Comment by spidersouris

Comment by spidersouris 5 days ago

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Thanks for the wiki -- I have always been interested in hardware hacking but I have always felt overwhelmed as I didn't know where to start. I believe this kind of resource can greatly help with that, especially the case studies.

However, I can't help but feel that a major part of the content is LLM-generated, or at least LLM-rewritten. It feels off and uninteresting to read, honestly. Is it the case? To support my case, I see that the case study page (https://www.hardbreak.wiki/introduction/case-study-led-to-a-...) has very similar paragraphs next to each other, the second one seemingly being the "genuine" one, and the first one being the LLM-rewritten version.

I'm not against using LLMs to help fix typos or reformulate things, but you should definitely keep some of your style. The LLM that you used (if you used one) made the content super bland, and as a reader, I'm not really incentivized to browse more.

Joel_Mckay 5 days ago

Get a ham radio technician license, and you may develop an intuitive perspective on most electrical engineering concepts.

i.e. the physics lab derivation of the core EE tool set is unnecessary if you understand what the models are describing.

AI is slop in and slop out... and dangerous to students... =3

John Shive's Wave Machines is where every student should start:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DovunOxlY1k

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  • TeMPOraL 5 days ago

    > Get a ham radio technician license, and you may develop an intuitive perspective on most electrical engineering concepts.

    May. I managed to get one without developing much intuition for most EE concepts, unfortunately.

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    • 0xEF 5 days ago

      Were you also completely turned off by the community?

      I ask because I got into it about 15+ years ago for the purposes of helping with emergency comms and learning more about electronics, but found the community extremely hostile toward new comers that did not have money to burn on expensive gear. I ended up just giving up on it after a few years after investing in a bunch of Arduino stuff and learned far more about EE than I ever did playing at radio. The concept of the Elmer seemed dead, leaving nobody who wanted to show the new guys the ropes.

      From what I understand, maybe that has changed in recent years?

      Weirdly, I did take something away from my experience with ham radio; I know an awful lot about the weather and atmosphere now, which has turned into a lasting interest.

      Reply View 9 replies
      • cushychicken 5 days ago

        Ham radio's decline is more than explainable as a cultural issue.

        The culture of every internet forum I've ever visited for it is absolutely deplorable. It seems like each one has a handful of really grouchy old gatekeepers who lie in wait to absolutely dunk on newcomers.

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      • TeMPOraL 4 days ago

        > Were you also completely turned off by the community?

        I was never turned on :). I got my license partly because other people at our local Hackerspace were getting it, and partly because I imagined it'll be useful to have the knowledge and ability to build and legally operate my own radio hardware.

        I never got the whole HAM talking over radio thing. Between the legal and cultural restrictions on the topics, and the expectations of not taking up the airwaves too much, I can't see how you could discuss anything interesting or worthwhile this way. It's no surprise that there seems to be nothing going on other than boring and obnoxious rag chewing - interesting conversations aren't allowed to occur in the first place.

        I mean, the intersection between "non-commercial", "non-religious", "non-controversial/non-political", and "interesting to any HAM" is... basically just saying hello, weather, trash talk, and self-referential showing off.

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    • Joel_Mckay 5 days ago

      Did you mean you don't understand the equations/theory, or are having difficulty applying the concepts to design circuits?

      In the first case, install LTSpice (free from Analog Devices), and head here to run down the basics:

      https://www.youtube.com/@FesZElectronics/videos

      And in the latter, go though common basic designs analyzing how they work:

      https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofelectroniccircuits...

      https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofel02graf

      https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780070110779

      https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofel0006graf

      Then try your own designs combining properties of several designs. Start with simple blinkers and buzzers at first... Try to avoid Arduino designs until you've done a few 555, transistor, and opamp circuits first. =3

      Reply View 4 replies
      • TeMPOraL 5 days ago

        Most of my issues seem to be about power - I have no feel for the relevant math, so even as I remember the basic equations and methods, I never feel certain I'm calculating it right. So in terms of hands-on experience, I pretty much jumped straight from burning through-hole resistors with 12V battery to ignite rocket motors made of PVC and caramel fuel, to Arduinos and RPIs and NodeMCUs -- basically, stuff that comes with an USB port it can draw power from...

        Thanks for the links, I'll work through them and hopefully come out with some understanding at the end of this process :).

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        • Joel_Mckay 5 days ago

          Note, part of the fun is the forensic analysis to figure out why stuff didn't work the first time... Maybe a LDO Voron 3d printer kit would be a fun project too =3

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      • otteromkram 5 days ago

        I mean I'm a dummy who just wanted to listen to ISS static and trucker jargon.

        Reply View 1 reply
        • Joel_Mckay 5 days ago

          Indeed, we also end up learning about our sun in levels of detail no person should find enthralling... lol =3

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  • RobotToaster 5 days ago

    At least in the UK you can't if you're a linux user, the software they use to spy on you while taking the test is windows only.

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    • Cthulhu_ 5 days ago

      Well first off, the certificate comes with certain guarantees, and they can't give those guarantees if they can't prove you didn't cheat on the test. "spy on you" is absolutely correct, but a bad faith phrasing. That said, I did my AWS test at a test / exam center where there's isolated computers and cameras to validate that there was no cheating.

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  • CamperBob2 5 days ago

    dangerous to students

    It's fatally dangerous to students who ignore it or dismiss it out of hand. That much is already certain.

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    • Joel_Mckay 5 days ago

      How so?

      Reply View 27 replies
      • CamperBob2 5 days ago

        Wait and see. You're not paying attention now, but it's not too late to start.

        Go to your favorite programming puzzle site and see how you do against the latest models, for instance. If you can beat o1-pro regularly, for instance, then you're right, you have nothing to worry about and can safely disregard it. Same proposition that was offered to John Henry.

        Reply View 26 replies
raywu 5 days ago

Case in point, under Case Study > Reconnaissance > OSINT, these two paragraphs follow one another - same content but different wording.

> The first step in any hardware hacking project is research. I started by Googling the router model number, "ASUS RT-N12 D1", and came across an article about a similar model, the ASUS RT-N12+ B1. The article mentioned that the device had an open UART interface allowing unauthenticated root access. However, it provided no exact details on how to exploit this or where the UART interface might be located. Could my router model have the same vulnerability?

> In the first step I googled the model number for my router "ASUS RT N12 D1" and I came accross this article. It shows that a similar model the "ASUS RT N12+ B1" appears to have an open UART interface, which gives unauthenticated root access. It does not show how to exacltly abuse this or any details where to find the UART interface. Let's see if our router model may have the same vulnerability!

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