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Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb

richardosgood.com

61–70 of 396 posts

Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb

#61
post #34

“As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth’s final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to informatio…

Get off my land, you peacekeeping son-of-a-bitch!

Best 4x game of all time. The 2060 that game envisioned seems closer everyday.

Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb

#62

[flagged]

I chose books that were out of copyright, available from project Gutenberg, and had been banned or challenged in the USA at some point in the past to use as examples. There weren't many options. It's designed so the user can include whatever books are important to them wherever they may live. They may live somewhere more oppressive where banned books are a common occurrence. I have no idea. It wouldn't be wise to inc…

> The idea is that if you drop this somewhere in public, you can try to match whatever color was there before so it is less noticeable that anything changed.

I *love* this concept so much.

Even though the books are a neat hook, these wifi networks could contain anything.

Grassroots political advocacy, local info for off-the-grid historical sites, location specific micro-social media (comments, message boards, etc.), waymarkers, geocaching, hidden music / art / games in obscure places, ARGs like an interactive capture the flag or something even more inventive and fun, ...

God, this is just so freaking cool and is begging for a thousand different ideas to run on top of it.

Good job! One of the best things I've seen all year.

Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They appear to all be public domain. Even if they weren't, grandparent could've just called out that these are not really banned books instead of being pretentious with the "psyop" thing.

[flagged]

Whether or not a psyop exists, it's presumptuous to say the author has fallen victim of it. Also suggests you're immune or something.

Also, the books on the bulb include Huckleberry Finn, which was removed from required reading in some Democrat-governed California cities because it uses racial slurs.

Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb

#65

[flagged]

> what if the collection consisted of the following? As the only books in it? Then it'd be best marketed as the "white supremacist conspiracy theorist starter kit". Throw in Mein Kampf while you're at it. Just because a book is controversial doesn't make it good. No books should be banned , ever. But some books don't need promoting in a curated collection, either. They're useful for people doing literature research a…

I started reading the Camp of the Saints precisely because people said I shouldn’t. It was a bad book, I couldn’t read more than a few chapters. But I think adults should be able to read whatever they want.

Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb

#66

[flagged]

I chose books that were out of copyright, available from project Gutenberg, and had been banned or challenged in the USA at some point in the past to use as examples. There weren't many options. It's designed so the user can include whatever books are important to them wherever they may live. They may live somewhere more oppressive where banned books are a common occurrence. I have no idea. It wouldn't be wise to inc…

In oppressive places a CCTV will detect you installing the bulb.

Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb

#67
Why stop there? While meshtastic would require additional hardware, tor entry exit nodes would not. Nor would other mesh protocols… also as for hosting ideas… the text files? Def cad and related models… skies the limit with space the only limiting factor.

Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I chose books that were out of copyright, available from project Gutenberg, and had been banned or challenged in the USA at some point in the past to use as examples. There weren't many options. It's designed so the user can include whatever books are important to them wherever they may live. They may live somewhere more oppressive where banned books are a common occurrence. I have no idea. It wouldn't be wise to inc…

In oppressive places a CCTV will detect you installing the bulb.

Ah shoot. Back to the drawing board I guess!

Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb

#69
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It wouldn't be wise to include copyrighted works in a public repository where I live. If you have a problem with storing illegal books in your "banned book library", you may be working on the wrong project.

As it stands it is a great example for others to learn from. If you include copyrighted books it’ll get pulled from GitHub and no one will learn from it.

You'd think this would be obvious.

Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb

#70
post #43

[flagged]

Your thought experiment asks: what if the banned book library contained out-of-print white supremacist books instead of historically banned books? The answer should be obvious: it would be a white supremacist library. Given that the present administration includes fans of those books, their banning seems unlikely. Perhaps a refresher on the kinds of books that are presently under threat is in order? https://www.ala.o…

Books that are assigned reading in schools and universities, and promoted by libraries, are "under threat", while books nearly impossible to find, never on any reading lists, and whose promoters get their speeches shut down by French police [1], or get investigated by the FBI and kicked out of university [2], are to be considered widely available, got it.

And your "historically banned" is just "occasionally removed from public school libraries on parental request". Not using tax money to promote them to children is a low, low bar for "banned". While actual availability is, of course, completely ignored. Whatever tells the best story, facts be damned.

[1] Jared Taylor's Banned Conference Speech - https://www.arktosjournal.com/p/jared-taylors-banned-confere...

[2] Ohio universities involve FBI in investigation of ‘It’s okay to be white’ and white nationalist group’s postings on campus - https://www.thefire.org/news/ohio-universities-involve-fbi-i...

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