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Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

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Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#61

Post by Gwarzo »

jasonlotito wrote: post #42
CountDrewku wrote: post #29

I don't understand this obsession with electronic exercise devices. The peloton, that stupid thing that mounts to the wall, treadmills etc. Outside is so much better than all of those. I will 100% run in single digit temperatures with snow on the ground before I touch a treadmill. If I have to be inside it's weight lifting.

Kids, safety, convenience, positive encouragement, all these things help. Not everyone is as privileged as you where you can easily just go outside and leave your home without a care in the world.

What world do you live in where you cannot just "go outside" and be there for a window of time.

In what world are you unable to do the above, but perfectly able to have this solved via electronic workout devices.

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#63

Post by quux »

erwincoumans wrote: post #47

Suitable story, hacking walled gardens on HN. Reminds me of the Rigol DS1054Z 50 MHz oscilloscope, that you can trivially 'hack' into the more expensive DS1074Z 75 MHz or DS11074Z 100 MHz scope. Rigol hasn't disabled this hack, even though they can easily do it. They likely loose money if they do so, since customers move to other scopes. Also, some Tesla updates make the experience worse instead of better (V11 update…

I think Rigol gave in to the hackers? Last year I bought a DS1054Z from amazon and it came with all the options permanently enabled.

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#64

Post by enriquto »

horsawlarway wrote: post #55
AndrewOMartin wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, wouldn't it be great if there was a foundation to advocate for being able to have the keys to your digital locks? We could call it something like the Freedom from Locks on Software Foundation, or maybe something a bit snapper.

My take is not nearly as strong as the fsf's. I'm fine not being provided with source code, and not being able to distribute the original code itself. Basically - I don't expect to have companies hand me code they wrote to run the device (I happen to like it, so I tend to support companies that do), but I don't believe that's a reasonable (or particularly useful) practice when so many functions depend on external web…

> My take is not nearly as strong as the fsf's.

Your take is much stronger than that of the FSF. The FSF advocates for people to choose free software, and for governments to not force people to use non-free software. You say that non-free software (i.e., software for which you don't have the key) should be illegal. The FSF has never advocated for such an extreme viewpoint.

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#65

Post by Jtsummers »

CountDrewku wrote: post #29

I don't understand this obsession with electronic exercise devices. The peloton, that stupid thing that mounts to the wall, treadmills etc. Outside is so much better than all of those. I will 100% run in single digit temperatures with snow on the ground before I touch a treadmill. If I have to be inside it's weight lifting.

> Outside is so much better than all of those.

If it's an option for the exercise you want and your health and safety, sure. It's not always an option and there are some exercises (like rowing) that are't practical to do every day unless you live on or near a body of water, and even then. If the lake freezes over, good luck rowing!

> I will 100% run in single digit temperatures with snow on the ground before I touch a treadmill.

Good for you, do you want a cookie or something?

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#66

Post by mcherm »

My solution to this problem would be legislation that allows customers, if they wish to, to return devices for a full refund if the company that manufactures the device makes a change that removes functionality that the customer valued. This doesn't prevent the company from making the change, it simply makes sure that they incur a cost for doing so, and it makes whole any customer affected by the change.

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#67

Post by cwal37 »

This is related to why I bought a concept2 erg recently. Hurt my achilles and needed to switch to a low impact exercise, which I prefer to be able to do at home rather than going somewhere else (so swimming is out).

Looked at Peloton, but it's about twice as much as an erg up front, has running costs each month, and what seemed to be many more points of failure (which includes the electronics). The Concept2[0] is a tank that should last me a very long time. Space is an issue (I had to shove my dining table to the side), but the workout is amazing and I have a lot of faith in the machine to last. Plus it has a pretty straightforward bluetooth connection if I want to get data out and multiple USB and ethernet ports on the very simple monitor it came with.

[0] https://www.roguefitness.com/black-concept-2-rowerg-rower-pm...

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#68

Post by treesknees »

judge2020 wrote: post #34
dhimes wrote: post #4

If Nordic is being honest that the issue is safety- preventing users from diddling with their software and accidentally making it unsafe, then they can simply install a browser so the users can view what they wish online.

I imagine the same issues would be presented if they embedded chrome or webkit with how often both of those have RCEs.

The iFit app is actually an embed a web browser. If you open the iFit Admin app, it reports a chromium version. I haven't dug into it too much, but definitely an embedded browser.

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#69

Post by vuldin »

treesknees wrote: post #38

The method to get into "God Mode" is the same, except now it prompts you for a code. Someone has figured out how to calculate it and actually created a website to generate codes for you. http://getresponsecode.com Apparently the algorithm is very simple according to Reddit https://old.reddit.com/r/nordictrack/comments/ozkp8v/privile... >long responseCode = new Random((long) Integer.parseInt(iFitCode)).nextInt(999999)…

This is great, thanks for posting this site. I am one of those who bought this awesome treadmill for several reasons, including to watch netflix and plex. It's been frustrating not being able to easily do this... I have just been listening to podcasts from my phone.

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#70

Post by slantyyz »

sschueller wrote: post #56
MaxBarraclough wrote: post #27

Not the first time a company has pushed an update that removes important features. To my knowledge the first high-profile instance of this was when Sony updated the PS3 to remove Linux support, which resulted in a successful class-action in the US. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OtherOS

Successful for whom? The layers or the consumer? Sadly in many class action cases the "victims" get effectively nothing. The way class action is done in the US it only makes sense for the law firms. I have stacks of class action letters and in almost every case I get exactly zero...

> I have stacks of class action letters and in almost every case I get exactly zero...

I was pleasantly surprised when I got around $250 CAD from a Lenovo class action suit. I bought one of their consumer laptops that had a piece of crapware on it. It was big news when it happened. Otherwise, I normally get maybe $20 for the class actions that I sign up for.

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