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Hardware Hacking Guide — Citizen Engineer

Posted by Soulskill on from the so-i-rewired-it dept.

Solderingfool writes "MAKE Magazine's Phil Torrone and open source hardware hacker Ladyada from Adafruit Industries have a new video series called 'Citizen Engineer.' In the first video they show how a SIM card works, then build a SIM card reader which could be used to clone a SIM card. They also show how to use an old payphone as a regular home phone, later with coins, and for their final hack — how to 'Redbox' it. They released all the projects as open source, and the video is well produced."

8 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How long will it take for the FBI to ride? by Shaitan+Apistos · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe the fact that a hole is there doesn't mean you can exploit it.

    I've seen a lot of videos on the internet that suggest there's no such thing as a hole you can't exploit.

  2. Payphones? Redboxes? by strelitsa · · Score: 5, Funny

    1981 called - it wants its meme back.

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    No mod points, no meta-moderating/Firehose/all the other free work Slashdot wants me to do.
  3. Hole what hole? by TheLink · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why would it be wrong for me to backup my own SIM?

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  4. Re:Payphones? Redboxes? by jeiler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hacking in its purest form is not necessarily about being "useful," but about being interesting--an interesting hack may have no intrinsic utility whatsoever, but allows a person who is curious to do something that is new ... to them, at least.

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    If you haven't been down-modded lately, you aren't trying.

    Sacred cows make the best hamburger.

  5. Why video? by heptapod · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Online video is a waste of time and bandwidth unless it's porn.
    I can easily skim an article and review a diagram much quicker than watching a video. Text also provides an easier point of reference than fast forwarding and rewinding a video to find a pertinent bit of information.
    When it comes to online media the best innovation is no innovation at all.

    1. Re:Why video? by ZeroExistenZ · · Score: 5, Funny

      Online video is a waste of time and bandwidth unless it's porn.

      It's geekporn. A geeky girl, soldering, throwing together electronics and showing you her enthousiasm for hacking and electronics? This *IS* porn.

      Why do you think there aren't as much reactions?

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      I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
  6. Re:Open Source? Not exactly. by ladyada · · Score: 5, Informative

    "They released all the projects as open source" means that the project information - code, schematics and layout - are open source. See: http://ladyada.net/make/simreader/download.html (The payphone schematics will be up soon, also CC 2.5 BY-SA)

  7. Re:How long will it take for the FBI to ride? by ladyada · · Score: 5, Informative

    From all the documentation I have read on smart cards, 3V (and 1.8V) cards are an extension of the 5V SIM spec. That is, they work at 5V as well (but with higher power usage, of course). If you have specific documentation otherwise, please post it. Secondly, I assure you the quality of my soldering is excellent (ie http://farm1.static.flickr.com/149/332269259_21900c5a01_b.jpg), but the lighting and video makes perfboard-soldering (ie http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/images/tutorials/perfboard/solderaperf26.jpg) look bad