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on Gopher (inofficial)
URI Visit Hacker News on the Web
COMMENT PAGE FOR:
URI Why I'm teaching kids to hack computers
werdl wrote 1 day ago:
"teach kids to hack"
"available for iPhone, iPad and Mac"
You need to understand your market better!
fainpul wrote 11 hours 2 min ago:
OP is Paul Hudson, creator of lots of Swift / SwiftUI tutorials and
other resources.
URI [1]: https://www.hackingwithswift.com/
brabel wrote 1 day ago:
As an outsider, are you suggesting OP can make more sales on Android
because thatâs more hacker friendly? Or what exactly? From what I
hear no one makes any money on apps outside the Apple ecosystem and
big game platforms.
tristor wrote 1 day ago:
Nice, I am a fan of this idea and have been trying to figure out the
right way to engage my niece in computers in a real way. One of my
biggest concerns from seeing how it impacted my stepdaughter (now in
college) is how kids are not learning how general purpose computers
work and are becoming too comfortable existing entirely in restricted
environments like iPads and Chromebooks. With my niece, I'm taking
more active measures to ensure she learns how things actually work.
I bought the full version because I'm not a fan of in-app purchases in
things marketed at children, and I'll give it a playthrough myself
first to make sure it fits the bill. One of the upcoming projects
we're going to do together is to build a mechanical keyboard. I'm also
going to build a PC with her and try to teach her the basics so she can
explore mostly uninhibited on Linux.
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
Thank you! I hope you enjoy using the app together.
anti-soyboy wrote 1 day ago:
guy thinks he is Mr. Robot? Hack computers jajajajaja people watched
too many films
rkozik1989 wrote 1 day ago:
Do you also teach kids about jail time and/or being blackballed by the
industry? Because no matter how well-intentioned you are I can see a 13
year old me doing the naughty thing.
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
No, but I like the idea â I think it might make for a good screen
to add once they complete the game, saying "use your skills
responsibly" and similar. Thank you!
Zhyl wrote 1 day ago:
Where would this sit between Over the Wire [0] and Hacknet [1]? I would
try it but I don't own anything apple.
[0] [1]
URI [1]: https://overthewire.org/wargames/bandit/
URI [2]: https://hacknet-os.com/
Flere-Imsaho wrote 1 day ago:
There's a web version at: [1] I don't believe you need Apple hardware
for this.
However the blog post states "itâs not as powerful or as fun, but
itâs entirely web-based and free". Not sure what is meant by "not
as powerful"?
URI [1]: https://www.hacktivate.io/
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
The native version does quite a few extra things, including
bringing all the solving tools inside the app (as opposed to using
external tools like CyberChef, Boxentriq, Dcode, etc), but also has
more compute-intensive operations like creating spectrograms of
audio and image manipulation, a much bigger implementation of the
Linux terminal, and (safely!) destructive things too â you get
local copies of files or databases to work with, so you can delete
them, modify them, etc, freely, rather than being restricted to
working with shared resources.
TimByte wrote 1 day ago:
Huge respect for not just building a tool, but building an experience
that demystifies hacking in a structured, ethical, and genuinely fun
way
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
Thank you! I poured a lot of time and energy into making sure
challenges are unique and interesting, but also graded so folks
follow a cohesive pathway, and also feel fun â it's as close to a
"Hollywood-hacker" aesthetic as I could get.
VladVladikoff wrote 1 day ago:
Cool idea I was going to check it out but I donât want to update my
iPad to the latest OS for jailbreaky reasons. Any chance you could
release support for something slightly before 18.5?
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
The app only uses one API from iOS 18 and later, so from a coding
perspective I could make it support older versions easily. However,
the bigger problem is testing: right now I test each release
thoroughly on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, across iOS 18 and iOS 26, so
adding another iOS version would require another set of devices and
more time.
vhantz wrote 1 day ago:
The supposed target of this game do not at all match who can actually
play it. Kids don't have Macs. Those who want to hack don't have
iPhones. I would even say that a kid with an iPhone will never get the
necessary curiosity about computers to want to hack anything.
saagarjha wrote 9 hours 25 min ago:
This is categorically not true. Source: watched a bunch of people
enter the jailbreak scene
wingerlang wrote 1 day ago:
Why would people who want to hack not have iPhones?
dooglius wrote 1 day ago:
I was with you up until the last statement which does not seem
plausible at all. Curiosity about computers is not something you are
born with.
vhantz wrote 1 day ago:
Curiosity is not something you are born with, yes. It's influenced
by the experiences you have. I don't think iPhones allow for the
experiences that push kids to want to hack things. It is pretty
much a sealed environment where all details about how the computer
works is hidden behind some app. Even access to the filesystem
(iirc from my 2014 experience) is hidden away (like being unable to
access your picture files except through the gallery app). That
kind of environment stiffles curiosity imo.
liziwizi wrote 1 day ago:
i think this is a terrible assumption to make.
the computer or phone a kid gets from their parents has nothing to do
with their curiosity, intelligence, interests or ambitions.
le-mark wrote 1 day ago:
My son has been highly motivated to learn about hacking in his iPad
to hack some of the games they play for school (blooket and prodigy).
Those are web based games, true, but fiddling with the dev console,
editing the dom, and finding and pasting scripts, is not nothing.
skeeter2020 wrote 1 day ago:
>> the dev console, editing the dom, and finding and pasting
scripts, is not nothing.
this is awesome, but way easier on a cheaper, more accessible
device.
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
I think it's fair to say that the most accessible device is the
one they are already using.
Gerard0 wrote 1 day ago:
I am no hacker, but for me it was exactly this which made me go
What?!
hacb wrote 1 day ago:
This is why I like the Try Hack Me platform so much. You have a lot of
walkthroughs and guided challenges to get started and learn the basics;
challenges get harder and harder with less and less help. You also have
access to challenge write-ups even if you did not complete them,
meaning that if you're stuck, instead of losing motivation, you can
make progress.
They embrace learning for all levels and helped me so much getting into
infosec professionally.
xandrius wrote 1 day ago:
Cool idea and execution but having in-app purchases to buy hints for a
game targeted to kids is a big no.
I get the market forces and such but I don't want to have an app subtly
teach my non-existent kids to reach out to in-app purchases like that.
BobbyTables2 wrote 16 hours 17 min ago:
What you describe is practically every Roblox game out thereâ¦
(yeah itâs horrible )
krackers wrote 1 day ago:
That's just part of the meta-game, to get kids to jailbreak the
iphone and then patch the IPA
Fokamul wrote 1 day ago:
Hmm, meanwhile you have whole gaming platforms like Steam, where they
basically make huge profit from gambling in games like Counter-strike
and others. And hmm whose playing those games?
doublepg23 wrote 1 day ago:
Aren't most micro-transactions like those purely cosmetic?
giobox wrote 1 day ago:
Yes for Valve, but that hasn't stopped a secondary market
transacting tens of thousands of dollars or more for them in some
cases.
> [1] >
URI [1]: https://dmarket.com/blog/most-expensive-csgo-skins
URI [2]: https://tradeit.gg/csgo/store
gmueckl wrote 1 day ago:
They are in Valve's own games. But items drop at different rates,
which creates artificial scarciry and items can also be traded
for money.
ChicagoBoy11 wrote 1 day ago:
In defense of the parent comment, I don't know that he suggested
that it wasn't effective, but it is a dark pattern that probably
should be avoided if the gist of the effort is to truly be an
educational game that you'd want to enthusiastically support.
jrm4 wrote 1 day ago:
I dig it; and if the kids figure out how to get what they want
WITHOUT paying for a damn thing, EVEN BETTER.
TimByte wrote 1 day ago:
Yep, in-app purchases aimed at kids is always a sensitive area
Tade0 wrote 1 day ago:
"sensitive" undersells it. Apple in its refund form has an option
to select "unauthorised in-app purchase by a minor" as the reason.
I was not aware how predatory this market has become until an
annual subscription after a "one week trial" renewed itself
automatically despite having been already cancelled on the last
day.
I'm assuming the money is lost because third party subscriptions
might require earlier cancellation, but that was the last time I
allowed for anything with such a short trial period.
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
If you try the game and like it â if you've run through the 10
tutorial challenges and thought, "I like this and want more" â
there's a separate version of the app that is an up-front, one-time
purchase with no in-app purchases at all. You pay once and get
everything. Get it here:
URI [1]: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6754342195
figassis wrote 1 day ago:
Thank you. I am always willing to pay a premium for kids apps that
don't have any dark patterns, subscription crap or in app
purchases. It's sad that the market has been so corrupted that now
customers are asked to pay a premium to keep kids safe and sane.
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
You'll be pleased to know that the app is not only a one-time
payment, but also has zero tracking â no analytics, no logging,
no adverts, and no data collection of any kind.
xandrius wrote 1 day ago:
Can I see the source code? Else it's just words :/
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
Source code wouldn't help, because there's no way to verify
any code I showed would be the same as the version on the App
Store. Fortunately, you can just watch the network packets
leaving from your device when you run the app, and you'll see
literally nothing coming to me.
xandrius wrote 1 day ago:
Show them X free levels and with free hints.
When they get into the groove, at X+1 level show them "Did you like
this? You can get 200+ levels if you convince your parents that
this is a worthwhile investment for your learning." (copy TBD) and
bam, you have a traditional game with a demo and a way to buy it
that doesn't train kids to expect in-app purchases for every breath
they take.
And btw, $25 is high even for an indie steam game, a mobile game
will be even harder to market at that price. Just FYI. Best of
luck!
randunel wrote 1 day ago:
Oh, so having a separate (paid for) app makes targeting kids with
in app purchases OK in the (free) app you advertise?
stronglikedan wrote 1 day ago:
yes, absolutely. options are always the right thing. nothing
wrong with "targeting kids with in app purchases" if you're up
front about it
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
If I only released an up-front payment version, people would
complain that they weren't able to try the app first. If I only
released a free version with in-app purchases, people would
complain that they don't like in-app purchases. I did both, and
I'm still getting complaints. I get that my solution is
imperfect, but I'm trying my best.
yojo wrote 1 day ago:
The HN crowd is touchy on some topics. Donât take it too
personally - good on you for building something cool and
shipping it.
FWIW my favorite non-predatory pattern is a level-limited free
version with a single âunlock full gameâ IAP. That way
users donât have to lose their progress switching to paid.
skeeter2020 wrote 1 day ago:
This is just an optimized version of shareware, now that we
don't need to mail in a cheque to get the full set of
floppies. seems self-defeating to reference anything like "in
app purchase" for what's jsut a path for an immediate update
after the user completes a known subset of levels.
anonymous908213 wrote 1 day ago:
This is a solved problem. It's called a "demo". What it entails
is giving a small sample of your product completely for free,
with no monetization at all, in order to entice a prospective
buyer for more. It may be less lucrative than selling
microtransactions to literal children, but it is something that
people won't complain about, if you are genuinely in the market
for a solution and not just trying to farm money off of
scamming kids into swiping their parents' credit card because
they have no idea what it's worth.
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
You say "solved problem", then suggest something explicitly
banned by Apple's app review guidelines.
zem wrote 19 hours 35 min ago:
ugh, that more i hear about apple the gladder i am that i
have never had to go anywhere near the whole slimy mess.
inanutshellus wrote 1 day ago:
1. HN folk are being surprisingly hostile here and it's not
cool.
2. Is it really true that "the game is X levels and in-app
purchases is a-lot-more-levels" is banned but "the game is
Y levels and limited features and in-app purchases gets you
features and hints" is not?
fainpul wrote 1 day ago:
I'm confused, because the version you can install for
free is literally that: you get the 10 tutorial
challenges and 1 subsequent challenge for free, then you
have to pay to buy / unlock the full game. How is that
different from the classic shareware / demo concept?
Obviously it's not banned.
fragmede wrote 16 hours 45 min ago:
> Demos, betas, and trial versions of your app donât
belong on the App Store â use TestFlight instead.
URI [1]: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/g...
anonymous908213 wrote 16 hours 29 min ago:
This doesn't apply to a demo with a full product
behind it. You can release your "demo" combined as
one app, with a small subset of content available for
free and the rest locked behind a macrotransaction.
Which is what OP already does, except they also have
microtransactions targeting children on the side.
This essentially only prohibits you from releasing a
demo if the demo is for an unfinished product.
cheschire wrote 1 day ago:
Good early lesson of small business and app development is you
canât make everyone happy. Trying to though will be
guaranteed to make at least one person unhappy, and thatâs
you.
So take advice where itâs offered but donât mistake
complaints for advice.
aeon_ai wrote 1 day ago:
The issue here is that you are trying to bridge two disparate
goals - making money and helping kids.
The fact that this isnât open source, as it stands, means the
latter is not a primary goal - which is not an indictment, just
an observation.
The complaints will come, regardless, for that reason alone,
given the marketing/narrative.
Youâre selling a product to parents/educators who want to
gamify the technical education of their children. That market,
small as it is, despises micro transactions.
yojo wrote 1 day ago:
A sustainable business has the capacity to help a lot more
kids than an unfinished open source project that never gets
released on iOS because no one wants to pay the developer
fee.
This isnât âHackVille by Zynga,â itâs an indie dev
trying to make a product they believe in. I hope it succeeds
and inspires more high quality edutainment.
skeeter2020 wrote 1 day ago:
You're not arguing against the GP but for the same thing
from different angles. They're saying the approach is
fighting the goal, while you're just saying "I hope they're
successful".
yojo wrote 1 day ago:
I was responding to the claim that making money is in
tension with helping kids learn.
I think itâs fair to claim that a large enterprise will
eventually crank the money dial to maximum extraction.
But a solo dev is free to follow their conscience and
make money in a responsible way.
I donât like the âpay per hintâ model as currently
implemented, but Iâm willing to give the developer the
benefit of the doubt that they didnât think it all the
way through.
aeon_ai wrote 1 day ago:
My point is that packaging the app in such a way as to put
off your target audience is inherently unsustainable
business.
yojo wrote 1 day ago:
I agree with that criticism, and I'd encourage the dev to
iterate on non-micro-transaction monetization schemes.
The part I disagree with is that a profit motive is
antithetical to helping kids.
It'd be nice if we had robust, no-strings attached
funding streams to make this kind of content, but we
don't, so if we want it to exist, consumers need to pay
for it.
dghlsakjg wrote 1 day ago:
What does open sourcing an application have to do with
helping kids?
There are plenty of arguments for open sourcing things.
âClosed source apps necessarily deprioritize helping
childrenâ is not an obvious argument to me. Can you draw
the connection more explicitly?
aeon_ai wrote 1 day ago:
Scale and accessibility - Eliminating any barriers for
children to get access to education, etc.
Not to mention, itâs an app trying to help kids get
exposed to underpinning technologies - seeing how the game
itself is made would be optimizing for that end.
Itâs not that closed source deprioritizes, but the
âhelping kidsâ were the sole and primary goal sought,
thereâs a clear answer to what would align with that.
All said, itâs not a critique of the OP - reconciling
ideals and practical reality often require trade offs that
would allow for a project like this to happen in the first
place.
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
I think it's hugely important to eliminate barriers to
get access to education, which is why there's a free,
web-based version of Hacktivate that is already being
used 350+ schools around the world.
I also think there's a lot of people out there who would
pay to have Hacktivate running offline, using the full
power of their device, and with no external resources
being required, so I made that too.
Suggesting that I need to make them open source to prove
I want to help kids learn is really strange, particularly
when literally thousands of students around the world are
benefitting from my work without paying a cent.
aeon_ai wrote 1 day ago:
As mentioned, no indictment, and you donât need to
prove anything - helping kids learns is clearly a goal.
But so too is making money off the iOS app, correct?
wffurr wrote 1 day ago:
I really appreciate you having a full unlocked copy of the game
with up front pricing and trying to solve this issue in a
thoughtful way.
In the old days, the free version would be a limited preview of
the game, and would direct users to purchase the full game. We
called it a demo or shareware, as in you were intended to share
and copy it widely.
You could also have the âin app purchaseâ be the full game
unlock.
max002 wrote 12 hours 43 min ago:
Member it (southpark) :) one could learn some assembler by
taking down those limitations and cd checks. Who would
thought that it will be useful in reverse engineering malwqre
in future? Hah...
Dont get me wrong, at that time very little ppl in my country
had ccs to actually buy any software even if, they wouldnt
give it to kids :)
mbsa7 wrote 1 day ago:
I have not used the app but the developer Paul Hudson was the guy who
taught me Swift and UIKit when I was in college and wanted to dig into
iOS development for fun. Heâs truly gifted when it comes to teaching.
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
Thank you for your kind words! I've spent over a decade teaching
folks to build apps, and it's something I hope I can continue doing
for a long time to come.
agigao wrote 1 day ago:
Such a great idea and product!
Thanks for all the hard work.
However, please get rid of micro-transactions...
I'm fine paying full price of the product for my kid, but not
micro-transactions.
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
There's a separate version of the app that is a one-time purchase,
with zero in-app purchases. It's available here:
URI [1]: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/hacktivate-education-edition/i...
Msurrow wrote 1 day ago:
Just FYI: The App Store has an Education Edition which is the âsame
app but paid up frontâ.
bob_theslob646 wrote 1 day ago:
>And if youâre dead set against Apple devices, you should check out
the web version of Hacktivate â itâs not as powerful or as fun,
but itâs entirely web-based and free!)
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
350+ schools are already using this, completely free, and I'm
adding new schools every week!
bonoboTP wrote 1 day ago:
I don't think you can recreate this in any top-down manner no matter
how well-intentioned.
It has to matter to them, and what's more, it gives you extra boost if
you aren't supposed to do it and no parent or teacher pats you on the
shoulder, but rather your friends or people in online forums like it,
or simply you like it for yourself, seeing that the computer does what
you want.
I learned computers by making a website for my school class, where we
would put pictures from events and excursions, hosted a chat and a
phpbb, designed the graphical elements in cracked warez Photoshop etc.
This forced me to naturally pick up the skills. HTML, JS, burning ISO
to CD, downloading things etc. Also warez games, learning about the
Program Files difectory at like age 8 and how to copy the cracked exe
there. Or setting up port forwarding for multi-player gaming.
Or when I modded GTA (3/VC/SA) with new car models that I built in 3D
modeling software based on hunting down the orthographic projection
blueprints of our family car, or adding the police vehicles from my
country in GTA, messing with textures etc.
Or translating games from English, reverse engineering the binary file
that contained the strings, I figures out that the length of each
string was also there and I had to modify that too, learn about big
endian and little endian, learn to work with a hex editor, understand
what hex is. It was super exciting. If I had a lecture from some
teacher about hex representation with some exercises at the end of the
chapter for homework, I likely would have found it boring. But here I
had context, I had a goal, and I had no idea what I was looking at when
I opened the hex editor, I just saw that people used similar tools for
translating other games and so I tried on less popular games where
nobody had a specialized tool yet, it felt like making discoveries,
going deep into the jungle and prevailing.
Now to contradict myself, I did have a lot of fun also while solving
PythonChallenge.com, even though it's artificial tasks. But at least I
found it myself online and wasn't handed to me and nobody knew or cared
that I was working on it.
So I think this is just really hard to externally motivate if the kids
don't have any desires or drive to see some effect caused by them. And
maybe even I wouldn't do it in the current software and phone
environment.
But we also have to remember that a generation ago it was also not many
people who were really into computers.
91bananas wrote 1 day ago:
I have found this while trying to teach my kids how to write anything
software related from scratch. They've done some code.org, but it
becomes boring quickly. We tried to make tic-tac-toe in js/html/css
since they can do they whole thing in the browser. It held their
attention slightly longer, but still became boring. It's not
something they want to do.
I totally agree with you on learning for a purpose, picking up
knowledge is super easy imo when you're in pursuit of a goal bigger
than picking up knowledge. You don't even realize all of the things
you learn in order to achieve your goal. But you have to want a goal.
I also totally agree sometimes it's fun to just do dumb problems, I
found these CAD modeling youtube videos where guys will race each
other modeling some part off of a print, spent a week just screwing
around with those because it's fun to flex sometimes.
bonoboTP wrote 1 day ago:
On the other hand if I'm honest, all this noodling around as a teen
didn't give me a super robust foundation at all. I had a kind of
folk understanding, or rough mental model of the things but it made
me like it as a hobby and identify with it, which pushed me to take
up CS in college.
It gave me some head start that I knew Python and JS when learning
C, but not super much. Other students, who were smart but didn't
fiddle with computers as much, generally picked these things up
along the way, 4-5 years college is plenty time to develop the
skills if you got the talent.
Also my understanding of networks was super shallow based on just
multi player gaming and learning router settings, and I only really
built a proper mental model in college with OSI model, TCP/IP
details, reading the Tanenbaum book, doing socket programming etc.
So these generic tech and computer skills are in my opinion more
about giving people a sense of agency, which is still quite
something. That you put together your own PC, that you download
your own subtitle files for the movies and figure out how to adjust
the sync to match your version of the movie etc. It just gives you
a feeling that you can do things. If something is wrong, you can,
and therefore want to fix it. It's a different attitude compared to
just accepting everything as it is.
charcircuit wrote 1 day ago:
>how to do SQL injection, how to use rainbow tables to figure out
hashes, how to use steganography to hide data in images, and more.
I feel like there are more practical and timeless topics that will
still be relevant in 2040. Frameworks (abstraction) have largely solved
SQL injection and bad cryptography.
Personally I would avoid a cybersecurity focused corriculum and just
focus on regular software engineering. Being able to think like who you
are attacking and knowing the common pitfalls is most of the battle.
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
Eh⦠I just went to Stack Overflow and searched for "php mysql", and
the first result ( [1] ) â asked 12 days ago â had SQL injection
URI [1]: https://stackoverflow.com/q/79790370
charcircuit wrote 1 day ago:
This is part of the long tail. I think you are underestimating the
role AI is going to be playing in 2040. ChatGPT can already solve
that stack overflow question and make the code use the prepared
statement correctly. AI will play a pivotal role in helping with
the long tail of these issues.
twostraws wrote 22 hours 34 min ago:
If it's all the same to you, I'm going to focus on inspiring
people with today's technology, and hopefully help fuel their
curiosity to learn about what comes in the future â whatever
that may be.
charcircuit wrote 20 hours 38 min ago:
Yes, that is part of what my point is. To focus on today's
technology rather than the technology of the 90s or 00s.
saagarjha wrote 9 hours 23 min ago:
Then why are you talking about hypothetical technology from
2040?
harperlee wrote 1 day ago:
Game for kids, where you dedicate a third of the screen to a locked
hint list and a very prominent "Buy Hint Tokens" button? Hard pass. [1]
The game industry needs to move away from milking vulnerable people
with pay-to-win schemes.
URI [1]: https://www.hacktivate.app/img/framed-ipad-3.png
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
Nothing about Hacktivate is pay-to-win â you can solve every
challenge without using a single hint, and even if someone does need
hints there are a bunch given away for free. Even more, for people
who want the game but don't want micro-transactions, there's a
dedicated version of the game ( [1] ) that is a one-time purchase
with no in-app purchases at all.
URI [1]: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/hacktivate-education-edition/i...
fainpul wrote 1 day ago:
Also the game costs 20 bucks but it's offered as "Free" with "in app
purchases". But you can only play one challenge until you need to buy
the game. That's just false advertising. Just be upfront about it and
sell the game for 20 bucks instead.
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
I'm not sure where you got the one challenge thing from â you can
play 10 challenges without needing to pay a cent. Plus, there is a
dedicated version you can buy up front front without any in-app
purchases, right here:
URI [1]: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/hacktivate-education-edition...
fainpul wrote 1 day ago:
I installed and played the game on my mac this morning. I tried
several ways to get to another challenge I could play, but was
unable.
The link I used is the one from your site.
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
All you have to do to unlock the next free challenge is solve
the previous challenge. The first 10 tutorials are designed to
teach the basics of the app â how to transform data with the
toolbox, how to read web page source code and run JavaScript,
basic Linux commands, etc â and so they are run in order.
There are 10 in total, all free, plus another one in the first
territory afterwards, which teaches the basics of ciphers.
fainpul wrote 1 day ago:
So there's our misunderstanding. I skipped the tutorial,
because I already saw your demo video. Then I clicked on the
US on the map and played the first challenge called
"Tutorial: Cipher salad". After that I always got the "Buy
now" popup when I tried to play another challenge.
But you're right, the tutorial is playable too and it
consists of the same kind of challenges, not just simple
explanations how to play. So my initial statement was not
correct.
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
I see. Well, I hope you can appreciate there are limits to
what I can do â if someone skips the free challenges then
is unhappy there aren't enough free challenges, I don't
really know how I can fix that. If you want to go back to
play the tutorial challenges, they remain available.
notachatbot123 wrote 1 day ago:
[1]
URI [1]: https://www.darkpattern.games/
URI [2]: https://nobsgames.stavros.io/
fodmap wrote 1 day ago:
Right, that's absolutely disgusting. The only reason that would be
somewhat OK is if that's part of the game, and you can hack it to get
tokens for free.
zwnow wrote 1 day ago:
I've watched my grandma play a mobile game a few days ago. It has
been a simple word search game. A level takes her about 2-3 minutes
to beat. Every single time she beats a level, she is getting 1-2 30
second advertisements that she has to sit through. Its honestly so
sad to see. Thankfully she knows that all mobile ads are bullshit and
how to close them, but still... This market is shameless.
Liftyee wrote 1 day ago:
Neat... Brings memories of the national cybersecurity courses you were
talking about.
I never figured out how to do that "cat flag" terminal privilege
escalation.
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
Those cybersecurity challenges are incredible â I see kids light up
when they take part, finding a passion for something they didn't even
known existed previously. I don't think the teams who organize them
get enough recognition for their incredible work!
sikimiki wrote 6 days ago:
In the early 2000s, growing up in a third-world country with limited
resources meant computers and operating systems were constantly
breaking. That scarcity pushed me to tinker and experiment, I learned
to troubleshoot hardware, reinstall OSes, and reverse-engineer odd
behaviors. I even experimented with keyloggers out of curiosity. That
practical, trial-and-error schooling is where a lot of the so called
âcommon senseâ about security comes from. It is less theory, more
failing, fixing, and learning what actually keeps one safe online.
I think it all stemmed from curiosity to learn and tinker. I wonder if
gamifying it is enough but itâs a step.
TimByte wrote 1 day ago:
That era of breaking-and-fixing out of necessity was like the
ultimate bootcamp
kace91 wrote 1 day ago:
âEl hambre agudiza el ingenioâ, we say in Spanish. Hunger
sharpens the mind.
Growing up with fewer resources than others paradoxically leads to
better outcomes sometimes, since youâre conscious of the barriers
around you and that motivates you to overcome them.
If I had grown up with the latest iPhone I would never have cared
about rooting and custom ROMs, for example.
cat-whisperer wrote 1 day ago:
Started modding Android ROMs at 13. That age is perfect; old enough
to understand consequences, young enough to not care about breaking
things.
Hardware hacking tools have gotten more accessible since then. The
Flipper Zero makes this easier now; 256KB RAM, open firmware, $200.
Compare that to needing a full PC setup in the 2000s. Lower barrier,
same curiosity-driven learning.
Guided challenges vs pure exploration; both work. The structure gets
more people started. The ones who stick around will break out of the
sandbox anyway.
zkmon wrote 1 day ago:
Early 90's were more fun. I modified DOS command.com file to change
the outputs it prints, drilled holes into laptop to attach broken
hinges, break electronic garbage to salvage wires and interesting
things, disassemble disk drives, ...
twostraws wrote 1 day ago:
I agree that the early 90's were a lot of fun â I remember
drilling holes in 3.5-inch floppy disks to increase their capacity,
blissfully unaware that actual HD floppies had a different coating
entirelyâ¦
skeeter2020 wrote 1 day ago:
Two (of the many) mind-blowing discoveries of the 80's:
1. there was a disk notcher (the Nibbler?) that would DOUBLE the
capacity of a 5 1/4 floppy!
2. you could just use a regular paper hole punch and a few select
clips to do the same thing!
All my C64 floppies had faint parallel pencil lines across the
top to line up the slots and what looked like mouse-nawed holes
on one side.
marak830 wrote 1 day ago:
Haha that reminds me, Qbasic using the help file to figure out how
to program. Taking apart a HD and getting my fingers pinched
between the two bloody strong magnets.
Amazing what you learn when you have no other distraction xD
twostraws wrote 6 days ago:
I suspect gamifying it isn't enough, but as you say it's a step, and
if it helps more people get involved then hopefully others can
provide more steps to follow.
rogermungo wrote 6 days ago:
Nice..
But Damn.. Apple only : (
twostraws wrote 6 days ago:
Yeah, sorry; I know my limitations, and would rather do one thing
very well than two things kinda average.
amelius wrote 1 day ago:
You picked the least hacker-friendly platform ...
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