Slashdot Mirror
Universal Software Radio Peripheral From GnuRadio
The Universal Software Radio Peripheral for GNURadio has now gone into production and is
available for purchase for $450. It used to be insanely expensive to acquire this
technical equipment. Now the price has dropped by two orders of magnitude, to something about as expensive as a high-end graphics card. How long will it be till it's labeled a terrorist tool and banned?
It just happened. At least for those who know enough to use Google, but don't have enough common sense to handle context issues. Which sounds remarkably like those congressfolk who go around labeling things terrorist tools. Except for the knowing how to use Google bit.
Neither of the links provided are much help.
Real programmers use "copy con program.exe"
Yep, I can see all the slashdot readers going out and getting this... with all of the other VME stuff we have.
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
How long will it be till it's labeled a terrorist tool and banned?
When HAM radio is?
Seriously, what kind of commentary is this, especially with the FCC giving unprecedented amounts of frequency bandwidth back to the public?
Couldn't the article have done just as well without the last sentence?
Two orders of magnitude? Did it really cost $45,000? And what's with the terrorist comment?
How long will it be before people see it as a possible terrorist tool ?
I dono but I sure as hell would have never thought iti until YOU brought it up.
Somtimes things are best left unsaid , especially in a world of paranoid radicals that will look for ANY reason to take your freedoms away,
To that end you hve just been very helpfull in giving them ammuntion, you should congratulate yourself.
How long will it be till it's labeled a terrorist tool and banned?
It's not a transmitter as far as I understand.
The nice thing about GnuRadio is that you can build things like an ATSC digital television receiver, all in software. The problem is that, thanks to the heavy weight of the MPAA and other media lobbies, the FCC gave us the broadcast flag, meaning that a programmer can set a bit that says "do not record" such-and-such.
... at your own peril. It makes specific uses of GnuRadio illegal, and even if you wrote your GnuRadio software to pay attention to the flag, a simple programming error would make your product illegal.
But to make the broadcast flag effective, you also have to mandate that equipment pay attention to it, and be robust against user modification. You've got to make it otherwise illegal to make an ATSC receiver that doesn't obey it. And sure enough, that's what the FCC has done; July 2005, any equipment that doesn't obey the flag is illegal to sell, trade, create, etc.
And with GnuRadio, you write an ATSC receiver that does or doesn't pay attention to it
Heck, it might even be said that GnuRadio itself will be illegal this year, since it fails the robustness rules.
Now, is this copyright infringement? Refusing to record a pristine ATSC transport stream or recording it for personal use isn't necessarily a distinction the MPAA et al. are likely to make. But it does facilitate the distribution of perfect copies of Desperate Housewives and other quality programming (ahem), and the MPAA have used the copyright infringement/terrorism analogy before.
Look up dual-use technology and try again.
Care to tell me what in the world that has to do with anything? A Google search on "dual-use technology" returns nothing particularly enlightening. The term usually comes up in connection with technology exports.
A receiver that covers 870-890 MHz has legitimate uses beyond monitoring AMPS cell-phone conversations, but that didn't stop the cellular lobby from buying the ECPA. What, in your obviously-informed opinion, is going to stop a similar consortium of HDTV broadcasters from buying legislation to outlaw unprotected high-bandwidth conversion hardware?
Don't you guys get tired of being paranoid every second of every day, about everything?
So sayeth the Anonymous Coward....
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
could someone tell me what this device is, what it does, and why it should be interesting to us?
The web site certainly wasn't much help, and the jargon-laden responses I've seen so far aren't much help either.
Many thanks.
D
With 4 x 64MHz AtoD converters, this board could be easily turned into a descent digital oscilloscope. Right now such equipment is so very costly, but the right IO module might just make this a possibility for low frequency work.
Someone asked why different packs are needed for different frequency ranges.
It has to do with tunability of the analog parts of the radio. Control of the transceiver, and modulation and demodulation, can be digital. But at the RF level, radio is, and will remain, eternally analog. It would be very difficult to design a receiver or transmitter that could be tuned from (as hams say) DC to daylight.
I sometimes get the impression from those who grew up in the digital age that analog phenomena are somehow made obsolete by digital technology. Nothing could be further from the truth. We live in an analog universe. Anything that is described using equations rather than code is obviously analog.
There is nothing obsolete or old-fashioned about analog technology. It will always be with us, just because of the way the universe works.
Now what legitimate reason do you have for listening to cell phone converstaions (ignoring the encryption and the "right to privacy" issue for a moment).
Let's see. As a licensed Amateur Radio operator, I'm not only permitted but required to ensure that my transmitted RF emissions are below certain thresholds outside the band I'm operating on. Now, I have no way to check my 902 MHz rig for spurious emissions in the adjacent AMPS band.
I can't even buy a used pre-ECPA receiver on eBay at this point. I guess if I ever accidentally interfere with the cellular folks, they can buy me a new HP 8565EC spectrum analyzer, and I'll track down the problem for them. That'll work.
Oh, and since I'm, like, this uber-paranoid guy, I'm constantly worried about bugs. I have a legitimate need to check for hidden transmitters in that portion of the spectrum, but now I can't, and they're HIDDEN UNDER THE FLOORBOARDS AND IRRADIATING ME FROM THE WALLS... (Sorry about that, ahem.)
Seriously, the ECPA's only exemption is for government agencies and (presumably) licensed government contractors. De jur, no other private citizen or company has a legitimate "need" for this technology. It was passed so the cellular companies could reassure their customers that nobody (who didn't own a TV set capable of tuning all the way up to UHF channel 83) could listen to them. Now that PCS, GSM, and other encrypted wireless technology has obviated the need for the ECPA, why hasn't it been repealed?
DeCSS has only one purpose.
Yep, you're right. To violate a law that did not exist before it was written and paid for by the same people I'm talking about here. "Legitimate uses" such as allowing people with Linux PCs to watch DVDs they legitimately purchased didn't enter into the equation, did they?
Your faith in the legislative and judicial branches is inspirational, I'll give you that much.
Also the author did win the DeCSS case.
Only because he didn't live in the "land of the free" (sic). The person who posted a simple href link to the code wasn't so lucky. See the link I provided.
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.