I've initiated a quirky yet exciting project called "One Million Coffees" over at Buy Me A Coffee. The idea is whimsical—aiming to drink one million coffees ASAP. But there's a twist—it's a 'Proof of Coffee' before unveiling something substantial.
Every coffee bought inches us closer to the big reveal. I believe the HN community, with its insatiable curiosity and love for unique ideas, will appreciate this fun endeavor. It's not just about coffee, but the community we build and the surprise that unfolds as the coffee counter soars.
Feel intrigued? Check out the project here and contribute a coffee or two to fuel this adventure. Together, let's brew something remarkable!
This project aims to be low level API to Polar devices. It allows to access device, download raw files and deserialize it. It is a good point to start more sophisticated applications.
I am very suprised for the feedback. I need to clarify my intentions for this project.
This tool is a side effect of my main project. I am working on hacking embedded device. During my work, I found out, that device is using Google Protocol Buffers to communicate with Android app and windows C/C++ application.
It was my first time with protocol buffers.
I was looking for any tool, which would help me analyze protobuf messages.
It seems there is none, so I had to learn it by myself :P.
"Protocol buffers are Google's language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible mechanism for serializing structured data – think XML, but smaller, faster, and simpler."
How it works:
1. Developer wants to exchange data between different applications/systems.
2. One describes data in human readable form in proto file:
message Person {
required string name = 1;
required int32 id = 2;
optional string email = 3;
}
3. This file can now be compiled by protoc.
4. Generated code (Java, C++, Python) is then imported to an application.
5. Develoepr can use this code to decode serialized stream.
Now - the most important thing. Protoc output code contains serialized descritor of proto file. This descriptor (in serialized way) is included in every application using protobuffs.
Once extracted (strings, debugger, any other tool), one can run pbd to disassemble it.
In short: Pbd allows to go from point 4. to point 2.
Once descriptors are disassembled, one can rerun pbd to generate code and deserialize protobuffs messages.
Hope it clarifies it a bit.
This project is in beta. Further work depends on interest and needs. I am very happy to hear more comments and ideas. Thank you for your interest.
PS. Pbd name was chosen with premeditaion. It is a bit confusing, but hey - hackers need to be focused :P.