[Vanhackspace] chance for VHS to do a good community hacking deed

[John Craver]

dan anderson wrote:
> Burning Man is about to get cell phone service. If this succeeds, this
> would be the end of any good that could come from the event. VHS would
> be instant heroes to the Burning Man community if anyone knows of a
> legal way to prevent cell phone use from happening. Jammers are
> illegal down there, unfortunately. Is it possible to block the signal
> with a physical wall? A farraday cage is kind of infeasible. Would it
> be legal and feasible to draw (and pay for) enough energy out of the
> grid to disable the station? If anyone has an idea of how to do this,
> the BM list below and many others would be interested in hearing it,
> and they'd definitely find enough people to take it and run with it.
> Posting anonymously is fine too, they don't mind a bit.
>
> -Dan
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: mike begley <spam at hell.org>
> Date: 2009/8/22
> Subject: [burningman-bcwa] Uh oh...
> To: burningman-bcwa at yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
>
> Apparently there's cell service on the Playa.
>
> http://blog.burningman.com/?p=4916#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_cam
> paign=is-it-hot-enough-for-ya
>
> So another big topic at the morning meeting, besides the
> heat, was the cellphone situation.
>
> What you might have heard by now is actually true. There
> IS cellphone service on the playa. It's not just in Gerlach.
> It's also available out in the desert, at least some of the
> time.
>
> We were talking to Camera Girl, and she said a private
> outfit leased some land out near the Frog Pond and has
> installed a tower that is providing service to the
> playa. It has nothing to do with Burning Man. The Burning
> Man people are not behind it.
>
> There were a lot of boos and hisses when Logan said he heard
> his phone making the familiar sound that he had a text
> message. "I looked down, and I had four bars!" he said.
> Someone in the crowd shouted, "I had five!" Someone else
> shouted, "Call me later!"
>
> But it's an interesting development, obviously. ... You are no
> longer officially "out of reach" when you come to Burning Man.
> You can't tell the office, or your significant others, "Hey,
> sorry, you won't be able to get a hold of me."
>
> Of course, you have to remember that no one comes to Burning
> Man for "a solitary experience," as E put it. I mean, if you
> want to get away from it all and be out of reach, this is not
> the place. This is a very social setting.
>
> But still, cellphones will change everything. (There's a lot
> of thought that after the first couple of hours after the
> gates open, the service will be overwhelmed and no one will
> be able to use the phones anyway, so it may be much ado about
> not much.)
>
> I thought Camera Girl had a pretty good common-sense take on
> the whole thing when she said, "My phone has an off button,
> and I know how to use it."
>
> And I thought Blondie, from the Center Camp crew, had a good
> point too when he said that if you're always able to be in
> touch with your group out here, if you never get lost and find
> yourself wandering around all alone, you'll never have some of
> the unbelievably random but happy coincidences that happen
> when you're forced to be off by yourself.
>
> And I do think it'll be weird if there are people walking
> around yakking on the phone. And I do NOT want to read Twitters
> or Tweets or Facebooks or anything else about what happens out
> here. I would not look on that as a good development at all.
> Annoying in the extreme for those people here and for the
> people back at home, IMHO.
>
> Oi. Time to start building portable cell phone jammers.
>
> -mike
>
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>   
I believe in this case that an old fashioned solution is best: Super 
soakers!