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TI Calculator DRM Defeated

Posted by Soulskill on from the graphing-for-justice dept.

josath writes "Texas Instruments' flagship calculator, the Nspire, was hacked to allow user-written programs earlier this year. Earlier this month, TI released an update to the OS that runs on the calculator, providing no new features, but only blocking the previous hack. Now, just a few weeks later, Nleash has been released, which defeats this protection. The battle rages on as users fight for the right to run their own software on their own hardware."

44 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. what by mrphoton · · Score: 3, Interesting

    last time i used a graphics calculator (before I migrated to octave/matlab/maple), the whole point of the thing was that you could program it? And why would anybody spend 100$ on a calculator when you can almost get a laptop for that price today?

    1. Re:what by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You cannot bring a laptop into a standardized test, that's why TI cares. The only real business TI has with its graphing calculators is high school (and to some extent, middle school) students, and only because the teachers are under the illusion that the calculators cannot do everything that a laptop can do.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    2. Re:what by Peach+Rings · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What, you can still write programs for the included BASIC interpreter, you just can't run your own code on the hardware (no C/assembly allowed). So they have no ground to stand on in terms of testing integrity, and it's obvious that they're unjustly trying to control people's hardware after they buy it.

    3. Re:what by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As it turns out, and this was mentioned the last time there was a TI article on /., a common strategy schools use is to press the reset button on the calculator, which clears out BASIC programs and whatnot. It seems, however, that the reset button does not touch the firmware -- which is why TI is probably worried about this situation.

      I am vehemently opposed to DRM, but I would not go as far as to claim that the companies pushing DRM want to control their users just for the sake of control. These people are not twirling their mustachios and laughing to each other about their evil plots -- they have a reason for wanting to control their users, and it almost always boils down to making money. TI is worried about losing the only remaining market for graphing calculators, so they will go to any length, including undermining user freedoms, to try to maintain that market.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    4. Re:what by tomhudson · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So just cut the on-board trace from the reset button. They can press it all they want at that point.

      Heck, I can see a new market niche - unresetable calculators. Hey, Ferris, you want to make some quick money to fund your next day off?

    5. Re:what by Firethorn · · Score: 4, Informative

      Pushing reset results in visible screen changes. You can both have firmware fake a reset in that case or have the cheating system embedded into the firmware.

      If the calculator won't reset, then they're either going to do a closer check for cheat stuff or just not let you have the calculator(hope you brought a backup!).

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
    6. Re:what by BrokenHalo · · Score: 3, Informative

      I don't know anything about the nSpire, but my TI-89 has a few different ways of resetting it, some more pervasive than others. The most common key-sequence results in the appearance of a progress-bar thingy for a few seconds, and the UI reverts to the default, and programs, expressions or variables assigned to general memory are deleted. However, programs (user-generated or otherwise) assigned to so-called "archive" memory are not deleted, so a simple script to restore your favourite settings is easy enough to maintain.

    7. Re:what by Spokehedz · · Score: 2, Interesting

      My math teacher would prohibit us from using our own calculators on tests. He had a set of calculators that he kept for when we had tests, and he would hand them out--blanked--and we had to write our own programs on them in the 30mins before the test. His thought was if you could memorize your program to type it out before the test, you deserved to use it on the test. However, most of the students used the extra time to just do the test manually because it really wasen't smart to spend the time on typing out a program you would use maybe 3 times on a test.

      Of course I got around that little restriction. I made a small PIC along with a 512KB EEPROM that would load all my programs onto the calculator through the link port that was the size of a matchbox. I could connect it, upload all my programs, and then use them on the tests. It had switches that would let me load the TI83 loadout (the calculators that he supplied) and my TI89 which I used on a daily basis. God, I loved that calc. I would still have it if not for the great coffee incident of 1999... Rest in Peace, TI89. You've done good, now it is time to rest.

    8. Re:what by FluffyArmada · · Score: 2, Informative

      The nspire is actually pretty freaking smart about resetting. Instead of actually needing to do a full reset, it has a fancy test-taking mode. You hold down the escape+home(on) key while the calculator is turned off, then you'll get a dialogue asking if you want to enter 'press to test' mode. Once you enter that mode, the calculator resets, and reloads the firmware without deleting anything you've been working on, and a little led on the end of the calculator will blink every few seconds to show that you're in the right mode. And then, the only way to exit the mode is to plug the calculator into either another calculator or a computer with the TI software. But, once you exit the testing mode, all of your stuff will be right where you left it. It can be a huge pain in the ass, but honestly, if TI wants to make cheating really hard, this is sure a good way to do it. Of course, once the DRM on the calculator is defeated... it's going to be fairly trivial to replace the testing image with something more useful... or even just use some assembly code to flash the led.

      --
      If con is the opposite of pro. Then isn't congress the opposite of progress?
  2. at the end of the day: by phyrexianshaw.ca · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The be all and end all reason that TI want's to prevent people from installing software on these calc's is the modern education system.

    If you install something a school would consider "cheating" on your calculator, you'll get suspended. the modern system want's to forgo the checking of these devices, (as they rarely have the technical ability to even understand how they work)

    it's always a money grab. though I understand the desire to have a common platform, I also think people should be able to modify their calculators as much as they want.

    if people CAN cheat at a test, there's something wrong with the testing method. change your test, don't punish people for outsmarting the education system!

    1. Re:at the end of the day: by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Interesting

      the answers to common and uncommon questions are a quick search away

      If you are asking the same question year after year, then sure, that is a problem. The solution is as clear as day: ask different questions on each exam. If a student looks up the answers to previous exams on Google, and from that is able to answer new questions...then what is the problem, exactly? The student learned how to solve the problems they are expected to be able to solve, which seems like a victory for education.

      As for calculators, they should not be allowed on exams at all, or in classrooms. Math is not about pushing buttons, and if every math problem (even in physics and chemistry) a student encountered required them to find a solution without the assistance of a calculator, we would not have to water down math exams just to ensure that more than 50% of the students pass (maybe I am being a bit optimistic about the extra practice...).

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    2. Re:at the end of the day: by Ash+Vince · · Score: 5, Informative

      As for calculators, they should not be allowed on exams at all, or in classrooms. Math is not about pushing buttons, and if every math problem (even in physics and chemistry) a student encountered required them to find a solution without the assistance of a calculator, we would not have to water down math exams just to ensure that more than 50% of the students pass (maybe I am being a bit optimistic about the extra practice...).

      You are obviously to young to know that engineers have always used calculators. Before these new fangled electronic things people used slide rules, they could do almosy as much as a modern calculator.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_rule

      --
      I dont read /. to RTFA, I read /. to offend people in ignorance.
    3. Re:at the end of the day: by Peach+Rings · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The student learned how to solve the problems they are expected to be able to solve, which seems like a victory for education.

      Except in 1 or 2 years they'll be completely lost. How do you think someone who googled all the answers to their algebra 1 homework and tests will do in algebra 2 or precalc? Or in life?

      As for calculators, they should not be allowed on exams at all, or in classrooms. Math is not about pushing buttons

      The important parts of math are abstract, not computational. It's a good thing to get rid of the tedious computation that you mastered back in 3rd grade. Removing calculators would be an artificial barrier to learning, like making students scan through paper volumes of trig tables.

    4. Re:at the end of the day: by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The important parts of math are abstract, not computational. It's a good thing to get rid of the tedious computation that you mastered back in 3rd grade. Removing calculators would be an artificial barrier to learning, like making students scan through paper volumes of trig tables.

      Except that students are unable to do basic arithmetic these days. It is fine for an engineering undergrad to use a calculator to save some time, but when people are graduating high school and cannot multiply two numbers, there is a very serious problem. Yes, math is abstract, but the ability to compute a result still matters -- when I was a teenager working in an ice cream store, people would sometimes give me some change after I had entered everything into the cash register, and so I was forced to quickly do some arithmetic...and many of the kids working with me could not even handle that. Now I am in grad school, and I still find myself having to do basic arithmetic -- the research I am doing is almost entirely abstract math (cryptography), but when I am standing next to a whiteboard trying to explain something, I sometimes have a need to do some multiplication.

      Considering that a high school in the neighborhood where I grew up had the dubious honor of less than 40% of its students being able to pass a basic one-variable algebra exam, there is no excuse for giving the students less practice working out problems without calculators. It would be better if they were able to at least understand the most basic math and not run to a calculator than if they were unable to do any math and need a calculator just to subtract some numbers.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    5. Re:at the end of the day: by phyrexianshaw.ca · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How about TI design the calculator to allow people to install software, but have a hardware button to reset everything- e.g. overwite the entire flash with an original ROM? I think Gigabyte motherboards have a "dual BIOS" thing which does that. You want to bring your calculator in, too bad it gets reset to the old original ROM.

      that breaks upgradability. if you put a ROM into the calc's with a base firmware, and a problem with that firmware ever pops up, you'll have to replace/recall all those units. whereas FLASH is upgradeable, and you can just send fixes to people.

      Just because the "Mission Impossible" sort of people can cheat in your highschool's test doesn't mean there's something wrong with the test.

      there shouldn't be a test with questions that can be "Mission Impossible"'d.
      A test should NEVER be multiple choice. the only reason multiple choice tests exist these days is to speed the grading, and allow our over populated schools deal with the larger number of students without having to increase staff count. (as always, it goes back to not enough money in the education system)

      The way I see it, there's no way to cheat at a real test, ever. if you can go about answering the question by finding the answer somewhere else in the same amount (or less) time that it took the other students to derive the same answer, they've still learned something. it should take understanding of the question to know how to find the reference to the answer somewhere. (which is more than alright: I'd never expect a person to be able to derive me the one millionth point in a Mandelbrot Set by hand. but if they know enough to find me the answer, they're alright in my books.)

      whereas a shitty multiple choice test only requires you to know what of the four options the answer is, without even reading the question. there's no learning in multiple choice tests. even smart kids will often default to "the answer is always 'C'" logic from time to time, it's just a fact of life that nobody does everything right ALL THE TIME.

    6. Re:at the end of the day: by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Do you think that the rules of arithmetic come out of nowhere? Everything from basic add-and-carry techniques to square root algorithms can be derived in abstract math. Some of those techniques are actually very important -- the long division algorithm, for example, is used to prove significant results in number theory, and algorithms based on it (like the Euclidean algorithm) are generalized and studied in depth in ring theory.

      Once people can be shown to understand what arithmetic means, its kinda silly to require them to not use tools.

      Unfortunately, a number of high school students do not understand arithmetic and cannot do it -- their calculators become more of a crutch than a convenience.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    7. Re:at the end of the day: by Abcd1234 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Do you think that the rules of arithmetic come out of nowhere?

      Of course not. But just like a carpenter doesn't need to know rigid body physics in order to frame up a wall, your average person doesn't need to know abstract algebra in order to perform basic arithmetic.

      No, the GP is quite right. Math and arithmetic are very very different skillsets, when it comes right down to it. And for most, arithmetic is *far* more useful day-to-day (most people never see an algebraic equation after they graduate high school).

  3. Obligatory xkcd by teh31337one · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://www.xkcd.com/768/

    1. Re:Obligatory xkcd by Pete+from+NYC · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I think the xkcd cartoon is cute, especially for us techies. On a different, related matter: In 6.251 (MIT's class on operating systems, circa 1970), the professor (Donovan) had students submit the punch cards, and the program he wrote would evaluate them with "Yes" or "No". Except one of the results was "Maybe", so he gave that student an "A". The point is: sometimes cheating (we called it "hacking" back then) required more knowledge than the task at hand. I emphasize the word "sometimes", since when other people use the hacks, they may not learn anything, although they may be more productive, which I think is the point of using artifices or helpers (whether it's a slide rule from my youth in engineering, or using canned chicken broth instead of making it myself from scratch in a cooking recipe) is that often you can reach higher heights by standing upon the shoulders of others, as Newton said.

  4. Re:why? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The last time this came up on /., I said that it is probably about standardized tests. A number of people pointed out that when they were in school, calculators were reset to the factory defaults before they were allowed to use them on an exam. What I have to wonder about, though, is what it means to be reset to "factory defaults" -- I doubt that there is a second copy of the original firmware that will be forced to load when the reset button is pressed. More likely, "factory defaults" only means clearing anything the user created, but leaving the firmware intact.

    Thus, if users can just install their own firmware, TI risks having the current illusion that teachers are under -- that the calculators are "less of a computer" than any other computer -- being undermined.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  5. TI is still fighting them by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The point is the fight, not whether or not a particular device has been cracked. TI (and to be fair, plenty of other companies) are engaged in a constant struggle to prevent users from exercising their right to run whatever software they want on their computers. You might construe it as, "Well you can still run the software, you just don't know how" but realistically speaking, the devices are being designed to thwart the user's attempt to install software without thwarting the manufacturer. That is a strike against us and our rights, regardless of how you phrase it.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  6. Niche market by zogger · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Looks to me like a potential good enough niche market for some startup (or a cooperative) to build and sell a really open calculator. And I would guess said designers and builders could come from within that same community, ie, engineers/students/scientists who are already using these high end calculators. That pool of people has the necessary skillset taken as a whole. Electronic pocket calculators have been around a long time, the basic design must be well understood by now. And it seems like if you weren't trying to keep it locked down, the design would be simpler by some not insignificant degree.

  7. Re:why? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Of course the simplest solution would still be for the school to have, say, 100 calculators owned by the school, exclusively to be used in tests. People don't bring their own calculator, they use the school-supplied one. It would be a one-time investment (calculators tend to work for very extended times).

    Another solution would be to only allow calculators without permanent storage. Who needs graphing calculators anyway?

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  8. Ahh TI calculators by areusche · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I had the best time using my TI-84 on tests and the SATs. I had several physics and math programs that made completing pointless busy work so much faster along with showing the formulas most of the time! My favorite program was this "Fake Clear" program that would trap the "Memory Reset" function and allow for a user to use the wipe function without deleting any programs after typing in a set of numbers to unlock it.

    Was it cheating? Did I do something unethical?

    I don't know, nor do I care. I could recreate my steps and completely understood the math behind it.

    I've been out of school for so long now and frankly I hope that these hackers give the fat finger to TI and the College Board. I have nothing but disdain for those two organizations

  9. Re:why? by Vahokif · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's because a major selling point of their calculators is that you can use them in exams. If you can hack them to cheat, they won't be allowed any more.

  10. Re:why? by Peach+Rings · · Score: 3, Funny

    If you're going to allow calculators at all, graphing calculators are definitely the best option. My TI-89 has scrollback, symbolic computation (I would die without free variables), pretty printing, copy and paste, and algebraic factoring/expansion.

    Unless you're in 7th grade or something, all of those make it much easier to focus on the real problem rather than getting caught up in the algebra.

  11. Re:TI Should really let them be hacked by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The teacher's only solution would be to purchase additional TI calculators

    Or they might wake up and realize that graphing calculators do not solve any educational goals. Then TI would be screwed, as teachers began requiring their students to actually understand math instead of just understanding how to push buttons.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  12. Solution by Vahokif · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They should sell two models with exactly the same capabilities, except one should be as locked down as possible and the other should be totally unrestricted and have a wildly different color scheme so you can tell them apart. This way hackers get to hack and examiners can be sure if they're not using the calculators to cheat.

    1. Re:Solution by Vahokif · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well they can do that now. There must be a way of making a case that you can't open without breaking it.

  13. Re:why? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If "getting caught up in the algebra" is a problem, then you need all the practice you can get. There is nothing wrong with being required to work out the algebra in a math course, and in high school physics and chemistry courses, it is rare for the algebra to go beyond basic quadratic equations or systems of linear equations, neither of which takes a terribly long time to work out.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  14. Re:Not to Diminish the Achievement... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Because they're commonly used for standardised testing. YOU try to convince a high school teacher you aren't going to cheat on your internet enabled multi application device.

  15. The ability to run software on their hardware by noidentity · · Score: 2

    You have a right to not buy TI products. TI has a right to sell you whatever crap they want, as long as they don't misrepresent it. What they're fighting for is the continued ability to run their own software on the calculators. That is not a right.

  16. Re:TI Should really let them be hacked by cherry-blossom · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yep- How many students get through calculus in high school using a calculator only to get screwed in college calculus when they can't use one.

  17. Re:why? by TejWC · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually, a friend of mine came up with a genius idea: write a TI-83 emulator on his TI-83.

    What he did was make it look like his calculator was not running any program (just showing the main screen) when in fact it is running a program: his emulator. The teacher could test out with a simple math calculation while under the emulator and it would work just fine. However, when the teacher tries to delete any of the programs he had or try to reset all the data, it would do so only for the emulator, not for the real TI-83 data.

    So, right before giving his calculator to the teacher before the exam, he would run his emulator. The teacher would clear the memory of the emulator, but then he would then exit out of the emulator and have all of his real programs intact.

  18. Just fake the UI by saibot834 · · Score: 3, Funny

    In my school, one student who wrote his own little programs in Basic and didn't want to loose them due to an exam, wrote another program that faked the normal UI and displayed a menu where you could 'reset' the calculator even though nothing really happened. You could only tell by one small detail (a tiny bar on the upper right corner, indicating a program was currently running) that it wasn't the real deal. None of the teachers realized that.

    And that was done with a normal Basic program. I guess if you code directly in Assembler, you can do much more.

    1. Re:Just fake the UI by nattt · · Score: 2, Informative

      We just used to slot some cardboard or sheet plastic in the back of the calculator - Casio fx7000-G so that when the teach pushed a pen in to hit the rest switch, it just hit the plastic and didn't reset the calculator.

      --
      -- oldthinkers unbellyfeel ingsoc
  19. Re:why? by h3nning · · Score: 2, Informative
    10 years ago when I was at a university they also said that they would reset to factory defaults, this never ever happened, though. Probably because senior citizens are hired to supervise exams here in Norway.

    Also, even if they did, the calculator I had could store data and programs in flash, which wouldn't be affected by a factory reset.

    The only way a factory reset would have affected me was that I would have had to turn RPN back on.

  20. Compulsory education by tepples · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You have a right to not buy TI products.

    School systems have a right to require TI products at the high school level. Children do not have a right not to go to school.

  21. Re:why? by noidentity · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Awesome story. Reminds me of the Apple IIs in school where we'd make a short BASIC program that did its own command prompt, but gave you confusing responses. Great hilarity.

  22. Re:why? by Joce640k · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They also make the same calculators in versions which are open and programmable so this is just stupid. All you'll end up doing is getting them banned from exams and then you won't want to own one so you just shot yourself in the foot.

    --
    No sig today...
  23. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    yo dawg! we heard you like to calculate things while your on your calculator! so we put a calculator in your calculator!

    so you can calculate.....

  24. Bring back Slide Rules by flyingfsck · · Score: 2

    We used Slide Rules - yeah, I'm that old. A Slide Rule is more environmentally friendly than a calculator. It doesn't use any mercury, lead or batteries...

    WTF do kids needs graphing screens for in an exam anyway? They cannot submit the stupid graphs. So what is the point? An Abacus would work better.

    --
    Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
  25. Why is this even an issue? by seeker_1us · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If you are trying to test calculus/physics/algebra/whatever it's pretty easy to make the actual arithmetic simple enough to do in your head or on scratch paper.

  26. Re:TI Should really let them be hacked by Spazntwich · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I agree.

    Also, I think it's about time we removed those damn cheating compilers from programming classes. Let students actually understand assembler instead of just understanding how to push keys.