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"Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it."
- Robert Heinlein
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| Burner Modem | ||
| A connection device that can be thrown away if necessary. |
We've all heard of burner phones, intended to be cheap enough to throw away after only one anonymous use. I think there is such a thing as a burner modem, but this is the first use of it in sf that I've read.
| By their nature, unconnected computers don't need updating to comply with new laws. In turn, they don't hold software certificates for social apps, never mind traffic records. If you can link them to an external connection, you have a way to get online without checks. For Freya, this is an essential tool for information gathering - and the reason she carries a tiny burner modem, which can siphon nearby WiFi. The results can be unreliable, the connection unstable, but most of the time she can get a crude browser to run, and most of the time it does the trick.
This particular machine is definitely hit and miss. She hard resets the tower four times before it works... |
| Technovelgy from The Breach,
by M.T. Hill. Published by Titan Books in 2020 Additional resources -
|
Compare to this early expression of an idea from John Varley's 1984 story Press Enter - a telephony device that generates a new phone number every time it is used.
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'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
'I ... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching for a habitable planet.'
'...haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?'
'... oblongs were all over the floor and surfaces.'
