Tech Flow Ep.5 - Adam

Guess who’s back, back again??

It's been exactly 939 days since my last article, the same amount of time it takes for Comet 67P to complete one orbit around the Sun. Have I orbited around the sun? No, I was just trying to obtain a master’s degree in delaying things. But here I am.?

Actually, the overall Tech Flow concept should change, as we have moved from an office, close to the River (hence the name - Flow) to the Cyber City. Any thoughts on how to rename this newsletter? Suggest your ideas!?

As a “returning article” I have decided to invite a really interesting person to me - Adam, and it’s been 609 days since he joined Nord as a Meshnet Evangelist (quite an exotic role, isn't it?).?

It all started during our 1st interview for the job, when I’ve noticed a Rotary engine placed on his shelf. I already knew that this guy will be interesting. We ended up having an engaging conversation about the role (and of course, cars). After some time we bonded and I could say that Adam Frydrych became one of my most reliable friends. But enough about that, let’s get back to what we came here for!

"You come across to me as very tech savvy individual. What is the upcoming/growing technology that you anticipate the most?"

There is so much that’s “getting there” currently. For me, it’s more about tech becoming affordable for consumers than seeing some new breakthroughs. Things like consumer-grade 3D scanners or desktop fiber lasers that don’t cost an arm and a leg are a thing now, which is great.

And one more thing! The things that DJI does when it comes to digital vision systems for drones? C-r-a-z-y. These things can send 1080p signal over tens of kilometers with minimal latency. All in consumer-grade gadgets!

"Can you explain what is "Meshnet" and how it works? But imagine that I am in elementarys school and I don't understand advanced tech"

Oh, it’s pretty easy. Have you ever played with some version of a tin can phone? Usually, it’s just two people talking to each other, right? Now imagine you get five people together, and for each unique pair of people, you make a tin can phone. Now everyone gets to speak with each other privately and directly.?

That’s basically Meshnet, but it’s not tin cans, and it works with computers, phones, tablets, etc. It creates secure and direct connections between devices so that you can access your files, services, or local network from anywhere in the world. On top of that, it’s free and doesn’t require any more tinkering than turning it on and setting permissions.

"What was the technology that changed your life?"

I’m going to be super cliche, but man, growing up alongside the internet is a trip. I never used dial-up, really, so I can’t share the sentiment about losing a Counter-Strike match because my mom called my grandma.

What I can say, though, is that having the ability to just pull up your phone and check whatever you want on your phone with a couple of clicks is crazy. Saily btw.

Sometime before the lockdown, the internet became a beautiful place where people shared their experiences and expertise, and you could find out how to do anything. With the recent advent of AI, it’s losing its charm a little. But still, no other technology made that much of a difference in my life.

"What was the most interesting use case for your Flipper Zero device?"

There is a couple! First, I scan all my RFID cards with it, so whenever I lose them, I can clone them using the Flipper. This saved me a lot of headaches on multiple occasions.

Another cool thing is that with an addon, Flipper can mess with WiFi; this means you can set up multiple fake WiFi networks named after Rick Astley’s hit song.

The last and probably the coolest was when someone figured out how to crash iPhones with Bluetooth packets. If I recall correctly, what someone did was grab the BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) packets responsible for pairing other Apple devices (like the AppleTV) and change a few bits around. Eventually, sending enough messages like this caused the phone’s CPU usage to spike to 100%, resulting in the phone panicking and shutting down. Long story short, my girlfriend wasn’t too happy about me trying this out at home.?

"What hobby does take the majority of your time nowadays?"

It’s fairly unrelated to technology, at least the one we’re familiar with. I recently purchased a thirty-something-year-old car from Japan sight unseen and have been working on it with my dad. The car in question is a 1993 Mazda or, rather, ??fini RX-7. It still needs a lot of love, though.

If you want to follow my progress ,be sure to check out my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@Roseywastaken?

"What would you say to people that think they are too old to learn a new technology?"

I would say “fine”, but also show them what new technology can do. I strongly believe that you won’t change anyone’s mind, especially older folk, by just telling them things. You have to show them value, be it monetary, easy of use, the comfort that comes with it, or purely the fun associated with it.

The best example I’ve got of this is my dad and drones. I bought a drone and showed it to my dad at some point. He was enamored by it. He said it’s the coolest piece of tech he ever played with, and I agree—it’s amazing.

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And yeah, that's pretty much you get from "Return of the Mac". See you (hopefully) sooner than 2+ years!

Best wishes,

Benas