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Linuxcare Founders Go Wireless

Posted by chrisd on from the bootable-business-card-gateway dept.

LinuxCare founders Dave Sifry, Art Tyde and Dave LaDuke have started their second company: Sputnik. Basically, they have an ISO you can download that will turn a laptop with an 802.11b card into a wireless gateway. They also wrote a user-authentication scheme that reroutes all traffic to the gateway until the user logs in via a web form. This should sound familiar to people who stay in broadband capable hotels a lot. Using this authentication technique, the software allows you to choose who can and cannot use your gateway, and in you'll be able to charge strangers for access (with Sputnik handling the billing). This will likely get some isps a wee bit upset. NewsForge has an article detailing what they are doing. Update: Turns out the authentication wasn't written by Sputnik, my bad. They use NoCatAuth Disclaimer: I've known these guys for a long time and am pals with them, so I waited until someone else (in this case Grant at NewsForge and the NYT) put something up independently about them before linking to them.

21 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. fp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    AC first post - fuck the troll library

  2. first post? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    its an attempt but it will probably be second

  3. Hai, asl?? SELAM!! by Serial+Troller · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    • 2002. Slashdot publishes 1,000,000th rumor passed off as actual story. The story generates 480 comments, 263 of which agree with the article, and 107 of which point out its a rumor and are modded down as redundant. The remaining comments are all first posts.
    • 2002. CmdrTaco married to Kathleen Fent. Many geeks believe Kathleen, a purported transvestite, outmeasures CmdrTaco.
    • 2002. Slashdot parent corporation VA Research^W Linux^W Software stock worth 35 cents. Rumors that AOL, Microsoft, or even Jimmy the hobo who lives under the Longfellow Bridge may buy it.
    • 2003. VA Software bought by Microsoft for a cup of coffee and a donut. All Microsoft-critical articles mysteriously disappear from Slashdot. Bill Gates as Borg logo replaced with Bill Gates as God.
    • 2003. Papperatzi videos of Miguel de Icaza caught going down on Bill Gates in his private yacht spread across Usenet. Miguel swears that recent decisions to rename the Gnome desktop to Windows NT 6.0 have nothing to do with it.
    • 2004. CmdrTaco loses virginity.
    • 2004. The WIPO Troll returns again, showering Slashdot in 45,000 copies of the same post: Lick my crotch hairs. Slashdot, despite running on 18 redundant IIS/8.0 servers, buckles under the load. The term Slashdotted is replaced with WIPO-Trolled.
    • 2004. Slashdot officially shut down. Millions of screaming, unwashed geeks invade Redmond campus and lynch Bill Gates.
    • 2005. Linus Torvalds and Anal Cox found dead along with six penguins, an empty tub of crisco and several used condoms. Millions of screaming, unwashed geeks invade Redmond campus and lynch Steve Ballmer.
    • 2005. CmdrTaco rumored to have had sex again.
    • 2006. CowboiKneel found dead in hotel room with 56 pizza boxes covering his bloated corpse. Three suffocated gay prostitutes are extracted from beneath his body as police remove it with a backhoe.
    • 2007. CmdrTaco actually has sex again. With a woman.
    • 2007. BSD is still officially dying. No word on when its demise will take place.
    • 2007. CmdrTaco starts new weblog to replace Slashdot, creatively named Dotslash. Remainder of Linux users flock to the site and immediate WIPO-Troll it out of existence.
    • 2008. CmdrTaco has sex with his wife for the first time.
    • 2009. After years of living under the heel of his domineering wife, and being deprived of the homosexual orgies of the past, CmdrTaco commits suicide. Another sweaty geek mob gathers and tears Kathleen Fent to shreds. Geeks discover Ms. Fent was indeed a woman, but dont exactly know what that means. Driven by their sexually-repressed rage, they subsequently invade Redmond again and lynch the current CEO of Microsoft, Miguel de Icaza.
    • 2010. Microsoft is blamed for the assassination of Richard Stallman. Redmond invasions by geek hordes become commonplace.
    • 2011. Microsoft campus burnt to the ground by screaming, unwashed geek mob after Microsoft is blamed when a Linux hacker in Cambridge, Massachusetts spills his coffee on his pants.
    --

    STOP ME BEFORE I POST AGAIN!

  4. Re:It sounds wonderful, except... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Well, at least you're trying, and you're not just a crapflooder. Good for you.

    Troll.

  5. Go ahead, bury your head in the sand. by elenchos · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Do you label everyone who thinks outside your narrow little world a "troll"? Excuse me for asking tough questions. If thinking for myself makes me a "troll" then so be it, I'd rather be a "troll" than live the life of a mere receptacle for media products and blind consumerism.

    1. Re:Go ahead, bury your head in the sand. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Good defence. You still suck at trolling.

      Go read some of the old spiralx FAQs. You could really learn a thing or two.

    2. Re:Go ahead, bury your head in the sand. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      I like pants =)

    3. Re:Go ahead, bury your head in the sand. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      The Communists always brushed off anybody they didn't agree with by considering them crazy.

      Here on this website the equivalent is to brand something a 'troll' and refuse to discuss it. Luckily there aren't Stalinist Death Camps for the Slashdotties to stick 'Astroturfers' and 'Trolls' into.

    4. Re:Go ahead, bury your head in the sand. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      "The Communists"? There's nothing you can say that Communists have done as a group.

      As for this comment, it is blatantly ridiculous and trollish. This is about as terrorist friendly as any other networking... and I don't see very many people being worried about Cat 5 falling into the wrong hands.

      What are we worried about? Terrorists might start up their own wireless ISPs? Heaven forfend.

    5. Re:Go ahead, bury your head in the sand. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Pants are evil. You know it, and so do I.

      Unless they are deathpants. Then they are OK.

  6. Re:It sounds wonderful, except... by SJ · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    I am guessing your joking here, because just about anything can be used to organize murderous attacks. Including, but not limited too...

    Paper planes, pencils, pens, telephones, email, morse code, cars, hand signals, the list goes on.

    BTW, your more likely to be hit by a car than killed by a terrorist. (No disrespect to those that have been).

  7. Re:It sounds wonderful, except... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    You've been trolled, but then again, you can't spell "you're".

    Please stop typing until you've at least gotten a basic grasp of the English Language.

  8. If you want to troll Slashdot, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    Learn from the masters. Either that, or go back to your shitty little wanky website, Enchilitos.

    -everybody else on Slashdot

    1. Re:If you want to troll Slashdot, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Dear sir,

      If those are the masters, I would hate to see their underlings.

      Thank you.

  9. Re:It sounds wonderful, except... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    OK, I understand that taking the ignorant racist tack can lead to some funny trolls, but you don't even seem to be trying. Are you honestly a retarded humourless bastard, or do you just not have enough time to put some effort into being funny?

    Considering you waste so much time here, I must assume the former...

  10. Adequoid keyphrase by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    "Dear sir"

    I said go home, elenchos!

    1. Re:Adequoid keyphrase by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Ahem.

      This is the same AC who has been spamming this little boy's pathetic troll attempt. His user history shows that he has been doing this for a while.

      I've been here a long time, and I have seen some great trollers. No one you mentioned is on that list.

  11. Re:Just wanted to say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Yawn. Ralph "JH" Nader 0wnz your pathetic ass.

  12. Educate me then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I make my own lists, but I would love to see yours for comparison. (Note that I only chose active trolls, not once great but now inactive ones. If I had, my list would be far too long)

  13. Re:http://www.geocities.com/spiralxuk/howto.html by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Sir, you have just inspired me to register an account, karma whore, and then do some top quality trolling. I will be the bested troll evar.

  14. Apple Access Points by rbruels · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    You know -- Apple was the first major computer company to spread the use of 802.11b to the consumer market. Some people will argue that point, because people love to flame Apple, but the fact is that AirPort-ready laptops have been produced for years now, starting a good year or more ahead of mainstream 802.11b-ready Intel/AMD-based laptops.

    I know Sputnik is a startup, just taking its first steps, so I understand you still have work to do. But I will tell you, this is right down the alley of most of us Mac users. We've always been the rebellious types, that's why we do what we do. I hope we see this gateway for PowerPC machines soon.

    As a side note, I do appreciate that you point out Macintosh clients can connect as easily as any other. It's true. And probably easier (one click in the AirPort menu!) But I hope you soon offer us the ability to spread the project, too. :)

    Keep up the good work.

    Ryan

    --

    "All your base are belong to this file I send in order to have your advice."