Stephen Fry and DVD Jon Back USB Sniffer Project 126
An anonymous reader writes "bushing and pytey of the iPhone DevTeam and Team Twiizers have created a Kickstarter project to fund the build of an open-source/open-hardware high-speed USB protocol analyzer. The board features a high-speed USB 2.0 sniffer that will help with the reverse engineering of proprietary USB hardware. The project has gained the backing of two high-profile individuals: Jon Lech Johansen (DVD Jon), and actor and comedian Stephen Fry."
Re:Stephen Fry's previous good stuff: gnu bday (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, apart from the freedom to choose a locked down device if you want one.
Unless, of course, you're advocating forcing people to use devices that give them freedom?
Re:Stephen Fry's previous good stuff: gnu bday (Score:3, Insightful)
nobody is perfect :-) :-)
personally I do not like the iPhone for all kinds or reasons, but although my teen son accepted one as a gift from his granfather I did not decide to disown him
and "you" probably drive a car with proprietary "car"matics, "eeeviill"...
Let's than Stephen Fry for what support he gives, and try to explain issues to anybody who'd listen when possible..
Re:Stephen Fry's previous good stuff: gnu bday (Score:5, Insightful)
But then, considering freedom good, and considering high quality hardware and software good are not mutually exclusive. Nor are acknowledging that sometimes you have to sacrifice one for the other.
It's entirely possible to like both apple products, and open things.
Anysort of breakout-board is always a welcome tool (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Stephen Fry's previous good stuff: gnu bday (Score:2, Insightful)
Ah like the "old men" that invented computing as we know it? Um, Like JCR Licklider?
You know, the guy who was 45 in 1960 [wikipedia.org], when he wrote about needing billions of bits [mit.edu] in computers? IN 1960!??
Yes, yes, I know, history is not important around here, especially when it doesn't involve rockets or space. Hell, even then no one cares.
Re:Stephen Fry's previous good stuff: gnu bday (Score:3, Insightful)
Given the amount of scientific discovery at the time it seems a bit odd to not think there was a huge need in the future.
Re:Why hardware? (Score:5, Insightful)
Two main reasons: Embedded device peripherals, and USB device development. Sometimes you don't have access to the OS running on the host to set up a sniffer (game consoles, some smartphones, and similar). And sometimes you need to debug a USB device that you're developing, and software USB sniffers don't provide the kind of detail needed to do that effectively (some errors are only evident when you watch the stuff on the wire, not the high-level requests).
Also, software sniffers are imperfect. I've had issues with them. A physical hardware device is completely transparent and can work without either side noticing anything. Sure, you can make do with a software sniffer sometimes, but that doesn't mean there's no point to a hardware version.
And since this is open, it can be repurposed for other uses. For example, you could use only the device port, and turn it into a kind of usb device-to-device bridge that lets your computer impersonate a USB device. That is currently not possible except on embedded systems with USB device controllers, and those have limitations. You could also use it as a pretty good logic analyzer, given proper firmware.