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Cool, there is a scene in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon where the protagonist programs his keyboard lights to play back messages to him in Morse Code. I had n

by alex_h 13y ago

Cool, there is a scene in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon where the protagonist programs his keyboard lights to play back messages to him in Morse Code. I had no idea it had been implemented IRL.

pestaa 13y ago
That's certainly fun in a book, but honestly I'd freak out and suspect a virus if my Linux machine went mayday and the keyboard goes equally crazy.
- gizmo686 13y ago
  If your computer starts acting visibly funny (as apposed to funny in the sense of weird processes or network activity), you can almost entirely rule out a virus, those like to stay hidden.
  - vidarh 13y ago
    That's an interesting observation actually, because it didn't use to be the case. It used to be the case that most viruses would intentionally make a nuisance of themselves or display messages every now and again (e.g. you might get a message on boot every 10 times or so - too often and they would get eradicated before they spread). Viruses that are intended to stay hidden and undiscovered is a new thing, relatively speaking.
georgemcbay 13y ago
Back in the early days of CHDK (custom firmware for Canon cameras) they would dump the original firmware code of new cameras by writing a tiny loader (that looked like a firmware update program to the camera), put that loader on a memory card in the camera, run the loader on the camera via the firmware upgrade menu option and that loader would just read the original firmware out of memory and blink an LED on the camera over time to send out all the bytes of the original firmware. A computer would then capture that signal with a photodiode connected via serial port or sound/mic input resulting in a binary dump of the camera's original firmware on the remote computer where it could be disassembled and reverse engineered and (eventually) extended to have all sorts of functions the camera didn't ship with. http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Obtaining_a_firmware_dump http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Obtaining_a_firmware_dump
firegrind 13y ago
tleds (http://users.tkk.fi/jlohikos/tleds http://users.tkk.fi/jlohikos/tleds) reported network information by flashing the caps, num and scroll lock lights on your keyboard.

by alex_h 13y ago

Cool, there is a scene in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon where the protagonist programs his keyboard lights to play back messages to him in Morse Code. I had no idea it had been implemented IRL.

pestaa 13y ago

That's certainly fun in a book, but honestly I'd freak out and suspect a virus if my Linux machine went mayday and the keyboard goes equally crazy.

gizmo686 13y ago
If your computer starts acting visibly funny (as apposed to funny in the sense of weird processes or network activity), you can almost entirely rule out a virus, those like to stay hidden.
- vidarh 13y ago
  That's an interesting observation actually, because it didn't use to be the case. It used to be the case that most viruses would intentionally make a nuisance of themselves or display messages every now and again (e.g. you might get a message on boot every 10 times or so - too often and they would get eradicated before they spread). Viruses that are intended to stay hidden and undiscovered is a new thing, relatively speaking.

georgemcbay 13y ago

Back in the early days of CHDK (custom firmware for Canon cameras) they would dump the original firmware code of new cameras by writing a tiny loader (that looked like a firmware update program to the camera), put that loader on a memory card in the camera, run the loader on the camera via the firmware upgrade menu option and that loader would just read the original firmware out of memory and blink an LED on the camera over time to send out all the bytes of the original firmware. A computer would then capture that signal with a photodiode connected via serial port or sound/mic input resulting in a binary dump of the camera's original firmware on the remote computer where it could be disassembled and reverse engineered and (eventually) extended to have all sorts of functions the camera didn't ship with. http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Obtaining_a_firmware_dump http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Obtaining_a_firmware_dump

firegrind 13y ago

tleds (http://users.tkk.fi/jlohikos/tleds http://users.tkk.fi/jlohikos/tleds) reported network information by flashing the caps, num and scroll lock lights on your keyboard.