On Thu, 9 Nov 2006, Ben Ford wrote:
I managed to get linux working with a PCMCIA data card too a little while ago and called the helpdesk as a courtesy to let them know... You'd think I was dancing round a fire wearing a cloak of human skin from the response I got!!
I should imagine they "phreaked out". :-) I don't think the telco's ever recovered from the shock that phreakers existed. Before that they existed in a happy private dream legislated monopoly world of "green tick" phones only... And then the BBS's and the phreakers came. And then the internet came. And then remember all the funny packets that did syn-floods and pings of death and .... in the world of IP? And the slew of "bind" bugs? I suspect it will be a year or five before GSM networks have all the bugs removed. Nobody is talking about those bugs yet. However I bet, purely on general principles not from specific knowledge, somewhen soon somebody will work out how to send a funny GSM packet that will knock out a lots of dollar cell phone mast. And the thought scares the bejeebers out of the cell phone networks. Which is why despite the noise, convergence is the thing furthest from the providers minds. Locked down, legislated, proprietary and Digital Rights managed to the nth degree convergence yes. Open, hackable, phreakable, convergence gives them the willies. It will come... But not without a big big fight. John Carter Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639 Tait Electronics Fax : (64)(3) 359 4632 PO Box 1645 Christchurch Email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] New Zealand
