On 18 December 2012 16:17, Dave Hughes <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi everyone, > > On 12/12/12 11:50, Safe Hammad wrote: > [snip] > > Other ideas? > > A talk I'm working on at the moment is derived from another of my > unofficial university excursions. It's not terribly Python specific, but > it's turning out to be much more "audience interactive" than just a > talk, so might be more appropriate for a coding session. > > Basically, it's about reverse engineering stuff, in this case the serial > protocol of a data-logger device that one of Holly's colleagues at the > uni was struggling with. The only software they had for it was written > for Windows 3.1 (!) and naturally they were having a tough time getting > it to work on anything even vaguely modern. I said I'd take a look, and > we've now got a fair way along with a cross-platform Python-based suite > of apps for working with these devices. > > Anyway, as part of the reverse engineering process I built a little > emulator which acts (almost) exactly like one of these data loggers > (mostly so I could play around with it without having to take it home > and deprive them of it), so I'm thinking it might be fun to run a > session where people try and replicate what I did on the day (with the > emulator taking the part of the data logger), with some hints on how to > start reverse engineering something, and how to interpret the things one > sees when looking at raw communication protocols (if possible I'd like > to get the emulator onto a Pi so it can be handed around easily). > > Not sure if I can get it all ready for this Thursday, but is this the > sort of thing anybody might be interested in? >
Very interested! I don't think it's something we've attempted before at PyNW but being very problem-solving and "puzzle" oriented, I reckon it'll be good fun. On a personal note, reverse engineering is something I'll do on a very occasional basis, but the approach taken is always very ad hoc and informal. It would be interesting to learn whether we would be able to analyse and formalise the approach taken to reverse engineer the data-logger device. > > > > > fyi ... MadLab is also holding an End of Year party on Tuesday 18th > > December to which we're cordially invited! Details > > here: http://madlab.org.uk/content/madlab-end-of-year-party/ > > > > Wish I could make it, but sadly I'm still recovering from some form of > lurgy at the moment (should be over it by Thursday!) ... which of course > has nothing to do with me having time to write up a workshop ... ahem. > > > Cheers, > > Dave. > > -- > To post: [email protected] > To unsubscribe: [email protected] > Feeds: http://groups.google.com/group/python-north-west/feeds > More options: http://groups.google.com/group/python-north-west > -- To post: [email protected] To unsubscribe: [email protected] Feeds: http://groups.google.com/group/python-north-west/feeds More options: http://groups.google.com/group/python-north-west
