The dangers of Microsoft Pluton (updated)

In upcoming Intel, Qualcomm, and AMD processors, there is going to be a new chip, built-in to the CPU/SoC silicon die, co-developed by Microsoft and AMD called the Pluton. Originally developed for the Xbox One as well as the Azure Sphere, the Pluton is a new security (cynical reader: DRM) chip that will soon be …

A Beginner’s Guide to Blu-ray Player Firmware

The world is full of IoT (Internet of Things) devices, and they all run their own firmware – software that isn’t meant to be updated often, if ever. It’s often Linux-based, often insecure, and often a quickly-hacked-together mess with the goal to get it to work and then immediately ship, regardless of how maintainable or …

This weekend, I had some fun and fixed a Blu-ray Player

Recently, I’ve come across an interesting conundrum: I’ve been paying for Disney+ which is $7.99/mo. and we’ve still been renting some other movies, but I’ve been wondering how long this would go on. We watch a lot of the same movies a lot, so if I just bought all the movies we watch… that would pay off …

The Lockdown Browser is not very good at locking down

I’m taking my second semester of classes at Inver Hills, and in my Chemistry class, we have this awful piece of software called the “Respondus Lockdown Browser.” It’s job is to lockdown the computer so you can’t use other programs, prevents copy-paste, and in theory prevents cheating. I understand the motivation. Cheating is a scourge …

Trying out AngelList’s new Assessments

I’m a 19-year-old entirely self-taught programmer, and I’ve documented by experiences with Triplebyte’s Quizzes to get a good estimate at my skill. On Triplebyte, I scored 60th-80th percentile for a Generalist Engineer and 80th-100th Percentile among Entry-Level Generalist Engineers. Pretty good for having absolutely no academic training in Computer Science or programming! Some time after …

Another Certification: Arduino Fundamentals

I was bored this Wednesday when I remembered that Arduino launched their first certification, called the “Arduino Fundamentals Certificate.” With my recent bid to become Co-President of the Inver Hills Engineering Club and my experience using Arduino since Christmas 2011, I didn’t think I would have much difficulty passing. Also, it was only $30 and …

The Parent Portal project: Part One

First, some backstory: For this summer, I tried to get a certain Triplebyte Externship, but it fell through, and I was left with either working for my dad’s masonry restoration and fireplace business, or to find my own job. It started with my dad deciding to sell his scaffolding, and lots of it, because of …

Triplebyte Entry Level Quiz [Part 2 in series]. 80th-100th percentile, no externship

On June 3, 2020, Triplebyte announced their new Externship Program for students who lost their internships from the COVID-19 problem. These Externships aren’t as well paid as actual internships, but their remote, about ~6 weeks or so in length, and not a bad way at all to gain experience. In the last article, I passed …

I passed the Triplebyte Quiz, but failed the automated review

A few months ago, I was browsing the internet and saw one of those many adds on Reddit for a service called Triplebyte. You’ve probably seen them all the time on programming websites (they are fairly aggressive in advertising everywhere it seems), and their pitch is fairly simple. “Just take the quiz, pass the interview, …