Retronetworking / BBS-Revival setup at #36C3

After many years of being involved in various projects at the annual Chaos Communication Congress (starting from the audio/vidoe recording team at 15C3), I've finally also departed the GSM team, i.e. the people who operate (Osmocom based) cellular networks at CCC events.

The CCC Camp in August 2019 was slightly different: Instead of helping an Osmocom based 2G/3G network, I decided to put up a nextepc-based LTE network and make that use the 2G/3G HLR (osmo-hlr) via a newly-written DIAMETER-to-GSUP proxy. After lots of hacking on that proxy and fixing various bugs in nextepc (see my laforge/cccamp2019 branch here) this was working rather fine.

For 36C3 in December 2019 I...

36C3 Talks on SIM card technology / Mitel DECT

At 36C3 in December 2019 I had the pleasure of presenting: One full talk about SIM card technology from A to Z and another talk where I presented together with eventphone team members about Security issues in the Mitel SIP-DECT system.

The SIM card talk was surprisingly successful, both in terms of a full audience on-site, as well as in terms of the number of viewers of the recordings on media.ccc.de. SIM cards are a rather niche topic in the wider IT industry, and my talk was not covering any vulnerabilities or the like. Also, there was nothing novel in the talk: SIM cards have been...

Software Freedom Podcast #3 about Free Software mobile phone communication

Recently I had the pleasure of being part of the 3rd incarnation of a new podcast series by the Free Software Foundation Europe: The Software Freedom Podcast.

In episode 3, Matthias and Bonnie of the FSFE are interviewing me about various high-level topics related to [the lack of] Free Software in cellular telephony, as well as some of the projects that I was involved in (Openmoko, Osmocom).

We've also touched the current mainstream / political debate about Huawei and 5G networks, where my position can only be summarized as: It doesn't matter much in which country the related proprietary software is being developed. What we need is Free /...

Free Stuff, July and August 2019

Julio y August 2019

This summer we heard from two biomedical engineers. Juan Ignacio Cerrudo es nuestro receptor de julio. Él es el Jefe de Trabajos Prácticos en Laboratorio de Prototipado Electrónico y 3D en la Universidad Nacional de Entre Ríos (Argentina). He plans to use his HackRF One to assess security in medical devices and in classes to introduce students to signal processing.

Roy Morris with Gift of Life International asked us for a HackRF One in August. Roy travels throughout the developing world helping children with congenital heart defects receive the medical care they need. He’s going to use the...

Free Stuff, May and June 2019

May 2019

We sent a bunch of Throwing Star LAN Tap Kits to a high school in California in May. The computer science department will use them in several classes.

Brooklyn Research is an interdisciplinary creative space focused on technological innovation. They provide a platform for established artists, technologists, and researchers to foster engaging discourse and experimentation. One of their groups is going to use their new HackRF One to experiment with finding a way to translate satellite signals to G-Code for a printer which will deposit nutritional paste for a slime mold culture. That slime mold culture will be a...

December Update: Thank You For 2019!

Welcome to the last community update of the year. I think that 2019 will be remembered as the year PINE64 transitioned from being a relatively niche FOSS hardware project to a mainstream one.

Hanjo: Entschleunigung?

Wir reden alle immer davon das die Welt so schrecklich schnell geworden ist. Alles ist so stressig und laut. Ganz ehrlich wer dieser Tage durch die Dresdner Innenstadt geht ist bescheuert.

Am Nachmittag meide ich den Fußweg zum Hauptbahnhof um dem Gedrängel zu entgehen. Am Morgen ist es eigentlich noch still und es liegt ein diffuser Geruch von vergammelter Bratwurst und kaltem Glühwein in der Luft aber dann ist er da der Weihnachtscountdown, riesig groß und einfach zum kotzen.

Hanjo: Liberatings Structures

Die Liberating Structures sind gerade ganz hip. Zumindest 1-2-4 All hat vermutlich inzwischen jeder in seinem Methodenkoffer.

Um den Überblick zu behalten oder sich seinen eigenen String zu basteln gibt es ausführliche Beschreibungen im Internet (deutsch / englisch) oder in Buchform. Für die digitalen Menschen die ständig ihr Smartphone oder Tablet griffbereit haben gibts eine App (Android / Apple) und wer will kann auch Geld für schicke Karten ausgeben oder diese eben selber drucken.

Für jeden Geschmack etwas dabei :)

November Update: Brave Heart, Pinebook Pro reception and more

Our core focus for the past month was on getting the manufacturing process and shipping of the Pinebook Pro, PinePhone and PineTime development kits back on track. I will not reiterate the events that led to the delays of those devices in this post, but if you’re interested then read the detailed account of what happened in last month’s community update.

SimpleTesla v1.23: Инструкция к программной части

Приветствую!
Позвольте начать с того, что я очень рад вас здесь видеть – т.к. описанный ниже продукт создавался и тестировался на протяжении не одного года, пройдя буквально через 23 версии перед тем как предстать перед нами в нынешнем виде.
В данной инструкции мы подробнейшим образом пройдёмся по программным возможностям приложения SimpleTesla, а так же работающей с ним в паре прошивки контроллера STM32F100C8.
Данный текст стоит воспринимать не как статью, которую нужно прочитать от корки до корки, а именно как инструкцию – описывающую малейшие подробности функционала и аспектов работы. По которой, я надеюсь – вы сумеете получить ответы на любые интересующие вас вопросы, и...