Quest for the Whistler Button

#1

Post by josecastillo » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 9:20 PM UTC

Quest for the Whistler Button
newscrewdriver.com

Re: Quest for the Whistler Button

#2

Post by hughes » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 4:54 PM UTC

As someone who has never seen Sneakers, I would have loved a clip of the button press that spawned this journey. What did it sound like?

Re: Quest for the Whistler Button

#3

Post by UI_at_80x24 » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 5:09 PM UTC

hughes wrote: post #2

As someone who has never seen Sneakers, I would have loved a clip of the button press that spawned this journey. What did it sound like?

Do yourself a favour and go watch that movie. There is a huge Hollywood sized grain of salt needed any time you deal with: Hacking, Computers, Internet, etc.. but this movie is EXCELLENT at showing 'Red Team' activities, social engineering, physical bypasses, and true historical hacking (debugging an IC to see what it does).

There is great comedy, action, and intrigue in this film and should be in the top 3 of any nerd movie list.

Re: Quest for the Whistler Button

#4

Post by isoprophlex » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 5:16 PM UTC

Where I did my phd, we had nmr spectrometers that had to be shimmed using a console with these exact switches. I loved interacting with that console..: It was at the same futuristic and absurdly old fashioned. Futuretro.

Edit: oh sweet lord they're listed on ebay. Imagine gutting this things' innards and turning it into a usb input device...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bruker-BSMS-Boss-Keyboard-Z012706-1...

Re: Quest for the Whistler Button

#5

Post by JoeAltmaier » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 5:28 PM UTC

Ha! The buttons in the movie were braille-labelled and had a red led when active. Why the LED? It reminds me of the braille on drive-thru ATMs.

Re: Quest for the Whistler Button

#6

Post by mbrubeck » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 5:39 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #5

Ha! The buttons in the movie were braille-labelled and had a red led when active . Why the LED? It reminds me of the braille on drive-thru ATMs.

Devices can have multiple users. A blind passenger in the rear seat can use a drive-through ATM.

Re: Quest for the Whistler Button

#7

Post by garrettlarson » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 6:06 PM UTC

hughes wrote: post #2

As someone who has never seen Sneakers, I would have loved a clip of the button press that spawned this journey. What did it sound like?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuIheGaiFLM&t=1m18s

Re: Quest for the Whistler Button

#8

Post by codezero » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 6:37 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #5

Ha! The buttons in the movie were braille-labelled and had a red led when active . Why the LED? It reminds me of the braille on drive-thru ATMs.

People with "disabilities" often have to buy off the shelf equipment made for the mass population, and then adapt it for their needs since most products aren't designed with them in mind.

Re: Quest for the Whistler Button

#9

Post by fit2rule » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 6:55 PM UTC

isoprophlex wrote: post #4

Where I did my phd, we had nmr spectrometers that had to be shimmed using a console with these exact switches. I loved interacting with that console..: It was at the same futuristic and absurdly old fashioned. Futuretro. Edit: oh sweet lord they're listed on ebay. Imagine gutting this things' innards and turning it into a usb input device... https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bruker-BSMS-Boss-Keyboard-Z012706-1...

.. or bury a rpi-zero in it, and turn the thing into a battle station ..

Re: Quest for the Whistler Button

#10

Post by JoeAltmaier » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 7:34 PM UTC

codezero wrote: post #8

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #5

Ha! The buttons in the movie were braille-labelled and had a red led when active . Why the LED? It reminds me of the braille on drive-thru ATMs.

People with "disabilities" often have to buy off the shelf equipment made for the mass population, and then adapt it for their needs since most products aren't designed with them in mind.

But ... braille buttons!