Ever since 2014, I’ve been using a custom ROM on my Android based devices as I value my privacy and and because I only consider myself owning a device if I have root rights on the OS. Back then, I used CyanogenMod, which, after a bit of a crisis with the commercial company behind it, morphed into LineageOS. And now it seems LineageOS in turn is in some sort of crisis as they have purged a significant part of their supported devices from their rooster, including very recent device models.
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The State of Carrier Aggregation in Paris
Back in 2016 I noted on this site that one German network operator had by that time deployed 50 MHz worth of LTE in the center of Cologne where I live. I was impressed! Others have also not been idle since then and when I was in Paris recently, I noticed that Orange also has an impressive array of channels on air which can be used simultaneously by devices.
Apollo 11 Moon Landing in Real-Time and Flightplan
We are getting closer to Apollo 11s launch 50 years ago and my level of excitement is rising. In case you have missed it, I’ve had a post last month about my favorite books on the topic and since then I’ve discovered two additional incredible sources, so here’s a follow-up post on this.
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Certificate Pinning Is Back In Firefox!
tl;dr: Over the past weeks, I’ve put together a Firefox add-on for SSL certificate pinning so I would notice if ever a man-in-the-middle would use forged certificates to spy on me when I interact with my home servers, banking websites, and so on. I feel a lot safer now again! You can find it here and the source code here.
Once upon a time…
Map of Vodafone’s 5G Deployment in London
It’s early days in 5G deployment and while Vodafone, as far as I know, has not yet launched their 5G network in the UK they have already published a coverage map so one can get an impression of where 5G will be available once they open up their network.
100 Mbit/s at 300 km/h
A bit of different personal speed record today: When I was recently on a high speed train between Cologne and Paris, I was surprised when a speed test gave me well over 100 Mbit/s in the downlink direction when the train raced through the French countryside at almost 300 km/h.
Close to an 8-Bit Overflow On This Blog
Time flies and I am always astounded that I’ve been writing this blog since 2005. Over the years, quite a number of posts have accumulated. As my current WordPress profile bundles them in pages of 10 posts, I’m now on page 255 and thus close to an 8-bit overflow. If you don’t get it, you are probably too young and never lived through the 8-bit home computer era ^^
5G: How To Control Beamforming
In the previous two posts on 5G NR massive MIMO, a.k.a. beam forming, I’ve gone into the basic principles of what it can be used for in practice and how antennas for beam forming will look like. Great background information from Keysight and Ericsson respectively. The next question I then had was how mobile device and the network communicate with each other to adapt downlink transmission in mobility situations.
Interesting Wireless Sites On The Web
It’s been a while since I had a list of recommendations of other interesting wireless related sites on the net. This time around my picks are not standard websites or even blogs but Twitter and Youtube accounts. This means that their focus is on images and videos, perfect to get an idea of how equipment looks like and how it is used in practice!
An Afternoon In The Computer Museum in Helmond
A bit off the beaten path, I’ve been to Helmond this week, a city in the Netherlands not far from Eindhoven for a very particular purpose: To visit the Home Computer museum there that opened last year. Run by volunteers, I can’t quite remember anymore how I stumbled across them on the web, perhaps it was their short videos about how they found some space at the border of the city center and how it was converted for putting their collection on display. Based to the size and significance of Helmond I was expecting a small museum with a few exhibits which is why I was quite surprised when I saw its real dimensions.
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