Hardware/Software Tech Spy

New! Mission 6: USB Hardware Interface

Enjoy the advance presentation of the first real hardware mission, with gravitational field sensor and expandable user interface. The hardware will be on sale soon, or you can design and build your own if you've got the skills.

Introduction Welcome to HS Tech Spy, a new game where you must create and/or obtain hardware and software items to complete the objectives. The game is open source freeware protected by the GNU General Public License so you can download it and play without cost, however at some point it will become necessary to make inexpensive purchases and/or build your own hardware to advance in the game. This is intended to be fun first with little emphasis on profit, so don't worry about the cost there will be plenty of tech fun involved at no charge! The emphasis of the game is on learning and increasing your tool set, rather than hacking. At this point the game has several missions which are detailed at the end of this web page. I am also looking for people to contribute to the game content, so please email me if you are interested: inventor-66@comcast.net. Thanks and enjoy! Briefing Having a high-speed broadband connection can work to your advantage because you can download hardware and software items faster compared to other connections. HS Tech Spy is a computer spy game featuring real hardware and software items that enable the player to accomplish various spy missions. At first the challenges are easy and you can manage them with the keyboard and mouse only. Later, as objectives become more challenging, you will need to write software and/or build hardware to perform them. For example, in Mission 1 you must gain access to the Perl programming language via installation if you don't have it on your system. Then you must install a simple Perl encryption module so that you can run a decoder program to obtain the password for Mission 2. When you are done, you have Perl and a tiny bit of knowledge of how to use Perl, so you have learned and gained something. Tools In addition to your keyboard and mouse, you are equipped with various tools. These will help you progress through the game, however to finish the game you will have to build your own hardware, write your own software, or purchase them from someone else in real life. You will also need to explore the game to find links to the freeware that you can download to build the hardware and to get instructive hints on how to write the software. Running the Game The game will exist as many different executables. You will have to be familiar with running perl scripts, for which you will need to download perl if you are on a PC, and install it. There will be freeware 3D virtual reality games and programs that you can run as well. For example, one mission objective might be to download POV-Ray and render a movie that contains instructions for writing a perl script that hacks another perl script. So you must be skilled in various computer-knowledge areas to play. Mission 1: Running Perl Your first mission is to access perl, install the Crypt::Rot13 module, and decrypt the password for Mission 2. If you are on a PC or an older Mac, you must install Perl, see the README_1.txt file for instructions. After that you go get the Crypt::Rot13 module and install it, then you run the rot13 decoder on the Mission_1_rot13.txt file to get the password for Mission 2. The decoder will be used in future missions and you will have to write perl programs to complete future missions. The following file is the download for Mission 1: Mission_1.tar.gz. Mission 2: Breaking a Password Now that you have Perl it is time to do some programming. In Mission 2 you must obtain the secret password of the guardian computer. You will do this by writing a script. Fortunately you have a starter script with some code already built into it called Mission_2_spy.pl - modify this script to accomplish your objective. You will have to put in looping and password generation, then allow the program to run a long time to find the password. Fortunately you have some help: another spy has found out some clues about the password and encoded them using Rot13 into the file Mission_2_hint.txt. You must use your rot13_decoder.pl file to read the message. Good luck with your mission! The following file is the download for Mission 2: Mission_2.tar.gz. Mission 3: Voice Recording Every Tech Spy needs a voice recorder, right? In Mission 3 we will program a somewhat imperfect but usable voice recorder using the programming language ChucK. ChucK is a freeware tool from Princeton University that is actually intended to create music, but we will use it to record voice. Once you have completed Mission 3, you may optinally wish to explore ChucK's music creation capabilities as well, so you will have a fun new freeware tool to explore. To complete the mission you will download and install ChucK and then write the simplest of ChucK programs, a microphone input program. The details for accomplishing this are recorded in an mp3 audio file that is included with the Mission 3 download. The following file is the download for Mission 3: Mission_3.tar.gz. Mission 4: MD5 Encryption To complete this mission you will use an MD5 encryption module from www.cpan.org to find several passwords in a password file. Your fellow agent has infiltrated an anti-government organization and obtained a password file from their computer. You must find the passwords by writing a program that does MD5 Encryption. First, you will download the Digest::base and Digest::MD5 Perl modules and install them (in that order), then you will read the documentation on how to use the modules, then write your program and finally run it to obtain the passwords. To help you out, your fellow agent has provided the file Mission_4_hints.txt which contains Rot13 encoded hints. You must write the program to use the MD5 module, open the password file, read the password file, and find the passwords. The solution took about 45 minutes using a brute-force method on my 1.25 GHz Mac. Good luck and have fun! The following file is the download for Mission 4: Mission_4.tar.gz. Mission 5: Safe Cracking Agent code named "CrackerJack" was sent on a mission to crack a safe in a dangerous underground facility and has not been heard from since. Although we are concerned about CrackerJack's fate, there is hope as his satellite location device has been detected occasionally by the HSTechSpy orbital telemetry unit. We have high hopes and wish CrackerJack the best of luck. Mission 6: USB Hardware Interface The hardware for this mission has been designed and is in production. It will be on sale sometime soon. For now, download and enjoy the advance mission. Agent code named "Jex" has infiltrated a newly emerging society of terrorist computer hackers who intend to paralyze society by launching a swarm of artificially intelligent computer virus programs into the web. Agent Jex was able to obtain information about constructing a hardware interface capable of controlling the viral software and she also escaped with a test program for evaluating the hardware. Your mission begins with the real-life purchase of an inexpensive circuit board that contains a USB interface, a gravity sensor, and provision for sensing buttons, switches, and potentiometers. You will then experiment with the provided test program, thus learning more about the ChucK programming language and also learning how the gravity sensor works. At your option, you are encouraged to write your own test program and submit it to inventor-66@comcast.net for possible inclusion in the Mission 6 download file. Note: the USB hardware interface and provided software are Mac/Linux/Windows compatible, however the configuration utility for use in future missions only runs on Windows operating systems. Mac and Linux users will require temporary PC access to configure the expansion port of the device. The following file is the download for Mission 6: Mission_6.tgz.

The Helicopter Game

My nephew loves this helicopter game, and he showed me how to embed it here for you to play! Enjoy!

copyright 2008 Les Hall My stuff: Sports Prediction, Commentary, Oscillator, Music, HS TechSpy, and Dome Homes.

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Contact me inventor-66@comcast.net