[GRLUG] kill switches

[Michael Mol]

On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 12:44 PM, Tim Schmidt <timschmidt at gmail.com> wrote:

[snip]

> They're computers.
>
> And magically, all the same rules apply.  :)

And just as we're not allowed to have completely open-source WiFi
drivers because a savvy end-user may be tempted to pump up their
transmit power and drown out low-power devices in the neighborhood,
the cell companies don't want indie developers to be able to misbehave
on their network.  Even big-name developers can screw it up; Apple's
phones asked for too much power from the cell tower, which led to a
higher incidence of dropped non-Apple calls on towers with too many
iPhones.

Still, while I don't have a problem with binary blob WiFi drivers, I
think a kill switch is excessive.  If proper protocol behavior is that
important, break it out into a separate, untouchable module.


-- 
:wq