Andrew Bunnie Huang - The hardware hacker: adventures in making and breaking hardware

Hardware, says bunnie, is a world without secrets: if you go deep enough, even the most important key is expressed in silicon or fuses. bunnies is a world without mysteries, only unexplored spaces. This is a look inside a mind without peer.

EDWARD SNOWDEN

A tour de force that combines the many genius careers of one of the worlds great hacker-communicators: practical, theoretical, philosophical, and often mind-blowing.

CORY DOCTOROW, AUTHOR OF LITTLE BROTHER AND TECHNOLOGY ACTIVIST

bunnie lives in the world of hardware where the solder meets the PCB. He has more practical experience and is a better teacher of how the ecosystem of hardware works than any other person Ive ever met, and I know a lot of people in this space. He has rendered this experience and expertise into an amazing booka hackers-point-of-view bible to anyone trying to work in or understand and work in the emerging and evolving world of hardware.

JOI ITO, DIRECTOR, MIT MEDIA LAB

bunnie is the ultimate tour guide of hardware hacking as it stands today, with an eye toward the sublime art of how things are really made. The Hardware Hacker will take you on a journey through the factories of the world, covering both the technical and ethical implications of the stuff we manufacture and buy.

LIMOR LADYADA FRIED, FOUNDER & ENGINEER, ADAFRUIT INDUSTRIES

Curious how the devices in our daily lives come into being? Want to manufacture your own project? In this well-written book, bunnie describes the ins and outs of the manufacturing process in China. A very entertaining and informative read.

MITCH ALTMAN, INVENTOR OF TV-B-GONE

The Hardware Hacker is, at its core, the primer for understanding the culture of making something in China, how to build thousands of things, and why Open Hardware works.

HACKADAY

Adventures in Making and Breaking Hardware

Andrew bunnie Huang

The Hardware Hacker. Copyright 2017 by Andrew bunnie Huang.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.

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ISBN-10: 1-59327-758-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-758-1

Publisher: William Pollock

Production Editor: Alison Law

Cover and Jacket Design: Hotiron Creative

Interior Design: Beth Middleworth

Developmental Editor: Jennifer Griffith-Delgado

Copyeditor: Rachel Monaghan

Compositor: Alison Law

Proofreader: Emelie Burnette

Indexer: BIM Creatives, LLC.

The images on the following pages are reproduced with permission: Sakurambo, used under CC BY-SA 3.0.

The interviews on the following pages were originally published online and are reproduced with permission: .

For information on distribution, translations, or bulk sales, please contact No Starch Press, Inc. directly:

No Starch Press, Inc.

245 8th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

phone: 1.415.863.9900;

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Huang, Andrew, author.
Title: The hardware hacker : adventures in making and breaking hardware /
Andrew Bunnie Huang.
Description: 1st ed. | San Francisco : No Starch Press, Inc., [2017]
Identifiers: LCCN 2016038846 (print) | LCCN 2016049285 (ebook) | ISBN
9781593277581 (pbk.) | ISBN 159327758X (pbk.) | ISBN 9781593278137 (epub)
| ISBN 1593278136 (epub) | ISBN 9781593278144 (mobi) | ISBN 1593278144
(mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: Electronic apparatus and appliances--Design and construction.
| Electronic apparatus and appliances--Technological innovations. |
Computer input-output equipment--Design and construction. | Reverse
engineering. | Electronic industries. | Huang, Andrew.
Classification: LCC TK7836 .H83 2017 (print) | LCC TK7836 (ebook) | DDC
621.381092--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016038846

No Starch Press and the No Starch Press logo are registered trademarks of No Starch Press, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, we are using the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

The information in this book is distributed on an As Is basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor No Starch Press, Inc. shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in it.

To all the wonderful, patient, and accepting people who have supported this eccentric hacker

Thanks to all the hard-working staff at No Starch Press for making this book happen. In particular, thanks to Bill Pollock for conceiving and sponsoring the effort, and thanks to Jennifer Griffith-Delgado for compiling, editing, and arranging my writing into the form of this book.

part 1
adventures in manufacturing

part 2
thinking differently: intellectual property in china

part 3
what open hardware means to me

part 4
a hackers perspective

part 1
adventures in manufacturing

part 2
thinking differently: intellectual property in china

part 3
what open hardware means to me

part 4
a hackers perspective

When Bill Pollock, founder of No Starch Press, first contacted me with the idea of publishing a compilation of my writings, I was skeptical. I didnt think there would be enough material to fill a hundred pages. It seems I was wrong.

My mother often said, It doesnt matter whats in your head if you cant tell people whats in it, and when I was in seventh grade, she enrolled me in an after-school essay writing class. I hated the class at the time, but in retrospect, Im thankful. Starting with my college application essays and up to this day, Ive found the ability to organize my thoughts into prose invaluable.

Most of the material in this book was originally published on my blog, but as youll soon see, those posts werent puff pieces written to drive ad revenue. One reason I write is to solidify my own understanding of complicated subjects. Its easy to believe you understand a topic until you try to explain it to someone else in a rigorous fashion. Writing is how I distill my intuition into structured knowledge; I only write when I find something interesting to write about, and then I post it with a CC BY-SA license to encourage others to share it.

This book includes a selection of my writings on manufacturing, intellectual property (with a focus on comparing Western versus Chinese perspectives), open hardware, reverse engineering, and biology and bioinformatics. The good editors at No Starch Press also curated a couple of interviews Ive done in the past that were particularly informational or insightful. The common thread throughout these diverse topics is hardware: how its made, the legal frameworks around it, and how its unmade. And yes, biological systems are hardware.