Lol.
Thinkin of some HV-generator if you miss to type in the right password xD

I was working on a similar concept; off-line data “swap spots” using wifi, but this is much more elegant (in a way). I love it.

Interesting idea…

I’m sure since it’s open to the public, a warrant to plug in and see what’s on there isn’t going to be required, then staking out the locations doesn’t require anything either.

Not sure how large the USB drive is, but that limits the effective number of files you can share if they aren’t just music/pics (think movies, games, software)… and for the larger files, how long are you going to have to stand in a dark alley in NYC to download it… lol

One other thought… does he have permission from the building owners to install these and do a crappy concrete patch job? lolu

I wouldn’t really want to put my laptop against a brick wall. Extension cord required!

Another idea – same concept as the USB, but using a 3.5mm audio jack instead. Have special software that decodes audio signal into digital data. Use a M-M 3.5mm cable, connect it to a 3.5mm jack in a brick wall, and share files. Would probably be a lot slower, but safer.

yea and rip usb port out of motherboard while doing it + it’s a piece of metal sticking from a wall, should have used female port.

Glory-hole USB

In my language, “Aram” is spelled “Hero”.

“Get your data fix here”

Only problem would be people abusing it.

Gotta be located higher than 5 feet. I don’t want to touch some urine-encrusted USB port.

People will just hammer this off the wall and it’s limited to 1 person at time. It’s not so wel suited for illegal filesharing so it’l probably not get very big.

cool idea though. Really like how it looks.

Locations:

87 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn, NY (Makerbot)

Empire Fulton Ferry Park, Brooklyn, NY (Dumbo)

235 Bowery, NY (New Museum)

Union Square, NY (Subway Station 14th St)

West 21st Street, NY (Eyebeam)

were

At a local arcade there is a NFL Blitz machine that has an N64 memory card slot.

After the second day the machine was there, One full inch of chewed gum was packed into the slot.

If someone takes issue with this, they are either just going to get pliers and twist the usb connector off…

The risks would be too severe for me to use such an installation, especially once the local pedophiles get wind of the setup. Also, would the person who placed these drives be liable for enabling the distribution of such images?
Nice idea but the real world is just too screwed up for it to work.

Most curious. I love it! I wonder what kind of things people would put on it. Secret documents or porn?

News flash, year 2013: There have been more cases of sniped pirates downloading movies from RIAA honeypot flash drives in the streets. Despite all the dangers, they just continue to download. Since the complete shutdown of the bittorrent these fileflash networks have become extremely popular despite all the dangers.

mmmmm a nieuw idee for terrorist to swap info
alqada is intresting in this idee
plan a atack and the fbi don,t have no idee

These will be broken within days, and if not the rusted within weeks.

I’ll be in New York on Dec 11, I’ll definitely have to check those adresses out.

1st thing I thought when seeing this is what about 4chan types who are going to flood it with child porn?

neat idea and cool implementation.

Love the concept!

I like the idea of a solar powered pogoplug / 4 or 5 64 gig flash drives, and wifi. I would limit the range to 10 yards or so to keep the cloak and dagger, and then geocache the heck out of it… It really does bring so many awesome technologies together to screw the man…

Stick it all on top of an awning or ledge so it is out of sight but able to broadcast to the street…

also would be a great foot traffic boost if you had a business in an urban center / mall and you could get the word out correctly.

As for this idea: 1) it should be recessed for weather 2) a mini usb female in a brick wall is harder to spot / harder to break 3) as is, you can just use a USB extension so you aren’t scraping your laptop against a brick wall. 4) While this is the simplest implementation of the idea, a little more thought and effort will make this idea a massive hit.

my .02

I think its only a matter of time before someone breaks all of them or they are infected with viruses. I have to agree it is a very cool project though.

I like the female usb port idea. Another cool place for them would be at coffee shops and such. like each table has built in 8g drives in them for anonymous sharing

Uhm.. Wat ferdi?

well i dont know if the building owners are ok with this lol

you could always setup high range wireless network for this as well. Without internet connection of course. it would be slower tho

Aluminum doesn’t rust, stupid.

I think the idea has a lot of potential along the geocache route. Not so much for any sort of real file sharing…I wouldn’t want to use this as a system for the transfer of pirated media.

But think about it as a interesting way for people to self-publish their work. Local digital artists, photographers, musicians putting in pictures and mp3′s.

@tecywiz121
my fault, didn’t notice the mod queue first time.

you are right that this sheme would have to be electricaly decoupled to be any realworld use.
(heck, even my doorbell/mic/cam combo is on a sep circuit and opti-c to the comp…)

… leech power from the “client” while it is connected to charge a big cap, no need for mains. (too bad i dont have disposable device to test with, the multim agrees that at usb2 speeds and “usual” filesize this should work)

i’m not reading through 60+ comments, but as far as i have read: you don’t need pliers to destroy a usb connector. they are the reason for the failure of all my previous flash drives. i would have the usb flash drive packed away in the wall, possibly tied inside a sandwich bag or any other protection, with a usb extension cord coming out( dollar tree has those if you wanna go cheap,because they are going to get f’d up,but will save your usb device from the abuse) tie it around some re-bar or something, or at least knot it once before you mortar it in, so as to save your usb drive from connector stress when somebody gives it a good yank(it is a glory-hole, after all)
mortar is fine as long as it’s not taking much abuse, but you might want to go with some more easily re-accessible setup, like a metal lockbox so you could swap out damaged extension cables from time to time.

Time to invent a “safe receiver” USB host device, eh?

-> Hardcore overvoltage protection
-> Verifies “mass storage” client type
-> Attempts to blind-copy data to internal storage
-> Feedback about size and entropy of target
-> Loot & go

The people who are worried about a 5 year old poking their eye out should look at a thumb drive again. I am more worried about the kid breaking his nose attempting to stick it in his eye, and for that matter, worried about the “parent” who isn’t smart enough to watch their kid.

i like the idea, but weather and sabotage could be a problem. maybe a recessed plug would be better, then people could bring a usb extension cable for their laptop. a very-short range wifi router with a terabyte external drive attached would be cool too, you could put it in a back closet of some building and then it goes about 5-10 feet through the wall outside. then people with PDAs and phones could connect too.

@jeditalian and others

Installing all of this in a metal wallbox and such seems to kind of defeat the purpose. I think that there’s a certain risk involved and that’s what makes it a really cool system.

Maybe a hand-held USB cloner needs to be made?

I don’t understand the talk about a USB extension + Female Port? The same principle can be applied no matter the end of the USB connector…

No worries of scratching any device.

This system looks like how P2P file sharing usually works out(Online), in shady places.

=D

its kinda cool, but vandalism will probably ruin it for everyone.

Personally wireless nas drives would be cooler. Perhaps Eye-fi + battery + solar panel?

It’s a shame that Aram is so sheltered from the outside world that he doesn’t realise how abused these will get. A great idea, don’t get me wrong, but in another universe where our streets aren’t filled with vandals and the such. Not to mention the damage these could cause others (up to and including physical harm and damage to their laptop). It amazes me that the guy’s two years older than me and is still this naive. Of course, now everyone knows who is responsible for this project, the victims will know who to sue.

What a strange idea that is … It’s probably safe from the government and isps tracking what you’re doing but the risk of infection is awful!

@ zeropointmodule
i like that idea. attach a PDA or laptop permanently to the NAS to keep setting random keys

Data could be stored on another USB drive which is dedicated for this P2P-purpose.

Its the digital equivalent of a glory hole.

Its a great way to spread malware to closed networks.

I have seen usb transfer devices to move data from one usb device to another without a need for a computer. So using one of those would remove the need for a full laptop. Then data could be easily taken back, loaded onto a linux based system running a live cd and checked for viruses. I think either bluetooth or wifi would be a bit better for this. Definitely has potential, sadly around here the first thing anyone would do is either break or steal them.

Great idea. Horrible execution.

For really obvious reasons, you would need:

1- …to replace port with female USB
2- …not to have the thing stick out of the wall
3- …to fill the port with dielectric grease
4- …to make a patch cord to the computer
5- …half a brain to make a durable execution.

The answer is RF. Use RFID type links to transfer the data. The person doing the downloading uploading provides the power and you would have to be close to the device in the wall for RF to work.

Bitrates would be slow, but it solves all the issues.

Should have inserted the device upside down, to avoid moisture on USB pins.

@Alchemyguy

This is similar to security through obscurity which itself is an absurdity.

1. This made the news. Everyone knows about them.
2. A lot of people in general are arseholes. There are plenty of hackers amongst us who would gladly go out there and screw with this just for self entertainment.
3. It’s not the FBI I’m worried about. It’s the average hacker who’s clever enough to figure out the location of these secrets, but too cocky to use anti-virus software (they do exist). It is they who will be more likely to infect these drop points rather than a targeted attack.

Oh, these will all be destroyed by vandals in a matter of days. Move along, nothing to see here.