Weekly breakdown – 22w37d3

Security

https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/115/

Listen to the podcast episode and replace mentions of games with i.e. cars.
It should raise a lot of eyebrows.

It is really not hard to image black market for all kinds of:

  • Standard: Enabling features
    Example with BMW’s subscription for more smart headlights, or Tesla’s back seat warmers.
  • Scarier: Disabling features
    Usual theft protection, but also removing any safety limitations, like speed limit, alcohol checks, hands-off-steer check, etc.
    Even now you can buy speed limit disabling feature for even most expensive electric bikes with top-of-line security features that allows you to go from limit of 25 km/h to over 40 km/h where only limit is the battery capacity.

All of this already exists, but at the moment, is not the most scalable business.
To ‘pimp-up’ your current generation cars, you would need to go to a ‘guy’ or a shady shop to make changes.

But the cars are becoming ‘smarter’. Over-the-air updates and all new fancy features allows you to make changes remotely from any part of the world.

And there lies huge black-market opportunity for finding bugs and loopholes, as no software and protection is perfect.
Just check yearly Android bug-list and their severity, even if it is owned developed by all-mighty Google.

If there is a sprawling market for cheats for 50$ games, imagine an opportunity for ‘cheats’ in 50000$+ car.

It is not hard to imagine a 100% online subscription service that will allow you to receive all kinds of un-official โ€™improvementsโ€™ applied automatically to your car.

Thanks goes to Patrik Thunstrรถm for sharing this podcast gem and fun discussion ๐Ÿ™‚

Programming

https://calebhearth.com/fan-out-vs-fan-in

Another way how to look at code complexity and how to prevent it during design or in refactor.

As with everything, it should not be followed blindly, as the original complexity could end up moving into ever-evolving wrapper classes.
Check Law of Demeter for more information.

Big tech monopoly

https://cfenollosa.com/blog/after-self-hosting-my-email-for-twenty-three-years-i-have-thrown-in-the-towel-the-oligopoly-has-won.html

One more take on how big tech companies have taken over internet from original intent.
If you have ever found legitimate mail ending up in spam folder of your free mail service out of sudden, or not delivered, this is primary reason.

Old but gold: When the product is free, you are the product.

Fun

https://github.com/IdreesInc/Minecraft-Font

For the ones with kids or feel like one ๐Ÿ™‚

Fragile Manifesto

Go-to manifest, more often than not ๐Ÿ™‚

Weekly breakdown โ€“ 22w32d1

Programming

https://nnethercote.github.io/2022/07/27/twenty-years-of-valgrind.html

For the ones writing low-level and/or in ‘unsafe’ languages, Valgrind is one of the tool suites to use regularly.

Linked text from one of the creators of Valgrind provides brief of its interesting history, and more importantly, links to high quality papers describing how Valgrind actually works under the hood and is able to to what it does.

Note that Valgrind is not the only good tool that Nicholas and Julian have made.

Security

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/07/researchers-unpack-unkillable-uefi-rootkit-that-survives-os-reinstalls/

This is expected development since obfuscation-as-a-security method failed spectacularly in hack of Intel Management Engine in the motherboard chip-sets.

News

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-25/porsches-postponed-by-buggy-software-cost-vw-s-ceo-his-job

One of the first big names in car industry to be ‘eaten’ by software.

As all modern car manufacturers are moving to become software first company, they are also learning hard lessons that:

Current state of software engineering is less engineering and more craftsmanship, with all its implications on quality, planning, timelines and ‘manufacturing’.

The software craftsmanship is a separate topic for another day ๐Ÿ™‚

Weekly breakdown – 22w24d3

Automotive

https://fortune.com/2022/06/10/elon-musk-tesla-nhtsa-investigation-traffic-safety-autonomous-fsd-fatal-probe

The more cars Tesla sells, the more issues will be found, and not just technical ones.

It is hard to escape law of large numbers and Gaussian bell curve, especially the more organization grows.

And the below quote paints potentially damning decision how ‘Autopilot’ functionality handles itself in accident situations.

(really short rant ahead)

In general terms I consider Elon Musk as a quite smart guy with extremely good sales and marketing talent.

But sales is usually selling features that are not (yet) there and/or overblown capability of existing functionality.

Just look at the naming of ‘Autopilot’ feature of Tesla cars with actual level 2 autonomy.
If you check the meaning of level 2 autonomy, ‘Autopilot’ is in no way autonomous and ‘auto’ as the name strongly suggest.

Heck, Tesla has been already surpassed by Mercedes and Honda with limited, but legally approved level 3 automation mode, where the car manufacturer is actually responsible in case of accident when it is enabled and running in command.

Old-school car manufacturer juggernauts are slow (some will crash and burn), but will eventually catch-up and overwhelm Tesla unless it comes up with something radical, and so far nothing is announced.
And if it we’re, Musk is famous for over-promising and under-delivering on those, for those who follow.

And the famous Tesla bots will not be able to help it.

But I have been wrong, and it will be fun to watch ๐Ÿ™‚

Fun

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/working-lego-computer-brick

Make your own fully functioning Lego computer block ๐Ÿ™‚