Hello, and can you help with my novel?

[lincsat]

Sky are in the process of disabling several million cards as they issue new ones. The broadcasters can disable cards and possibly boxes at will.

Some Freeview boxes have already been disabled as a result of a system change, none of the current Freeview boxes will work with HD as that is going to use a new transmission standard. There is going to be a channel switch around at the end of September meaning that most Freeview boxes will need re-tuning, users may think that the boxes have stopped working if they don't re-tune.

A 3rd party attack on boxes would be considered an act of terrorism, even if the Perp considered it a hack.

A Novel is usually fiction, so you could actually write anything you like - how abount an Atomic blast in space near the Sky satellite causing an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) that gets zapped down to every Sky box killing them all

[TheCoder]

Originally Posted by lincsat

... how abount an Atomic blast in space near the Sky satellite causing an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) that gets zapped down to every Sky box killing them all

A standard atmospheric EMP pulse to disable receiving equipment would be far cheaper to orchestrate than targetting satellites. It would be even cheaper just to take the uplinks out conventionally.

A far more interesting approach (in terms of novel material) would be to target the program providers in an economic fashion. Bankrupting Sky would silence them pretty permanently !

[kerrywez]

Originally Posted by TheCoder

A standard atmospheric EMP pulse to disable receiving equipment would be far cheaper to orchestrate than targetting satellites. It would be even cheaper just to take the uplinks out conventionally.

A far more interesting approach (in terms of novel material) would be to target the program providers in an economic fashion. Bankrupting Sky would silence them pretty permanently !

Pity it would only be fiction, that would be a deam come true for a lot of us.

Regards Wez

[caljacobs]

Hey guys, those are some good ideas, so thanks.
And how about this...
Part of the idea for the novel is a bunch of disgruntled IT experts (you know the type!) trying to mess stuff up for fun. Could hacks be put into a bunch of firmware at source that would just screw up any household appliance that had it?
Also, quick technical question regarding terresitrial TV - does all of London's terrestrial tv come from Crystal Palace?

[Analoguesat]

Originally Posted by caljacobs

Part of the idea for the novel is a bunch of disgruntled IT experts (you know the type!) trying to mess stuff up for fun. Could hacks be put into a bunch of firmware at source that would just screw up any household appliance that had it?

In theory I suppose so but that would require access to the manufacturing plant - and the equipment would then fail its quality checks.

Originally Posted by caljacobs

Hey guys, those are some good ideas, so thanks.
And how about this...
Part of the idea for the novel is a bunch of disgruntled IT experts (you know the type!) trying to mess stuff up for fun. Could hacks be put into a bunch of firmware at source that would just screw up any household appliance that had it?
Also, quick technical question regarding terresitrial TV - does all of London's terrestrial tv come from Crystal Palace?

Good ideas?? Completely impractical

EMP'ing sats? Any secret launch would be spotted immediately by all the superpowers and even if you got close enough to explode a nuke in space you are only going to take one or two out - the sats are hundreds of miles apart.

There are far easier ways to disable broadcasting networks!

Most of Londons DTT comes from Crystal Palace although some southern areas will probably be covered by Bluebell Hill

[Analoguesat]

Anyone taking part in this thread is asked to take care in what they are saying - if it starts heading towards any dodgy ground it will be closed immediately.

[Analoguesat]

Originally Posted by lincsat

Some Freeview boxes have already been disabled as a result of a system change, none of the current Freeview boxes will work with HD as that is going to use a new transmission standard. There is going to be a channel switch around at the end of September meaning that most Freeview boxes will need re-tuning, users may think that the boxes have stopped working if they don't re-tune.

The split NIT fault was more of a design problem in that certain makes werent fully compatible with the dtt standards

[brian]

Originally Posted by caljacobs

Hey guys, those are some good ideas, so thanks.
And how about this...
Part of the idea for the novel is a bunch of disgruntled IT experts (you know the type!) trying to mess stuff up for fun. Could hacks be put into a bunch of firmware at source that would just screw up any household appliance that had it?
Also, quick technical question regarding terresitrial TV - does all of London's terrestrial tv come from Crystal Palace?

caljacobs, you really should try and focus on your strengths in writing - ie, focus on what you know. In terms of technical details, if you don't really understand them, you're unlikely to be able to communicate them properly in a novel without opening yourself to criticism.

Because in fiction you have "suspension of disbelief" on your side, you can be as creative as you like - a supervirus in the computing systems, an EM pulse, alien termites that feed on broadcast towers, etc.

The more real you try and make it, the more unbelievable you'll actually make it sound - not least because technology moves so fast that you can become very out of date very fast.

Just use your imagination.

In the meantime, this isn't really what TW is about, so I'd recommend a site more dedicated to aspiring writers, such as sffchronicles:
Science Fiction Fantasy Chronicles: forums - Powered by vBulletin

Hope that helps, and in the meantime, thread closed.