Top all-time · #1224
Harald Welte
Personal blog · laforge.gnumonks.org/bloghardwaresecuritysystems
Harald Welte writes LaForge's home page, a personal blog at laforge.gnumonks.org about hardware, security and systems. Since 2008, 56 different Hacker News readers have linked it 86 times, most often “Report from the VMware GPL court hearing”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-07-08, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (10) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Harald Welte's blog as a reference for GPL enforcement cases and for cellular network internals such as GSM, LTE, paging and interception. Comments cite specific posts as sources.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 10 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
This is the personal home page of Harald 'LaForge' Welte, a Free and Open Source Software developer, hacktivist, nerd and motorbike enthusiast. Next to some general information about me, my projects a
Most-linked posts?
- Report from the VMware GPL court hearing3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-02-25
- Report from the Geniatech vs. McHardy GPL violation court hearing2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-03-08
- Developers wanted for Osmocom GSM related work2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-05-02
- Student sentenced for detecting flaws in Slovenian police and army TETRA network2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-05-22
- A brief history on the withdrawal of the A5/2 ciphering algorithm in GSM2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-11-13
- Ten years anniversary of Openmoko2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-11-28
- Power-cycling a USB port should be simple, right? (2017)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-11-19
- Sometimes software development is a struggle2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-09-29
What Hacker News says?
> Has anyone ever seen GPL being encorced in any country? ... yes? Lots and lots. There's a prominent case involving VMware versus Christoph Hellwig on right now: http://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20160225-vmware-gpl/ One manufacturer violation ended up with Busybox/SFC awarded a pile of the violating televisions ... http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2010/08/court-...
Comment linking /blog/20160225-vmware-gpl/
on “BMW Australia Refusing to Comply with Terms of GNU Public License”Submitted Apple not providing LGPL webkit source code for latest iOS 4.3.x as a story · 274 points
HN discussionAs much as I'd like to believe that they did mess up the interception reporting (if they really do interception like that), I've seen enough crazy tracking reports that I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a stupid mistake. Just googling for "funny delivery tracking route" for example will give you things like: - 4 times over the ocean - http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv325/oneupmanship34/Fg0e... - let's send…
Comment linking /fun/dhl-hk-leipzig-hk-leipzig-hk.jpg
on “Did this Tor developer become a victim of NSA's laptop interception program?”Submitted Using USB-VGA dongles as SDR transmitter as a story · 241 points
HN discussionJust because something is available doesn't mean it should be used. Android actually kinda sucks (second post on page): http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2009/11/04/
Comment linking /weblog/2009/11/04/
on “Crunchpad renamed "JooJoo" will cost $499 on sale Dec. 11”Submitted VMware joins Linux Foundation: what about the GPL? as a story · 235 points
HN discussionExamples? https://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20170902-cellular_modems-v... comes to mind. Regardless of age.
Comment linking /blog/20170902-cellular_modems-voice/
on “Build Your Own Mobile Proxy for Web Scraping”Submitted Why do self-respecting hackers use Gmail & Co? as a story · 225 points
HN discussion"So far the theory. If you look at the Paging Channel (PCH) of cells in real-world networks, you see a significant (10-20%) amount of paging requests that contain paging by IMSI. This seems strange on first sight, given the theory..." [1] So you can't spy on everyone, but you can spy on some subscribers whose phone is in that state. [1] https://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20100628-the_reason_for_pa...
Comment linking /blog/20100628-the_reason_for_paging_by_imsi/
on “Google and AT&T invest in Starlink rival for satellite-to-smartphone service”Submitted You can now install a GSM network using apt-get as a story · 203 points
HN discussionThis demonstration is neither particularly novel nor particularly legal. http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2010/08/01/#20100801-on_r...
Comment linking /weblog/2010/08/01/
on “Hacker Spoofs Cell Phone Tower to Intercept Calls ”Submitted Report from the VMware GPL court hearing as a story · 197 points
HN discussionIn addition to what myself248 said: In case you aren't familiar with the details of consumer RF standards (including IEEE 802.11, but especially LTE or anything cellular related) or don't have some prior RF knowledge: To put it mildly, LTE is not an easy standard to implement on an SDR, especially if it's your contact with SDRs. Even GSM is nowhere near a simple stack. If you want to get a feeling for what kind of c…
Comment linking /blog/
on “LimeSDR”Submitted HTC's delays in releasing Linux source code are unacceptable as a story · 148 points
HN discussionThis is much more than your typical license violation -- AVM is suing Cybits because Cybits exercised their GPL rights. So this is a very important case to legitimize the GPL. more information on Harald Welte's blog: http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2011/06/20/#20110620-avm_...
Comment linking /weblog/2011/06/20/
on “AVM violating license of the Linux kernel”Submitted Ten years after first shipping Openmoko Neo1973 as a story · 105 points
HN discussionThere was quite a lot of dissent about 29c3 primarily because it moved. I think that is also the reason the schedule suffered, so hopefully it's just temporary. Here's Harald Welte discussing why he didn't participate this year: http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2012/12/18/#20121218-29c3
Comment linking /weblog/2012/12/18/
on “29C3 Recordings”Submitted 33C3 talk on dissecting cellular modems as a story · 105 points
HN discussionI doubt it is fully open phone. At least soft, that works on baseband processor probably closed. More about this problem: https://laforge.gnumonks.org/papers/gsm_phone-anatomy-latest...
Comment linking /papers/gsm_phone-anatomy-latest.pdf
on “An Open Source Phone That’s Completely Unlocked, Hardware Too”Submitted Worlds first 20 minute voice call from a Free Software GSM stack on a phone as a story · 83 points
HN discussionSubmitted The IT security culture, hackers vs. industry consortia as a story · 81 points
HN discussionSubmitted The sad state of voice support in cellular modems as a story · 68 points
HN discussionSubmitted Report from the Geniatech vs. McHardy GPL violation court hearing as a story · 64 points
HN discussionSubmitted On Linux MAINTAINERS file removal of Russian developers as a story · 57 points
HN discussionSubmitted More GPL enforcement work again.. and a very surreal but important case as a story · 45 points
HN discussionSubmitted Unbelievable statements in GPL related case in the Supreme Court of Mauritius as a story · 34 points
HN discussionSubmitted Contribute to Osmocom 3.5G and receive a free femtocell as a story · 33 points
HN discussionSubmitted A brief history on the withdrawal of the A5/2 ciphering algorithm in GSM as a story · 32 points
HN discussionSubmitted Android is a screwed, hard-coded, non-portable abomination. as a story · 25 points
HN discussionSubmitted Facebook "Open Compute Project" nothing but hot air as a story · 21 points
HN discussion
