When I was studying engineering, I wired a circuit board incorrectly, and a small mushroom cloud of smoke rose from one of the components.

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When Brocious and I tested his hack at three New York hotels prior to his Black Hat presentation, his device was a messy two-piece contraption, with a circuit board wired to a separate battery pack, and it only worked on one of three rooms we tested.

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Further investigations revealed that these detached cells exerted some subtle electromagnetic influence on the wired-up part of the circuit, allowing it to perform its task efficiently.

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