Adafruit Industries sent us one of their SIM Reader kits a few weeks ago to test. Assembly was a breeze thanks to the through hole components and good documentation. We plugged it into our USB -> RS232 converter and tried out the provided pySimReader software. It worked fine, but our modern SIM card out of an N95 didn't prove very interesting. It was too new to attempt cloning and being a smart … [Read more...]
The Underhanded Hardware Challenge
August 21, 2008 By 7 Comments
The Polytechnic Institute of NYU is hosting an interesting embedded systems contest. They've constructed a solid state cryptographic device that uses a 128-bit private key. Contestants will be tasked with designing and implementing several trojans into the system that will undermine the security. The system is built on a Digilent BASYS Spartan-3 FPGA board. The trojans could do a wide variety of … [Read more...]
Das Uber Airsoft Gun Turret
August 21, 2008 By 7 Comments
Hot on the heels of the Wii missile launcher, Das Uber Airsoft Gun Turret is here to put our past airsoft turrets to shame. Made by [Miltron_B], this autonomous beast not only has gorgeous LED indicators, it has lasers. Three of them. Three freaking lasers. Take a moment to wipe the drool from your chin.We've seen plenty of turrets before, but this one really excels in design. It features two … [Read more...]
FEMA phone system hacked
August 21, 2008 By 15 Comments
Over the weekend, a hacker broke into FEMA's new PBX voicemail system, made over 400 overseas phone calls to Asia and the Middle East, and ran up a $12,000 bill. The low tech hack took advantage of a "hole" that was not covered when a contractor upgraded the voicemail system. FEMA is currently conducting its own internal investigation, but FEMA spokesman [Tom Olshanski] did not have any … [Read more...]
Microsoft’s data centers growing by the truckload
August 21, 2008 By 9 Comments
The growing demands of Microsoft's core customers necessitate dramatic alterations in the way Microsoft's data centers are set up. Before their server racks were replaced one at a time, Microsoft's new solution to server management is to truck in servers in sealed shipping containers and set them up without even taking them out. If a core number of servers start to fail within the shipping … [Read more...]
BBS on a Commodore 64
August 21, 2008 By 30 Comments
[Lief Bloomquist] was in need of some geeky nostalgia. He thought making a BBS server on a Commodore 64 would fill that need perfectly. He used a PC running some routing software to make the BBS server available over the net, without any long distance charges. Anyone with an Internet connection can telnet to the BBS and join the fun.[Jason Scott] made BBS: the Documentary. He has interviewed … [Read more...]
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