ReverseEngineer
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Origin Stories: Hopper
Hopper is a Mac app for deconstructing binaries for analysis and debugging. If you're not a developer, it's probably not for you, but it's a cool tool nonetheless, built from scratch by a developer who built it himself. Once again a developer needed something, didn't like what was out there and built what he needed then used Apple's storefront to sell it in case others needed the same thing. In fact, in this case there were only some Windows tools, clumsily ported to Mac in some cases, so Vincent built Hopper to his standards.
Kinect hack explained: follow-along-at-home guide lets you reverse engineer USB, impress your friends
So, there's already an open source driver for the Kinect -- who needs to learn how to reverse engineer USB all over again? Well, ladyada of Adafruit Industries, the folks responsible for the Kinect hack bounty and the USB logs used by the bounty winner to get a jump on his hack, has published a detailed guide on exactly how she sniffed the Kinect's USB chatter. The guide isn't for the faint of heart, but it's not completely unintelligible to someone with a bit of time and determination. If anything it serves as an excellent bit of how-the-Kinect-was-won history. We're not expecting Microsoft to reconsider its "Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products" stance on this issue, or its petty threat of law enforcement "to keep Kinect tamper-resistant," but we do hope they've learned one thing by now: they're fighting a losing battle.
