Software Tester Connects With Extraterrestrials
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By Edward J. Correia
April 1, 2008 —
An AOL News report last week of a UFO sighting from the beach community of Capitola, Calif., was confirmed yesterday by Franz Kranenberg, a German software tester.
Kranenberg was testing FreeLink, an open source application he developed that scans WiMax frequencies and wirelessly connects a computer to the Internet for free.
copyright Paranormal Files
The program works, he said, by connecting a computer not to a high-speed (and expensive) WiMax signal itself, but to the unprotected (but still relatively fast) subcarrier signals that carriers use to communicate network conditions with each other. Earlier this year, Kranenberg was testing the application, now at version 0.4, from the porch of his home in Santa Cruz, about six miles from the eerie sighting.
“I nearly fell off my chair when I saw that story on AOL, and that it was so close to my house,” he said. To him, it explained some errors he had been experiencing but hadn’t been able to explain or repeat.
When attempting to connect, an option in FreeLink will display the packet data it’s encountering, Kranenberg explained. The feature is intended to aid with connections and debugging. Imagine his surprise when he began receiving communications that looked like something from a Star Trek movie. “I freaked out—it looked just like Klingon writing,” said Kranenberg, who admits to being an avid fan of the sci-fi genre and keeps Klingon images and e-books on his system.
source: paranormalfiles.co.uk
“I figured there must have been some kind of cross-contamination with some of my Star Trek stuff, so I quit the app and rebooted. It never happened again.”
After reading the AOL story and photo piqued his interest, and it wasn’t hard to locate a high-resolution version of it and other photos, including some that showed the writing he saw in his error.
“I’ve always thought there must be someone out there besides us,” he said, adding that he even participated in UC Berkeley’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence program for a time. “But I never expected this. I am totally shocked that my little program was able to receive communications from another planet and no one else has.” At least, not that we know of.
Since this incident, Kranenberg has removed the source code for FreeLink from his Website, FreeLink.org, as he considers what to do. “I’m sure that once the government gets wind of this, they’ll send Men in Black to my door to make sure I don’t know anything. By removing my code, I’m keeping my options open.”
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