KPLUG Monthly Meeting
Details
Please, join us for another exciting talk on Open Mobile Phones by our own Mychaela Falconia.
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ABSTRACT: The cellphones in our pockets and purses are the last stronghold of proprietary software in our lives. Many of us run GNU/Linux or other free operating systems and only free applications on our PCs, laptops, servers and other computers and do not use a single proprietary program on any of our general purpose computers, but the moment we need to make a phone call, we have to use a device that is utterly closed and proprietary throughout.
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SPEAKER BIO: Although Mychaela has only been a she for less than a year, she has been doing deep system level programming for much, much longer. Having started with assembly language programming on a Soviet PDP-11 clone at age 8, Mychaela went through years of DOS/PC hacking, then led a project to bring 1980s BSD UNIX for the VAX back from Navazzimin, and has been working in the general field of embedded systems for the past 15 years or so.
Mychaela also designed and built her own SDSL modem which she uses to connect her personal email server to the Internet.
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FROM THE SPEAKER: "I will give an update on my work which aims to free our pockets and purses from closed proprietary devices by building a very basic cellphone that can connect to local T-Mobile 2G cells here in SoCal (and other GSM/2G services worldwide) using a legitimate, honestly paid-for SIM card (no network hacking or theft of service!) without using any proprietary software, instead using GSM firmware which you, the user, can recompile from full source yourself with gcc, firmware that implements all functions of interfacing with the SIM, scanning for and registering with GSM networks, making and receiving phone calls, and sending and receiving SMS.
This work is not yet complete, i.e., there is no libre phone currently in existence that can practically replace the proprietary ones, but the progress toward the goal has been quite steady."
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If you are interested in the current status, come to find out! There will be a live demo of the currently working partial functionality.
Room n. is 309.
KPLUG Monthly Meeting