siberia

I accepted a position at Apple as a security system engineer.

I'm currently enduring a bout with insomnia -- the sun is rising around 0430 nowadays, and I haven't got around to putting heavier curtains in the bedroom.

Anyway, I decided to poke at the software updater for the EFi-X USB secure pen drive. I reckoned that would put me to sleep in short order.

I specifically looked at the 32-bit Windows driver that facilitates firmware updates. Until the driver is associated with the device, the EFi-X looks like a mass storage device (as one would expect). I didn't do anything fancy ... just ran strings on efix.dll.

The output looked extremely familiar. An excerpt:

EFiX Devices, Version %d.%d.%d.%d
couldn't allocate memory for endpoint extra descriptors
invalid descriptor length of %d
skipped %d class/vendor specific endpoint descriptors
skipping descriptor 0x%X
bbbbwb
bbbbwbbb
unexpected descriptor 0x%X, expecting endpoint descriptor, type 0x%X
ran out of descriptors parsing
couldn't allocate memory for ifp->endpoint
too many endpoints

... so I grabbed libusb-win32-src-0.1.12.1 from sourceforge.net and looked for matching strings.

Bingo:

monkey:src wileyc$ pwd
/Users/wileyc/Desktop/libusb-win32-src-0.1.12.1/src

monkey:src wileyc$ grep "couldn't allocate memory for endpoint extra descriptors"
descriptors.c: fprintf(stderr, "couldn't allocate memory for endpoint extra descriptors\n");

monkey:src wileyc$ grep "invalid descriptor length of %d"
descriptors.c: fprintf(stderr, "invalid descriptor length of %d\n", header.bLength);
descriptors.c: fprintf(stderr, "invalid descriptor length of %d\n", header.bLength);
descriptors.c: fprintf(stderr, "invalid descriptor length of %d\n", header.bLength);

monkey:src wileyc$ grep "unexpected descriptor 0x%X, expecting endpoint descriptor, type 0x%X"
descriptors.c: fprintf(stderr, "unexpected descriptor 0x%X, expecting endpoint descriptor, type 0x%X\n",

monkey:src wileyc$ grep "couldn't allocate memory for ifp->endpoint"
descriptors.c: fprintf(stderr, "couldn't allocate memory for ifp->endpoint\n");

... and so forth. Try it yourself. Nearly everything in the strings output can be found verbatim in the libusb source.

The EFi-X Windows 32-bit driver is derived from libusb-win32. It appears that all references to libusb in the code have been replaced with "EFiX". Further, the driver does not ship with a copy of the LGPL (in violation of section one), a description of modifications (in violation of section two), or the source code (in violation of section three).

In summary, EFi-X contains code covered under the Lesser GNU Public License -- and violates the terms of that license.

Austin,

I'm about ninety percent convinced that you took your own life after you left Danger Inc. None of your TLUG friends have heard from you, and several of your colleagues from Danger believe the same as I do.

I've not been able to come up with a death stat via Intelius, and a NCIC query gives no hits ... so I'm still not certain.

If you're still out there, please drop me a line. If you're in trouble, I can help.

If I don't hear from you within a few months, we'll hold a memorial drink-up to your memory.

-- Chris

So I finally bit the bullet, declared the engine to be perfect, and put it back in the car. It runs.

That's the executive overview. The details are, well ... detailed.

Like how I got the distributor timing exactly 180 degrees out, so there was a large explosion while I was cranking the first time when it finally ignited the built-up fuel/air mix.

Like how I adjusted the valves with that 180-degrees-out setup, so it sounded like a jackhammer when I got wise and swapped the plug wires around.

Like how the rear engine mount rubber shrank about 50%, so I created a springy spacer around the engine mount with a liberal application of duct tape.

I ended up replacing damned near every part on the engine. Cylinders/pistons/rings are Mahle standard 85.5 units. The oil pump is a Brazil-made high-density job. The camshaft, followers, and pushrods are VW OEM.

The crankshaft is the custom Flat-four forged/balanced unit. That's an eight-dowel-pin configuration, so I needed the Flat-four flywheel. Taken together, they're about 30% lighter than the stock parts.

I used CB Performance balanced rods, their Squareback oil breather, and their sump/filter combo.

The distributor is that SVDA that I picked up off of aircooled.net last year. The heads are new Mexico units with the 3/4" spark plug reach.

It ran pretty well with just those bits ... but I had a Mallory Hyfire-VI CD ignition box lying around, so I put it in today. Upgraded the plug wires and re-gapped at 0.45 ...

... and it started right up. Ran better than any VW I've ever seen or heard about.

It's beautiful, man. All of that time that I spent checking tolerances on the parts in the basement really paid off. It runs, and it runs well.

sniff

Although I migrated away from EFi-X several months ago, I'm still watching their forums for entertainment. It's the same old song and dance over there. I've whipped up what I believe to be honest answers to the most frequently asked questions on their forum.

Q. What is EFi-X?

A. EFi-X (the hardware) is a secure USB pen drive. It incorporates state-of-the-art DRM technology to minimize the possibility of reverse-engineering the product.

EFi-X (the software) is a continuation of Netkas' PC-EFI and/or Chameleon. New features appear in EFi-X some time after they appear in the OSx86 community.

Q. Who develops EFi-X?

A. The actual software engineers are unknown. The public face of EFi-X do not appear to have any experience in software engineering. Best guess is that development is outsourced.

Q. Why are only a small selection of motherboards supported?

A. The integrated components on the motherboard (audio, network) require special kernel extensions ("kexts") to be loaded prior to the Darwin kernel in order to function properly. Each motherboard model has slightly different hardware; therefore, to keep things simple, the EFi-X developers decided to support only a few very similar motherboards that use hardware that is well-understood by the OSx86 community.

Q. Why doesn't Bonjour work?

A. The technical answer is "the stock 8169 driver doesn't work properly", and although Psystar has released a working Realtek 8100 driver that works fine with EFi-X, the EFi-X management has not "borrowed" it as they appear to have "borrowed" Psystar's OpenHaltRestart kext.

Contrary to statements by the EFi-X management, this has nothing to do with incorrect Realtek documentation nor power-saving features on Gigabyte motherboards. If that were the case, none of the UNIX-like OS would be able to do Bonjour-like things. I've written a driver for a Realtek chip back in the dark and misty, and their docco was perfectly adequate.

Q. Why do EFi-X units die suddenly?

A. DRM hardware bits are fragile. Fluctuation in supplied power, temperature, and so forth will cause the unit to shut down.

Q. How can I ensure that my EFi-X-equipped Hackintosh won't fail?

A. Don't use EFi-X. I'm very happy with Chameleon.

A tech stood at the pearly gate,
His face was scarred and old.
He stood before the man of fate
For admission to the fold.

"Why are you here" St Peter asked,
"Pray, give me your excuse?"
"I worked for bankers long" he said,
"I'm safe from their abuse."

The pearly gates swung open wide
As Peter touched the bell.
"Inside," he said, "and choose your harp.
You've had your share of hell."

I've been down with a nasty head cold for the past four/five days. Not being a cat, there's only so much sleep that I can reasonably accomplish in any given day ... so I built a workbench in the basement and started the engine rebuild.

The case is in good shape. The lower transmission mount studs were bent, so I swapped them ... and discovered that some previous owner shot Heli-coil into the holes. A bit of oil and a thread-chase with a M10x1.5 tap let the new studs slide right in.

We found a machine shop in Mitaka that does cylinder head repair -- Kohey Machine R&D. The owner has been doing automobile machine work since high school, and speaks decent English. Unfortunately, welding-and-grinding the heads back into shape will cost roughly twice the price of new fully-loaded heads ... so it looks like I have two more large paperweights.

I unpacked the Mahle cylinders that arrived last week to check case fitting. It looks like they were jostled a bit in shipping or were damaged at the factory -- two cylinders have busted cooling fins. Even though a broken fin is not operationally a big deal, I'm still seeking warranty replacement.

I hope that I survive the rumored Thursday layoff ... new cylinder heads ain't cheap.

Finally got enough of the carbon off the cylinder heads to assess their condition.

#2 and #4 have hairline cracks between the exhaust valve seat and the spark plug hole.

Damn it. I can weld many things, but cylinder head repair scares me. Time to find a Kanto-area machine shop that can do it for me ...

The engine was pulled.

Those are twin Weber 34ICT carburetors, an aircooled.net vacuum-advance distributor, Type-III J-tubes, and Mountain Dew cans plugging the heat exchanger ports on the fan housing.

The piston rings are shot, the valve surfaces are pitted, but both heads seem okay. New cylinder/piston/rings/valve rocker assemblies are on their way.

I should have expected it. The Volkswagen is 85% done -- interior, rubber seals, electrical, etc.

Last week I figured out why the engine was so damned loud. It turns out that the #2 spark plug hole was cross-threaded some time in the distant past, so the thumpthumpthump was the sound of combustion exposed to atmosphere.

I scrounged up a 14mm reverse tap and verrrry carefully re-tapped the hole. The plug seated perfectly, the engine was quiet and performed okay. Still a bit of hesitation at low RPMs, but I reckoned that I needed to adjust the idle mixture and re-time it to take into account the sudden reappearance of #2 cylinder into the equation.

We took it for a test drive this afternoon. After about twenty minutes I noticed the characteristic loping sound that indicates that a cylinder isn't firing. We got it home and I checked the wires and plugs ...

... and the #3 plug came out covered with oil.

That's going to be rings or valves/valve guides. God DAMN it. I had this little bastard almost done, and now this.

Over the course of the week I will erect a small tent on the lawn next to the driveway pad. Next Saturday I intend to pull the engine, put it into the tent, and commence an overhaul.

grrrrrrrrrr

I'm still looking at the EFi-X forums, mostly out of morbid curiosity. This gem popped up from their president.

I thought about replying to the forum, but they'd just delete it. I post it here, styled after Mystery Science Theater 3000

Keep This in Mind Users.

Servo: So I should file this under "Mind Users". Nice to know.

Crow: This scans better if you imagine Torgo reading it aloud..

Postby WhiteDragon on Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:34 am

There was or never will be a Nightmare, From A small Bug turned into a Big Disaster from people, And in less than an Hour it was fixed.

Crow: There was no monster. The EFi-X was found three thousand miles away, normal size, and still was definitely not a flash drive.

Servo: It has many gigabytes of RAM!

24-48 hours 3 update clients have been released

Mike: Now, fellas, to be fair ... this is a true statement.

Crow: But all of them need either a Mac Pro or a XP/Vista machine.

Servo: Didn't WhiteDragon post instructions to build a USB type A to male header adapter?

Crow: No. The thread was deleted, so it never happened.

Manuals take the longest, not even the uploading of the application, The Users blames us, because of their laziness they can't even read manuals, disclaimers..etc.

If we release something later on, we will have to make disclaimer because of the people who constantly blame us for something, so thank those users for the delay in stuff.
For such simple things like updater, no SEARCH function of our forum is required.

Servo: Mike, I'm feeling woozy. What is he trying to say here?

Mike: He's saying that they don't release documentation or updates because their customers hate them.

Servo: That makes no sense.

Crow: It's like a physics lecture by a brain-damaged gerbil.

For everyone else, thank you for understanding.

Also, Anybody have any idea how many posts we have to delete?

(overlapping dialogue)
Mike: Posts that ask stupid questions because there's no documentation or the search function isn't working?

Servo: Posts that ask the forbidden question: do they actually know how their own product works?

Crow: All of them?

Mike: Posts that describe non-EFi-X workarounds for the updater fiasco?

Servo: Posts that insinuate that the EFi-X is actually boot-132?

I get emails like " I cant find the link for updater" and that in the time i wrote manual step by step... God...They dont even know how to use it...
And thousands of people will write stupid post that their EFi-X™ is Bricked. Even though I posted Millions of time Update is coming.

Servo: Yeah, you're going to get far in business by insulting your paying customers. Good luck with that, buddy.

Mike: Tom, be nice.

Servo: Mike, how much did you pay for your EFi-X?

Mike: (silent)

Please handle the EFiX updates with care and with enough caution.
Firmware updates are not simple stuff.
By same situation real bios will be dead forever.

Crow: But, Mike, didn't the EFi-X team virtually mandate that the update be installed? I mean, they said it was a security issue and all, but ...

Mike: Yes, they did.

Servo: And didn't the EFi-X team say that the bricked modules happened because an evil hacker toasted their update server?

Mike: Yes, they did.

Crow: So I'm not seeing how EFi-X isn't liable for this issue.

Mike: Well, guys, with the magic of the internet it's possible to make all sorts of legal-sounding claims to avoid responsibility.

Servo/Crow: Ooooooooooooooh.

Because of this issue our team didn't sleep for all the time + we didn't sleep since october.

Servo: This sentence is false.

Mike: I'll probably regret this, but ... okay, go ahead.

Servo: First, it's impossible that they haven't slept since October. Nobody could go without sleep for three weeks and survive.

Mike: Okay so far ...

Servo: Second, there have been eight-to-ten-hour gaps in WhiteDragon and TorqueX86's posts to their forum.

Mike: Shaky, but I'll go along with that ...

Servo: Third, they have no team.

Crow: What do you mean, they don't have a team?

Servo: I mean, there's only two guys that ever post to the forum.

Mike: What about "amantheboy"?

Servo: He's obviously a fanboy. I mean, look at what he posts. Case closed?

Mike: Okay, but what about Wilhelm and Davide?

Servo: They're PR guys. Wilhelm's background is male modeling, and Davide has no background.

Crow: So where did the EFi-X come from?

Servo: It's boot-132. They've outsourced development and use a secure USB flash device to keep us guessing.

Mike: I'm not sure I buy that ...

Servo: Oh, come ON, Mike. It's obvious that they missed the October software update because their outsourced development team didn't make the deliverable date. That's why they kept saying that it would be out by Halloween ...

Crow: ... and why they say that the milestone release had to be a ground-up rewrite, but couldn't say why ...

Servo: ... and why every single issue posted to the forum is answered with "clear CMOS" or "wait for the update".

Mike: So if I buy your argument, the reason for the rewrite is because of ...

Servo: ... GPL violations. syslinux. Book it.

Crow: Done.

I don't think anyone has that much dedication to the Product and you users.
Imagine how it feels to not sleep at all and then someone blames you, then think hard, to what we feel.

Crow: Except for anyone that ever went to boot camp.

Mike: Or has worked in technology.

Servo: Or sold a product that wasn't debugged.

Crow: Or worked at Megasoft.

Mike: Or had children.

Servo: Or breathed.

Everything can be done in a simple and complicated way.
We choose a difficult and complicated way in order to make progress.

I bet half the users here will ignore and rant more, Go ahead things will just be more complicated on the rode ahead.

Crow: Mike, are they ... threatening us?

Mike: I think so, honey. I think so.

Servo: Hold me, I'm scared!

Mike: There, there ... it will be all right. It's almost over.

Best Regards

Wilhelm von Vnukov
President, Art Studios Entertainment Media
Ancient Gate™, EFI-X™, ART-X™ R&D Team
http://www.art-studios.net
System I
EFI-X Pro, Cooler Master Cosmos 1000, MSI P45-8D, Intel QX9550, NVidia 280GTX 1GB, EFiX 8GB DDR3 RAM, Western Digital 1TB SATAII, 1200W EFiX Prototype Power Supply, Apple Cinema 30".

Crow: Mike, does that mean that EFi-X are releasing more hardware?

Mike: I don't think so. The engineering and manufacturing disciplines needed to make both a power supply and state-of-the-art RAM are very different.

Servo: It's probable that they are just rebranding cheap Taiwanese off-the-shelf hardware.

Crow: Like Microsoft did with keyboards and mice.

(end)

So I was one of the suckers that bought an EFi-X. It was supposed to be a sooper sekrit USB dongle that, for USD$180.00, would transform various Gigabyte motherboards into a MacPro.

It worked okay, but with major issues: no Bonjour, no VMWare networking, time drift issues, and so forth. The two guys that run Art Studios are arrogantly clueless. My best guess is that they paid a dev team to file the serial numbers off of boot-132 (a freely available Mac-on-PC boot enabler) and package it into a secure USB flash drive.

There's a lot of drama on their forum about the general bugginess of their product, the lack of useful support, the ludicrous claims for/technical descriptions of the product, and so forth.

The latest fiasco was the last straw for me. After a month-long wait and many broken promises, they released an online firmware update that would address most of the showstopper issues. Unfortunately, they screwed up the update procedure and many users (myself included) ended up with an expensive paperweight.

Their Swiss dealer is trans-shipping a replacement unit to me, but I simply don't trust them. I've replaced their dongle with a boot-132 solution. Here's how I resurrected my machine:

First, I grabbed a bootable ISO image with the proper kext (hardware driver) for my motherboard from here. I have an EP45-DQ6, but the hardware loadout is the same -- and I reckon it will work with any machine that the EFi-X claimed to support.

Re-enabled AHCI in my BIOS, booted from the CD, and my workstation was back up.

I then followed the instructions in this thread to copy the bootloader and kexts to my internal hard disk. There's a file called "NORMAL.IMG" on the boot CD; mount it in hdutil and copy the kexts from there.

I hope that this helps others who were burned by the EFi-X clowns.

I'm a Japanese citizen.

Free at last! I thank God, I'm free at last!

I've been spending just about every waking moment working on the car (well, every moment that I'm not at the office). I've cut out the dashboard, stripped the interior down to the bare metal, coated it with POR-15, and am in the process of reassembling and rewiring.

The passenger-side floor pan has rusted through -- the previous owner tried to hide the problem with generous application of fiberglass and aluminum sheeting. I am awaiting a replacement to arrive from Glass-Action ... and then the major interior work will be complete.

I'm probably going to need to replace the heater channels at some point. There's a hell of a lot of rust chunks visible through the heat vents. Those suckers go for USD$150.00 per, shipping is expensive, and replacement involves removing the body and a lot of welding. I'll probably buy them next month (because there's a finite supply extant) and wait until I'm feeling extra-energetic to do the replacement.

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd picked up a Nokia 6120 Classic during my last NYC trip. I typically carry it in my left front pocket. Liquid paint stripper is a hell of a thing, and even though I wear a respirator during application I tend to feel a bit woozy ...

... so, last weekend, I finished up work and staggered into the house. Stripped down, threw my clothes into the washing machine, hit the start button, and zoned out in the shower for awhile. Of course, I was too tharn to remember that my wallet and phone were still in my trousers.

As it turns out, Nokia doesn't even attempt to repair cell phones that have been through a wash-rinse-dry cycle. The store underneath Tokyo station does sell factory-unlocked E61s, though, and at ¥45,000 it's not that bad of a deal. Looks like a Crackberry so I can get away with futzing around with it during the interminable "engineering" meetings at the office.

There are a few bugs in the firmware rev that came with my unit (and I can't update it because the Nokia Software Updater now requires XP to function). The email client won't use ports greater than 999, the keypad flips from numeric to alpha in the dialer app after ten digits, and the access point selector is rather baroque. To use a self-signed certificate for IMAP access, execute "openssl x509 -in /etc/openssl/certs/cacert.pem -inform PEM -out cacert.crt -outform DER" and drop the resultant file on a web server.

I found this on The Straight Dope boards, and I'm reposting it here in its entirety so that it can be preserved for the ages. It's exactly how the convo between Luke and Ben should have went if any of the events in the prequels had actually happened ...

Sampiro
Charter Member

Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 12,960
Location: al-Obama
LUKE
Obi-Wan! Why didn't you tell me?

The ghost of Ben Kenobi approaches him through the swamp.

LUKE
You told me Vader betrayed and murdered my
father.

BEN
You father was seduced by the dark side of
the Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker
and became Darth Vader. When that happened,
the good man who was your father was
destroyed. So what I have told you was
true... from a certain point of view.

LUKE (turning away, derisive)
A certain point of view!

BEN
Luke, you're going to find that many of the
truths we cling to depend greatly on our own
point of view.

LUKE
It's not just that he was my father and you never told me... it's that... later stuff.

BEN
What later stuff?

LUKE
Okay, my dad is changed, or dead, whatever your 'point of view' is, right? So you take me and my sister.

BEN
I sure did that thing, babe.

LUKE
Okay, you decide you have to keep us safe from my dad. So you give my sister to the royal family of a world that has no connection to my father. Okay, that I understand, that was smart.

BEN
Thank you.

LUKE
And then there's me. Okay, so there's thousands of inhabited star systems in the Galactic Empire and tens maybe hundreds of thousands of worlds, right? You've got Wookie planets and ice planets and all kinds of weird ass reptile planets and that planet of the digitally animated cloning people and the E.T. planet and I'm assuming all of these probably have human inhabitants as well...

BEN
By now, probably. All species get around.

LUKE
Okay, so you hide me... by looking up Anakin Skywalker's next of freaking kin and letting me grow up with some rube moisture farmer and his wife? I mean, they were nice people and all, but Ben! I grew up like 10 miles away from Vader's birthplace!

BEN
That's the beauty of it. Hiding you in open view and all.

LUKE
And not even like with a Tatooine royal family or crimelord who could protect me but a moisture farmer? What were they supposed to do if Vader found out where I was?

BEN
Well, moisture farmers are scrappy. And...

LUKE
Oh yeah! You saw how scrappy they were when the stormtroopers came by! Did you not see the charred skeletons?

BEN
Did it ever occur to you Luke that it was a murder suicide? Your Uncle Lars and Aunt Beru had been having some problems...

LUKE
Bullshit! The stormtroopers did them in without the force or anything! Just blasters...

BEN
That's a theory.

LUKE
And okay, there's Leia, going to the best of schools, growing up a frigging princess... a princess Ben! Involved with the revolution since she could walk, and I can't even ride into town until I've sponge bathed a droid... and oh, by town, I mean WHERE MY FATHER GREW UP! If he ever wanted to look for me it'd be the most obvious place in the universe!

BEN
Which is precisely why he'd never think to look there!

LUKE
He's a master of dark and forbidden wisdom! He could have done it!

BEN
He'd never have found you even if...

LUKE
His mom's buried in my back yard of where I grew up! What if he'd come to pay his respects at some point?

BEN
Too traumatic. He wouldn't have...

LUKE
He killed whole star systems! I think he could have braved the emotions! And if he'd come there...

BEN
I would have protected you...

LUKE
You live 20 miles away, don't have a landspeeder, and let's face it, last time you fought you didn't do too well...

BEN
I'd have blocked his mind with the force... He'd never have found you.

LUKE
No, he never would have, UNLESS HE'D CALLED TATTOOINE INFORMATION AND SAID 'HEY, GOT ANY LISTINGS NEAR MOS EISLEY FOR LAST NAME 'SKYWALKER'?' You didn't even change my name Ben! I was the only Skywalker in the galaxy and you didn't think he was going to notice that the guy who blew up the Death Star is a boy from Tattooine named Skywalker? "Gee, I wonder if he's one of the Tattooine Skywalkers that I knew? You know, I've got a kid about his age somewhere. His name would be Skywalker too... but he wouldn't be on Tattooine BECAUSE NOBODY'S FRIGGING STUPID ENOUGH TO HIDE THE ONLY SKYWALKER IN THE GALAXY WHERE HIS DAD GREW UP!"

BEN
Alright. I'm sorry. Everything is my fault. EVERYTHING! The Whoooooooooooooole rebellion and end of the Jedi and everything else is all just my fault! Excuse the hell out of me!

LUKE
It is your fault Ben!

YODA
A point the young Skywalker has.

BEN
You're dead!

YODA
So are you. I'm back.

BEN
Stay dead you lizardling fart.

YODA
At least from this side more damage do you cannot.

BEN
"La la la la la la... I'm sorry Yoda, did you say something? I was busy ignoring you.

YODA
I said, sometimes dead is bettah.

LUKE
And you never even told me I had a sister, not even when we were going to rescue her.

BEN
I wanted it to be a surprise.

LUKE
And...

BEN
Luke, your true issues are with your father! That he never was there for you, that he never paid support, that he never took an interest in your life...

LUKE
Oh right! That's it! It's daddy issues, not the fact that an old man hides me in the first place that an insane guy would look for his kid if he even is insane! How do you know he wouldn't have made a wonderful dad!

BEN
Do you know, Luke, not once have you asked me who your mother is? Or even if she's alive or dead?

[pause]

LUKE
Who was my mother? And is she alive or is she dead?

BEN
[bitchily]
I don't remember.

LUKE
Who was my mother Ben? WHO WAS SHE!?

BEN
[as brother boy]
My mind's a blank.

LUKE
Tell me now old man!

BEN
Oops. My ectoplasm is run out.
{Ben vanishes}

LUKE
Yoda! Who was my mother!? Tell me everything you know about her?

YODA
Yoda, my name is. And you are?

LUKE
Shit! Even dead he's still senile. Artoo let's get the hell out of here.

YODA
Pichnochle?

LUKE
Okay fine. One game. I want to miss the interstellar rush anyway.