PirateBox is a self-contained mobile communication and file sharing device. Simply turn it on to transform any space into a free and open communications and file sharing network.

I plan to setup a PirateBox in my local area, 24/7, attached with my ~1TB Western Digital HD. For the router, I plan to buy a TP-Link TL-MR3220 150MBPS Wireless Lite N 3G Router from Amazon. There are several features about this router, that make it perfect for a PirateBox -

• It has a USB port, which functions as the source storage media for people when they upload files to the PB
• It has a detachable antenna, which lets me upgrade and buy my own [stronger] antenna, so I can broadcast the network further
• It has a 3G/WAN failover which guarantees a sustained Internet connection
• Most of all, OpenWRT can be installed on it which allows for the mkPirateBox software (what makes it a PB)

I will most likely use it at home, but maybe if I go to The Edge, I might look into making it portable.

The hack basically compromises of a guy modifying a headphone plug, with some IR LED’s, so that when a specific sound file is played, the bits go to the IR LED’s, which emit a signal to the T.V. and depending on the sound, may control the T.V. as would a universal remote.

I believe the most interesting part, is that this requires no modifications to the software of the phone, and merely relies on the sound output to the headphone jack.

Over the recent months, I have heard more and more, about internet censorship. At least one point last year, my country Australia, was set to pass mandatory censorship in some form or another. Indeed ISP’s such as Telstra (evil), probably did (EDIT: so did Optus).

Governments can’t be trusted to censor the Internet. Why? Because the world is like a monopoly game, everyone wants to win in one way or another. Why would someone give you Mayfair, for a single railroad spot, its of no obvious benefit. But upon further investigation, they become in control of all the railroads, trading 4 spots for one, and increasing the price on the existing 3. It’s the same with censorship. Sure they may be protecting us from explicit illegal material (although I find it hard to understand how you could stumble upon this sort of stuff anyways?), but with our given consent, they also have the power to censor other legitimate websites.

The other reason governments shouldn’t have the power to enforce censorship, is that they have no idea what they’re doing, and how its supposed to  combat the problems. From what I’ve heard, most politicians suffer from a  general lack of technical insight. The reason behind SOPA was to Stop Online Piracy (3 of the 4 words in the acronym). What the government is doing, is merely inconveniencing pirates, not blocking them. It’s ineffective. Besides, piracy is an issue of service, as shown by our favourite DRM gaming platform, Steam.

So what’s being done? Project Meshnet (formerly darknetplan).

To create a versatile, decentralized network built on secure protocols for routing traffic over private mesh or public internetworks independent of a central supporting infrastructure. (taken from the meshnetwiki – The Plan)

That’s what’s being done. Currently CJD’s Networking Suite (CJDNS) is the only platform formed by the project, focused on creating a secure software based alternative which runs on top of’ the existing Internet structure (ISP’s). It currently in Beta and only runs on Linux, but with the help of, yours truly, and many others, we are helping to port, and improve CJDNS.

However CJDNS is only the beginning. Soon, I believe, the first decentralised Meshnet will be created. Efforts are being made into researching hardware alternatives to a sustained long distance wireless network. It is only a matter of time…

I have got to say, WordPress is wonderful. It’s extremely large community, extremely clean code, and of course, open-source!

Cryptum will now function mainly as a source of quality information, and also as a blog. DEV.Cryptum will be re-established in the coming weeks.

Until then, good evening!