PDXByte meeting on Tuesday March 10

[Daniel Johnson]

“Reinventing black boxes”

Description:
Open source has a long history of reimplementing, and reverse
engineering proprietary tools. This talk will integrate the tools
needed to reverse engineer into stories of how it has been done
before.

Abstract:
There is a constant need to provide open source glue, and alternatives
to new technology. Learning how to analyze black boxes frees you from
having to wait for someone else to do it. When you solve the puzzle
yourself you will really understand how it works.

Reverse engineering is a lot like debugging. There are open source
full development stacks including debugging for almost every operating
system, and architecture. There are a few other tools you need, but
with decades of reinvention the toolbox will usually have everything
you need.

Since black boxes aren’t documented it’s impossible to know for sure
if you will have the skills you need ahead of time. They are puzzles
which might be easy, or hard. Chances are you won’t have to go it
alone for long as other people, and whole communities often want the
same thing that you do.

Bio:
Daniel Johnson is a full stack developer who has been programming
since 1990, and focused on Open Source technologies since 2003. Jobs
have ranged from telephone tech support to systems administration, and
freelance software development. He has spent the most time in the last
few years working with Rails, AngularJS, Android, and Arduino. He was
the first person to document how to use the intel real sense 3d camera
with Linux.

Talk begins at 7, get there early for socializing, pizza and refreshments!

http://calagator.org/events/1250468004