News from the embedded world

[mcobit]

In germany emergency calls can only be made with a simcard inserted since 2009. But why should it be a problem if emergency calls can be made if nithing other can be done without a simcard?

 

[SNESFAN]

I think we're talking tinfoil hat theory in it's truest sense, extremely large scale conspiracy theory.

EDIT:

wrap your pyra in tinfoil

problem; solved

 

[Linux-SWAT]

There is no such thing as "nothing other".

It's like "spying everyone while respecting privacy".

 

[Granitehead]

But, fuck the module, you can just cut it's power or wire the power meter to a GPIO, you don't need a damn hardwired LED for the reason I gave. -.-

 

[one dead]

When your module is known to be able to send and possibly recieve data without a sim, in a country known to have the very emergency systems you rely on spy on you, its a very real threat to assume you are safe from monitoring. a hardware switch to ensure that (if possible) a reverse emergency connection is not made even without a sim card would be welcomed.

 

[Granitehead]

We need free software to control/monitor the module. That's enough. If say the Linux kernel is compromised we are fucked anyway, I've already said this and I can't repeat it enough.

 

[Grench]

@Grench: 3G is good enough for me -- I would use it to check emails and forums, Wikipedia and Google, low-bandwidth stuff. If I want to do high-bandwidth stuff I'll use wifi. Although 4G is available in most cities in my country, mobile internet costs 5-10 EUR per GB here. That means that if you can get real 4G speeds (~1 gigabit/s), it costs about $1 per second. Of course it will get cheaper over time, but still, that does not sound like something I would want to do even if it's 10 times as cheap.

So - you want it to be slower so that it takes you longer to do stuff and then you won't be as likely to rack up data charges as quickly? From your description of how they operate there - if you need to do an activity, it's going to cost you the same amount whether done at 3G speeds or 4G speeds. So, favoring a slower connection really is a way to force yourself to be less efficient - which strikes me more as a self-control thing than a technical requirement.

Another concern... not as pressing.

As airwaves continue to be more crowded, there will be an emphasis toward faster connections to alleviate congestion. This is already happening. In the US you'd be hard pressed to find a carrier that would allow an old analog cell phone on their network. Eventually 2G will get phased out to reclaim spectrum. It isn't hard to see that 3G and 4G will eventually follow as newer, faster, more efficient uses come for the spectrum. 4G gives us more a more future-proof solution. It would not surprise me if the parts suppliers cut out the sale of 3G radio -parts- inside of the next two years.

 

[WizardStan]

This is a level of suspicion I'm not equipped to deal with. At least not without going full snarky

The only thing I can point out is that the modules are German manufacture and it's the US government that was caught spying on everyone via their phones, with the German government getting extremely upset over this. It seems highly unlikely that a German manufacturer would provide any backdoors at the request of the US and risk blowback from their own government.

The alternative is to suggest a world government where everyone is being spied on by fully compatible technology, which would mean we've already lost and there's no point in fighting it, just enjoy the ride until you die.

 

[Grench]

For the tin foil hats...

What about simply disconnecting or removing the antenna?

Yes - it would still transmit and would be able to be received within a meter or two - maybe 20m with a tuned dish.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

An easily accessible kill switch on the module isn't possible ?

Note that i have no idea where the module will be placed.

 

[Granitehead]

@WizardStan: I think there is stuff which might indicate that the German government knew about quite a lot of that stuff but only started acting (or at least crying out) when the public found out.

 

[WizardStan]

Regardless; like I said, if a German company is willingly working with the US government, putting whatever backdoors are required so every government can spy on everyone else, then the war has already been lost, world government superpower is a thing and your best bet is to enjoy the ride until you die.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Well, there's no real governments since a while. Big banks and companies are ruling everything.

 

[WizardStan]

uuuuhhhh...

*ollie outies*

 

[Linux-SWAT]

A bit off-topic i presume, as long as the embedded world is not the same ^^.

 

[comradekingu]

I thought of it as a nice feature as a peace of mind that you are saving power when the light is off.

 

[Natsu]

If there are going to be two different models of XG then you might as well go straight to 4G.
I thought the reason to start with 3G is to cover everyone at a minimal degree.

 

[_wb_]

I thought of it as a nice feature as a peace of mind that you are saving power when the light is off.

Let's get a 3G led, a wifi led, a BT led, 3 USB leds, a power led, 2 SD leds, one for the logo, 2 leds to show which cpu cores are active, a led to show GPU activity, 2 for the M4s, a couple of leds to indicate the current screen brightness setting, the sound volume and the battery charge, leds to show network activity (separate ones for upload and download), a led to indicate how the audio jack is wired, a led for each nub to tell you what mode it is in, leds to indicate the clock rates of cpu, system bus and gpu, a led to indicate whether the mic is recording, a led for incoming mails, one for incoming calls, one to indicate keypresses and one for screen touches, and a few spare ones in case we forgot something.

That way we'll have lots of peace of mind about power consumption, and the blinkenlights will be so pretty! And with proper hacking, you'll be able to play tetris using the indicator leds alone!

 

[moxie]

Well, didn't people argue for separate leds under every key in the lighted keyboard threads? Seems we are well on our way

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Don't know about other countries, but 4G in France is non-existent. Even Paris is 5% covered at best.