tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207399102011-12-31T01:04:25.079-07:00I am a terrible bloggerMichael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.comBlogger1871100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-65149094956660635862011-12-09T17:57:00.000-07:002011-12-09T17:57:24.705-07:00

Criminals have been skimming debit and credit card information by tampering with point of sale terminals, PIN pads, gasoline pumps, and ATMs for quite a while now. The first time I heard of Bluetooth being used in such cases was from this SparkFun Electronics news blurb a couple years ago. Malicious hardware installed in a Canada retailer's PIN pad intercepted customer data and transmitted it

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-36235118448245191982011-11-16T13:00:00.001-07:002011-11-16T13:03:36.174-07:00

The following is an email I sent to NIST in response to a request for comments on the draft Guide to Bluetooth Security (NIST Special Publication 800-121 Rev. 1). Thank you for your efforts to produce and update SP 800-121! Although I have some criticisms, your document is important and unique.My principal concern about the guide is that the recommended practices are too weak to support the

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-83209225727123312282011-11-07T16:01:00.003-07:002011-11-07T16:11:55.316-07:00

Since handing out hundreds of Throwing Star LAN Tap printed circuit boards as business cards at DEF CON, I've received a number of interesting questions about the device in my email. A couple people were hoping to use Throwing Stars to monitor connections that use Power over Ethernet (PoE). When I designed the current version of the Throwing Star LAN Tap, I decided to pass all eight conductors

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-10697913742100606952011-08-18T23:44:00.000-06:002011-08-18T23:44:48.477-06:00

The following is a transcript, more or less, of a short talk I gave at ToorCon Seattle 2011. There was no video made of the presentation, so I'm doing this instead. The talk was a preview of some research into how spread spectrum clock generation affects the risk of eavesdropping on unintentional Radio Frequency (RF) emanations from electronic devices. Probably half of you are sick of

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-71482439030640943132011-07-13T20:50:00.001-06:002011-07-14T00:34:43.638-06:00

Four years after BlueSniff: Eve Meets Alice and Bluetooth by Dominic Spill and Andrea Bittau, people are still saying that Bluetooth vulnerabilities can be mitigated by turning off discoverability. If there is one thing that should have been learned from all of the Bluetooth security research done over the last few years, it is that a non-discoverable device is no safer than a discoverable one,

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-81694379943770204562011-06-15T22:08:00.001-06:002011-06-15T23:02:02.880-06:00

A few weeks ago I watched The Architecture of Access to Scientific Knowledge, a thought-provoking lecture given by Lawrence Lessig at CERN in April. In it, Lessig argues that the application of copyright by publishers in the scientific community is harmful to science itself. If you have any interest at all in the progress of human knowledge, you should watch it.The talk reminded me of Shaking

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-19628616289786510972011-02-24T23:13:00.005-07:002011-02-24T23:41:55.453-07:00

I took a break from hardware and manufacturing concerns tonight and sat down to write some code. I probably should have worked on the USB bootloader, but instead I wrote a simple spectrum analysis function for the Ubertooth platform. Similar to other transceiver IC spectrum analyzers (like my IM-Me implementation), it tunes its receiver to one frequency at a time and records the received signal

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-31263538224995363362011-02-23T21:25:00.006-07:002011-02-23T22:30:06.258-07:00

For the first time in several years, Lars and I are sitting out of the World Ice Art Championships. I'm rather busy with other things this year, and Lars would have had even more difficulty than usual taking time off work. I'm pretty sure we'll be back at it next year, but this time I'm enjoying watching the Single Block Classic web cams from far away in Colorado.Of course, this winter hasn't

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-55385702605102948412011-02-17T11:25:00.011-07:002011-11-07T16:03:05.982-07:00

Not long after I designed the 5-in-1 Network Admin's Cable several years ago, I built the first Throwing Star LAN Tap. It is a simple cross of CAT5 cable spliced together to permit in-line monitoring of Ethernet connections. As a passive (unpowered) device, it is limited to sniffing 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX, and each sniffing connector monitors only the network traffic going in one direction.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-14498184981409680622011-02-06T22:25:00.006-07:002011-02-06T23:27:01.805-07:00

Video of my presentation, Project Ubertooth: Building a Better Bluetooth Adapter, at ShmooCon 2011 is now online. You can download the entire video in high quality from shmoocon.org or watch it in your web browser. In the presentation, I demonstrated Ubertooth One, the world's first open source, widely available, low cost Bluetooth test tool, and I described my two year design journey starting

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-52308695367075088952011-02-02T23:02:00.000-07:002011-02-02T23:06:33.573-07:00

A package arrived today containing my first Bluetooth Low Energy equipment. Bluetooth Low Energy is a new wireless technology within the Bluetooth specification suite. It provides capabilities similar to Basic Rate Bluetooth, which has been around for ten years, but consumes less power while doing so. Consumer Bluetooth Low Energy products likely won't hit the market for a few months, but

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-90049089332771815342011-01-31T08:58:00.003-07:002011-01-31T09:08:07.802-07:00

At ShmooCon over the weekend, I gave the first public demonstration of Ubertooth One, a smaller and more powerful Ubertooth hardware platform. I also announced the beginning of a pledge period on Kickstarter that allows anyone to take part in the first production run of commercially available Ubertooth Ones. If you would like an Ubertooth One of your own, I encourage you to consider building

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-8486172560560599072011-01-07T22:41:00.006-07:002011-01-07T23:23:16.548-07:00

Video of Ubertooth Zero, a preview, my talk at ToorCon 12, is now online (part 1, part 2). This includes the first public demonstration of Bluetooth sniffing with the platform. Since ToorCon, I've been working hard on Ubertooth One hardware and software. I've had to work through some production delays and errors with Ubertooth One circuit boards, but I have a good feeling about the next

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-27237903780464963832010-11-26T23:06:00.004-07:002010-11-26T23:23:53.553-07:00

I gave a talk at ShmooCon 2010 on the security of Bluetooth keyboards and mice. After a restoration of the ShmooCon archive, the full video is once again available. I have also published the slides and such.Most of my previous Bluetooth work had been done using software radio techniques requiring somewhat costly hardware. For this talk I focused on what is possible for both attack and defense

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-40754138848019340982010-11-23T11:19:00.002-07:002010-11-23T11:25:09.701-07:00

I just made a pledge to support OpenVizsla, an open source USB analyzer. I had been thinking about designing something similar, and now I don't have to!

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-48715414201131621892010-11-16T21:07:00.009-07:002010-11-26T21:11:18.869-07:00

Tonight I uploaded the first release of Project Ubertooth, an open source wireless development platform that can be used for Bluetooth testing and research. This is a very preliminary release, but it includes the complete hardware design for Ubertooth Zero, firmware source code, and the host code needed to perform rudimentary Bluetooth sniffing as I demonstrated at ToorCon 12. Although you can

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-44347873236166298592010-11-02T22:42:00.000-06:002010-11-02T22:48:58.292-06:00

Last spring I decided that this year I would win the DEF CON 18 badge hacking contest. I failed. In the process, however, I had fun and learned a great deal, and I ended up with a decent hack that is still unfinished.I wanted to make something to take advantage of the digital signal processing (DSP) capabilities of the chip on the badge, so I decided to turn my travel guitar into the DEF CON

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-54748879360926091332010-10-27T03:13:00.009-06:002010-11-26T21:11:48.250-07:00

Last weekend at ToorCon 12 I unveiled Project Ubertooth, something I've been working on for more than a year. The goal of the project is to produce a low cost 2.4 GHz wireless development platform suitable for Bluetooth sniffing (among other things). If you are familiar with previous work on Bluetooth monitoring, then you know that good tools are expensive. Commercial equipment costs $10,000

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-33055320116736950462010-03-17T07:32:00.000-06:002010-03-17T09:57:45.366-06:00

Quixote's Nightmare is an abstract ice sculpture that captures a view through the eyes of Don Quixote. Lars Hansen and I completed it as our entry in the Single Block Classic at the 2010 World Ice Art Championships. The piece was illuminated with white lights for judging the first night.We returned a couple nights later to see the sculpture under colored lights. I like the colors the Ice

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-54903558639346621562010-03-16T18:18:00.001-06:002010-03-16T18:22:11.140-06:00

ShmooCon was, once again, a fantastic experience this year. One of many highlights of this year's event for me was hacking on some radio devices with Travis Goodspeed in the hotel bar for hours on end. This included playing with the IM-Me that he brought. As soon as I got home I ordered one. I found mine for $15.99 and free shipping on eBay.Since then I've written custom firmware to turn my

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-3015858550370585232010-02-28T01:57:00.002-07:002010-02-28T02:00:59.752-07:00

Ice Alaska finally posted the daily photos of our piece. I hope to have some more up in the next few days.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-1179523494213191562010-02-27T12:31:00.000-07:002010-02-27T13:37:58.147-07:00

By mid-afternoon Thursday we had turned our attention toward assembly of the mechanism. The weather was considerably colder than the previous two days. Unfortunately this made the ice more brittle, and we had trouble with fusing. The upper axle (the one that connects to the rotor) broke clean through in two places while Lars bonded it to the cams! Lars had to turn a replacement on the lathe.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-8234831562758161212010-02-25T14:20:00.003-07:002010-02-25T14:22:35.426-07:00

It's time to let the bed bugs bite.We made good progress this morning. The body has been completely shaped down to the ground. The giant tentacles have 90% of their suckers, and the eyes have been turned on the lathe. Time to get back out there!

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-22207926181269278062010-02-25T03:39:00.002-07:002010-02-25T03:41:13.604-07:00

We resolved to sleep well Monday night and have a good breakfast. These goals were achieved.Tuesday morning we established our battle plan for the day, and it centered around sculpting the main body of the beast. In order to prepare for this, our principal morning activity was to insert pins (grafts? sutures?) across the terrible crack on either side of the body. These were fused in place by

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-24177092926393267672010-02-24T01:15:00.008-07:002010-02-24T01:42:33.445-07:00

At some point today they finally published the correct link to our webcam. If you hadn't found it yet, you haven't missed a whole lot. Mostly Lars and I spent the day working on small parts that aren't very visible from a distance, and we were probably off camera quite a bit of the time.If you have been watching, you may be wondering why our sculpture looks so blocky and boring! While we were

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-59486218630567646812010-02-23T12:54:00.001-07:002010-02-23T12:55:42.066-07:00

This probably won't be the official URL, but I poked around on the server and found our active camera.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-5047230396474810742010-02-23T12:29:00.002-07:002010-02-23T12:39:50.705-07:00

My coffee started to freeze, so it must be time for our first break of the event. After a stop at the school this morning for Lars to brief his sub, we arrived at Ice Park with just about enough time to set up our scaffolding before the starting horn sounded. Since then we've been drilling the axle holes and marking the block for the imminent attack of the giant chainsaw.The webcams are not

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-85031593153079813332010-02-23T03:09:00.003-07:002010-02-23T03:12:10.479-07:00

Some joker at Belfair added to our model. Lars is still working on lesson plans, but I'm going to bed.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-13741967192503360602010-02-23T02:17:00.001-07:002010-02-23T03:01:23.244-07:00

Lars and I will be carving in site 40 which is the closest site to the warming hut and most of the other facilities at Ice Park. Watch us on our webcam at icealaska.com starting Tuesday at 9:00 AM AKST.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-48204256863310095922010-02-23T01:35:00.000-07:002010-02-23T02:56:23.230-07:00

I was glad to be able to go back to bed for a while after Lars went to work. A couple hours later I had breakfast with Sharon and then spent some time preparing a new official sketch (to submit to Ice Alaska) from the clay model. I also drew side and front block layout diagrams so that we will know where to start cutting Tuesday morning. Later in the day I made the smallest two sucker bits and

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-83477537982373835422010-02-23T00:39:00.000-07:002010-02-23T02:54:12.245-07:00

After my arrival at Belfair Sunday night, Lars and I looked over all our equipment and started planning the activities of the next 36 hours before the start of the Single Block Classic. Before going to bed we had a design session, reviewing several sketches we had made and modeling some of them with clay. He ended up with a model that I liked but didn't love, and I made a model that he liked

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-64656011397146129792010-02-22T23:38:00.019-07:002010-02-23T08:49:44.474-07:00

I arrived at Belfair excited to see all of the improvements Lars has made to various tools this year. There are many! The first thing he showed me was the housing that he built for the lathe motor. He bought a riveter this year, so he was able to make it quite light (unlike many of his inventions that feature thick, welded steel). He also improved the lathe chucks by adding permanent bits of

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-44646497280836144882010-02-21T11:57:00.004-07:002010-02-21T12:04:44.574-07:00

Yesterday was a very, very bad day. On Friday night I had a couple hours to work on sucker bits in the garage before heading to the airport to pick up Emily. At some point during that time, Charley, our Rhodesian Ridgeback, went outside and got stuck in the backyard. I looked for him as I was getting ready to leave and finally found him prone in the snow next to the chicken coop at the bottom

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-77661525086294651242010-02-19T18:01:00.001-07:002010-02-20T13:42:22.046-07:00

When Lars and I first started carving ice, we underestimated the value of some of the more traditional ice carving tools. Chainsaws would be essential, we knew, but we didn't figure that chisels would be so important to the mechanical ice sculptor as they are to the traditional ice sculptor. We only had a few, small, one-handed chisels on hand that first year, but wasn't long before we realized

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-50446404746854591892010-02-17T22:44:00.004-07:002010-02-17T22:55:04.863-07:00

Making sucker bits out of spade bits turned out to be pretty easy, but we need to make some bigger suckers. The largest spade bit I have found is 1.5 inches. I'd like to be able to make suckers at least twice that large, so I made a prototype 3 inch sucker bit out of a flat piece of 1/4 inch aluminum.It worked quite well, so I'm now working on a set of bits in made in this style out of 1/4 inch

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-65723469837765428062010-02-15T18:39:00.005-07:002010-02-15T19:06:17.218-07:00

In one week I'll head to Fairbanks for the World Ice Art Championships. This year Lars and I have decided to carve a windmill as seen through the eyes of Don Quixote. There isn't much in the text that describes how he perceives them, so we have a lot of freedom. Don Quixote calls them "monstrous giants" and says that they have many arms, so we are carving our windmill in the form of an

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-75324137591431335562010-02-05T09:50:00.003-07:002010-02-05T10:04:28.001-07:00

I'm giving a talk on Bluetooth keyboard security at ShmooCon this year. Live video of the talk will be provided. My talk will be at 3:00 PM EST on Saturday, February 6th in the Break It! track.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-27204439056188160072010-01-12T18:16:00.000-07:002010-01-12T18:29:37.876-07:00

At ToorCon 11, Joshua Wright handed out a pre-release version of his KillerBee framework, a set of tools for analysis of 802.15.4 and ZigBee wireless networks.KillerBee requires a particular hardware device, Atmel's AVR RZUSBSTICK, an inexpensive USB dongle with a programmable microcontroller. Many of the KillerBee functions require custom firmware (written by Joshua) to be flashed onto the

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-78258436467031759602009-11-04T16:15:00.002-07:002009-11-04T16:32:31.562-07:00

Symantec has decided that Lose/Lose is a trojan. It is, in fact, a video game that deletes files. The game's web site warns that the game deletes files. The game itself warns the player that it deletes files. There is nothing whatsoever malicious about a program deleting files after warning the user that it will delete files.Why does Symantec (oh, Trend too) think this is malware? Because "

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-55663106092661330492009-09-12T15:50:00.004-06:002010-01-12T15:52:05.231-07:00

I'll be running a software radio workshop at ToorCon in October. It will be similar to the workshop at ToorCamp but with more electricity and less volcanic ash! With a more pleasant environment and more structured lessons, a greater amount of material will be covered.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-1272516329529944012009-09-11T22:59:00.001-06:002009-09-11T23:06:55.462-06:00

video (179M) of my presentation with Dominic Spill at ShmooCon 2009 has been posted.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-28480319082228065132009-07-18T18:10:00.010-06:002009-07-18T23:30:35.020-06:00

The badges at Toorcamp were solder-yourself passive RFID detectors. With the jumper in one position, an LED lights up in the presence of 125 kHz signals (used by low frequency RFID tags). With the jumper in the other position, a second LED indicates the presence of 13.56 MHz signals (used by high frequency RFID tags and Near Field Communication).The circuit is very simple. Each side consists

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-11368836908987454892009-06-26T22:24:00.007-06:002009-06-26T22:44:44.920-06:00

Next week Dominic and I will reprise our ShmooCon Bluetooth talk at Toorcamp, North America's first hacker camp (which happens to be taking place at a defunct Titan-1 missile silo). The nice folks from DorkbotPDX have allowed us to join their campsite. While we're there we also plan to run a software radio workshop. It is high time that more hackers learn how to use this technology.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-64037332343857646452009-03-26T18:38:00.002-06:002009-03-26T18:48:14.516-06:00

Video (warning! 283 MB!) of my talk, Software Radio and the Future of Wireless Security, at Black Hat USA 2008 is now available along with all the other presentations from the event.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-63014297445508417372009-03-03T19:55:00.007-07:002009-03-03T20:32:25.464-07:00

After four years of developing tools and techniques, three gloves and mittens cut by angle grinders, two broken slabs of ice intended for moving parts, one tool confiscated by the TSA, and zero broken beaks, we completed Star Crossed. The sculpture features a realistic penguin on the left and a mechanical penguin on the right. It is the first working mechanical ice sculpture that we have

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-25718995653060019272009-03-02T21:39:00.002-07:002009-03-02T22:41:02.518-07:00

Throughout the final day of competition we worked primarily on converting the rough penguin bodies into finished sculptures. The first step was a thorough scratching with the devil's back scratcher. This removed all the chainsaw and chisel marks, refined the shape of the piece, and left only small scratches to be polished away. We decided to use the scratched texture for the black portion of

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-8621677708415265682009-02-26T11:59:00.002-07:002009-02-26T12:10:39.974-07:00

It is the morning of the final day of competition. Last night we stopped a bit early (?) and made it back to Belfair around 11:00. Lars made lesson plans while I sharpened chisels. (Thanks for the diamond stone, mom and dad!) Actually, Lars made lesson plans while I had a beer (Belfair home brew) and played guitar. Then I stayed up a couple hours after him to sharpen chisels, and I'm glad I

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-88600659985820992432009-02-26T09:52:00.003-07:002009-02-26T12:10:57.574-07:00

What a beautiful day for carving ice! The weather has been perfect for ice, not too warm, not too cold. After the ice warmed up a bit in the morning and our liquid water cooled down, we worked on the welds and had them done by lunch. They could be prettier, but they are structurally sound. After lunch we finished the mechanism pieces (except for the handle) and performed a trial assembly.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-57278187913450644652009-02-25T12:28:00.003-07:002009-02-26T12:11:19.113-07:00

Day one was quite successful. Our ice had several large cracks (and the heat of the giant chansaw produced an additional one), but we've managed to work around them well. We have been able to find high quality sections for our mechanical parts. We made a last minute decision the night before the event to increase the overall size of the piece. This has required a considerable effort to add

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-962954135961572132009-02-23T12:40:00.003-07:002009-02-23T12:46:34.913-07:00

We are in site number one this year. Matt, our inside man in the webcam crew, tells us that our webcam was the first one made operational yesterday, so it should be available when the event starts Tuesday morning at 9:00. We might not be there right when the horn sounds, however, due to some scheduling difficulties. Lars has recently been promoted (yay!) to a full-time teaching position at a

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-7571796700157792882009-02-23T12:12:00.002-07:002009-02-23T12:21:54.598-07:00

Here is our official sketch for this year's Single Block Classic. Our plan is to carve a pair of star-crossed lovers, a realistic penguin and a mechanical penguin. The mechanical penguin's head bobs up and down when a wind-up-toy-style key is turned.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-65533001938454812332009-02-23T11:39:00.002-07:002009-02-23T12:06:18.671-07:00

I am a terrible blogger. As all (three) of you know, I have failed to finish blogging about the 2008 World Ice Art Championships. Now a whole year has passed, and I find myself back at Belfair preparing for the 2009 event! Perhaps I will properly finish telling last year's tale at some point, but I want to start blogging about this year, so here is a quick summary: Lars and I constructed what

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-60826275813331705782009-02-21T10:22:00.003-07:002009-02-21T10:35:11.066-07:00

Dominic and I had a great time at ShmooCon. Our talk was fun and well attended. Video of the talk will be posted "soon." Slides (PDF, ODP, PPT) and code are up. We met a lot of great people and had some interesting feedback and discussions of new ideas. We're still working on this stuff, so hopefully we'll have something even better to show off later this year.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-3732571975309165862009-02-05T04:09:00.002-07:002009-02-05T04:13:54.651-07:00

Dominic Spill and I are presenting Building an All-Channel Bluetooth Monitor at ShmooCon this weekend. It should be fun!

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-82388837844778628452008-11-13T21:41:00.002-07:002011-10-02T07:23:41.790-06:00

Dominic Spill has been kind enough to correspond with me about my recent work on reversing the Bluetooth hopping sequence. He pointed out some interesting ideas he had proposed last May. One essential idea I had overlooked is that 6 bits of clock can be recovered along with the partial address from (almost) any frame. These clock bits can be used to narrow the search space of possible clock

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-79986485767345924492008-11-05T21:59:00.010-07:002009-02-05T04:14:58.738-07:00

Monitoring Bluetooth is hard. A Bluetooth piconet (a small network of two or more Bluetooth devices) continually hops through 79 adjacent channels, each 1 MHz wide. The piconet uses one channel at a time, hopping to a new channel 1600 times each second according to a pseudo-random channel sequence based on semi-secret information.In order to capture all the transmissions of a particular piconet

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-61570089971839584532008-08-12T20:34:00.004-06:002008-08-12T20:48:03.997-06:00

Congratulations to Emily Metcalfe for winning the Mystery Signal Challenge I announced at my Black Hat talk! Emily correctly identified the signal as a DECT cordless phone and was awarded a 5-in-1 network admin's cable plus a throwing star lan tap.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-13300812598480307822008-08-12T19:14:00.002-06:002008-08-12T20:31:57.003-06:00

My Black Hat talk, Software Radio and the Future of Wireless Security went very well. Thanks to everyone who showed up. I've posted the final slides, demo code, and mystery signal stuff here.Also at Black Hat were Olle's Mobitex talk and Kevin and Yoshi's talk on implantable medical devices. The Mobitex presentation was full of technical protocol details and described a method of decoding

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-55813670521537975442008-02-28T01:40:00.002-07:002008-02-28T01:46:16.579-07:00

It is getting colder tonight, but we are making good progess and having a great time at the World Ice Art Championships. We've had to abandon our plan A design (and even plan B) due to a variety of problems including gear cutting difficulties and poor ice quality. We had one large gear mysteriously break over night, perhaps due to cracks in the original block. Our block has many cracks this

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-34310960786408343662008-02-26T14:38:00.002-07:002008-02-26T14:49:15.623-07:00

The Single Block Classic began at 9:00 this morning, and we are carving our block to bits! We are on camera this year. Check out the web cam for our site throughout the next three days, or stop by for a visit if you are lucky enough to be enjoying the Fairbanks winter. The temperature is currently slightly above 0°F, which is much, much friendlier than last year. As of Tuesday lunch, we are on

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-67655970544826617022008-02-25T15:52:00.003-07:002008-02-26T14:50:13.270-07:00

Alas, the computers at Ice Park are not in very good shape, and they fail to handle USB mass storage devices correctly. I was hoping that a little CF/USB adapter would allow me to get photos from my camera to the blog in record time. Oh well.We have registered and are about to check out the condition of our block. We are site number six. Who is number one?

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-70042378678208853782008-02-24T11:58:00.001-07:002008-02-24T11:58:31.304-07:00

Ice madness has descended upon Belfair! It was here long before my arrival as is apparent from the array of new equipment Lars has constructed this winter. We didn't do much on our first night other than show off various gadgets and tools to each other. My Denver friends will be horrified to discover that I spent the night in a bed with an Oakland Raiders blanket. I didn't see it until morning

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-54427015353104937222008-02-24T11:54:00.000-07:002008-02-24T11:58:02.740-07:00

I checked my two 49 pound bags and headed for the metal detectors. "What is in here?" the TSA lady asked."Oh, you're probably looking at the variable transformer. It is very heavy."She turned down my offer to help carry the bag to the inspection table - protocol I suppose. "What is this again?""A variable transformer, like the AC adapters you plug into the wall, only bigger, and with a knob.""

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-17558033581188789042008-02-23T01:07:00.001-07:002008-02-23T01:09:25.030-07:00

After a short night of sleep, I'll be on a plane for Fairbanks. It will be nice to meet up with Dan, Brian, and Tamara (the documentary crew) in Seattle as we all ended up on the same flight to Fairbanks. Here's hoping the TSA doesn't find my gear too interesting. . .

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-25479523419537778122008-02-20T23:41:00.002-07:002008-02-20T23:51:42.801-07:00

Although our task list for the next few days is daunting, we are making great progress in our preparations for Ice Art 2008. Lars has finished building a trailer that will help us transport all our equipment and will also provide a relatively warm environment for heat cutting should the weather be extremely cold. He has also been hard at work on drill bits, the slab machine, and various other

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-5008193711116452882008-02-19T10:45:00.003-07:002008-02-19T10:50:17.404-07:00

Since my last post I've learned that augers with their screws removed are called barefoot augers. They are rare but not unheard of. Since Lars had complained of the screw on a new auger of his that we hope to use, I suggested that we could turn it into a barefoot auger. It turns out that he already had a better idea!He is fabricating a pilot spade bit that will screw onto the auger's feed

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-41434562727193323892008-02-17T16:20:00.009-07:002008-12-10T15:20:46.417-07:00

Augers have long been used for boring holes through ice, but it is difficult to find an ice auger smaller than 6 inches in diameter. There are plenty of smaller augers for wood boring, but they top out at around 1.5 inches. Even so, we plan to use at least one of these.Wood augers have a screw tip designed to pull the bit into the wood. Unfortunately this doesn't work at all in ice, so I did

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-76678653829034707762008-02-15T20:44:00.003-07:002008-02-17T17:27:58.099-07:00

Unfortunately the hot wire cutter I have spent so much time on isn't going to make the trip to Fairbanks this year. Even though the project has been somewhat successful, we decided that the method isn't fast enough to use for this year's sculpture. So far my fastest cuts with the device have been at a rate of about three inches per minute.The only task we had in mind for the hot wire cutter

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-20228453045648240442008-02-14T22:53:00.004-07:002008-12-10T15:20:46.553-07:00

The only thing that will prevent our sculpture from running for a very long time is friction. Without friction, the momentum of the flywheel would lift the half gear all the way up to the full starting position repeatedly. Making a working model of the machine out of some other materials won't help us figure out how long the finished product will run (or if it will oscillate at all) because the

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-86898333445031244082008-02-08T21:45:00.000-07:002008-12-10T15:20:46.729-07:00

I was excited to find the 16 gauge nichrome in my mailbox yesterday and quickly put it to use. It seems to do the trick! After my first test cut I thought my multi-meter was starting to smoke, but it turned out to be a wire draped across the multi-meter. I was overloading the wire going from the power supply to the nichrome. I should have thought of that! I quickly replaced it with some 14

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-50934901140137524332008-02-07T20:58:00.000-07:002008-02-07T21:56:32.601-07:00

One of the ways we hope to improve this year is by sculpting subtractively rather than additively; instead of assembling a sculpture entirely out of individual parts that we have produced, we'll carve most of it out of a solid block. There will be parts, like gears and axles, that we will have to add, but the bulk of the piece will be carved, not assembled. Our hope is that this technique will

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-69746226721428491552008-02-04T21:04:00.001-07:002008-12-10T15:20:46.990-07:00

Lars and I plan to build a sort of perpetual motion machine for the 2008 World Ice Art Championships. This is a simplified diagram of the mechanism, notably missing gear teeth. The big red thing is a heavy half gear that powers the sculpture. It is shown here nearly at the starting position. The weight of the half gear pulls it downward, turning the little red pinion as it goes. The red

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-46297810270904214372008-02-01T23:15:00.000-07:002008-12-10T15:20:47.297-07:00

Good news: I was right about transformer winding selection. I switched to the heavy gauge secondary winding, and all is well. I can now crank the thing up as high as my household circuit breaker allows.Bad news: As I feared might happen, the cutting wire became brittle at high temperature and snapped during my first test at a higher voltage!In anticipation of this problem, I had prepared a

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-57719131175304569112008-02-01T16:23:00.000-07:002008-02-01T16:26:09.936-07:00

I am in awe. This guy built a working bicycle entirely out of wood.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-15936401251102418422008-01-31T22:55:00.000-07:002008-02-01T21:15:39.329-07:00

Having just received a new transformer in the mail, I was able to piece together a first attempt at a new power supply tonight. This allowed me to properly test the hot wire cutter for the first time. I am happy to report that it sliced through a block of ice quite easily. I had it up to about half of (theoretical) maximum power, and it cut as fast or faster than any hot wire I have used to

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-58070006188706922162008-01-31T08:13:00.000-07:002008-12-10T15:20:47.830-07:00

I got the new hot wire ice cutter mostly finished and in testable condition the other night. Unfortunately I am still missing one part needed for the power supply, but I was able to perform an initial test with a much weaker power supply from last year. Since the new device uses a very short length of low gauge wire (compared to the gear cutters of last year), it draws much more current. I

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-47682142831819717942008-01-24T23:15:00.000-07:002008-12-10T15:20:48.285-07:00

My sheet of UHMW was nicely planar, but it had small grooves in concentric arcs left by some sawing or milling covering both sides. I thought it would be a good idea to make the working surface as smooth as possible, so I tried sanding it. No dice! One of the properties of UHMW that makes it attractive for its many uses is extreme abrasion resistance - it out-wears steel 10 to 1! It should be

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-82676525107635685672008-01-23T20:18:00.000-07:002008-01-23T20:18:27.270-07:00

The very cool Automata / Automaton Blog points out a neat book, Make Your Own Working Paper Clock. "Cut this book into 160 pieces, glue them together, and have a paper clock operated by weights that keeps perfect time and can be rewound and regulated."

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-22281209060267755762008-01-23T00:13:00.000-07:002008-01-23T11:19:37.183-07:00

One of our guiding principles this year is simplicity. We want to make a working mechanical ice sculpture, but we want the design to be simple enough that we can actually build it without compromising the design during construction. One way to gauge complexity is by counting mechanical parts such as axles and gears (I'm not counting bushings).In our first year, we attempted to build a

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-3291617563997479862008-01-22T14:58:00.000-07:002008-01-22T15:08:59.941-07:00

Although Lars and I are very excited about Ice Art this year, we somehow have failed to find time for as much preparation as we had the last couple years. We even forgot to register for the event until a friend reminded us! Fortunately we were able to get one of the last spots in the single block.Both of us are working on tool preparation, of course. I'm primarily working on a new hot wire

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-77384734527519475152007-11-26T15:49:00.000-07:002007-11-26T16:17:16.254-07:00

It had been years since I last factored a polynomial. I had forgotten how to derive the quadratic formula. Clearly it was time for a math review. I picked up Precalculus Mathematics in a Nutshell from the Boulder Labs Library; it was just what I needed. The book by George F. Simmons zips through geometry, algebra, and trigonometry in about a hundred pages of amazingly complete and readable

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-60883256335696422462007-11-25T13:15:00.000-07:002007-11-26T11:31:14.694-07:00

Yukio Matsuo's Ice Sculpture is a marvelous book, really two books in one. The first is filled with full-color photographs of the master's work, ranging from traditional culinary pieces to original abstract sculptures. Many of them demonstrate the sculptor's distinctive style. The second is a series of sketches, diagrams, and notes that concisely illustrate how to carve each of the depicted

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-46388405623491431782007-11-13T14:00:00.000-07:002007-11-13T14:40:37.775-07:00

I stopped by Colorado Plastic Products in Boulder today. They sell scraps of all sorts of materials, including high density polyethylene (HDPE), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE/Teflon), and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), all of which are attractive for making ice carving tools.I needed a low friction surface for a new hot wire ice cutter I'm working on, so I picked out a nice

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-6702713995547019842007-11-02T20:32:00.000-06:002007-11-02T22:30:55.098-06:00

Lars and Sharon visited us in Colorado a couple weeks ago as a part of a post-wedding tour of the lower 48. We took full advantage of the opportunity to start planning for Ice Art 2008.After touring Celestial Seasonings (Sharon's favorite part of the trip), we enjoyed an Ethiopian dinner with Keith and Andy, both ice scientists! It was an excellent opportunity to explore ideas for ice machines,

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-5450068283248158952007-11-02T11:46:00.000-06:002007-11-02T22:39:59.054-06:00

The first snow has come and gone. The days are getting shorter. It's the time of year when Lars and I start talking about ice. It must be time to revive the blog.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-64969338600421094902007-03-14T18:52:00.000-06:002007-03-14T19:11:40.390-06:00

J@§¤ñ wrote to tell me about how he extended my 5-in-1 network admin's cable to build a dual-purpose Ethernet and RS-232 tap. Very nice!

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-23491108581431832672007-03-13T20:00:00.000-06:002008-12-10T15:20:48.957-07:00

I traveled to Fairbanks with a small hot wire gear cutter and parts to make a large one. At Belfair I spent the better part of two days making the large gear cutter and an axle guide prior to the start of the event. The structures were made primarily of balsa wood, fragile but lightweight enough to allow for gradual, gravity powered gear cutting without bending the resistance wire. Lars had

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-15653076376235678822007-03-04T20:59:00.001-07:002008-12-10T15:20:53.421-07:00

Here are a couple photos of the completed piece. It is a working music box that plays one note. When the crank at the front is turned, a cam lifts and then drops a hammer that strikes a vertical chime.The frame structure on the left ended up being completely superfluous because our chime was attached directly to the floor.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-42079172528356888812007-03-04T13:38:00.000-07:002008-12-10T15:20:56.973-07:00

Dan Gottesman graciously offered quite a few photos he took of our project. Here they are in chronological order.We started out by carving a few slabs off of our block. We used a chainsaw with a 42 inch bar and a helper handle to follow lines scribed into the ice. At first we tried etching the lines with sharp things, but we eventually figured out the easiest way we had to mark the ice was

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-82452768041472336122007-03-04T09:52:00.000-07:002007-03-04T10:07:27.033-07:00

Check out the official Ice Alaska page for our creation at the Single Block Classic. Shortly before the final photo was taken we affixed the crank handle to the front and made a few invisible modifications to allow the piece to function. It isn't much to look at, especially from the front, but it works. We should have turned the entire piece 45° so that you can better see the mechanical

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-33991117011145767072007-03-03T21:23:00.000-07:002007-03-03T21:29:31.116-07:00

I need to catch up on sleep before posting more of the story (and a whole bunch of pictures), but our effort to make the single chime mechanism work on Friday afternoon was a success! We turned the crank, the hammer hit the chime, and nothing broke! Unbelievably, it was still working when we returned a few hours later.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-8579958315110999762007-03-02T10:22:00.000-07:002007-03-02T10:40:22.053-07:00

After an afternoon discussion, Lars and I decided to simplify our design and attempt to complete it by the 9:00 PM horn marking the end of the competition. If the piece wasn't done at 9:00, we would voluntarily disqualify ourselves and keep working until finished. Lars: "Art may break out at any moment!"The simplified design consists of a single chime struck by a hammer once per rotation of a

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-60396440043689497722007-03-01T14:48:00.002-07:002007-03-01T14:56:15.506-07:00

A combination of technical difficulties and general lack of time have prevented me from updating the blog as often as I would have liked. As of lunch on Thursday, the last day of the competition, we are doing well but are behind schedule. Our tools have been working as intended this year, but we are finding that, even with better tools, carving each individual part takes quite a bit of time,

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-33251622258061657972007-03-01T10:45:00.000-07:002008-12-10T15:20:57.108-07:00

The giant chainsaw has been working very well for slab cutting. We've cut full slabs from two inches to six inches thick, and not a single slab has broken. The only improvement we can envision would be some kind of guide to keep our cuts straight. Our cuts haven't been horribly crooked, but a little more consistency in our slab thickness would help quite a bit.

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-16699363744482466172007-02-28T17:32:00.000-07:002008-12-10T15:20:57.553-07:00

We spent a great deal of time on Sunday and Monday in the shop at Belfair. I spent most of the time working on a hot wire gear cutter for the large gear.Lars worked on a number of things, including the super router that has become known as Julie. Originally envisioned as an attachment for a drill press, Julie ended up being constructed with her own motor.Nephew Gary helped out by building a

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-51167572290837124622007-02-27T15:07:00.001-07:002007-03-01T10:50:22.133-07:00

We showed up early and set up hundreds of pounds of equipment this morning before the 9:00 starting time. We spent the morning carving large slabs of ice off of our block and making a pad of ice upon which we will build our sculpture.The pad is made of hard-packed snow that has been leveled. After leveling the snow, we dribbled cold water onto it a few times, did some sanding, and eventually

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-76678227423142545292007-02-27T01:36:00.000-07:002007-02-27T01:48:59.751-07:00

After a delightfully uneventful flight to Fairbanks, Lars and I spent two days hard at work in the shop at Belfair. We have so many wonderful tools this year! I'll have to post photos of them, but I am unable to at the moment.At Ice Park today we drew site number 42. Excellent! If you are in Fairbanks, we hope you'll visit us over the next three days. We've already unloaded some equipment at the

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-36560961855139829222007-02-24T04:41:00.000-07:002007-02-24T05:09:40.976-07:00

I checked my email one last time before leaving for a long day of travel only to find a notice telling me that we had been bumped to a much later flight. Our first flight of the day was canceled. Other than the fact that we don't get to join Lars and Sharon for dinner tonight, our new itinerary is actually much better. This change cut our total travel time from thirteen hours down to seven

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-79467717845947529142007-02-22T15:28:00.000-07:002007-02-22T16:25:11.588-07:00

"I just heard that the SAW IS READY!! Peligro Will Robinson!" So said Lars before he went to pick it up. He now has the giant chainsaw, and it is ready to go!

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20739910.post-39762990003331852392007-02-20T19:35:00.000-07:002007-02-21T10:12:20.029-07:00

We've settled on a design and are making last minute preparations for next week's event. I've had a cold for the last few days, so my first priority has been to get healthy; I don't want to head to Fairbanks feeling less than 100%.Lars has been very busy working on tools. He welded up a new drill press table (the "Drill Press Table X-2007 HD") and has done some ice axle testing. He is also

Michael Ossmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12869105044455059297noreply@blogger.com0