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Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb

richardosgood.com

71–80 of 396 posts

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

#71
post #33

Android loves to auto-disconnect you from any Wifi network that doesn't provide Internet. You need to go through a bunch of arcane settings to disable that feature.

This was my thought as well. I think the workaround is to have the device present itself as a captive portal type of thing, like you might encounter at a Starbucks, so that when the user is prompted to "Sign In" they immediately find the dead drop. However I haven't actually played with this and don't know if that would work, or if the network would require DNS to function properly.

That's exactly what this project attempts to do. It acts as a captive portal.

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

#74

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.

Install it at night with gloves, wipe it to avoid fingerprints, and this hoodie https://hackaday.com/2023/03/06/adversarial-ir-hoodie-lets-y...

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

#75

Some books deserve to be banned. I would put Kevin MacDonald's antisemitic trilogy The Culture of Critique, the Turner Diaries ( which calls for mass extermination of non-white groups in the USA ) and Mein Kampf in the realm of books that should be shunned.

Some people categorically oppose the death penalty, others oppose the death penalty “except when it’s justified”.

I guess when it comes to Freedom of Speech, you fall into the latter category.

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

#76
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 f…

Why do you want people to read those books so bad?

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

#77

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]

It's almost like this could be used in countries that aren't "America"

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

#78
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

You are free to read whatever you want. Doesn't mean it should be part of a curated collection in a light bulb

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

#79
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is at least one “banned” book, written by a former dictator, whose copyright expired in 2015, 70 years after his death in 1945. But that’s a good ban of course, because Freedom of Speech only matters when it concerns speech I agree with.

> But that’s a good ban of course, because Freedom of Speech only matters when it concerns speech I agree with. putting hypothetical words in other peoples' mouths like this seems like it must be a pretty exhausting way to try to make a point. quoting from the article: > I think the idea hosting banned books specifically came to me after having read Ben Brown's short story Library. It's been a while since I read it,…

> the purpose of a project like this seems to be not just "here's some banned books" but rather "here's some banned books that I think are worth sharing / reading"

Those aren’t banned books though. They are books that used to be banned in another century.

It’s like saying “I’m a criminal because I criticized the Pope”.

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

#80
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 f…

We've decided collectively as a society that some ideas are "good" and others are "bad". For example, racism and white supremacy have been decided to be "bad".

There's an alternate reality where white supremacy is mainstream, where queer fiction is impossible to find, and that would be a different world.

Instead, what's being preserved are the books written that celebrate the values that match our broad cultural values, despite a handful of cultural deviants attempting to suppress the parts of the rest of humanity they dislike.

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