Mike Higginbottom

Author: Mike

  • Baby’s First Scope

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    Much as I’d love to have a proper oscilloscope I’m wise enough to know that spending a couple of hundred quid on a cheapo version is probably a bad idea. This is a tool that warrants some significant investment. Or alternatively pretty much none. I’ve just bought and built a little Jyetech DSO138 kit oscilloscope…

  • Nand2Tetris

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    I’m currently part way through a fantastic course on hardware design. It’s called Nand2Tetris and walks through building a simulated computer from the very simplest components (individual transistors) right through to a fully functioning computer. There’s a subreddit available if you want to chat with some fellow learners and a TED talk covering the course…

  • Hacking Lego Motors

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    Lego Technic Power Function motors are nice and easy to hack for robotics projects – in large part because they come with a built-in gearbox so you get nice amounts of torque at low speeds right out of the box. Here’s a quick breakdown of what you need to know. The tl;dr is that you…

  • Test LEDs

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    Here’s a nice little idea I saw somewhere a while ago and have just got round to making. It’s just an LED in series with a 470Ω resistor connected to a pair of 0.1″ pitch posts. Whenever you need to quickly check a signal on a breadboard you can just plug one of these babies…

  • OK. So that was a biiiig job.

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    Feckin’ rabbit holes. So I thought it would be a good idea to write an article about how to get started in infosec from the perspective of someone who’s working out how to get started in infosec. Solidify my thoughts while I’m still struggling with them rather than as an expert who’s forgotten all the…

  • The Latest Way To Get Email Notifications From Backintime

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    A lot of articles about this (there aren’t many to begin with) are out of date since the arguments passed to user-callback by backintime have changed recently. Here’s an updated explanation of how to do it.

  • Unicast ARP Requests. WTF?

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    I’m thinking I’ll probably end up going down the networking route when it comes to InfoSec so I figured it would be a good idea to pick a protocol and do a deep dive on it. Something simple. Something I can become an ‘expert’ in relatively easily. Small scope. Focus. Depth, rather than the massively…

  • Thinking About a Home Lab

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    Pretty much every ‘how to get into infosec’ source talks about the importance of building a home lab to play around in. Sounds like an excellent plan. But I’m not sure how far down that road I want to go just yet. Don’t Bother Setting Up a Home Lab Yet

  • Naming Files, Or Things More Generally

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    Another old article, short but sweet, that talks about how to name files. More broadly though it’s about putting things in their rightful place, being tidy and taking the time to think about things just that little bit more carefully. Naming Files

  • You Are The Corner Case

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    This was ostensibly an article about designing code for the correct audience but in hindsight, looking back at it, I think it’s more of a way of thinking about interactions in general. You are in posession of context that others are not. That’s important. Corner Cases