Dead Drops Offline P2P File Sharing?

aldousburbank · January 22, 2014, 11:40:02 AM

I found one of these in Sacramento. I had no clue what it was. My buddy did the investigating and found this. http://deaddrops.com/
What the hell does it mean? Is it useful? How can it help us bring peace and harmony to the world or at least, have some fun?

wr250 · January 22, 2014, 12:36:07 PM

Quote from: aldousburbank on January 22, 2014, 11:40:02 AM
I found one of these in Sacramento. I had no clue what it was. My buddy did the investigating and found this. http://deaddrops.com/
What the hell does it mean? Is it useful? How can it help us bring peace and harmony to the world or at least, have some fun?

its a means of file sharing. take what you want, leave something in return.

ziznak · January 22, 2014, 03:37:55 PM

Was looking at some of the deaddrops near me... one of them is called m1xtape and it's like an oldschool mixtape with various artists on it. there's an internet cafe there so I'm guessing the drop hosts local artists and is somehow connected to the buisness. Really cool idea. There's actually quite a few of them here in Philly although they aren't in the nicest neighborhoods.

Agent : Orange · January 22, 2014, 10:05:41 PM

This seems like it would be a virus and malware breeding ground to me. Has anyone on here successfully pulled down any files from one of these?

wr250 · January 23, 2014, 06:18:18 AM

Quote from: Agent : Orange on January 22, 2014, 10:05:41 PM
This seems like it would be a virus and malware breeding ground to me. Has anyone on here successfully pulled down any files from one of these?

think about it a minute. how many people actually access these on a yearly basis? 2-300? maybe? and via the internet how many can be (potentially) accessed via warez? 1000's per day? or more? . matter of logistics. as always its up to you to verify a file is not a virus,trojan, or other malware.

Agent : Orange · January 23, 2014, 08:24:06 AM

Quote from: wr250 on January 23, 2014, 06:18:18 AM
think about it a minute. how many people actually access these on a yearly basis? 2-300? maybe? and via the internet how many can be (potentially) accessed via warez? 1000's per day? or more? . matter of logistics. as always its up to you to verify a file is not a virus,trojan, or other malware.

I'd think even 200 is pretty generous, depending on the location of course. It would be cool to find one and it's a neat idea but I don't think I'd want to actually connect one of my machines to one of them. I'm fairly conservative with torrents as well.

Just saying.

ziznak · January 24, 2014, 04:17:25 PM

Most anti-virus proggys have a live scan that will tell you something is up the second the pewder reads the files. The one location I looked at was outside that internet cafe and im sure is filled with the local artists that perform there. As far as the others i don't know. Why would I go plug my laptop up to a wall if i didnt know what files were there? I'm really not that curious... but if there was something tantalizing enough I might go check it out. This would be, of course, after I've ruled out finding the files online which I normally can do.

cweb · January 25, 2014, 12:24:44 PM

this seems like more of an art installation/ exhibition project than a legit next step in file-sharing.

if anyone remember what Nine Inch Nails did by leaking tracks from Year Zero on flash drives in random clubs, that's kinda similar to what's happening here-- just that content flows both ways and access points are more concrete (seewhatididthere).

still pretty cool!

aldousburbank · January 25, 2014, 01:00:03 PM

I think Aldous should drop dead around the country as he's on the "if you can't make them laugh freak them out" train tour, see who can find and post them first. I'll PM the dude who plays the dude to see what he thinks, but he usually doesn't.

slippingaway · February 12, 2014, 11:42:31 PM

why not take it a step further? You can buy a cheap b/g/n router with a usb for NAS, and then you could drop a flash drive on it with no internet, just a welcome screen that takes them to the file interface of the router. Set the SSID to DeadDrop and leave it open.

Of course, this requires power. And it has a lot higher chances of getting noticed unless hidden in a drop ceiling or locked room. flash drives are a dime a dozen, but this frees someone up to donate a spare 500GB drive that they might have outgrown...