Gizmodo: blocking

Comcast Blocks BitTorrent Traffic 24 Hours a Day

Jason Chen — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:20:00 EDT

One of Comcast's main defenses of their BitTorrent blocking is to make sure the network isn't congested for other users during peak hours. This study done by the Max Planck Institute in Germany calls BS on that excuse by pointing out the fact that Comcast blocks torrents 24 hours a day, not just during peak hours. Not only that, they block every single day of the week as well, making sure that your uploads are minimal at best, killing your ratios on torrent sites. It's definitely not surgical blocking as they told us before.

Speaking of Comcast, my Comcast internet is down for the second time in as many days. This has nothing to do with BitTorrent blockage, but I just felt like I had to share. [MPI-SWS via Crunchgear]

Camera Blocking Technology in the Works

Travis Hudson — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 16:37:48 EDT

Well damnit. I guess my voyeurism business may be dead in the water. It seems GIT—like MIT, but less Massachusetts and more Georgia—is developing a technology that will render image capturing devices useless in specific ranges. The system works by using off-the-shelf equipment to detect the image producing sensors used in digital cameras and then sends a small beam of white light at the sensor whiting out the entire image. One of the targeted uses is in movie theatres to prevent piracy. This project is far from complete though, because the algorithm for detecting the sensor is not complex enough to only detect camera sensors and not bright earrings and such. So my voyeurism business and piracy business may be in trouble? Damn you, GIT! – Travis Hudson

New System Blocks Digital Photography [Digital Photography Blog]

NaturalNano Develops Cellphone-Blocking Paint

Charlie White — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 12:18:24 EST

NaturalNano has used nanotechnology to develop a type of paint that stops cellphone signals. It's done by blending particles of copper that are inserted into nanotubes, and then mixing and suspending these tiny particles into a can of paint.

NaturalNano's idea is to completely block cellphone signals with this paint, and then provide a radio filtering device that will allow wireless signals to pass through only when they re appropriate. Using this system, a theater owner could allow cellphone signals before the show or during an intermission, but completely block them during the movie. At the same time, that theater owner could still allow emergency radio communications to get through. While jamming of cellphone signals has been ruled illegal by the FCC, it's not a crime to passively prevent signals from passing through, which is exactly what NaturalNano's paint does.

Depending on your point of view, the ability to shut down all wireless communications could either be a nightmare or a dream come true, but here's hoping every theater and concert hall in the world is soon painted with this stuff.

Slapping on a coat of silence [Newsday]