Brandon Wilson (@brandonlwilson) shared his stories about hacking TI calculators (and other things). TICalc.org has the latest on getting started yourself including Z80 assemblers, or start on Brandon’s website: brandonw.net Bradon will be speaking at Hardwear.io, a security conference for the hardware and security community. The conference consists of training (11th - 12th Sept 2018) and conference (13th - 14th Sept 2018). It is in The Hague, Netherlands. His talk is The Race to Secure Texas Instruments Graphing Calculators. He will also be hosting a village called Dumping the ROM of the Most Secure Sega Genesis Game Ever Created. Topics: 00:00:00    Introduction     00:00:33    Brandon Wilson     00:01:39    Lightning Round     00:02:37    Calculators!     00:03:58    Programmable calculators, using TI BASIC     00:05:00    Ti-85, programmable via assembly language     00:06:35    App store for my calculator?     00:07:34    How does TI prevent cheating?     00:09:41    Testguard for teachers     00:12:53    Some are WiFi capable     00:13:41    How Brandon learned to hack the TI 00:15:12    Processors used in the TI calcs 00:16:39    What tools are available for reverse engineering? 00:17:42    Breaking the keys     00:18:49    Flash unlock protection     00:20:14    TI hacker  community     00:21:32    TI used 512-bit RSA keys      00:22:32    Key broken after 2 months of brute force 00:22:58    TI threatened the first key breaker     00:23:31    Built a distributed community to attack keys 00:24:38    TI was not happy      00:25:03    DMCA takedown notice 00:27:28    EFF offered to help      00:29:30    The ethics of circumventing TIs protection     00:33:23    Calculators as a platform for learning HW/FW     00:35:11    Hackers' responsibility toward the hacked     00:39:05    Hacks Brandon is uncomfortable with     00:42:55    Bug bounties, are they effective?     00:44:02    Brandon's other projects      00:44:26    TI calculator processors used all over     00:44:50    Sega Genesis 00:47:54    Code execution via the Sega Genesis CD     00:53:35    Calculators changed my life (back up)     00:54:21    Other projects, USB      00:55:31    Abuse the USB protocol     00:58:24    Modifying USB flash drive FW     01:03:21    Reverse engineering tools     01:06:13    Hardwear.io conference, Brandon's hacking village     01:09:22    Brandon's Final Thought     01:10:19    Outro     01:11:20    Final Quote  

We spoke with Axel Poschmannof DarkMatter LLC(@GuardedbyGenius) about embedded security. For a great in-depth introduction, Axel suggested Christof Paar’s Introduction to Cryptography class, available on YouTube. We also talked about ENISA’s Hardware Threat Landscape and Good Practices Guide. Axel will be speaking at Hardwear.io, a security conference for the hardware and security community. The conference consists of training (11th - 12th Sept 2018) and conference (13th - 14th Sept 2018). It is in The Hague, Netherlands. DarkMatter is hiring.  Elecia has some discount coupons for the Particle.io Spectra conference.

Derek Fronek spoke with us about FIRST robotics. His TechHOUNDS (@TechHOUNDS868) team is based in Carmel, Indiana. They won the state competition and placed 5th in the high school FRC championship. Derek mentioned the roboRIO controller board, TalonSRX speed controller, and the Spark motor controller. Many of these offer deep discounts to FIRST robotics participants. Check out FirstInspires.org to find a team near you. The game comes out in January but many teams start forming in September. Derek’s personal website includes his other projects and a way to contact him. Sparkfun has an autonomous vehicle competition, this is their 10th year. Elecia wrote a related blog post for Derek, a few notes about media training.  Music for after you finish the episode

Chris (@stoneymonster) and Elecia (@logicalelegance) celebrate the 256th episode with a confusing lack of cupcakes. IAmTheCalvary.org has an excellent Hippocratic Oath for Connected Medical Devices  Make Magazine has some tips to tighten security on DIY IoT Projects. Rockstar Language Specification (and FizzBuzz example)  The C++ episode discussed was #247 with Jason Turner. Topics and Times: 00:00    Zero 00:27    Intro and cupcakes 03:09    Patreon and Slack 04:24    Transcripts, chapter markers? 07:48    Listener question:  ST HAL, Cube, SPL, Bare Metal? 14:22    Hippocratic Oath for Connected Medical Devices 19:32    Make magazine article on DIY IoT Security 22:36    NYC Embedded and Engineering Meetup? 23:42    C++: Expressiveness, optimization vs. good code 30:21    C++: Spec size vs. C#/Java 32:22    A question of parentheses leads to mild violence and ranting 35:43    Rockstar: The Language! 43:59    Wherein we "discuss" Rust for some reason, again. 46:45    Elecia's Projects in Python and JSON 50:18    Elecia's available for gigs! 50:50    Elecia's ML overview blog post 51:38    The end of Embedded 52:42    Wrap up 54:04    Winnie the Pooh continues...  

Ariel Waldman (@arielwaldman) spoke with us about how science, art, and all of the other disciplines can build a better world. Ariel does many amazing things, it is hard to list them all. Homepage: arielwaldman.com YouTube: arielwaldman   Science Hack Day: sciencehackday.org and Twitter @ScienceHackDay Space Hack directory of ways to get involved: spacehack.org Patreon page: arielwaldman Book: What's It Like in Space?: Stories from Astronauts Who've Been There NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts council, look at niacfellows.org to apply. Ariel fell in love with NASA while watching the When We Left Earth miniseries.

Gabriel Jacobo (@gabrieljacobo) spoke with us about embedded graphics, contributing to the Linux SDL, using MQTT, and working far from his employers. Gabriel’s blogand resumeare available on his site mdqinc.com. His github repo is under gabomdq.  SDL is Simple DirectMedia Layer (wiki). It is not so simple. For MQTT-based home automation, he uses the Raspberry Pi Home Assistantbuild and many Node MCUs(ESP8266s running Lua, Micropython, or Arduino Framework).

Micah Elizabeth Scott (@scanlime) came to talk about Fadecandy, a really neat way to control smart LEDs (NeoPixel, AdaFruit's term for the WS2812). The conversation ranged from beautiful LED control algorithms and open source embedded projects to triangle tessellations, art, and identity.  AdaFruit has a great intro to Fadecandy. Fadecandy is open source hardware and software, see the repository. Micah's blog is a combo of art and technology. Burning Man's Ardent Mobile Cloud (also a lovely still pic). Elecia also mentioned Deep Darc's hack of the GE Color Effects lights.

Jen Costillo (@rebelbotjen) joins Elecia White to discuss the secret parts of C, keywords that only embedded software engineers seem to know about. Jen and Elecia talk about interviewing and why these keywords make good questions for finding folks who use the language to its full potential. On the show they mention a list of embedded interview questions with answers. (Note: Elecia's book has many excellent interview questions and what interviewers look for when they ask them.) Producer Christopher White sends along a more concise introduction to the often unused register keyword.  NOTE: This is a repeat episode from before we'd settled on our name. Note that Jen is the co-host of the Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast.

We spoke with Kathleen Tuite (@kaflurbaleen) about augmented reality, computer vision, games with a purpose, and meetups. Kathleen’s personal site (filled with many interesting projects we didn’t talk about) is SuperFireTruck.com. Kathleen works for GrokStyle, a company that lets you find furniture you like based on what you see. GrokStyle is used in the Augmented Reality try-it-at-home IKEA Place app. Theory of Fun for Game Designby Raph Koster Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experienceby Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Language translating/learning app and online game is Duolingo TensorFlow in Javascript HCOMP 2018: Human Computer Conference with Keynote by Zooniverse’s Lucy Fortson(no video for that yet but we hope)

Katie Malone (@multiarmbandit) works in data science, has podcast about machine learning, and has a Phd in Physics. We mostly talked about machine learning, ways to kill people, mathematics, and impostor syndrome. Katie is the host of the Linear Digressionspodcast (@LinDigressions). She recommended the Linear Digressions interview with Matt Mightas something Embedded listeners might enjoy. Katie and Ben also recently did a show about git. Katie taught Udacity’s Intro to Machine Learningcourse (free!). She also recommends the Andrew Ng Machine Learning Coursera course. Neural nets can be fooled in hilarious ways: Muffins vs dogs, Labradoodles vs chicken, and more. Intentional, adversarial attacks are also possible. Impostor syndromeis totally a thing. We’ve talked about it before. You might recognize the discussion methodology from Embedded #24: I’m a Total Fraud. Katie works at Civis Analyticsand they are hiring.