Makes me wonder if credential harvesting is a thing when all these smart bulbs and other IoT devices get thrown away with the Wi-Fi credentials stored on them.
Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb
311–320 of 396 posts
Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb
#312Cool project, except these aren't really "banned" books. thats a misleading term. In most of these cases, the book isn’t actually banned. Nobody is being arrested for owning it, Amazon isn’t forbidden from selling it, and adults can still read it whenever they want. What’s really being debated is whether a particular school library, children’s section, or curriculum should include a book. That’s not the same thing as…
You may be overthinking this. "Banned" in this case means that the usual person or people who choose what books to include are being overridden by a party with more clout. From the perspective of a school librarian, for example, book X has been banned. They no longer have the option of including it. (This is even true in the case where the librarian would not have included it anyway, for their own reasons.) They are prevented by the school board, an angry mob of parents, the state legislature, the FBI, or whoever. The fact that the public library down the road carries the book does not change whether that librarian has the option of including it in their school library's collection. They can't. They are banned from including it.
Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find the trend of redefining or twisting terms to serve a specific cause really counterproductive. It eventually devalues the words themselves and makes nuanced discussion nearly impossible. If a problem is really that serious, it shouldn't require misleading language.
> I find the trend of redefining or twisting terms to serve a specific cause really counterproductive. which term is being redefined?
Some that comes to mind: violence, -phobia, fascism, nazism, rape, genocide, supremacy, safety, political, diversity, man/woman.
In the context of this thread, it would be calling a book a "banned book" because it is banned in some school libraries, despite being widely available everywhere else. Akin to calling dogs a "banned pet" because they are banned from post offices. Technically correct but highly misleading without context.
Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are we talking about this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looking_for_Alaska#Author's_re... (I've not read it, of course, and don't know whether I'd consider it inappropriate for school libraries. However, it sounds like it was not intended as pornography and therefore isn't pornography according to some narrow definitions of that term. In any case, school libraries have such tiny budgets and there are so many uncontr…
NoMoreNicksLeft conveniently left out the (singular!) banned book they were referring to. I believe that was by intent, to make the strawman unassailable. And its easy to attack books in k-12 school libraries. The hard conservative christians attack DEI, sexuality, suicide, witchcraft, and other things regularly. However, we are also seeing direct attacks on funding with public libraries. https://michiganadvance.com/…
Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
just like how you can figure out when tom/dan say " we've banned this account " doesn't mean " banned this account from the internet ", you can use similar context clues to figure out " banned book " doesn't mean " banned across the world and is now illegal ".
I mean, when you're like "I have to make a hidden wifi server in a light bulb to distribute these books" that does kind of imply some dystopian totalitarian state that will put you to death for reading those books or something and not the reality that they are given their own highlighted section in literally every single bookstore in existence.
Did you read the article? The author doesn’t say anything like that.
It’s pretty clear this was mostly a fun idea with a bit of “could be useful in this scenario” motivation, which they mention came from reading a short story.
Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
>In the USA, the books that are banned are for public schools. They talk about topics like (gasp) LGBTQ and sex things! The book that is commonly at the number one spot on "banned book" lists has what would always be called hardcore pornography in the middle of the book. It depicts fellatio literally (not just implying it). It has no educational value, and is meant, within its context, to be erotic/lewd. I can link d…
Nice strawman you constructed. However, it was burning the moment you put it together. Its easy to say that pornography and smut are the only things banned in school and public libraries, as your claim. But thats easily demonstrably false. One only need to look at the American Library Association's banned list https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10 What do we see? Descriptions of sexual acts? Well…
Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb
#317Nice, but: "Since the device is a light bulb, it would be difficult to detect and likely to go unnoticed." I doubt it would be any harder to shut down than any other public-access WiFi device, just a bit of experimentation with turning off power / devices would find it.
I think the point was that it's difficult to notice in the first place, not that it would be hard to find once you know you're looking for something. You don't have a black WiFi router with antennae dangling down from the ceiling.
If you went the other direction and didn't worry about it being noticeable, it would be kind of a fun project to break up a book into a series of QR codes. A scavenger hunt, with each code's text ending with a clue of where to find the next?
Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I find the trend of redefining or twisting terms to serve a specific cause really counterproductive. which term is being redefined?
In the context of supplying banned books in the software of a lightbulb, I expect banned to mean a China style ban where possession can get you punished. Not the (current) US version where certain taxpayer funded entities cannot provide the book. But there might not be a better word for the latter scenario. Surely, few oppose libraries from “banning” pornographic books, so some level of discretion must be used by adm…
From what I can find with a quick look, 'Banned' is most likely using PEN America[1]'s definition, which is “either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished.”
[1] Free speech non-profit mostly focused on literature.
Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just said what I meant - what we are taught about WWII and Weimar Germany in school isn't anything approaching the truth. For example: https://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/katyn-massa...
I don’t know what school you went to, but mine covered war crimes committed by the Allies plenty. That doesn’t mean Nazi Germany wasn’t utterly disgusting though.
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Re: Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
"banned" just means "not allowed". it doesn't need to apply globally for something to be banned. it doesn't need to be illegal across the country. something can be banned from a certain place (e.g. a school). it's still correct to say it is banned. some HNers are so weird when it comes to the word "banned" regarding books, i really dont understand why. its only ever in the context of school/library books. use "ban" i…
Because they're not "not allowed". With very few exceptions the thing people are freaking out about is books being curated out of libraries, usually for very understandable reasons.
'Curated out' not by librarians but by a singular patron challenging the purchase of a certain publication.