4 ms·

Why can’t I get the same thing with an external USB drive? Bear with me a moment - what does LibraryBox do that’s better than flat file storage? Multiple conne

Why can’t I get the same thing with an external USB drive? Bear with me a moment - what does LibraryBox do that’s better than flat file storage? Multiple connections? (Does it do caching as a way of ingesting new content for offline viewing?)

falcolas 3y ago
IIRC, it also offered an anonymous forum. Plus, it can be easily "hidden" and remain available without its owner babysitting the hardware.
chefandy 3y ago
Security is a big one. No way I'm plugging into some random public USB outlet. Aside from that, I believe they were indeed intended to serve multiple people at once... encampments, communities, short term installations, etc.
- wolverine876 3y ago
  > No way I'm plugging into some random public USB outlet. How is LibraryBox better? You would be connecting to a random wifi SSID? > Aside from that, I believe they were indeed intended to serve multiple people at once... encampments, communities, short term installations, etc. Almost any computing device on a network can share files this way, with a bit of configuration.
  - toyg 3y ago
    Afaik, a random WiFi wouldn't be able to exploit local-execution bugs - it would have to use remote exploits, which are harder to pull off, or limit itself to network eavesdropping. USB drives, on the other hand, can trigger execution with local privileges - as well as exploiting bugs in hardware-handling system code, of which there are always plenty.
  - chefandy 3y ago
    Modern network interfaces are safer even in a default config without a local firewall enabled. Not even windows has SMB or the like enabled by default anymore. Theres a lot different sorts of USB devices that thing could pretend to be.
  - chefandy 3y ago
    Also: > Almost any computing device on a network can share files this way, with a bit of configuration. LibraryBox is designed to be a deployable appliance that works where no network exists that's configurable by non-technical people. Nobody even intimated it was a novel technical approach to physically transferring data. You could pick any method of transferring data and say, "well why didn't they just use [method]?" I suspect you're just hunting for opportunities to make critical comments.
    - wolverine876 3y ago
      I was addressing the parent's comments more than LibraryBox generally. > LibraryBox is designed to be a deployable appliance that works where no network exists that's configurable by non-technical people. Yes, that is valuable.
rolobio 3y ago
My project is similar to this and allows indexing of an external drive. Check it out https://github.com/lrnselfreliance/wrolpi https://github.com/lrnselfreliance/wrolpi

falcolas 3y ago

IIRC, it also offered an anonymous forum. Plus, it can be easily "hidden" and remain available without its owner babysitting the hardware.

chefandy 3y ago

Security is a big one. No way I'm plugging into some random public USB outlet. Aside from that, I believe they were indeed intended to serve multiple people at once... encampments, communities, short term installations, etc.

wolverine876 3y ago
> No way I'm plugging into some random public USB outlet. How is LibraryBox better? You would be connecting to a random wifi SSID? > Aside from that, I believe they were indeed intended to serve multiple people at once... encampments, communities, short term installations, etc. Almost any computing device on a network can share files this way, with a bit of configuration.
- toyg 3y ago
  Afaik, a random WiFi wouldn't be able to exploit local-execution bugs - it would have to use remote exploits, which are harder to pull off, or limit itself to network eavesdropping. USB drives, on the other hand, can trigger execution with local privileges - as well as exploiting bugs in hardware-handling system code, of which there are always plenty.
- chefandy 3y ago
  Modern network interfaces are safer even in a default config without a local firewall enabled. Not even windows has SMB or the like enabled by default anymore. Theres a lot different sorts of USB devices that thing could pretend to be.
- chefandy 3y ago
  Also: > Almost any computing device on a network can share files this way, with a bit of configuration. LibraryBox is designed to be a deployable appliance that works where no network exists that's configurable by non-technical people. Nobody even intimated it was a novel technical approach to physically transferring data. You could pick any method of transferring data and say, "well why didn't they just use [method]?" I suspect you're just hunting for opportunities to make critical comments.
  - wolverine876 3y ago
    I was addressing the parent's comments more than LibraryBox generally. > LibraryBox is designed to be a deployable appliance that works where no network exists that's configurable by non-technical people. Yes, that is valuable.

rolobio 3y ago

My project is similar to this and allows indexing of an external drive. Check it out https://github.com/lrnselfreliance/wrolpi https://github.com/lrnselfreliance/wrolpi