Hardware Hacking 189
Hardware Hacking | |
author | Joe Grand, Ryan Russell and Kevin Mitnick |
pages | 537 |
publisher | Syngress |
rating | 8 |
reviewer | Blaine Hilton |
ISBN | 1932266836 |
summary | Walks anyone through the process of modifying common electronic hardware. |
The authors' explanations of many of the terms and concepts used in the book are very good. For example, the description of "power" on page 20 is the best description of the term that I've ever heard or read. From first-hand experience trying to explain this concept to others I wish I'd known such a lucid explanation -- it explained the concept much better than longer, dryer text would have.
Another positive point to this book is the pace and order of the book. It starts with part one, which is an overview of working with hardware; part two is a collection of hacks that one can do on different devices. If, like me, you never really did any thing with the Atari, you could skip those chapters and still proceed with the book. This book is easy to carry because there the authors frequently provide directions to other resources rather than trying to cram everything into this one book.
Like I said, I'm not too interested in Atari hacking, but the idea presented in this book (in an Atari-centric context) for a standard power connector is good for other things too. This is one of the biggest strengths of this book: The examples themselves are highly specific, but the thinking behind them can easily be generalized.
The first part of the book briefly explores tools that are going to be used later in the hacks and how to use them. However I found it a bit odd that the authors tell you to use a heat gun and heat-shrink tubing, but do not list these items in the tools section.
The fun really begins in part two with the actual hardware hacking. I have never really done anything with hardware before. It seems like whenever I took something apart I could never get it back again, and that those times that I did get something back it would never quite work as it should again. Those experiences have taught me to not mess with things I shouldn't and, this is why I think it's great that part two begins with the ubiquitous and cheap CueCat. I had a couple of these lying around and didn't really care about them so I jumped right in, following the many clear explanatory photos.
Starting with something like this gave me the confidence that I can take stuff apart, and if I'm careful, it will go back again.
The order of chapters seemed a bit odd in part two, though. A book must be arranged in some type of order, and my gut feeling is that it should be by order of difficulty. The second part started off great, going over tools and then the CueCat, but then it seems like the chapters that follow are tossed in at random. This could be from my lack of hardware experience, or that the chapters were designed to be random. This fact really didn't distract from anything though. Just don't expect a linear progression.
I was able to appreciate the integration between the hardware and the software. Hardware Hacking also goes over the software side of the hardware involved.
One of the areas I wish they had given more attention to was in the chapter on the Macintosh where they are hacking a CRT monitor. I believe that the safety warning should probably be a bit bolder, especially considering the earlier, prominent advice about static energy and grounding.
The authors have used part three as a technical reference, including some frank talk about Linux vs. Windows in chapter six. Sure, many people like Linux better, however you have to take into consideration who will be using the system. In a system the whole family uses, it has to be user-friendly enough for the whole family to use.
If changing hardware to better suit your needs sounds like something you would like to try, but you don't know how and are worried about what might happen, then this book may just be able to convince you go for it, along with enough information to make your next warranty-voiding attempt a success.
You can purchase Hardware Hacking from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Good review (Score:2)
Good review - NOT (Score:5, Insightful)
A review should tell me why I might want this book; this review did not.
Re:Good review - NOT (Score:5, Informative)
Ok, my bad. (Score:4, Informative)
It s a number. (Score:2)
Re:Good review (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Good review (Score:2)
Also if you need a general EE reference (circuits, filtering, fields, compatability, etc) I'd go with Kaiser's Electromagnetic Compatibility Handbook. It's not released yet but I have a pre-press edition for review and it is THE most thorough book on basic EE that I have
Re:Good review (Score:2)
Sample Chapter (Score:5, Informative)
more info (Score:2, Insightful)
Not that great anyways (Score:2)
I picked up the book recently and was disappointed by it. It really doesn't provide the indepth knowledge anyone would be looking for.
All in all I would say if you never touched electronics before, then go for this book. If not, your just gonna take it back like I did.
Mouse hack (Score:1, Funny)
Tcd004
Re:Mouse hack (Score:4, Funny)
Shrink Tubing (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Shrink Tubing (Score:1)
Just slightly above duct tape in the "tool" chain. And everyone knows nothing defines quality like wrinkles in the duct tape.
Re:Shrink Tubing (Score:1, Flamebait)
Your Mom?
Re:Shrink Tubing (Score:3, Informative)
Heatshrink is a *BITCH* to remove. It tends to harden when heated so a razor will barely cut it.
Re:Shrink Tubing (Score:2)
Re:Shrink Tubing (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, yes, I have. It was used in some mil-spec fiber-optic connectors. But you certainly won't find any at Radio Shock.
Re:Shrink Tubing (Score:1)
This smells like a repeat review.. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:This smells like a repeat review.. (Score:5, Informative)
Because the target audience isn't thick?? (Score:2, Troll)
But you're right, it is a pretty big leap to expect people to grasp what the "heat gun" does...
What a dick I am... (Score:2)
Should of course be: 'in order to make it "shrink"'.
Re:Because the target audience isn't thick?? (Score:1, Interesting)
If there is a "tools" section at all, then it should be complete. Having an incomplete tools section is worse than having no tools section at all.
Whether I can figure out "heat-shrink", has little to do with whether I have some lying around for when I get to that point.
Re:Because the target audience isn't thick?? (Score:2, Informative)
However, each hack within each chapter of the book lists the -specific- t
"Hacking" in title (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:"Hacking" in title (Score:1)
My god, Mitnick is still around for his age?
I thought by now he'd be hard at work on his next books, "Hacking your Walker and Wheelchair for Extra Speed" and "How to Social Engineer Your Way Out of the Nursing Home for a Day".
Re:"Hacking" in title (Score:1)
Re:"Hacking" in title (Score:2)
The sins of your youth shall be visited upon you with redoubled fury in your old age.
Yes but its... (Score:1)
..the quote [harcourt-i...tional.com] you have to love.
Good for beginners (Score:5, Interesting)
--
Hot Deals [retailretreat.com]
Re:Good for beginners (Score:5, Informative)
Actually for relatively small scale projects, and working with embedded controllers (from "basic stamps" to 8/16/32-bit controllers, ie. 8051 and such) I've found that Circuit Cellar [circuitcellar.com] is a pretty good magazine. They've had articles on wireless apps, robotics, and other stuff with a focus on hardware and practical details. A pretty fun read if your into tinkering with hardware (disclaimer - I'm speaking as a EE, so your definition of "fun" may differ).
Re:Good for beginners (Score:2)
This is a little off-topic, but if you're an EE and you think hardware hacking is "fun", then you're certainly not a typical EE. I work in a huge company full of EE's, and I've never met anyone here that actually cared about tinking with anything electrical (or anything at all really). I think I'm the only EE I know that does.
Basically, I think that spitting out "EE" like that is perpetuating a bad stereotype, that engineers are
Re:Good for beginners (Score:1)
Agreed. I'm another one of those few. Most of my classmates in school were there to get the grades and then go get some stupid programming job (maybe firmware instead of high level
Re:Good for beginners (Score:2)
Re:Good for beginners (Score:2)
I work in a huge company full of EE's, and I've never met anyone here that actually cared about tinking with anything electrical
This is similar to almost any field, whereby you generally don't have hobbies that are TOO much like work, because it comes across as the same as working. However that said, I know quite a few EEs who are the 'build your own hardware from scratch' kind of people like myself. My day job is analog/wireless IC design. The mag that I referenced was primarily embedded design (disc
Re:Good for beginners (Score:2)
I got into EE because I wanted a job that I actually liked. But the reality was that companies find a way to take something interesting and make it into drudgery. My day job involves validation of ICs in the pre-silicon design stage. I can't say this is exactly what I was shooting for when I was in college; it's just what happened to have open positio
atari hacking (Score:4, Interesting)
Who wants to hack an Atari. They are so hard to come buy that if you screw it up you'll be kicking yourself for months. Trust me, I know.
Re:atari hacking (Score:1)
I thought about taking 1 but decided it would probably just add to the collection of junk in my closets/basement that I had when I was a kid.
Re:atari hacking (Score:1)
And *then* I could play Super Cobra!
Book Breakthough? (Score:5, Funny)
Another positive point to this book is the pace and order of the book. It starts with part one,...
That struck me as kind of funny. I'd hope that all books start out that way. God help us when books start at part two.
Re:Book Breakthough? (Score:5, Funny)
Or when movies start at Part IV.
Re:Book Breakthough? (Score:2)
touché
Re:Book Breakthough? (Score:2)
(History of the World)
Re:Book Breakthough? (Score:2)
Isaac Asimov wrote a scifi novel that started at chapter six. I think it was The Gods Themselves.
Chapters one through five did eventually show up.
SteveM
Re:Book Breakthough? (Score:4, Funny)
Of course, were you a true geek, you'd know that it should have started at Part 0.
We're going to have to revoke your Slashdot ID now...
Re:Book Breakthough? (Score:2)
Go check an organic chemistry textbook. They generally start with part twenty-six...
Re:Book Breakthough? (Score:1)
Re:Book Breakthough? (Score:2)
Mitnick (Score:5, Informative)
I seen his name, instinctivley picked the book up, and read a few chapters, spent nearly an hour leaned up against the shelf and Barnes and Noble. I guess they have chairs there for a reason...
It's a pretty good read, but it's not quite for the 'Tech TV' crowd, it's actually kind of advanced and detailed.
Re:Mitnick (Score:1, Funny)
I automatically read the whole post as if you were a Tornado witness.
An then ah just heard this roar like this.... WAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH.... that's when I thought it gawt ma!
How about wetware hacking? (Score:5, Interesting)
Hardware hacking of all kinds is cool, but as I more intimately familiar with mechanical engineering and know that I have to take electrical engineering courses beginning next year perhaps this book will help. Can anyone second the review?
Re:How about wetware hacking? (Score:1)
As I'm sure someone will complain if I don't mention it, I will warn you that the Web site is very poorly designed. However, if you're willing to dig for it, there is a wealth of information in the Erowid Psychoactive Vaults on how to use drugs without getting killed, which drugs to use for what ends, and where to look for more information on a given drug.
Happy tripping!
This book is a walking DMCA violater's manual! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This book is a walking DMCA violater's manual! (Score:1)
Re:This book is a walking DMCA violater's manual! (Score:4, Funny)
All hail friend computer!
Re:This book is a walking DMCA violater's manual! (Score:2)
All hail friend computer.
Re:This book is a walking DMCA violater's manual! (Score:2)
"Remember that it's illegal to connect pin 5 of the foobar chip with pin 9 of the whizbang microcontroller of your mobile phone, thus allowing you to snoop other conversations in your vicinity. This very simple modification, as shown in figure 5, is prohibited by law. Don't do this."
Should we really write books this way (again)?
Thanks for all the comments! (Score:5, Interesting)
For what it's worth, the full title of the book is "Hardware Hacking: Have Fun While Voiding Your Warranty".
As for the real mindset of a (hardware) hacker, true, that cannot be taught. But, it doesn't mean that more mainstream readers are not curious about tinkering with hardware. Getting people to think outside of what they are normally taught is the important thing and hopefully they'll benefit from the book.
I wanted to try and include something for everybody in this book. So, the introductory EE, coding, and OS chapters are for people who might not have a sense of those things (to tell you the truth, I use the EE chapter, which I wrote, as a reference guide all the time). The hacks range from easy (changing the LED in a Macintosh mouse or Atari 7800 Power indicator) to complex (Marcus Brown's Playstation 2 Independence Day hack). And, there's a wide range of hardware to play with, too.
I'd like to think there is something for everyone (well, almost everyone). You don't have to have extreme hardware skills or have an engineering degree to enjoy the book and rip your products apart. The worst you can do is break something, but that's part of the fun!
Joe
PS - PDFs of the TOC, Foreword, and Introduction can be found here [grandideastudio.com].
Re:Thanks for all the comments! (Score:1, Offtopic)
First, my monitor is huge. Frickin' huge. And it's set to a really high resolution. Your website, though, seems to be set to an absolute height (592 px) and width (770px), and so is this tiny box taking up about a third of the screen, centered. Wouldn't be so bad, except I have to scroll down. A lot. With all this blank space around, unused.
Second, 'Books & Chapters' is confusing placed underneath 'Computer Security', which makes it difficult to
Re:Thanks for all the comments! (Score:2)
Badger Hacking? (Score:1)
I know, I know, I brought it up again... So kill my karma.
Re:Badger Hacking? (Score:1)
Is it dead so long that it has grown Mushroom Mushrooms [newgrounds.com]?
Electronic Grounding Helps Technically (Score:5, Interesting)
Jonah Hex
Re:Electronic Grounding Helps Technically (Score:2, Funny)
Why I've never been a hacker of hardware (Score:5, Interesting)
He looked at me, pointed at a chip and said "See that? Those cost $100 apiece. I have 4 of them, and they take 3 weeks to order. I can't afford to blow it up." And went back to his work.
I always remembered that as the best demonstration of the difference between hardware geeks and software geeks. Software geeks abide by neither the laws of physics nor economics.
Re:Why I've never been a hacker of hardware (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, and if you didn't have some real engineers around to understand and operate within the constraints of those laws, you wouldn't have had that precious 286 on which to compile.
Did some say ATARI? (Score:3, Insightful)
Regarding hardware hacking in general, I think one of the best ways to get started is with a BASIC Stamp, like from parallax [parallax.com]. It really lets you expore the interface between software and hardware.
I kind of wish the review gave me a better feel for the book. I'm getting better in my hardware, but I'm not beyond a good textbook to lean on for some things.
Re:Did some say ATARI? (Score:2)
For those who think a mere link to the books TOC isn't actually an answer to the question, the book seems to concentrate on mods for the early Atari consoles, like the 2600, 5200, and 7800. Other notable devices listed as subjects in the TOC include:
PlayStation 2
802.11 devices
iPod
Nokia 6210
Palm devices
Review of the Review (Score:1, Interesting)
I'm leery of any reviews which are completely positive. A reviewer should sit down and make a list of topics they expect should be in a book based upon what's presented on the book's cover and introduction. How high|low should the skill level be? How about themes|elem
Chapter on the DMCA? (Score:4, Informative)
From the Publisher [barnesandnoble.com]:
Which makes me ask, is there a chapter on your potential liability under the DMCA? [eff.org] --
Drinkers Purgatory [purevolume.com]
Then again, does the book violate the DMCA? (Score:3, Interesting)
Thanks for the calm, rational and respectful reply. Did more research. Turns out that, at least as far as Sony is concerned, the presence of a "mod chip" is not necessary to allege a violation of the DMCA. Indeed, as noted by Prof. David S. Touretzky at Carnegie Mellon University [cmu.edu], merely publishing information aiding circumvention of a
Re:Then again, does the book violate the DMCA? (Score:2)
Dude!!! Welcome to Slashdot
Dun, dun duhhhhhhh! (Score:1)
Mental image (Score:5, Funny)
I suddenly have this mental image of Wile E. Coyote standing over an open monitor, covered in black soot, smoke swirling off of his head...
Re:Mental image (Score:2)
Re:Mental image (Score:2)
The XGameStation (Score:2, Informative)
Check this out some time: XGameStation [xgamestation.com].
This may have been posted to Slashdot before, but it is worth bringing up again since its been at the "Pre-Orders Coming Soon!" stage to quite some time now.
This is Andre LaMothe's little project (little?), that when it comes to fruition will be a bad-assed tutorial on not only hacking together your own computer but all the neat programming that goes into getting it up and running as a fully functional console game system.
Anyway, I can't wait to get my hands
Mod chips? (Score:2)
Re:Mod chips? (Score:1)
Web search for "thebroken", an amateur "TV" show devoted to hacking. The episodes are downloadable. On one show, they walk through installing a mod chip for each of the 3 videogame consoles.
furby? (Score:2, Funny)
"secuity of the devices" (Score:1)
"Hacking in this sense refers to modifying these devices to perform in a manner not originally intended; not compromising the security of the devices"
shame that Amazon assume that people will immediately read "Hacking" as "Cracking"
Hardcore hardware hackers!?? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:somewhat misleading.. (Score:4, Interesting)
1. Enough understanding to use an item. This can be rather little, if the internal details are encapsulated well enough.
2. Sufficient to interface to or enhance an item. This requires more information, but the interfaces generally mean that you need less information about the internal details as well.
3. Sufficient to build an item. This requires significantly more knowledge, but depending upon the state of the art attempted, may not require a professional practitioner.
4. Sufficient to design an item. This is really where professional training and practice come into the requirements, but this level is not required to be able to do interesting things with most hardware!
Re:somewhat misleading.. (Score:2, Insightful)
I have a MS in CompSci and a few electrical eng. courses. I certainly don't have the skills to build a computer, but I most certainly understand how it works.
Regards, naeem
Re:somewhat misleading.. (Score:2)
Re:w00t!!!! (Score:2)
I'm just sayin'.
Re:w00t!!!! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Amazon has it cheaper... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.bookpool.com/.x/ierdixxv34/ss/1?qs=har
Disclosure Note: I wrote part of the book, and the deal the publisher has with Bookpool sometimes results in slightly higher royalties for me. They do often have the best price, though.
You can do your own comparison shopping, of course:
http://isbn.nu/1932266836/shipover/ [isbn.nu]
Your best deal usually depends on shipping.
Re:Amazon has it cheaper... (Score:1)
Re:Amazon has it cheaper... (Score:2)
How very honest of you. I think I will look very seriously at this book because of this. I am a software hacker and have always wanted to know a bit more on the hardware side.
Thank You.
Sera
Re:Amazon has it cheaper... (Score:2)
Re:Power (Score:1)
Yup, that's an elusive one all right.
Apparently so. It's Work/Time. (energy per unit
time) E.g., 1 watt = 1 joule per second.
Re:Power (Score:4, Informative)
My high school physics teacher warned his students of the pitfalls of trying to use this term as if it were intuitive with the following example. When you lift a weight, you do a certain amount of work. When you hold the weight in place at a certain height, are you doing work? Most people will answer "yes", because it's hard to hold the weight there, so they feel that they would be doing some "work" by doing so. The proper answer, from a physics perspective, is "no", because while you're applying a certain force to the weight to hold it up, the distance through which you move it is zero, so that work = force * 0 = 0.
Just a little reminder that the physical definitions of common terms can't always be used intuitively. By the way, if I remember correctly, the answer to the question I posed in the first paragraph is that force * distance has the same units as energy, so that work can be seen as a quantity of energy being transferred.
Re:Power (Score:2)
Nope. You have the force of gravity acting upon your hand, and you are doing work to stay put in that position. You did not frame the problem completely - when the system includes another object (Earth) exerting an opposing force, it's no longer as simple as force * distance.
Re:Kev's an author? (Score:4, Interesting)
If you didn't notice, his tagline on the cover is obviously tongue-in-cheek, as there is nothing illegal in the book.
And yes, his name does help sell books. But no, he doesn't get a cut.
Joe
Re:Kev's an author? (Score:1)
Joe
Re:Linux vs. Windows?!?? (Score:2)
It came up because I did a chapter on HTPCs, and built a Windows HTPC and a Linux HTPC, and discussed the relative merits of each platform.
I agree. Tilman gave up everything for nothing (Score:2)