RF-Blocking Wallpaper

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Posted by timothy on Saturday June 19, 2004 @10:58PM from the use-extra-glue dept.

spitefulcrow writes "Silicon.com is reporting on a new application for RF-absorbing materials: Wallpaper that blocks Wi-Fi. BAE, the British defense contractor, has announced that the same material used to foil radar by stealth bombers can be used to selectively block certain frequencies and prevent wireless networking signals from entering or exiting a building. Is this the next take on lining the walls with lead?"

32 of 344 comments (clear)

Wallpaper hats! by liamo · 2004-06-19 23:01 · Score: 5, Funny

Tinfoil is just so passee these days.
1. Re:Wallpaper hats! by twoslice · 2004-06-20 01:07 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  You're telling me! the haven't made tinfoil out of actual tin for years, it's all aluminium. Some poor dudes who don't know this little tidbit are 0wn3d and they don't suspect a thing...
  
  --
  
  From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
2. Re:Wallpaper hats! by freeduke · 2004-06-20 02:42 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Finally, I would prefer "wallpaper" underwear... In case all these RF are leading us to infertility, I would build a new branch of our societies!
  Remenber: always put your cell phone in your pant's pocket!
I know it's not tin foil, but.... by orthogonal · 2004-06-19 23:01 · Score: 2, Funny

a new application for RF-absorbing materials: Wallpaper that blocks Wi-Fi.

Ok, I know it's not tin foil....

But the important question is, can I use it to make a hat?

--
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
1. Re:I know it's not tin foil, but.... by Fishstick · 2004-06-19 23:40 · Score: 5, Funny
  Not nearly as effective or attractive as aluminum. ;-P
  
  Aluminum is the perfect medium for constructing an AFDB
  
  Get a five foot sheet of aluminum foil (standard one foot wide Reynolds Wrap brand will do nicely.)
  
  Fold the sheet four times into five equal segments so that you end up with a 1x1 foot square, making sure that you fold over the dull side of the foil leaving the square shiny* on both sides.
  
  Use scissors to cut from one corner of the square to the center, making a straight line.
  
  Bend the foil from one side of the cut under the other, making a slight cone. Again, make sure that the outside of the cone has a shiny side of the foil; this is VERY important.
  
  Place the cone on your head and squash the top and sides to make it fit snugly.
  
  Apply Scotch tape liberally making sure to secure the cut in the foil and any form-fitting creases made in step 5.
  
  Use more tape to secure AFDB to your cranium.
  
  *A Note About The Shiny Side:
  It can't be stressed enough how important it is to have the shiny side pointing out. This is needed because the shiny side is most reflective to psychotronic radiation, while the dull side can actually, in certain environmental conditions, absorb it. However, as is illustrated in the instructions above, it is also wise to complement this with a layer of foil pointing shiny side in. This will keep your brain waves, which are also reflected by the shiny side, from being picked up by mind-reading equipment. There is a small number of aluminum foil researchers who believe that this may cause an alpha-wave harmonic to build up in the skull resulting in memory loss or pseudo-religious visions, but their findings have never been replicated by the aluminum foil research community at large. Even if their findings are validated, the risk involved is small compared to the potential of mind-intrusion.
  --
  There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
  Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
2. Re:I know it's not tin foil, but.... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-06-19 23:48 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  For Linux users, MindGuard, free software that turns your computer into an effective mind control ray jammer!
  
  MindGuard is a program for Amiga and Linux computers that protects your mind by actively jamming and/or scrambling psychotronic mind-control signals and removing harmful engrammic pollutants from your brain. It also has the ability to scan for and decipher into English specific signals so you can see exactly Who wants to control you and what They are trying to make you think.
  
  MindGuard works by leveraging your computer's aluminum-based innards to both detect and emit psychotronic energy using advanced quasi-quantum techniques. Once a mind-control signal is identified and analyzed, MindGuard can generate a specially tuned anti-signal that will jam the incomming signal. If MindGuard is unable to properly identify the signal, it will generate psychotronic white noise to ensure the signal's harmful message is scrambled.
3. Re:I know it's not tin foil, but.... by i+chose+quality · 2004-06-19 23:56 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  a...l...u...m...i...n...i...u...m
  
  please!
  
  --
  the computer is online
  i am not at it
  what a waste of ressources
4. Re:I know it's not tin foil, but.... by Lord+Prox · 2004-06-20 00:57 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  You can keep your hat, I'm going to stealth out my DIY cruise missile...
  
  On second thought, I'm going to need a hat too.
Re:Tinfoil hat brigade? by CdBee · 2004-06-19 23:04 · Score: 4, Funny

Oh Noes!

Three people made the same joke in the same minute. This sucks. I am no longer original. Ahh sod it, I'm going streaking. Nobody else can have thought of that....

--
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
Interior decorating? by MachDelta · 2004-06-19 23:05 · Score: 4, Funny

Dude! Couple this with some lead-painted shingles, and a couple of those dentists X-ray aprons for curtains, and my house will finally be impenetrable to their prying eyes (and ears).

At last! A sanctuary!
It'll never take off. by dj245 · 2004-06-19 23:08 · Score: 4, Funny

Have you any idea how much harder it is to make hats out of wallpaper than it is out of tinfoil?

--
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
We do not like the term paranoid nuts by aussie_a · 2004-06-19 23:14 · Score: 4, Funny

we prefer the term reality-challenged.

Hey, I had to make a joke about something. 3 other people took my tin-foil hat joke :(
1. Re:We do not like the term paranoid nuts by Alien+Being · 2004-06-20 02:06 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  "3 other people took my tin-foil hat joke :("
  
  Do you think they were working together?
*puts on hat* by Anonymous Coward · 2004-06-19 23:23 · Score: 1, Funny

The Government put in a backdoor! I know it!
now they just need... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-06-19 23:25 · Score: 1, Funny

Wi-Fi blocking paint.

I'm having a 70s flashback right now of all the awful wallpaper...
Re:Tinfoil hat brigade? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-06-19 23:28 · Score: 1, Funny

Three people made the same joke in the same minute. This sucks. I am no longer original. Ahh sod it, I'm going streaking. Nobody else can have thought of that....
The cries of distress as another geek suddenly realises that his talented mind has been brainwashed by the cult of Slashdot . . . :)
forget walls. by ross.w · 2004-06-19 23:36 · Score: 5, Funny

I want to put this stuff on my car.

No more radar speed traps!

--
If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
Yes, but... by NarrMaster · 2004-06-19 23:40 · Score: 1, Funny

It is your house. No matter how secure it is, they still know where you live!

--
That's right. All your base.
Is this a kind of copper wire net/mesh? by NoSuchGuy · 2004-06-20 00:03 · Score: 2, Funny

that's the same as a Faraday cage. No signal in means no signal out!

Does that mean I can't patent my own copper wire net?

Can you patent the laws of physics?

If yes, I patent the gravity and demand fees for using my patent....

--
Grundgesetz * 23. Mai 1949 - 30. November 2007 - http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
a much better use... by rapiddescent · 2004-06-20 00:16 · Score: 2, Funny

would be to cover my car with this material to prevent getting snapped by one of the 20,000 GATSO speed cameras in the UK... rd
Alright...! by igrp · 2004-06-20 00:25 · Score: 4, Funny

BAE, the British defense contractor, has announced that the same material used to foil radar by stealth bombers can be used to selectively block certain frequencies and prevent wireless networking signals from entering or exiting a building.
So... what they're saying is that all I need now is a whole bunch of their wallpaper and a cessna and I could have my very own stealth plane?
Cool... Be the first kid on your block to own your own flower wall paper stealth plane.
Re:I'm really busy by Anonymous Coward · 2004-06-20 00:32 · Score: 2, Funny

Phones have a vibrate mode for more than sexual pleasure. people should use it!!
Radar detection by hashwolf · 2004-06-20 00:37 · Score: 4, Funny

...the British defense contractor, has announced that the same material used to foil radar by stealth bombers can be used to selectively block certain frequencies and prevent wireless networking signals from entering or exiting a building.

In a related article:
Wallpaper coated cessna evades radar detection.

--
- "They misunderestimated me."
lead walls? by ylikone · 2004-06-20 00:46 · Score: 4, Funny

After all the effort everyone has gone through to get rid of lead-based paint on the walls?

--
Meh.
Re:Great for paranoid nuts, useless for real peopl by kfg · 2004-06-20 00:47 · Score: 2, Funny

Obviously you can still pipe stuff through wires.

Which, for home applications, may very well lead to that "TV antenna" thingy that's strapped to your chimney.

KFG
And I wonder... by SharpFang · 2004-06-20 00:49 · Score: 2, Funny

who first starts selling paper hats made of that wallpaper.
Definitely better than tinfoil.
I guess ThinkGeek would find many customers on slashdot...

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45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Re:I'm really busy by AndroidCat · 2004-06-20 00:57 · Score: 2, Funny

If you can't wait for the cinemas to install this technology, swift application of a roll of duct-tape (to the heads of cell phone users) will also work.

--
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
RF-Blocking Wallpaper by Alexis+de+Torquemada · 2004-06-20 01:23 · Score: 5, Funny

Sounds good, where can I download it?

--
I love C++
National Security by Moblaster · 2004-06-20 01:49 · Score: 5, Funny

I keep telling my mom that my room is classified and off-limits. Now with my Stealth-fighter wallpaper, I'll be able to call the Feds any time she breaches the perimeter.
Relaxation by beforewisdom · 2004-06-20 02:18 · Score: 4, Funny

Now the truly paranoid can come home from work and relax by taking their foil hats off - unless - the material used to make the wall paper is fault.

Heh, this whole story is probably fictitious. A plot from the government to get citizens who are on to them to let down their good.

Phew, almost got suckered in.
Re:Ok, it stops it going through the walls by Ira+Sponsible · 2004-06-20 02:47 · Score: 2, Funny

I know this is slashdot, but this article has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with Windows. Can we please have a thread once in a while that doesn't bash Windows?

--
1.Netcraft confirms:In Soviet Russia all your base welcomes a beowolf cluster of CowboyNeal overlords. 2.? 3.Profit!!1!
Re:I'm really busy by Anonymous Coward · 2004-06-20 03:42 · Score: 1, Funny

"...in movie cinemas so that the wankers sitting behind me..."

Wrong sort of cinema...