot), Empire Fulton Ferry Park, Brooklyn, NY (Dumbo), 235 Bowery, NY (New Museum), Union Square, NY (Subway Station 14th St), and West 21st Street, NY (Eyebeam)"
Re:Dead drops? (Score:2, Interesting)
Geocache much? (Score:4, Interesting)
What dould possibly go wrong? (Score:4, Interesting)
Could be worse. In 1969, the Museum of Modern Art in New York deployed Pulsa [moma.org], an exhibit which included many strobe lights arranged to flash in sequence. There was a long line of strobes not only on the museum, but extending to adjacent buildings.
Pilots reported runway lighting in midtown Manhattan. The "moving ball of light" strobe system for runways was chosen because, even in cluttered urban areas with many parallel lines of light, there's nothing which looks like that. The FAA made them retime the strobes so that it didn't look like a runway.
Why not bluetooth or wifi? (Score:3, Interesting)
That way i can get my free viruses without having to plug something in.
Fun like GEO Caching (Score:3, Interesting)
Unless of course people feel there is something 'cool' about having to be in a specified location to receive information in this day and age.
GEO caching [geocaching.com] came readily to mind. Find an interesting (and hopefully somewhat safe site) and when people get there, not only can they share whatever, but they can have a unique experience as well.
From sneaker net ot peer to peer to USB Dead Drops? lmao...
Might be good practice for when Fascism [wikipedia.org] takes over thanks to Citizen United vs FEC [wikipedia.org].
Re:Good way to get your laptop attacked (Score:5, Interesting)
Umm.. I guess you didn't read about the Stuxnet worm that used several zero day USB based explotes including a buffer overrun in lnk files.
Last I heard not all of those where patched so if you are using a windows machine odds are you are.
Also if one was to be really nasty they would hack a microcontroller to be a keyboard and then hijack your machine that way.
My grading of this idea: (Score:4, Interesting)
Creativity: A+
Humor: B
Usefulness: F
Convenience: F
Security: F
Resistance to Vandalism: F
Re:Error 503: Too late, bittorrent already invente (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, because the "open" guys have really shown that they know how to all control their egos and make sure everything they do is in the best interests of the "community", and not in the pursuit of some ridiculous need to flex an e-peen or get the last word.
I predict the first day you declare your utopia has been achieved, at least 3 people will fork it because they can't abide by trivial differences in your set of rules, and several dozen blog posts will go up lamenting the shoddy architecture and insecure design of your utopia, and talk about how short-sighted you are to have not anticipated these issues.
Because that's how your vaunted community works in actuality. Thank you, but as someone else mentioned, we'll be -- blessedly -- long dead before this hellish 'utopia' comes to pass. God save us from technical savants with the will to power and limited or nonexistent social skills.
Re:It's like the 70's and 80's (Score:1, Interesting)
Unlikely. The cops will just harass you and give you a $54 ticket for having plates that have the frame thingy around them cause that was the only excuse they could find to harass you when you were being suspicious and driving the speed limit (and who does that when driving down main street? right?). Yea... it happened to me. Might not even do that. They also might tail you after they stop questioning you. I drove down the entire length of main street on one occasion.
Finally turned left. THEN he followed me and pulled me over. He never would have guessed what I was up to. At the time nothing actually. hahahaha cops just don't have the skills for the kind of laws I break. Technical in nature and I hadn't yet committed any crime. And it is up for debate still if it is a crime. Probably a civil matter. I literally refused to talk to him in any case about anything other than the reason he pulled me over cause I knew he didn't want to talk to me about the excuse he gave for pulling me over.
You are only required to give cops the answer to three questions: name, address, insurance, registration, and license. You can say "I prefer to remain silent" and also "May I got now?". The "May I go now?" will piss them off. They will say stuff like "I'm not done. I have a right to question you." or "Do you want me to take you down to the station?". Best way to deal with it is just remain silent. Continue not answering and if they ask more question continue saying "I prefer to remain silent.".
My conversations with the cops generally goes something like this: "Do you have a wife and kids?" silence. "Do you live at?" silence. "I prefer to remain silent?" , "May I go now?" "I have the right to question you? Do you want me to take you down to the station? We'll fingerprint, strip search, and book you." Or some BS threat. Don't believe it. They don't have anything on you. It is a waste of your time and they have better things to do.
The cops are harassing you for no good reason and it is an unwarranted field expedition of a search when they go back to the car to look up information on you. If you don't answer any questions then they can't say things like "you were lying when you said you've never been in trouble with the law". Now- this might be some police report and no tickets were even issued. That doesn't matter. It doesn't matter you didn't remember it. They'll use it against you. Anything can and will be used against you in court and nothing can be used to help you.
So just keep your mouth shut and don't believe anything they say. Cops can and will lie. They can't or I should say won't waste the time to take you down to the station and book you. They can't in practice if they have no evidence on you because they'd have to release you. Questioning you at the station would be pointless if you won't answer any questions. Which is why you should make a point of not saying one single word to them more than you absolutely must other than "May I go now?" (this one you should repeat every so often) and to any question "I prefer to remain silent".
Even saying "I'm not answering any more questions. You have my info. It is clear who I am. I prefer to remain silent." Is too much. Avoid the words. They'll use that against you if they decide to book you for something. It might be minor like a frame that the dealer of your car put on that every other car has- but if you fight it you'll need to make sure the cop can't use your words against you. They'll manipulate your words so don't say ANYTHING.