Trolling Mac users like a pro! - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Wartex
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2012, 01:37:18 am
content: Why this works:http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8993.html"If your computer is not paired with a remote, the computer will take commands from any remote within range (up to 30 feet)."Great fucking engineering!

author: mobbarley
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2012, 01:40:27 am
content: Quote from: Wartex on January 09, 2012, 01:37:18 amActually it is pretty good engineering - the remotes work really well for their size, bouncing off walls etc. Also the fact that the computer CAN be paired with a remote is excellent engineering- try that with a TV...It is a pity that people don't bother to read the manuals.

author: mobbarley
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2012, 01:43:47 am
content: Pairing control from software and from the remote.. what more could you want?

author: Wartex
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2012, 12:12:25 am
content: Quote from: mobbarley on January 09, 2012, 01:40:27 amI was talking about security implementation, I said absolutely nothing about device quality, you are raging in the wrong direction. Any IR remote bounces off walls. TV does not have security repercussions of a PC, it absolutely does not need a coded remote. Allowing full functionality to a PC by default is IDIOTIC. Imagine you are in school or a conference and someone fucks up your presentation by switching to random slides or makes your PC volume really loud. Someone can potentially ruin your reputation. Some dickhead at Apple marketing thought this up and some poor engineer had to implement it.

author: PedroDiogo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2012, 12:25:58 am
content: Quote from: Wartex on January 10, 2012, 12:12:25 amSure it is, thats why by default you can only do a bunch of non-critical operations, the most annoying is putting the computer to Sleep.Quote from: Wartex on January 10, 2012, 12:12:25 amAnyone doing serious presentations should be aware of this and pair the remote. Bad engineering would be not to have an option to pair your remote to the Mac.

author: joelby
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2012, 12:46:18 am
content: I suppose the alternative is that Apple Remotes don't work out of the box because you have to pair them before you can use them, which might be an irritating user experience if you didn't know about itIt's not a big deal, really. It only takes a few moments to set up pairing or disable the receiver, and it's one of the first things I do with my portable Macs.

author: sonicj
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2012, 01:43:10 am
content: Quote from: PedroDiogo on January 10, 2012, 12:25:58 ami had never considered this. i have used my Mac for live performance in front of audiences numbering in the thousands, possibly tens of thousands during the hours that my feed was used live on the radio. i consider myself pretty paranoid about redundancy as i always carried a pair of mirrored laptops, two power supplies, a bootable external hard drive that mirrored my laptops (or was slightly older if i had recently made changes in my configuration), and had multiple audio sources (DVD, CD, Vinyl) also available. worst case, i would have had dead air for the few seconds it took for me react to the situation and fire off the cued disc in the dvd player. not sure how long it would take me to pick up on what was happening if the perpetrator continued after i woke up the laptop... likely, after the second time i would swap laptops. if it happened again, i would probably suspect something malicious and open the console log.fwiw, my remote was paired when i first got the machine. i always booted into user profile with sleep disabled. not sure how those affect the ability of a unpaired remote to send the machine to sleep. i would test if i could find my remote....slightly off topic... i thought this was hilarious when it first came out. actually, i still think its hilarious.-sj

author: Rbxii3
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 10, 2017, 05:43:02 am
content: Does this work if you use an Apple watch that is not synced to the Mac?

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2017, 06:24:56 am
content: This isn’t exactly a Mac specific problem. When I was at college we used our Casio watches to troll the lecturer. They could send IR codes you see. This was early 1990s. We nearly drove one insane. She couldn’t work out why the television kept turning off.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2017, 08:47:37 am
content: Quote from: PedroDiogo on January 10, 2012, 12:25:58 amIf there's one way in then there's more, simple computer security rules, and it may potentially lead to larger 'holes' being discovered.Macs are not as secure as most Mac users would have you believe or indeed believe.They regularly fall before Linux and even Windows in hacking competitions and are not invulnerable to malware.The myth of their invulnerability is one of the problems that helps them become vulnerable because complacency by users leads to users who are careless.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2017, 09:34:13 am
content: Quote from: Rbxii3 on October 10, 2017, 05:43:02 amYou wrote in a 5 year old, obsolete* thread to ask an unrelated question?No, an unpaired Apple Watch has no control over a random Mac.*Obsolete because Apple got rid of the Front Row software that the remote was for, and so stopped putting IR receivers in the laptops.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2017, 09:38:18 am
content: What’s actually quite clever about the Apple Remote is how the pairing is accomplished: the remote sends standard NEC-format IR codes, but with a unique identifier. If the receiver “pairs” a remote, it simply learns the unique ID for that remote and ignores valid codes with a different identifier.So what do you do if another device pairs the same remote, and now you’ve got two gadgets listening? Or two remotes with the same ID? (It’s 38KHz IR, it doesn’t exactly have the bitrate to support 128-bit GUIDs.) I forget the exact method, but you can actually program the remote to choose another ID, to resolve ID collisions. Pretty clever for what’s basically a $2 remote.

author: Harb
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2017, 10:19:14 am
content: Turn it off...... You have to tell PC users everything lol...

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2017, 10:48:58 am
content: Quote from: tooki on October 10, 2017, 09:38:18 amSo the unique ID would be just the address field? Standard NEC format has an 8 bit address field, while the extended format uses 16 bits for the address.

author: hexreader
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2017, 11:03:33 am
content: Quote from: madires on October 10, 2017, 10:48:58 amNo.Apple remote replaces byte 4 of standard NEC message (which is normally just the inverse of byte 3) with the ID byte. I guess this means that this is no longer NEC protocol in the strict sense.Here is what I surmised when reverse-engineering Apple remote controls:Code:iPOD remote NEC protocolee 87 = apple custom code, 1 byte command (bit 0 = odd parity for bytes 3&4), 1 byte remote IDee 87 03 d0 MENUee 87 05 d0 play/pauseee 87 06 d0 forwardee 87 09 d0 backee 87 0a d0 +ee 87 0c d0 -e0 87 02 d0 menu+forward 5 seconds - dedicated remote selecte0 87 04 d0 menu+back 5 seconds - any apple remote selectThe remote ID consists of one byte and is used to distinguish codes sent by multiple remotes.The remote ID is changeable by holding the Next/Fast-Forward and Menu buttons for 5 seconds.The sequence of remote IDs is non-sequential but predictable following the hexadecimal digitordering 0, 8, 4, C, 2, A, 6, E, 1, 9, 5, D, 3, B, 7, F. The byte has least significant bit firstso remote ID 04 would be followed by 84 and FA would be followed by 06Note: this ordering only verified on older, white remote model.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Apple TV remote NEC protocolee 87 = apple custom code, 1 byte command (bit 0 = odd parity for bytes 3&4), 1 byte remote ID (see iPOD info above)battery CR2032ee 87 02 0a MENUee 87 07 0a rightee 87 08 0a leftee 87 0b 0a upee 87 0d 0a downee 87 5d 0a ee 87 04 0a selectee 87 5e 0a ee 87 04 0a play/pauseThe aluminium Apple remote control has 7 buttons, one more than the previous white plastic model;the extra button is a play/pause button that sends the same code as the center button.However, in order to distinguish these, both buttons prepend their code with another 32 bit sequencecontaining the commands 0x5f/0x5e and 0x5d/0x5c, respectively.

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2017, 11:21:39 am
content: An unique ID with just 8 bits? That's a simple loop for your ArduinoThey could have 3 bytes (24 bit, about 16.7 million) when misusing the the address field, the inverted address field and the inverted command field.