Blockchain 101 - A Visual Demo Anders Brownworth 2016-11-05 | This is a very basic visual introduction to the concepts behind a blockchain. We introduce the idea of an immutable ledger using an interactive web demo.0:00 Intro0:15 SHA256 Hash2:18 Block5:16 Blockchain9:20 Distributed Blockchain12:19 Tokens14:36 Coinbase TransactionPart 2 is here: youtu.be/xIDL_akerasIf you are interested in playing with this on your own, it is available online at:http://anders.com/blockchainThe code that runs this demo is also on GitHub:github.com/anders94/blockchain-demoI'm @anders94 on Twitter and @andersbrownworth on Steemit.Donations:BTC: 1K3NvcuZzVTueHW1qhkG2Cm3viRkh2EXJpETH: 0x84a90e21d9d02e30ddcea56d618aa75ba90331ffETC: 0xab75ad757c89fa33b92090193a797e6700769ef8
Blockchain 101 - Part 2 - Public / Private Keys and Signing Anders Brownworth 2017-12-30 | This is part two in my basic visual introduction to the concepts behind a blockchain. We build on the concepts from the previous video and introduce public / private key pairs and signing using an interactive web demo.If you missed it, part 1 is here: youtu.be/_160oMzblY8If you are interested in playing with this on your own, it is available online at:http://anders.com/blockchain/public-private-keysThe code that runs this demo is also on GitHub:github.com/anders94/public-private-key-demoIf you want to know more about how public key cryptography works, see the Wikipedia page on it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptographyThe details of how public keys relate to private keys are hard to summarize, but it has to do with Euler's theorem. Basically, using Euler's theorem there is some math you can do to a number given some parameters (which I'll call the public key) which allows someone with some other parameters (which I'll call the private key) to decipher the original number without having to do brute force factorization because there is a shortcut way to find the phi of a prime number. Rather than me butchering the explanation, check this video series out for a more detailed explanation: khanacademy.org/computing/computer-science/cryptography/modern-crypt/v/the-fundamental-theorem-of-arithmetic-1I'm @anders94 on Twitter and @andersbrownworth on Steemit.Donations:BTC: 1K3NvcuZzVTueHW1qhkG2Cm3viRkh2EXJpETH: 0x84a90e21d9d02e30ddcea56d618aa75ba90331ffETC: 0xab75ad757c89fa33b92090193a797e6700769ef8
Run: South Boston - July 4th Anders Brownworth 2016-07-08 | A run from Kendall Square, Cambridge into Downtown Boston and then through South Boston (Southie) including Castle Island, Pleasure Bay and then right across the middle of the city ending up back in Kendall Square, Cambridge. The distance is slightly over 20k (12.5 miles) and took just over 2 hours. I ran this the morning of July 4th and the end of it is around the Charles River where the big July 4th firework display was being set up. You can see the barges and a few people already lined up in chairs at 9:00am!Here's a link to a map of the run: runkeeper.com/user/Anders94/activity/819204773
Cambridge River Run - by MIT and Boston Anders Brownworth 2016-02-27 | A hyperlapse of a run around the Charles River in Cambridge and Boston, MA. You can see The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, several boat houses, Sorrow Drive in Boston, the Hatch Shell and Boston's Museum of Science.This is one of my standard runs through Cambridge and Boston. The great thing about this run is once you are at the river, you only have to cross 2 streets for a 12K run.This video was made with a GoPro, smoothed out and sped up to 16 time speed using Hyperlapse.
True Random Number Generators - FST-01 - Well Tempered Hacker Anders Brownworth 2014-08-08 | Randomness forms the basis of cryptography but computers are deterministic and therefore terrible for generating true randomness. In this episode we'll look at the FST-01, a $35 USB based true random number generator (TRNG) which harvests randomness from the environment. We'll flash the NeuG random number generator software onto the device using a serial programmer and a few wires. Then we'll plug it in, start it up and look at the random data it generates.Hardware:http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/FST-01http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/s/fst-01.htmlSoftware:http://www.gniibe.org/memo/development/gnuk/rng/neug.html#crypto #cryptography #random #randomnumber #geigercounter #cryptography #mouse #pgp #privatekey #flyingstonetiny #FST-01 #randomnumbergenerator #environment #computing #communication #messaging #mail #email
Bitcoin M-of-N Multisig Addresses - Well Tempered Hacker Anders Brownworth 2014-08-07 | Standard bitcoin transactions involve payment to an address which requires a signature from one private key to spend. With multi-signature addresses, M of N transactions are possible. In this episode we will create a multi-signature address which requires two of three signatures to spend. This could be useful for securing bitcoin in multiple locations reducing the "all or nothing" risk of loosing a private key.One example use of this is in securing some amount of bitcoin offline. You might first generate three private keys and from them generate a 2 of 3 multisig address. At this point, the address is worthless. Then you might print out those private keys and the redeem script onto three separate pieces of paper and destroy any digital copy. Next you might send two of those pieces of paper to two different friends of yours and keep the third in a safe place yourself. Remember, there is no value on the multisig address yet so if they get lost in transit or for some reason you believe the papers didn't make it to their destinations safely, you just start over. With our keys safely in three separate locations, you might transfer some bitcoin to the multisig address, loading up your offline wallet.Some time goes by and you might want to gain access to your bitcoin. You create a spend transaction sending the value to some other online wallet. This transaction isn't valid yet because nobody has signed it so it is safe to send via email to one of your friends. They pull out the piece of paper you sent them, type in the private key adding their signature to the transaction. The transaction is still not yet valid so they email it back to you without worry. You then might decide to add your signature to the transaction making it valid. Again, the transaction would be safe to email because any attempt to change the transaction redirecting it to some other address would invalidate the whole thing. After deciding this is still what you wanted, you might decide to transmit this previously completely offline transaction on the network which would spend the funds away from the multisig address.This is very similar to how many online wallet provider's "vault" features work. However, doing this yourself removes the requirement to trust a possibly disinterested third party. As with anything you do yourself, however, there wouldn't be a third party to blame if you messed things up. (I'm not responsible for any bitcoin you loose trying to get this working!) There are risks in either strategy.The software used in this demo is available here:github.com/anders94/bitcoin-2-of-3-multisig
Raspberry Pi Bitcoin Ticker - Well Tempered Hacker Anders Brownworth 2014-02-16 | Add a TFT screen and you open up a world of new uses for the Raspberry Pi. In this episode, we create a Bitcoin Ticker that shows the price of Bitcoin on Bitstamp in real time.The TFT screen used in this video is available from Adafruit for $35. http://www.adafruit.com/products/1601The code that displays the digits on the frame buffer is available here: github.com/anders94/framebuffer-digits
Anders Brownworth Channel Intro Anders Brownworth 2013-06-19 | Channel intro for Anders Brownworth / The Well Tempered Hacker
Home Automation with the Raspberry Pi and Node.js - Well Tempered Hacker Anders Brownworth 2013-04-06 | The Raspberry Pi at $25 - $35 is cheap enough to be used in every light switch and wall socket of a house as a distributed home automation system. In this episode, we look at using Node.js as the basis for such a system and the hardware necessary to make it happen.This represents the very beginnings of a larger project but I thought I'd make it available in case others are interested in developing the idea.The software used in this project is available for free from GitHub at:github.com/anders94/raspberry-pi-home-automationHere's a PDF datasheet on the solid state relays I'm using: http://sharp-world.com/products/device/lineup/data/pdf/datasheet/s116s02_e.pdf
SwitchCoder.com - Group SMS Anders Brownworth 2012-10-18 | Learn how to create a group SMS application with SwitchCoder.
SwitchCoder.com - How To Invoke Scripts Anders Brownworth 2012-10-18 | These are the three ways to invoke SwitchCoder scripts.
Share a Dynamically Updatable Location with Anyone Anders Brownworth 2012-02-08 | http://eyezo.com gives you a short URL for any location on Earth. In this quick tutorial, I should you how to share a location and update it in realtime with EyeZo.com!
Sharing your Location with EyeZo.com Anders Brownworth 2012-02-08 | http://eyezo.com gives you a short URL for any location on Earth. In this quick tutorial, I should you how to share your location with a short URL!
Alexios Komnenos - Church of the Saint Savior Anders Brownworth 2012-01-26 | On the side of a noisy road, the site of the church of the Saint Savior built by Alexios Komnenos around the time of the first crusade.
Software Radio / Data Tunneling - Well Tempered Hacker Anders Brownworth 2012-01-25 | Taking another look at Software Radio, this time with the Ettus Research E100, we create a data tunnel and send a network over it. The E100 includes an entire Linux machine within the device so the need for an external computer is gone. We can simply use the internal Linux machine to route packets and control the radio. Two E100s are shown connecting to each other and granting Internet access to a small WiFi Access Point. We use GNURadio's tunnel.py (from the examples directory) which creates a tunnel device called gr0. Adding an IP and configuring a network to route through it is all that is needed to get this going.E100 hardware is available from http://ettus.com for roughly $1,600.00 each. Parts list: E100, RFX900, VERT900
Pure Google Android on a Sprint LS670 Anders Brownworth 2011-08-24 | This is a work in progress creating a pure Google Android ROM for the Sprint LS670. I have been able to get a kernel and Android Froyo compiled "from scratch" and running on the hardware. I'm currently in the process of getting all the drivers for the various radios and sensors up and running.
Why The Scrolling Direction Reversal in Mac OS X Lion Makes Sense Anders Brownworth 2011-07-27 | Apple reversed the scroll direction of input devices like the mouse wheel and touch pad two-finger gesture in Mac OS X Lion. Although annoying to have to re-learn, I argue that this was the right thing to do.
Were Byzantines Roman or Greek? - Lars Brownworth Anders Brownworth 2011-07-19 | Edward Gibbon refers to the Byzantines as Greeks but the Empire is made up of a commonwealth of people. Do they all speak Greek and do they all see themselves as Greek?
Its not a Router! A Rant about Mislabeled Technology Anders Brownworth 2011-07-08 | Why do technical people insist on mislabeling things? Aren't all the acronyms enough? It's that little bit of arrogance in the technical community I think we could all live without.
Software vs Hardware RAID Anders Brownworth 2011-07-06 | Reasons for using software RAID versus a hardware RAID setup.
The Galata Tower Anders Brownworth 2011-06-03 | Lars Brownworth looks at the Galata Tower's pivotal role in the history of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire at large.
The Hippodrome of Constantinople Anders Brownworth 2011-06-02 | The greatest sports complex in the city of Constantinople was the Hippodrome where chariots would race around and around. Mostly buried today, parts of the immense centerpiece remain visible today.
Valens Aqueduct - Lars Brownworth Anders Brownworth 2011-06-02 | Lars Brownworth in Constantinople (present day Istanbul, Turkey) discusses Valen's Aqueduct.
Studion Monastery - Lars Brownworth Anders Brownworth 2011-05-17 | The Monastery of St. John of Stoudios - one of the most important monasteries in Constantinople until the fall of the city.
Theodosian Land Walls of Constantinople - Lars Brownworth Anders Brownworth 2011-05-17 | Lars walks Theodosian II's land walls of Constantinople.
Founding of Constantinople - Lars Brownworth Anders Brownworth 2011-05-17 | The story of how Constantine picked Byzantium for his new capital to mirror Rome.
Leo V and Michael - Lars Brownworth - Smithsonian Talk Anders Brownworth 2011-05-17 | This is an excerpt of Lars Brownworth's Smithsonian lecture. This is a really well told story about being thrown in a furnace tied to an ape! Check out the story of Leo the Fifth and Michael.
Lars Brownworth - Smithsonian Lecture - Byzantium: Romes Lost Empire Anders Brownworth 2011-05-07 | Lars Brownworth, author of "Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that Rescued Western Civilization" discusses the East / West split in Byzantine history in a lecture given December 2, 2009 at the Smithsonian in Washington DC.
Sketchy Elevator in Constantinople (Istanbul) Anders Brownworth 2011-05-05 | Nothing spices up your morning like a quick trip on an elevator that makes you question your chances of survival. This is the elevator in the Ambassador Hotel downtown Constantinople.
Lars Brownworth at the Hagia Sofia Anders Brownworth 2011-05-05 | Lars Brownworth takes you on a tour of Justinian's great church, the Hagia Sofia in Constantinople. Be sure to check out Lars' "12 Byzantine Rulers" podcast, especially the three episodes on Justinian at http://12byzantinerulers.com
Motion Tracking Demo Anders Brownworth 2011-05-05 | Playing around with Adobe After Effects, I was able to stabilize this on location shot of Lars Brownworth in Constantinople. Originally this was shot with a hand-held camera, but with stabilization, this could almost pass for a camera on a tripod.
Software Radio / OpenBTS - The Well Tempered Hacker Ep 4 Anders Brownworth 2011-03-26 | We'll take a look at the Ettus Research N210 software programmable radio (or Universal Software Radio Peripheral - USRP) and set up a complete GSM cell "base station" using OpenBTS. We'll also use the same radio to scan a wide frequency range and listen to FM radio using GNURadio. The Ettus Research N210 is available from http://ettus.com for roughly $2,700 including the board (WBX) and antenna setup I'm using in this video.
GSM Module - The Well Tempered Hacker Ep 3 Anders Brownworth 2011-03-25 | In episode 3 we look at the ADH8066 GSM Module available from SparkFun.com. We'll set it up, make some phone calls and send some text messages with it. You can get one of these with a development board for roughly $100 so it isn't very expensive to start playing around with it. As always, leave comments letting me know what you think.
One Snowy Night in Cambridge Anders Brownworth 2011-01-27 | One frame every 15 seconds played back at 30 frames per second. Unfortunately we only got about 10 inches of snow.I'm going to have to get a camera with an auto iris...
Raster vs Vector Formats Anders Brownworth 2011-01-07 | A demonstration of the lack of pixelation advantage a vector image like an Adobe Illustrator (.ai) file or EPS file has over a raster image such as JPEG or TIFF.
Lars Brownworth - (Pt. 4) Byzantium Lecture at the Helenic Society Prometheas Anders Brownworth 2010-11-17 | Lars Brownworth discusses the importance of Byzantine History at the Helenic Society Prometheas on November 5, 2010. For far too many otherwise historically savvy people today, the story of the Byzantine civilization is something of a void. Yet for more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization. When Europe fell into the Dark Ages, Byzantium held fast against Muslim expansion, keeping Christianity alive. When literacy all but vanished in the West, Byzantium made primary education available to both sexes. Streams of wealth flowed into Constantinople, making possible unprecedented wonders of art and architecture. It was Byzantium that preserved for us today the great gifts of the classical world. And it was the Byzantine Empire that shielded Western Europe from invasion until it was ready to take its own place at the center of the world stage. Filled with unforgettable stories of emperors, generals, and religious patriarchs, as well as fascinating glimpses into the life of the ordinary citizen, Lost to the West reveals how much we owe to this empire that was the equal of any in it s achievements.
Lars Brownworth - (Pt. 3) Byzantium Lecture at the Helenic Society Prometheas Anders Brownworth 2010-11-17 | Lars Brownworth discusses the importance of Byzantine History at the Helenic Society Prometheas on November 5, 2010. For far too many otherwise historically savvy people today, the story of the Byzantine civilization is something of a void. Yet for more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization. When Europe fell into the Dark Ages, Byzantium held fast against Muslim expansion, keeping Christianity alive. When literacy all but vanished in the West, Byzantium made primary education available to both sexes. Streams of wealth flowed into Constantinople, making possible unprecedented wonders of art and architecture. It was Byzantium that preserved for us today the great gifts of the classical world. And it was the Byzantine Empire that shielded Western Europe from invasion until it was ready to take its own place at the center of the world stage. Filled with unforgettable stories of emperors, generals, and religious patriarchs, as well as fascinating glimpses into the life of the ordinary citizen, Lost to the West reveals how much we owe to this empire that was the equal of any in it s achievements.
Lars Brownworth - (Pt. 6) Byzantium Lecture at the Helenic Society Prometheas Anders Brownworth 2010-11-17 | Lars Brownworth discusses the importance of Byzantine History at the Helenic Society Prometheas on November 5, 2010. For far too many otherwise historically savvy people today, the story of the Byzantine civilization is something of a void. Yet for more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization. When Europe fell into the Dark Ages, Byzantium held fast against Muslim expansion, keeping Christianity alive. When literacy all but vanished in the West, Byzantium made primary education available to both sexes. Streams of wealth flowed into Constantinople, making possible unprecedented wonders of art and architecture. It was Byzantium that preserved for us today the great gifts of the classical world. And it was the Byzantine Empire that shielded Western Europe from invasion until it was ready to take its own place at the center of the world stage. Filled with unforgettable stories of emperors, generals, and religious patriarchs, as well as fascinating glimpses into the life of the ordinary citizen, Lost to the West reveals how much we owe to this empire that was the equal of any in it s achievements.
Lars Brownworth - (Pt. 5) Byzantium Lecture at the Helenic Society Prometheas Anders Brownworth 2010-11-17 | Lars Brownworth discusses the importance of Byzantine History at the Helenic Society Prometheas on November 5, 2010. For far too many otherwise historically savvy people today, the story of the Byzantine civilization is something of a void. Yet for more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization. When Europe fell into the Dark Ages, Byzantium held fast against Muslim expansion, keeping Christianity alive. When literacy all but vanished in the West, Byzantium made primary education available to both sexes. Streams of wealth flowed into Constantinople, making possible unprecedented wonders of art and architecture. It was Byzantium that preserved for us today the great gifts of the classical world. And it was the Byzantine Empire that shielded Western Europe from invasion until it was ready to take its own place at the center of the world stage. Filled with unforgettable stories of emperors, generals, and religious patriarchs, as well as fascinating glimpses into the life of the ordinary citizen, Lost to the West reveals how much we owe to this empire that was the equal of any in it s achievements.
Lars Brownworth - (Pt. 1) Byzantium Lecture at the Helenic Society Prometheas Anders Brownworth 2010-11-17 | Lars Brownworth discusses the importance of Byzantine History at the Helenic Society Prometheas on November 5, 2010. For far too many otherwise historically savvy people today, the story of the Byzantine civilization is something of a void. Yet for more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization. When Europe fell into the Dark Ages, Byzantium held fast against Muslim expansion, keeping Christianity alive. When literacy all but vanished in the West, Byzantium made primary education available to both sexes. Streams of wealth flowed into Constantinople, making possible unprecedented wonders of art and architecture. It was Byzantium that preserved for us today the great gifts of the classical world. And it was the Byzantine Empire that shielded Western Europe from invasion until it was ready to take its own place at the center of the world stage. Filled with unforgettable stories of emperors, generals, and religious patriarchs, as well as fascinating glimpses into the life of the ordinary citizen, Lost to the West reveals how much we owe to this empire that was the equal of any in it s achievements.
Lars Brownworth - (Pt. 2) Byzantium Lecture at the Helenic Society Prometheas Anders Brownworth 2010-11-17 | Lars Brownworth discusses the importance of Byzantine History at the Helenic Society Prometheas on November 5, 2010. For far too many otherwise historically savvy people today, the story of the Byzantine civilization is something of a void. Yet for more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization. When Europe fell into the Dark Ages, Byzantium held fast against Muslim expansion, keeping Christianity alive. When literacy all but vanished in the West, Byzantium made primary education available to both sexes. Streams of wealth flowed into Constantinople, making possible unprecedented wonders of art and architecture. It was Byzantium that preserved for us today the great gifts of the classical world. And it was the Byzantine Empire that shielded Western Europe from invasion until it was ready to take its own place at the center of the world stage. Filled with unforgettable stories of emperors, generals, and religious patriarchs, as well as fascinating glimpses into the life of the ordinary citizen, Lost to the West reveals how much we owe to this empire that was the equal of any in it s achievements.
Episode 2 - Part 3 - The Well Tempered Hacker Anders Brownworth 2010-05-10 | In this episode we look at another Xen setup using software RAID and LVM. This time we don't have a spare drive for booting and instead use a partition of the disk. Ideally we don't use a partition either but our boot loader "grub" isn't able to access LVM on top of software RAID in it's current version. (the new version can do this) When grub 2 officially comes out, we will revisit this.
Episode 2 - Part 2 - The Well Tempered Hacker Anders Brownworth 2010-05-10 | In this episode we look at another Xen setup using software RAID and LVM. This time we don't have a spare drive for booting and instead use a partition of the disk. Ideally we don't use a partition either but our boot loader "grub" isn't able to access LVM on top of software RAID in it's current version. (the new version can do this) When grub 2 officially comes out, we will revisit this.
Episode 2 - Part 1 - The Well Tempered Hacker Anders Brownworth 2010-05-10 | In this episode we look at another Xen setup using software RAID and LVM. This time we don't have a spare drive for booting and instead use a partition of the disk. Ideally we don't use a partition either but our boot loader "grub" isn't able to access LVM on top of software RAID in it's current version. (the new version can do this) When grub 2 officially comes out, we will revisit this.
Part 2 - The Well Tempered Hacker: Supermicro AMD Hardware with Xen Linux Virtual Machines Anders Brownworth 2010-02-06 | In this episode we take a look at a dual AMD Supermicro machine with 32 Gigs of RAM and 9 hard drives. We create a RAID5 volume in software with 8 1TB drives and use LVM to slice that into logical volumes for xen virtual machines. We also take a look at the remote management capabilities of the system and see how you would rarely need to be near this machine to manage it!
Part 1 - The Well Tempered Hacker: Supermicro AMD Hardware with Xen Linux Virtual Machines Anders Brownworth 2010-02-06 | In this episode we take a look at a dual AMD Supermicro machine with 32 Gigs of RAM and 9 hard drives. We create a RAID5 volume in software with 8 1TB drives and use LVM to slice that into logical volumes for xen virtual machines. We also take a look at the remote management capabilities of the system and see how you would rarely need to be near this machine to manage it!
Nexus One Unboxing Anders Brownworth 2010-01-09 | Unboxing of the Google-designed Nexus One Android phone.
Lars Brownworth - Smithsonian - Part 1 of 8 Anders Brownworth 2009-12-08 | Lars Brownworth, author of "Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that Rescued Western Civilization" discusses the East / West split in Byzantine history in a lecture given December 2, 2009 at the Smithsonian in Washington DC.
