Mark Ultra VIII E-Meter Updater "Brick" Command

[CommunicatorIC]

Mark Ultra VIII E-Meter Updater "Brick" Command

From WWP: https://whyweprotest.net/community/...ii-e-meter-has-an-interesting-feature.115580/

I downloaded a copy of the Mac and Windows versions of the updater for the new meters from the Hubbard E-Meter website so I could poke around in them. Here are some interesting strings found in one of the binaries:

brick
Got Brick Command
Brick - Succeeded
Brick - Failed
_executeBrick
Attempting to brick device

Presumably, this is for the purpose of disabling the meters of Scientologists whose IAS memberships are not up to date, which is stated as a condition of meter ownership on the website.

Based on the line "Got Brick Command", there is more than likely a means for Scientology staff to flag the meter of someone who's been SP declared for bricking, should they connect it after that.

Nope. Here, have a screenshot. Potentially identifying information (e.g. the name of my home folder) is blurred out.

For those of you who don't speak UNIX, the long command does two things: one, make a list of all readable strings (4 characters or more) in the file; and two, show us the ones that contain the word "brick". -i tells the grep command to ignore case, so it finds "brick" as well as "Brick", "BRICK", "bRICK", and "bRiCk".

Rewrote that a bit to make it more friendly towards paths containing spaces, and to shut up about "X is a directory", etc:
$ find . -print0 | xargs -0 grep -s "^:[0-9]a-fA-F]"
Ran it from the root of the disk image containing the updater. The only thing that matches that is the binary from a copy of this framework, which is not particularly interesting for our purposes—no fun hexadecimal games to play with it. There are a couple strings I pulled from the main binary that tell us a bit about the way it communicates with the update website, e.g. "ERROR: Cannot use non-HTTPS base URL: %@" and "dataFromBase64UrlString:". What would really be useful is the chance to watch it as it downloads an update, but I'm not sure how we're going to get such an opportunity at this point.

 

[JohnMccMaster]

The MK Ultra e-Meter -the best choice for your electrified hypnosis

 

[Claire Swazey]

Link to hilarious essay about the Mark VIII Ultra E Meter

To comply with forum requirements, i am not copying and pasting the piece here- I'll just link to it below. But it's hilarious. It's an FZ site and on it, is a quoted post or essay by someone who had a VERY lengthy discussion with a Bridge rep about the Ultra VIII. This guy obviously knows meters, tech, policy and electronics. My husband, an electronics tech, was about on the floor with laughter.

The Bridge rep is evasive and robotic but, to his credit, was willing to stay on the phone for what must have been a very long time with this person.

This has gems like-- they want you to fork over the 5400.00 and THEN get the paperwork to apply for the OK to have the meter. You do not get to see this contract before you send this money. So when you pay, you aren't even cleared (no pun intended) to have the meter.

Also, the meter hooks up to the internet. Once your time runs out and it's time for recertification, you cannot use the meter anymore. So people leaving the cult or otherwise not in good standing will eventually not be able to use their Mark VIII. It, therefore, becomes a very expensive paperweight.

Enjoy!

http://possiblyhelpfuladvice.com/?p=15730

 

[CommunicatorIC]

Re: Link to hilarious essay about the Mark VIII Ultra E Meter

To comply with forum requirements, i am not copying and pasting the piece here- I'll just link to it below. But it's hilarious. It's an FZ site and on it, is a quoted post or essay by someone who had a VERY lengthy discussion with a Bridge rep about the Ultra VIII. This guy obviously knows meters, tech, policy and electronics. My husband, an electronics tech, was about on the floor with laughter.

The Bridge rep is evasive and robotic but, to his credit, was willing to stay on the phone for what must have been a very long time with this person.

This has gems like-- they want you to fork over the 5400.00 and THEN get the paperwork to apply for the OK to have the meter. You do not get to see this contract before you send this money. So when you pay, you aren't even cleared (no pun intended) to have the meter.

Also, the meter hooks up to the internet. Once your time runs out and it's time for recertification, you cannot use the meter anymore. So people leaving the cult or otherwise not in good standing will eventually not be able to use their Mark VIII. It, therefore, becomes a very expensive paperweight.

Enjoy!

http://possiblyhelpfuladvice.com/?p=15730

Excerpts from the earlier version, originally posted on Mike's blog, posted at:

http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?34081-New-E-Meter-Rules&p=884169&viewfull=1#post884169

.

 

[Claire Swazey]

Thanks, hon. I knew the Ultra VIII had been discussed here before and was not sure if that was only on this thread.

Appalling, isn't it! (the meter and the insane requirements, I mean.)

 

[Deeana]

In reading the wwp thread I learned the meaning of the term "brick". It's a verb. Meaning to disable an electronic device, turning it into a brick. To be used as a doorstop, I'd assume.

The new Mark VIII emeter requires hookup to the internet for at the very least updates, and it will likely involve initial registration and initial operation/set up.

Funny:

wwp poster #1: I wonder how many emeters will accidentally get bricked?

wwp poster #2: All of them

 

[CommunicatorIC]

The new Mark VIII emeter requires hookup to the internet for at the very least updates, and it will likely involve initial registration and initial operation/set up.

It appears that hookup to the internet is in fact required for initial registration and initial operation/ set up:

https://www.hubbarde-meter.org/download.html?mode=register

E-METER REGISTRATION AND
ANNUAL UPDATE CHECK


The Mark Ultra VIII E-Meter Updater software is required to register or update your meter. Please download and install the software using the link to the left.

IMPORTANT: Do not connect your meter to your computer until you have downloaded and installed this software.

 

[CommunicatorIC]

Thanks, hon. I knew the Ultra VIII had been discussed here before and was not sure if that was only on this thread.

Appalling, isn't it! (the meter and the insane requirements, I mean.)

You're welcome.

Information on the new Mark Ultra VIII Meter was coming in fast and furious for several days. Most of the information appears in this thread and in the threads:

New E-Meter Rules
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?34081-New-E-Meter-Rules

Dissecting the new Mark 8 E-Meter updater software
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?34102-Dissecting-the-new-Mark-8-E-Meter-updater-software

.

 

[Enthetan]

It appears that hookup to the internet is in fact required for initial registration and initial operation/ set up:

https://www.hubbarde-meter.org/download.html?mode=register

Hmmm. I wonder what ELSE gets downloaded and installed on your computer besides the e-meter registration software? Like maybe monitoring software that signals back to Gold if your computer ever accesses any "squirrel" sites?

 

[CommunicatorIC]

Hmmm. I wonder what ELSE gets downloaded and installed on your computer besides the e-meter registration software? Like maybe monitoring software that signals back to Gold if your computer ever accesses any "squirrel" sites?

You might want to look at this thread:

Dissecting the new Mark 8 E-Meter updater software
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthrea...dater-software

 

[Cat's Squirrel]

Re: Link to hilarious essay about the Mark VIII Ultra E Meter

To comply with forum requirements, i am not copying and pasting the piece here- I'll just link to it below. But it's hilarious. It's an FZ site and on it, is a quoted post or essay by someone who had a VERY lengthy discussion with a Bridge rep about the Ultra VIII. This guy obviously knows meters, tech, policy and electronics. My husband, an electronics tech, was about on the floor with laughter.

The Bridge rep is evasive and robotic but, to his credit, was willing to stay on the phone for what must have been a very long time with this person.

This has gems like-- they want you to fork over the 5400.00 and THEN get the paperwork to apply for the OK to have the meter. You do not get to see this contract before you send this money. So when you pay, you aren't even cleared (no pun intended) to have the meter.

Also, the meter hooks up to the internet. Once your time runs out and it's time for recertification, you cannot use the meter anymore. So people leaving the cult or otherwise not in good standing will eventually not be able to use their Mark VIII. It, therefore, becomes a very expensive paperweight.

Enjoy!

http://possiblyhelpfuladvice.com/?p=15730

This is truly astonishing. Demanding that people hand over their money ($5400 at that) before being allowed to see the legal contract? They really are treating their parishioners like fools.

I'd love it if this blew up in their faces, but sadly I expect they'll get away with it.

 

[Claire Swazey]

Yes, it's appalling. And there were a lot of things that various Hub HCOBs say that aren't being addressed at all. Like that Hub originally wanted ppl to have 2 meters but the reason for that is no longer present, but, still, they do not have a directive to say, ok, only one meter. So the reg is all like, ok, buy two meters. (5400.00 USD x 2!)

And the new one is fifty thousand times better...

 

[Deeana]

Is it possible to download spyware along with a supposedly "innocent" software application? Of course it is.

I would think there are computer users who would dearly love to have an independent person examine any program before they download it onto their computer. To do so, said independent examiner would likely need to have access to the computer during the download or obtain a copy of the downloaded program.