Obligatory JODI reference: https://youtu.be/CPpUQQ7vMBk?si=bXsTWys4z-mG0MgD

And Raven Kwok: https://ravenkwok.com/big-brothers-are-watching-you/

You might like https://www.instagram.com/perfectl00p/

Many public buildings and elevators in Hong Kong installed wireless controls, simply wave your hand in front of a little hole (ultrasonic sensor?) next to the floor button you want to go to. Curious to find out in which mall they installed this in!

This. Fairphone is not much different from any other company or actual hardware. Electronics are modular already…

How I got into it was tiredness of centralised platforms that dictate how we use those platforms. Often archival, search functions are non-trivial in things like Whatsapp, Discord etc. We made our own mesh application based on wifi and batman but ofc we couldnt convince our friends and family to switch over.

> we couldnt convince our friends and family to switch over.

What was the deal breaker for them?

The ubiquity (network effect) and ‘convenience’ of other apps. This was more than a decade ago and our devices were an extra thing you needed to carry (travel router).

If/when you feel like trying again, Tailscale has made mesh routing available at a consumerish level.

The electro-mechanical design of a lucky cat is actually pretty amazing, I suggest taking one apart!

These stopped working since 2G, since it uses radically less power. Altho I did recall seeing some fancy phone cases with blinkies on 3G… never could replicate it sadly. I guess with a lot of joule thief/stepup circuits it might work…

Depends if you are standing infront or behind the wall ;)

I made hundreds of these. Never worked

Hundreds? Really? I can see making two or three before giving up, but to build hundreds..

I never give up. Tried soo many different diodes, but the ‘good’ ones seem very susceptible to clones/fakes since they arent manufactured anymore. There is a company that makes dedicated IC’s that can harvest the emf very efficiently, bit expensive though… and a black box..

Especially if they never worked.

This article[0] includes a link to a online checker: https://synthient.com/check

Have not tested it myself ymmv.

[0] https://synthient.com/blog/a-broken-system-fueling-botnets

It only references a database of publicly scanned IPs, it won't help you if the device is behind a nat router.

This can applied to a lot of sectors, look at the arts and culture for example