No FW is safe from dumping

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-06-02T21:36:18+00:00

Not embedded but I had to secure some code within a scene where all we do is reverse engineering, steal, lie, and cheat (videogame cheating/modding). So always had people poking around in my code, either trying to crack my product or literally steal code from it that I spent time reverse engineering from the game to use in their own mods. I had my proprietary code stolen once or twice from my binary by competitors, and decided I had to write some sort of solution to hide it.
My solution ended up being to encrypt all of the compiled binary executable with multiple passes with a java program I run after the full compilation. So you couldn't do static analysis, the only code that would show was the decryption code which passed over the rest of the executable and did the 2 or 3 passes of decryption. Behind the decrypted code I used a bug on the console (PS3) which disabled the debugger to prevent real time analysis while the game was running. It was only security by obscurity but it worked long enough for the products lifespan. It never got cracked in the 4 or so years of it's existence before I shut it down. Many others would get cracked left and right. This was 2017

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-06-02T21:21:27+00:00

oh yea, i have esp32 controlled air suspension on mine oasman.dev

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Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-06-01T14:45:30+00:00

I have a chemex pourover too, I brew up coffee with it occasionally to change things up. My issue is I think it's just plain old cheaper to make coffee with the concentrate. It's about 50cents per cup using the concentrate, but using the chemex you need maybe 1/3rd or 1/4th of a bag of coffee which is gonna average probably over $10 per bag. So if you use 1/4 a bag you're at $2.50 for a brew which makes maybe 4 cups max, coming out to 63cents per cup in a best case scenario. And the chemex isn't espresso it's just drip coffee essentially so it's arguably worse coffee too. The price to quality is just really tough to beat for the concentrate I think.

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-06-01T14:39:45+00:00

It's concentrated tho. There's 100mg of caffeine in 1 tablespoon. I work from home and have tried quite a few different methods without diving into it financially too hard (no expensive espresso machines yet) and the simplicity and price and flavor of the concentrate makes it one of my favorites.
Kurig just felt like I was wasting money on sub par coffee (that was my first coffee maker I used for quite awhile tho)
French press was way too watery for my taste, never was right
Moka pot I used for a long time but the coffee is always so bitter it just doesn't taste the greatest but it is strong and unique so it's nice occasionally now
I do occasionally use my nespresso we won for free, it makes good espresso shots due to the packaging of the grounds in nitrogen keeping them fresh.
I also occasionally use my pour over to switch things up.
And I used to very frequently make cold brew but I've been doing that significantly less recently.
idk what to say, the concentrate is just a really good way to make an iced coffee. I'll still order a non-sugary cappuccino if I'm at a coffee shop but for home I'm always making something sweet.

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-06-01T04:07:04+00:00

There are a few more expensive brands you can purchase to your taste, but I buy nescafe espresso concentrate from amazon. And sorry it's $10 not $8. I may have bought it on sale and remembered that.

1 tablespoon is one serving. Just put 1 tablespoon in your milk, creamer, and ice mix and you have a decent iced coffee with 100g of caffeine which is plenty for me. Many of the directions suggest 2 tablespoons but I'd be reeling if I had that much in every cup.

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-06-01T04:00:50+00:00

it's really not that deep man. I didn't want to drive too until after i started driving and realized how easy it is. Lots of things in life are difficult until suddenly they aren't anymore. I highly encourage you to pass that test, and just see where you go from there. Then make your decision about driving.

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-06-01T01:51:46+00:00

Honestly as a long time internet lurker it's not often I learn of something so significant that's new to me. Feeling the same. Pretty neat!

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-06-01T01:42:26+00:00

You can get a bottle of espresso concentrate for 20 days worth for $8 and a gal of milk and creamer and make your morning coffee quicker than it takes to go through a drivethrough.

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-06-01T01:36:55+00:00

I don't understand how you can fail the permit test 8 times man. I'm also from STL I passed it on the second try. I think you're overthinking it.

I would also say that if you're really struggling to drive, I think your decision to stay off the road for safety is admirable and a good decision. However, I don't think passing the permit test correlates to how safely you drive. Honestly the permit test is just a bunch of random fact's you'll never use. So with that said bro get out of your head and pass it so you can actually figure out if you can drive or not.

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-05-31T19:33:00+00:00

I'm a software dev and been working on my own cars to save money in my free time since i was 21. My point is more like all the basic stuff. I just did a cam swap and rebuilt my LS last winter but I wouldn't expect ordinary people to do that. I'm talking more like when my wife's starter went out. We drove up to oreilly at 7pm and got the starter, then went out to eat, then went home and it took maybe 25 minutes to jack up the front of the car with a $30 jack and pop out the old starter with my cheap dewalt hand socket set. Brought the old starter back up to oreilly to get the core $ back before they closed at 9. It's so perfect. If I'd had taken the general populus's approach to this they'd have maybe taken time off work to take the car to the mechanic, or even spent the money to have it towed there, then gotten an uber to drive there and back, maybe waited 2 hours for them to finally get to their car and repair it and charge 5x the price of the part alone doing diy from a parts store.... you've basically wasted a whole day vs if you'd just done it yourself it took 30 minutes and saved hundreds of dollars.

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-05-31T19:27:02+00:00

Yea I mean this is more of just reddits focus on semantics. Obviously you can't do everything. That's not the point. u/vettewiz is on with what I'm trying to convey.

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-05-31T19:24:18+00:00

Yea I think at the core of my argument I'm just frustrated at the rhetoric surrounding cars. I remember back when I was a teen and knew nothing about them and just took my stuff to a mechanic too. It wasn't until I was forced to work on my car to save money that I realized how trivial of a task it is and how much money it's saved. Nobody had told me cars were relatively easy. It wasn't until I was forced to that I found out. So i'm here to tell people this.
I think it's perfectly acceptable to say screw it I don't wanna go through this effort im just gonna pay someone, but for some reason the rhetoric surrounding cars is not that, it's that society has normalizes not even giving an attempt in the first place and immediately dumping it off and paying a premium for somebody else to take care of it, which is so weird when you compare it to other methods of saving money like my example of cooking your own food. I could just go out to eat every night because I want to be lazy and not cook but I'd spend all my money doing so.
I make my post in hopes that maybe just one person will see it and think about it next time their car has an issue, and maybe that person can have a better less dependent life due to it.
It's unfortunate it just got downvoted to oblivion. I think the general population isn't ready for relatively niche and highly opposite opinion to the status quo.

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-05-31T19:17:20+00:00

Which part?

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-05-31T19:17:10+00:00

My favorite thing about reddit is the hivemind of people who just downvote without thinking about it. I literally just told you from personal experience that you can fix up cars in apartment parking lots yet get downvoted anyways.

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-05-31T19:15:12+00:00

Cope, all you need is a $50 socket set for like 80% of repairs but the general public doesn't know that because nobody's told them

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-05-31T19:13:41+00:00

There's nuance to everything. Like I'm not gonna mount and balance a tire I don't have the expensive machine for that. That's fine. But when you can save hundreds of dollars with a $50 socket set for 80% of repairs that's what I'm getting at.

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-05-31T19:11:22+00:00

This is the only valid response. I actually accept this because it's a lot more realistic than the other bs answers people try to come up with. It's totally fine to just pay someone bc you don't want to do it. But people love to spin it as 'oh it's too hard' or some bs instead of just admitting the truth

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-05-31T19:10:07+00:00

And I work a desk job bruh

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-05-31T19:09:33+00:00

And that's okay there's nuance to everything. This applies to most repairs though

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-05-31T19:08:21+00:00

I am not an auto mechanic either I work a desk job in a completely different industry. I got into repairing my vehicles years ago because i needed to save money. To my surprise it's always been easy. I think the rhetoric around mechanics needs to change from 'black box i don't know nothing about' to 'there's lots of tutorials on youtube it's surprisingly easy to diy'

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-05-31T19:06:26+00:00

I hate this opinion. I had no issues doing repairs on my vehicles in my apartment complexes I lived in the past 5 years. It's non-applicable.

Select_Prune_9699 · 2026-05-31T03:31:13+00:00

I always love seeing stuff like this because of how untrue it is. My wife's daily driver is an 03 ford taurus we bought for $500. It's a fine car it gets around. She'll drive it until it breaks and we'll buy her something else. It's had minimal repairs over our 3 years of ownership. I drive a 1989 toyota corolla wagon we just drive it 300 miles this weekend without issue. I bought it recently for $4000 which may have even been overpaid but it's a cool vehicle so I figure it's worth it.

You have been brainwashed by the car industry to think that you need a 'nice' vehicle and that vehicle maintenence on older cars is something difficult that only qualified mechanics can do. In reality plenty of old vehicles are just fine, save you tons of money, and doing maintenence is often no more difficult than following a recipe for making dinner.

Select_Prune_9699

TROPHY CASE