The positives of a long, snowy Minnesota Winter.

Posted on by

This has been a long, snowy, perhaps difficult Minnesota Winter. However, I don’t ever remember one with such awesome sights. I can’t wait for Spring to arrive, but I sure don’t mind scenes of Winter mornings such as today, on the drive to Nerstrand.

VIP tour of Johnson Space Center

Posted on by

Earlier this week, I had an opportunity to take a VIP tour of Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and it’s definitely not something to be missed. Here I am in a now unused space shuttle flight deck simulator in the Shuttle Avionics Innovation Laboratory, as well as the visitor gallery of the historical Apollo and present day ISS mission control rooms. I actually got a chance to tour the Apollo control room itself.

Spyware in the Beijing Olympics Apps

Posted on by
Jonathan Scott, a PhD candidate that researches mobile malware/spyware/forensics in Boerne, TX, recently decrypted and decompiled the 2022 official Beijing Olympics Apps that athletes are required to install on their iPhone or Android phones. They are supposed to be used for data collection for COVID-19 and for Olympic medal notification. Instead, what he found, was that the apps not only record and send audio from the phone microphone and capture clipboard contents, but they contain AI technology that was trade blacklisted in the United States back in 2019.

While the spying in particular is not a huge surprise, what IS a surprise is that the app either 1) Got past both Apple and Google’s safety-assurance processes ensuring apps are safe to use (in fact, Apple specifically states there is no data collection from this app). , or 2) These apps were given special treatment by Apple and Google to work around the usual process for app approval.

Do I believe that Apple and Google, the top 2 of 3 technology companies in the world, had their top security experts fooled into thinking the app was safe? Well, certainly both have had instances of being caught not doing their due diligence, but both companies, about the same app? Interesting.

No comment from most U.S. press and government so far. The very first news agencies are just picking up on this story.

Decompiled App source code from Jonathan’s GitHub: https://github.com/jonathandata1/2022_beijing

Netflix, 24 years ago!

Posted on by

May 1999…Way before streaming was really a thing, except for RealPlayer of course, I placed a rental order for 2 DVDs through a new mail order movie service called Netflix. You simply received the DVDs in the mail, and returned them in a prepaid envelope when you were done watching them. The concept was new and unique. My first five rentals: Wag the Dog, Air Force One, Star Trek Insurrection, The X-Files, and You’ve Got Mail. What ever happened to that Netflix company?

Alpine iLX-F409 Halo9 9″ Touchscreen w/ Android Auto & Apple CarPlay Install in 1988 3rd Gen Camaro

Posted on by

Here’s a finished installation of Alpine’s iLX-F409 9″ Halo9 Multimedia Touchscreen Receiver w/ Bluetooth, SiriusXM, Hands-Free Kit, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, HDMI in/out, and rear backup camera, in a 1988 Third Generation Camaro. The iLX-F409 is among a small handful of receivers that install in a single-din slot, have a permanent (non-mechanized) touchscreen, and support Android Auto.

For installation in a third generation Camaro, the following parts were acquired and installed:
– Alpine iLX-F409 Halo9 Multimedia Receiver w/ Sirius Tuner: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B…
– Crutchfield Single DIN mounting kit for 82-92 Camaro (already had this per previous Kenwood receiver installation)
– Parking Brake Bypass Module for Alpine: https://www.ebay.com/itm/265100742220
– Composite Backup Camera w/ Hidden Rear License Plate Mount: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B…

The background wallpaper on the receiver is customizable, and the 80s retro cyan and magenta Camaro background was designed in Photoshop by yours truly.

Wiring Details that I noted on my car (yours could be different, so proceed with caution):

Alpine System Colors === Camaro Wiring Harness Colors

REMO (Blue/White) === Power Control terminal on amplifier AND Blue on Parking Brake Bypass
REVERSE (Orange/White) === Light Green on Transmission (Reverse Switch on Gear Selector) and Red Wires on Backup Camera
P.ANT (Blue) === Red (Power Antenna)
PARKING BRAKE (Yellow/Blue) === YELLOW on Parking Brake Bypass
ACC (Red) === Yellow (12v IGN switch)
BATT (Yellow) === Orange (12v all the time)
GND (Black) === Black (Ground) AND Black (Ground) on Parking Brake Bypass
Green === Yellow Left Rear+
Green/Black === Dark Brown Left Rear-
White === Light Brown Left Front+
White/Black === Light Grey Left Front-
Gray/Black === Light Green Right Front-
Gray === Dark Green Right Front+
Violet/Black === Blue Rear Right-
Violet === Light Blue Rear Right+

=========

Parking Brake Bypass:

1 BLACK wire on Bypass to radios black wire (radio ground wire(-))
2 BLUE wire on Bypass to BLUE/WHITE STRIPE wire ( remote turn on (+)) on Alpine Radio
3 YELLOW wire on Bypass to YELLOW/BLUE wire [Parking Brake(-)] on Alpine Radio only
4 GREEN wire on Bypass NOT CONNECTED

=========

Automatic Transmission Switch:

Left/Driver side of transmission body, 2 prong plug, underneath shifter.
Dark Blue: +12v Ignition
Light Green: +12v when in reverse (connect to REVERSE on stereo and red wires of backup camera)

A 5 1/4″ floppy drive connected with USB?

Posted on by
Yup…that’s a 5 1/4″ Floppy Disk Drive, connected via USB to my computer. This board called a Greaseweazle reads the raw flux transitions from a floppy disk and recreates them as disk drive image files for modern computers. I just found disks full of music, sound files, and BASIC source code that I haven’t heard or seen since 1991, lost deep in formatted-over disks on an obsolete media that was impossible to read. Until now…If you have any IBM-PC formatted 5 1/4″ disks that might have some memories on them, I’m your guy.

Next, I need to work on reading old Apple ][ disks.