Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare

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2026-05-27 18:30:41 GMT

Inside Dyson’s Over-Engineered ₤1000 Hand Dryer
It seems fair to say that Dyson sits at the intersection of impressive engineering and borderline ridiculous products. The Dyson Airblade 9KJ hand dryer that [ElectrArc240] recently took to bits would definitely seem to fall under the latter, combining an incredible amount of engineering all for the simple task of drying wet hands.
These hand dryers are rated for a cool 900 Watts, with an 0.5 W standby power consumption, though you can also switch it to a 650 W ‘eco mode’ when installing it. The air that gets sucked into the dryer first passes through a HEPA filter before it hits the heating element and then gets blown out of the handles onto one’s hands.
Both of these handles come with a presence sensor in the form of an ST VL53L3CX time-of-flight sensor, along with a path for the heated air towards the thin slits. Returning to the section just past the HEPA filter is the compressor, with a rather fancy airflow path that involves various stacked meshes. As can be seen in the video, where you’d expect basically a simple blower motor or so, there is a truly astounding amount of parts as the teardown progresses.
The motor disassembly is the first part where some desoldering and breaking of glue bonds is really necessary, but it gives full access to the driver board. The circuit used here is your typical IGBT-based gate driver, though with a mystery PIC MCU to do things. Following this the tear-down turns fully destructive, giving access to the motor internals.
Following an analysis of these internals we marvel at the carbon-fiber rotor that keeps the single magnet in one piece. This is another engineering choice that serves to justify the 1,000 quid price tag. All so that rest room visitors do not have to suffer the humility of using paper towels.
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2026-05-12 08:00:09 GMT

Another Gift To The World From CERN: Their Entire Set Of KiCad Libraries
As the foremost boffins of Europe toil deep underneath the border between Switzerland and France in their never-ending quest to truly understand the fabric of the Universe, they rely on a vast amount of electronics. The PCB layout team at the particle accelerator thus work with a huge array of parts, for which of course they create KiCad libraries. Now the folks at CERN have made those libraries available as open source, so you can benefit from their work.
The libraries themselves can be found in a GitLab repository, and at the moment are offered only for KiCad version 9.x. We tried installing it in our KiCad 10.0 installation and it refused complaining of a missing JSON file, but we’re assuming that with more time and effort we could have made it happen. We’re told official 10.x compatibility is on the way.
Browsing the repository shows what a multiplicity of parts are included, so we can see this becoming a standard install for many people and the CERN footprints turning up in many projects featured here.
Thanks [Daniel] for the tip!
hackaday.com/2026/05/12/anothe…
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2026-05-07 18:00:18 GMT

Congratulations to the Green Powered Challenge Winners!
For this challenge, we asked you to show off your hacks that power themselves sustainably from the environment around them. After all, nobody likes wires, and changing batteries is just a hassle. What’s better than an autonomous gizmo? Nothing.
Because this is Hackaday, we expected to see some finished-looking projects, some absolutely zany concepts, and basically everything in-between, and you did not disappoint! So without further ado, let’s have a look at the 2026 Green Powered Challenge winners, each of whom will be going on a $150 shopping spree at DigiKey, our contest’s sponsor.LightInk Solar Watch
LightInk is a beautiful wristwatch, and e-ink is a natural companion to the small power budget that you get with a wrist-mounted solar panel. But don’t be fooled by its good looks! The real beauty of this hack is the way that [Daniel Ansorregui] crammed the screen-updating routine into the wakeup stub in the RTC peripheral. This means that the ESP32 doesn’t have to access the SPI flash every time it wakes up, saving precious milliseconds of wake time, and cutting average power in half. This is a trick you’ll want to know even if you don’t need a sexy e-ink wristwatch. (Which you do.)
Supercapacitor Solar IoT
[Nelectra]’s “Heliotrax” solar supercapacitor charger stores up the sun’s power in low-maintenance supercapacitors until it’s time to wake up your device. But supercaps have an output voltage that depends dramatically on their state of charge, so [Nelectra] added a high-efficiency and low-leakage boost converter to get a nice constant voltage out. Depending on your current needs, it can charge up in the sun and run for a few dark days without any problems. It’s a one-stop shop for solar-powered IoT devices, and it should make a whole range of projects easier to realize.
powerTimer
[Juan Flores]’s powerTimer is another module that enables your small off-grid hacks. In this case, it’s a simple latching electronic switch, designed for ultra-low quiescent power. Maybe your project has a microcontroller with a good sleep mode, but the peripherals are leaky hogs? Put the powerTimer in the middle and get your whole system’s power budget down without much extra thought. And if you don’t want to wake the microcontroller, it’s got a low-power RTC on board that can handle periodic wakeups. It’s a sweet, simple design that solves a real problem, and our judges loved that.
Honorable Mentions
Solar: We knew there would be some great solar-powered projects here, and [Jake Wachlin]’s Ultra Low Power Feather Development Board is a great example. He pairs a low-power accelerometer and barometer with a power-sipping microcontroller to almost achieve ambient-room-lighting capability. [Jake] says you have to put it directly under a light, or in indirect sunlight. But if you have full sun at your disposal, [Arnov Sharma]’s SolMate is a lovely DIY solar power bank that we’d love to bring to the park with us.
Anything But PV: OK, enough solar. [Ethan]’s Gravity-Powered Digital Clock is exactly the sort of out-of-the-box idea we were hoping to see. He pairs a Casio F91W with an insane gear train, a homebrew electrical generator, and a dumbbell to gather up all of the gravity that makes it work. Or should do so. The gear train ended up having so many stages that it wouldn’t turn under its own magnified friction, and the project doesn’t quite spin. But we love the idea of a wind-up electrical clock, and we hope [Ethan] doesn’t give up!
Least Power: [caspar]’s Harvesting NFC Energy to Transmit Commands includes a stock Pi Pico dev board and some AA batteries, so you might be thinking “where is the low power element?” It’s the NFC wakeup circuit that reads in some data and writes it directly to the Pico’s EEPROM, before it wakes the chip up, which then reads the command out of EEPROM and does whatever it does under normal battery power, and then shuts itself down again. We love the idea of surreptitious NFC-powered data insertion while the microcontroller is still sleeping.
Most Power: We initially expected this honorable mention to go to an over-sized solar install, but in the end [alnwlsn]’s Practical Power Cycling won over our judges with an unbeatable display of human determination: over five years, [alnwlsn] has generated 38 kWh on his generator bike, has powered a 3D printer through a Benchy, and even toasted a piece of toast. Maybe the real power here is the human spirit? Check out [alnwlsn]’s great build logs and diary.
Thanks to All!
Much thanks to everyone who entered into this challenge. We had more great entries than we have space to feature, so be sure to check them all out on Hackaday.io. And of course, thanks again to DigiKey for sponsoring the contest, and for providing our three finalists with the parts they need!
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2026-04-05 11:00:23 GMT

Turning a Bluetooth Caliper into a FreeCAD Input Device
It’s a common ritual: whipping out those calipers or similar measuring devices to measure part of a physical object that we’re trying to transfer into a digital model in an application like FreeCAD. Wouldn’t it be nice if said measurements were to be transferred instantaneously into the model’s sketch, including appropriate units of measurement? That’s essentially what [stv0g] has done by merging a Sylvac Bluetooth-enabled caliper and FreeCAD using a plugin.
Key to the whole operation is a Bluetooth-enabled caliper like the Sylvac S_Cal EVO that [stv0g] managed to score on EBay for a mere €90 when it normally goes for multiple times that amount. This has BLE built in, using BLE’s standard GATT profiles for device communications specifications. Along with the provided Sylvac developer tools, this made it relatively easy to develop the InstrumentInput addon for FreeCAD.
This addon can be easily installed via FreeCAD’s addon manager as well, or if you wish to just use the calipers this way and don’t care about FreeCAD, the base Python library is also available.
Interestingly, this BLE-enabled caliper also supports HID mode, to emulate keyboard input, and thus it can work in any application by default. The reason why [stv0g] didn’t use this was that it only sends data when you press the caliper’s button, and it’s rather slow and limited.
Ever wonder what’s inside those calipers? We did too.
hackaday.com/2026/04/05/turnin…
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2026-04-02 16:38:12 GMT

Claude, 500mila righe di codice esposte per errore: i rischi per la supply chain software
@nprofile…fwcg
La pubblicazione accidentale da parte di Anthropic del codice sorgente di Claude Code a causa di un errore di packaging, in cui nessun dato è stato compromesso, fa emergere rischi concreti nella supply chain software e la fragilità dei processi di

2026-04-02 15:30:55 GMT

Anything Can Be A Router, If You Try Hard Enough
If you’re an American and you use the Internet at home, it seems probable that routers are going to be in short supply. The US government recently mandated all such devices be home grown for security reasons, which would be fine were it not that the US has next-to-no consumer-grade router manufacturing industry.
So if you’re in the US and you need a router, what can you do? [Noah Bailey] is here from Canada to point out that almost anything (within reason) in computer terms can be made to perform as a router.
The piece is really a guide to setting up a Linux router, which he does on a small form factor PC and a hacked-together assembly of old laptop, PCI-express extender, and scrap network kit. In its most basic form a router doesn’t need the latest and greatest hardware, so there exists we’re guessing almost two decades of old PCs just waiting to be pressed into service. Perhaps it won’t help the non-technical Man In The Street much, but maybe it’ll inspire a few people to save themselves a hefty bill when they need to connect.
You can read our coverage of the ban here.
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2026-04-02 12:55:50 GMT

App-server Codex di OpenAI: configurazione insicura espone a esecuzione di comandi remoti
@nprofile…fwcg
Il CERT-AgID ha segnalato un problema di sicurezza dell’app-server Codex di OpenAI: non prevedendo meccanismi di protezione e autenticazione, una sua esposizione in rete potrebbe consentire a soggetti non autorizzati di interagire

2026-04-02 11:32:18 GMT

WhatsApp ha avvisato circa 200 utenti che sono stati indotti con l'inganno a installare una falsa app che in realtà era uno spyware governativo.
L'azienda ha accusato la società italiana produttrice di spyware SIO di essere dietro l'app e ha annunciato l'intenzione di inviare alla società "una formale diffida legale per fermare qualsiasi attività dannosa di questo tipo".
L'articolo di @nprofile…98vs
techcrunch.com/2026/04/01/what…
@nprofile…fwcg
RE: infosec.exchange/users/lorenzo…
#nevent1q…fxk9

2026-04-02 02:00:31 GMT

Watch an Electro-Permanent Magnet In Action
Electro-permanent magnets (EPMs) are pretty nifty concepts, and if you aren’t familiar with them, they are permanent magnets with the ability to be electrically switched on or off. Unlike an electromagnet — which maintains a magnetic field only while power is applied — an EPM can remain “on” even when power is removed. Want to see one work? There’s a video embedded below that shows one off, but if you’d like to know how they work, we have you covered.
Inside are two types of magnet, one of which is permanent and the other being a semi-hard magnet paired with an electromagnetic coil. A semi-hard magnet’s flux can be changed by exposing it to a strong enough magnetic field, and that’s the key to making it work.
Being able to electrically switch a permanent magnet on or off is a neat trick.
When both magnets work together, the EPM is “on” and acts like a permanent magnet. To turn the EPM off, the polarity of the semi-hard magnet is flipped with a short and powerful electromagnetic pulse, after which the two magnets oppose one another and more or less cancel each other out. So rather than generating a magnetic field, an EPM more accurately reconfigures it.
As intriguing as EPMs are, we haven’t really seen one properly in action until it was brought to our attention that [Dave Jones] of EEVblog tried one out last year. He received a Zubax FluxGrip EPM, which is intended for drone and robotic applications and can hold up to 25 kg. Watch [Dave] fire it up in the video (link is cued up to the 7:30 mark), it’s pretty interesting to see one of these actually work.
EPMs are not prohibitively expensive but they are not exactly cheap, either. But if a switchable magnet sounds up your alley and you can’t afford an EPM, consider an alternative “switchable” magnet design that works by momentarily canceling out a permanent magnet with a paired electromagnet. Unlike an EPM, it’s not a permanent switch but it would be enough to drop a payload.
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2026-04-01 23:00:53 GMT

OldVersion is Back, and Better than Ever
You know what they say — you can’t keep a good website down. OldVersion.com, the repository of outdated software that has been serving up old versions of tools you need for the last twenty-five years, is not going away as we reported last year. Not only is it sticking around, it’s gotten a retro facelift inspired by Windows 3.1 or OS/2. Mostly Windows, given the screensaver, but we’ll let you find that for yourself.
We’re thrilled to see that OldVersion has gotten the support they need to keep going after running into financial troubles. According to founder Alex Levine, some of that support came as a result of the Hackaday article reporting on the then-upcoming closure, so kudos to you guys for stepping up.
While we absolutely love the retro redesign of the new website, that’s one thing notably lacking — an obvious donation button. Well, that and old-school HTTP support so you can get on with your retromachines, but that, at least, is in the works according to the site roadmap. It’s a little weird that in this year of the common era 2026 you have to do extra work to give up on HTTPS functionality, but it is the way it is.
In the meantime, the site is fully usable as long as you have HTTPS capability, or go through a proxy. Perhaps you could use this ESP8266 code to get started making one, if you don’t want to embarrass your old computer by using something more powerful than it as a pass-through.
Speaking of proxies, if old versions of software aren’t enough for you, how about an old version of the internet? We heard you like old versions, so you can visit an old version of OldVersion!
Note that if you’re reading this after 01/04/2026, the look-and-feel of OldVersion.com may not match what’s depicted here.
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2026-04-01 22:38:48 GMT

Following Artemis II’s Journey Around the Moon
NASA is going back to the Moon! We’ll follow the crew of Artemis II every step of the way.Liftoff!
Watch the official NASA live stream here:
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2026-04-01 20:00:11 GMT

Battery Tester Outperforms Cheaper Options
Batteries are notoriously difficult pieces of technology to deal with reliably. They often need specific temperatures, charge rates, can’t tolerate physical shocks or damage, and can fail catastrophically if all of their finicky needs aren’t met. And, adding insult to injury, for many chemistries, the voltage does not correlate to state of charge in meaningful ways. Battery testers take many efforts to mitigate these challenges, but often miss the mark for those who need high fidelity in their measurements. For that reason, [LiamTronix] built their own.
The main problem with the cheaper battery testers, at least for [LiamTronix]’s use cases, is that he has plenty of batteries that are too large to practically test on the low-current devices, or which have internal battery management systems (BMS) which can’t connect to these testers. The first circuit he built to help solve these issues is based on a shunt resistor, which lets a smaller IC chip monitor a much larger current by looking at voltage drop across a resistor with a small resistance value. The Pi uses a Python script which monitors the current draw over the course of the test and outputs the result on a handy graph.
This circuit worked well enough for smaller batteries, but for his larger batteries like the 72V one he built for his electric tractor, these methods could draw far too much power to be safe. So from there he built a much more robust circuit which uses four MOSFETs as part of four constant current sources to sink and measure the current from the battery. A Pi Zero monitors the voltage and current from the battery, and also turns on some fans pointed at the MOSFETs’ heat sink to keep them from overheating. The system can be configured to work for different batteries and different current draw rates, making it much more capable than anything off the shelf.
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2026-04-01 16:48:41 GMT

Siti WordPress a rischio: c’è la patch per la falla invisibile che espone i segreti dei server
@nprofile…fwcg
Non serve essere hacker esperti: basta un account “subscriber” per accedere a dati critici. Per il plugin Smart Slider 3, il problema non è la complessità del codice, quanto la mancanza di controlli adeguati. Ma è

2026-04-01 10:32:39 GMT

Da ENISA un nuovo framework per capire (davvero) il mercato della cyber security europea
@nprofile…fwcg
ENISA presenta ECSMAF 3.0, versione aggiornata del framework per l'analisi del mercato cyber europeo. Approccio più snello e data driven con sette step operativi, template riutilizzabili e monitoraggio continuo. Obiettivo: colmare

2026-04-01 09:36:21 GMT

L’impero nascosto di Google mostra le debolezze dell’antitrust
@nprofile…fwcg
La sterminata rete di aziende controllate dal colosso di Mountain View sfugge alle regole sulla concorrenza ma influenza l’economia digitale globale, sostiene un’analisi.
L'articolo L’impero nascosto di Google mostra le debolezze dell’antitrust proviene da Guerre di Rete.
L'articolo proviene da

2026-04-01 08:00:53 GMT

A Novel 555 Circuit In 2026
The humble NE555 has been around for over five decades now, and while during that time we’ve seen a succession of better and faster versions of the original, the circuits which surround it are pretty well known. There can’t be anything new in the world of 555s, can there? [Stephen Woodward] claims he’s made a novel 555 circuit, with his 1 MHz linear voltage to frequency converter. Since he’s been in love with the 555 since 1974, we’re inclined to trust him on this part.
It’s visibly the 555 astable oscillator we’re all familiar with, given the addition of a current source in place of the normal charging resistor. This makes for a much more linear sawtooth waveform, but it still doesn’t fix the linearity of the voltage to frequency curve. The novel bit comes in adding an extra resistor between the threshold and discharge pins, with a value calculated for a time constant with the capacitor to match the 555’s own switching delay. This provides the necessary compensation, and gives the circuit its linearity.
This is so brilliantly simple that it’s almost a shock that it’s new, but it’s also a great example of the old-school electronic engineer’s art. We can’t think of an immediate need for a 555 voltage to frequency converter on the Hackaday bench at the moment, but you can bet we’ll come back to this one if we do.
We had someone pushing a newer 555 variant to its limit, when we ran our component abuse challenge.
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2026-04-01 02:00:57 GMT

A Nebula Straight from the Stars to Your Table
Space may truly be the final frontier, but maybe that frontier can be closer than you thought. Pictures of nebulae and planets bring the colorful sights of deep space right to your screen. You may even have models of some of the rockets used for those missions on a shelf. However, did you know that you could even have a model of those nebulae or planetary surfaces from [NASA]?
While we have covered some distributed models from [NASA] here before, the catalog has expanded far past what 2016 had in store. Additionally, the catalog has been sorted into a more user-friendly, filterable interface than a simple GitHub repository. Most models even have a description attached, giving some basic background information on what the Crab Nebula is, for example.
There could always be more; there don’t appear to be many models of the space shuttle or some other expected files, but what is there is incredible. Some non-3D model files can also be found from star maps to full planetary maps.
While this file repository is cool and all, it’s not all [NASA] does. When not sending rockets deep into space for cool pictures, [NASA] has to make sure the Moon doesn’t explode. Was that a possibility at some point? Of course it has been!
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2026-03-31 23:00:52 GMT

LED Matrix Clock Proudly Shows Its Inner Wiring
Some projects take great care to tuck away wire hookups, but not [Roberto Alsina]’s Reloj V2 clock. This desktop clock makes a point of exposing all components and wiring as part of its aesthetic. There are no hidden elements, everything that makes it work is open to view. Well, almost.
The exception is the four MAX7219 LED matrices whose faces are hidden behind a featureless red panel, and for good reason. As soon as the clock powers up, the LEDs shine through the thin red plastic in a clean glow that complements the rest of the clock nicely.
[Roberto]’s first version was a unit that worked similarly, but sealed everything away in a wedge-shaped enclosure that was just a little too sterile, featureless, and ugly for his liking. Hence this new version that takes the opposite approach. Clocks have long showcased their inner workings, and electronic clocks — like this circuit-sculpture design — are no exception.
The only components, besides the Raspberry Pi Zero W and the LED matrices, are the 3D-printed enclosure with a few hex screws and double-sided tape. Design files and code (including the FreeCAD project file) are available should you want to put your own spin on [Roberto]’s design.
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2026-03-31 20:00:26 GMT

How Small Can A Linux Executable Be?
With ever increasing sizes of various programs (video games being notorious for this), the question of size optimization comes up more and more often. [Nathan Otterness] shows us how it’s done by minifying a Linux “Hello, World!” program to the extreme.
A naive attempt at a minimal hello world in C might land you somewhere about 12-15Kb, but [Nathan] can do much better. He starts by writing everything in assembly, using Linux system calls. This initial version without optimization is 383 bytes. The first major thing to go is the section headers; they are not needed to actually run the program. Now he’s down to 173 bytes. And this is without any shenanigans!
The final tiny ELF file
The first shenanigans are extreme code size optimizations: by selecting instructions carefully (and in a way a C compiler never would), he shaves another 16 bytes off. But the real shenanigans begin when he starts looking for spaces in the ELF header that he can clobber while the program is still accepted by Linux: now he can move his already tiny x86_64 code into these “vacant” spaces in the ELF and program headers for a final tiny ELF file weighing in at just 120 bytes.
P.S.: We know it is possible to make this smaller, but leave this as an exercise to the viewer.
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2026-03-31 17:00:01 GMT

Improving FDM Filament Drying With a Spot of Vacuum
Keeping your filament safely away from moisture exposure is one of the most crucial aspects of getting a good 3D print, with equipment like a filament dryer a standard piece of equipment to help drive accumulated moisture out of filament prior to printing or storage. Generally such filament dryers use hot air to accomplish this task over the course of a few hours, but this is not very efficient for a number of reasons. Increasing the vaporization rate of water without significantly more power use should namely be quite straightforward.
The key here is the vapor pressure of a liquid, specifically the point at which it begins to transition between its liquid and gaseous phases, also known as the boiling point. This point is defined by both temperature and atmospheric pressure, with either factor being adjustable. In a pressure cooker this principle is for example used to increase the boiling temperature of water, while for our drying purposes we can instead reduce the pressure in order to lower the boiling point.
Although a lower pressure is naturally more effective, we can investigate the best balance between convenience and effectiveness.Vapor Pressure Of Water
The main thing that determines whether or not a substance is in a liquid or gaseous state is pressure from the surrounding gas, specifically the surrounding air or equivalent. Although some of the liquid’s molecules will gradually make their way into these surroundings, at e.g. atmospheric pressure at sea level you do not expect to see water instantly boil-off, whereas nitrogen and oxygen are fortunately all in a gaseous state until either very high pressures, very low temperatures or both.
How easy it is for a liquid to transition to a gas depends on its volatility, which itself is related to the strength of its intermolecular interactions. If these are rather weak then a liquid will transition into a gaseous state relatively easily, meaning at lower temperatures and lower pressures. For water this transition point at sea level is at about 100°C, but for people who live a km or more above sea level, this boiling point starts dropping rapidly.
These principles are used in a variety of ways, with many kitchens featuring a pressure cooker: this is a special pressurized pan that increases the boiling point of water by increasing the pressure inside the vessel, thus speeding up cooking times.
Source: Wikimedia
Increasing pressure of a gas can also turn it back into a liquid, as is the case with for example liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) which is generally stored in pressurized containers. Similarly, in the case of liquefied natural gas (LNG), natural gas is gaseous at atmospheric pressure and room temperature, but is a liquid at -162°C, with some level of pressure above that atmospheric pressure also required. LNG superseded purely pressure-based storage methods in the form of CNG, which requires pressures over 200 bar (>20 MPa).
What we’re trying to do with heating up 3D printer filament and bags of forbidden candy is thus to increase the energy in the system, bringing it closer to the point where the trapped moisture can overcome the vapor pressure of the surrounding air and escape. Logically this means that if we can reduce the surrounding pressure by removing as much of the atmospheric gas as possible, this moisture can escape significantly easier.
Essentially what we need is a pressure cooker, just one that reduces pressure.
Inverted Pressure Cooker
The relation between pressure and temperature as far as the vapor pressure of water is concerned is well-documented. Intuitively at 0 Pa water will boil off practically instantaneously, as there is no vapor pressure from a surrounding atmosphere. The question for our purposes is however just how much we need to reduce the pressure to make a difference, i.e. how deep of a vacuum we need.
Credit: Engineering Toolbox
Looking at a relevant graph, such as this one from the Engineering Toolbox site, we can see that the relationship between pressure and temperature is fairly linear below atmospheric pressure at sea level at 100 kPa (1 bar). Rather than trying to hit some arbitrary point on this curve, we should instead look at what off-the-shelf options we have available that may work for us here.
Since there’s no need for us to hit some kind of ultra-high vacuum, it would be plenty to hit something below 1 kPa, which is absolutely achievable with even a consumer-grade roughing pump like a rotary vane pump. This type of pump is commonly used for silicone and resins in hobbyist applications, making it a solid first target. Theoretically these can vacuum dry filament and more at room temperature.
Another option we have are diaphragm pumps, which come in piston- and eccentric variants. These have the advantage of not requiring oil, and do not produce vaporized oil on their output that has to be captured or vented. They do not hit quite the same vacuum levels as rotary vane pumps, but they can be quite easily staged to improve the final vacuum.
Hot Or Not
Even with most of the gases evacuated around the material that we’re trying to extract moisture from, we still have the option to add thermal energy to hurry the water molecules along. If, for example, we can only hit a pressure of around 100 mbar, we would still need to raise the temperature significantly above room temperature to get the intended effect.
Even with the same PTC-type heater as used in off-the-shelf filament dryers, we could still save significant power and time as now the boiling temperature of the trapped water is less than 50°C. Whether or not this is a very significant difference is something which can be ascertained experimentally after we first get a baseline on what difference just changing the environmental pressure makes.
Thus, all that remains is obtaining some data by firing up a gaggle of vacuum pumps and writing down the results.
Running Experiments
A typical cheap single-stage rotary vane pump kit. (Credit: Maya Posch)
The most straightforward experiment involves the use of a budget rotary vane pump and associated vacuum chamber. Here I picked up a Vevor 3.5 CFM single-stage rotary vane pump (model KQ-1K) rated for 150 Watt along with an 11 L vacuum chamber. Unfortunately the first pump that I received was defective and sounded like someone had lost a bag of spanners inside it while running, while only hitting a sad final vacuum of ~400 mbar.
Fortunately the replacement unit seemed to work a lot better and hit -1 bar on the chamber’s vacuum gauge along with a happy burst of nebulized oil from the pump’s air-oil separator. It was finally time to load up the chamber with some wet things.
Samples prior to loading into vacuum chamber. (Credit: Maya Posch)
As testing the moisture content in a spool of filament is tricky at best, I instead opted for two much easier indicators of vacuum drying chops: a bag of color-changing (cobalt(ii) chloride-containing) silica desiccant and juicy pieces of fruit (apple and banana). The latter items being mostly because it’s a fun experiment and dried fruit is tasty, plus it’s another way to judge drying capacity.
After loading in the samples, the chamber had a vacuum pulled, with the pump managing 10-20 mbar. This is approximately one light-year away from the advertised 5 Pa, but then nobody trusts marketing on non-laboratory equipment. Other than there being clear bubbling/boiling of fluids being visible on the apple piece as the vacuum formed there was little to observe.
After letting it rest for approximately 24 hours the chamber was checked and confirmed to have retained its vacuum level. Ignoring physical changes, the samples’ weight were compared to their pre-vacuum exposure. This gave the following results:
Apple: originally 53.23 grams, final weight 51.76 grams. Decreased 1.76 grams.
Banana: from 41.64 grams to 40.58 grams. Decreased 1.06 grams.
Desiccant: from 3.12 grams to 3.78 grams. Gained 0.66 grams.
This shows that the fruit definitely lost some moisture, while the silica desiccant wasn’t saturated yet and kept doing its thing. As for the effect on the fruit, the apple looked fresh and other than a slightly dryer outer layer was still moist and tasty. The piece of banana had however turned gooey and was not very appetizing any more.
As an aside, the Vevor pump also got rather hot after a few minutes, with cloudy oil in the reservoir, so the best way forward here might be to invest in a second-hand twin-stage lab-level pump instead.
Diaphragm Time
Two diaphragm vacuum pump setups with high-tech jam jar vacuum vessel. (Credit: Maya Posch)
With those results in hand, we still got two more vacuum setups: the two types of diaphragm pumps. Both are readily available via any online shopping platform, with the micropumps available for about $5 a pop, as they’re commonly used in e.g. vacuum packaging devices. The larger eccentric pumps are also found everywhere, but come in significantly pricier, even if they can pump a much larger volume per minute.
Weighing the forbidden candy before some vacuum time. (Credit: Maya Posch)
Here the micropumps are connected in a four-stage configuration, while the eccentric pumps feature a two-stage configuration. Both use the same vacuum chamber, being a repurposed glass jam container. Not only is jam rather tasty, their glass jars are also designed to maintain a vacuum for extended periods of time as part of the preservation process, making them excellent small vacuum chambers.
We run the same experiment as before, but only with the silica desiccant. This shows a rather similar outcome, just with these pumps not hitting quite the same final vacuum. For the twin-stage eccentric pump setup the final vacuum was about 100 mbar, and the quad-stage micropump system hit 60 mbar.
Much like with the rotary vane pump experiment, there was no clearly visible color change to the desiccant. The weight remained unchanged from an initial 3.26 grams, taking into account the variability of those cheap ‘precision’ scales, even after calibration.
Discussion
These filament dryers would look better with some vacuum. (Credit: Maya Posch)
What these experiments make clear is that merely having a low vapor pressure isn’t a silver bullet when you want to remove moisture from silica desiccant or unsuspecting pieces of fruit. It also shows why vacuum packing foodstuffs is a good way to keep them fresh for longer, as leaving a piece of apple lying around on a kitchen counter for a day would result in a far less tasty result.
The application of thermal energy is thus apparently not just a good idea, but might be the best way to make moisture hurry up in evacuating from a sample, especially when water is bound to e.g. a desiccant. For the next stage of this vacuum drying adventure we’ll thus be looking at putting vacuum chambers into some kind of thermal chamber, like a confused mixture of an autoclave and pressure cooker. Here the main question is the selection of the optimal heating solution, which is where again there are many choices.
This should reveal whether the <100 mbar of the cheaper, 12 VDC-powered diaphragm pump setup is enough to make it a competitor to the mains-powered rotary vane pump for this purpose. Beyond this there is also the question in how far existing filament dryers could be retrofitted to support some level of vacuum, as well as potential vacuum storage.
Any thoughts, notes, references and more on this topic are most welcome.
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2026-03-31 16:49:17 GMT

HEGSETH L’OSSESSO
@nprofile…fwcg
Il 26 marzo scorso, nel corso della prima, dopo l’inizio della guerra in Iran, delle riunioni di culto mensili da lui istituite e ospitate dal Pentagono, ha recitato, in diretta streaming, una preghiera che ha detto era stata condivisa da un cappellano militare con le truppe coinvolte nella missione che ha portato alla cattura del venezuelano Presidente Nicolás Maduro...

2026-03-31 16:33:15 GMT

Qualcuno ha dirottato uno strumento di sviluppo software open source per diffondere malware a milioni di persone.
L'attacco alla catena di approvvigionamento è stato bloccato in meno di tre ore, ma non è ancora chiaro quante persone siano state colpite.
techcrunch.com/2026/03/31/hack…
@nprofile…fwcg
RE: infosec.exchange/users/lorenzo…
#nevent1q…zxqx

2026-03-31 15:30:39 GMT

Reverse-Engineering The Holy Stone H120D Drone
There are plenty of drones (and other gadgets) you can buy online that use proprietary control protocols. Of course, reverse-engineering one of these protocols is a hacker community classic. Today, [Zac Turner] shows us how this GPS drone can be autonomously controlled by a simple Arduino program or Python script.
What started as [Zac] sniffing some UDP packets quickly evolved into him decompiling the Android app to figure out what’s going on inside. He talks about how the launch command needs accurate GPS, how there’s several hidden features not used by the Android app, et cetera. And it’s not like it’s just another Linux SoC in there, either. No, there’s a proper Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) running, with a shell and a telnet interface. The list of small curiosities goes on.
After he finished reverse-engineering the protocol, he built some Python scripts, through which you can see the camera feed and control the drone remotely. He also went on to make an Arduino program that can do the latter using an Arduino Nano 33 IoT.
hackaday.com/2026/03/31/revers…
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2026-03-31 14:00:09 GMT

Solar Balconies Take Europe By Storm
Solar power has been around for a long time now. Once upon a time, it was mostly the preserve of research projects and large-scale municipal installations. Eventually, as the technology grew ever cheaper, rooftop solar came along, and cashed-up homeowners rushed to throw panels on their homes to slash their power bills and even make money in some cases.
Those in apartments or rented accommodations had largely been left out of the solar revolution. That was, until the advent of balcony solar. Popular in Germany, but little known in the rest of the world, the concept has brought home power generation to a larger market than ever.Pop One On
Photovoltaic solar panels were very expensive to manufacture, a long time ago. This made it difficult for solar power to compete with traditional energy sources like fossil fuels. High install costs and limited power output made the business case difficult, even if the energy from the sun itself was effectively free. However, as the desire for cleaner sources of energy ramped up over the years, solar panel production ramped up in turn. Economies of scale did their thing, and panels grew cheap enough for individuals to consider installing them on their own homes. This led to the widespread uptake of rooftop solar, with installations commonly in the 5 kW to 10 kW range with inverter hardware to allow feeding energy back into the grid in a safe and controlled manner.
The common term is “balkonkraftwerk” in German, which translates to “balcony power plant.” However, there’s no real need for a balcony. Anywhere you can hang them outside a building will work if you can find a way to route the wires to a power point. Credit: RobbieIanMorrison, CC BY 4.0
The problem with rooftop solar is that not everybody owns their roof. A great many people around the world live in apartments, or rent, and are not in a position to make permanent adjustments to their home. These groups were largely left out of the solar revolution. That was, until solar panels grew so cheap and power bills grew high enough that even small-scale installs started to make financial sense.
In Germany in particular, small solar installs have become quite popular, and the country has become a hotbed for so-called “balcony” solar installations. These involve simple setups of one or two solar panels which are designed to be easily mounted on a balcony or other outdoor area of a home, rather than permanently installed on a rooftop.
They come with small inverters to convert the DC output of the solar panels into AC power, which plug straight into an existing home power socket. This do-it-yourself install method eliminates the need for hiring an electrician, further improving the affordability of the system. The inverters used with these systems include anti-islanding protection so that the solar system does not power any circuits if the grid has been deenergized for service or repair.
Balcony solar does have some limitations compared to rooftop installs. Often, installation angles are imperfect for making the most of the sun available. There are also limitations to how much power you can get out of such a system. Germany’s initial regulations for “balkonkraftwerk” systems stated that feed in power had to be limited to 600 watts to avoid potential issues with household wiring and sockets that were never designed for feed-in solar power.
Updated regulations allow up to 800 watts of feed-in, with an additional regulation that the installed panels do not exceed a level of 2000 watts peak output. It might sound like a mismatch, but it’s possible to use the excess power from the panels to charge a battery when the output exceeds the 800-watt limit. Having larger panels with higher peak output is useful, too, for when the sun isn’t shining so bright. A 2000 watt peak panel setup will be outputting 800 watts or more far more often than a set of panels that only delivers 800 watts in peak conditions.
The panels are generally installed in ad-hoc fashion. Credit: Nikolai Twin, CC BY 4.0
Despite the limitations, or perhaps because of them, it’s a cinch to get yourself going with solar in Germany. Just head to your local big box store, purchase a kit, and hang it off the side of your house. Once you plug it in to the wall, you’re pretty much done. Most kits come with some sort of app for monitoring the system so you can keep an eye on how much your panels are generating. The ease of access has led to an explosion in installs, with over 1 million balcony solar setups already operating in the country.
Thus far, balcony solar has been largely a German thing. However, other parts of the world are catching on. Other European nations like Spain, France, and Belgium have all got on board the train already. In the United States, the state of Utah has already approved a framework for balcony solar installs, and Virginia is following close behind. The key has been carving out special measures to allow easy, cheap DIY installs for small solar systems.
Typically, setting up rooftop solar in most states requires signing an agreement with the local utility regarding power feed-in to the grid, as well as hiring professional contractors for the installation. This adds a huge amount of cost which a small solar system would never recoup in a reasonable amount of time. By eliminating these hurdles for small-scale plug-in setups, they become viable and far more accessible to more of the community.
Balcony solar kits are readily available at stores across Germany. An 800-watt kit can be had for as little as a few hundred Euros. Credit: Lidl via screenshot
Balcony solar is unlikely to be an instant gamechanger that drastically shakes up the power grid. Most installs are low power. Their juice is mostly sucked up to run a fridge and a TV or two, and few make major feed-in contributions to the broader grid. However, their popularity in Europe shows that there is a serious eagerness amongst the broader community to get on board the solar train any which way or how. At the very least, balcony solar is a grand business opportunity and one that is bringing sustainability to more corners of the urban and suburban landscape than ever before.
Featured image: “Sogenanntes Balkonkraftwerk” by [Triplec85]
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2026-03-31 11:00:39 GMT

Refill UV Printer Ink Cartridges Like It’s The Late 90s
The Eufymake E1 is a recently-released prosumer UV printer that can print high-resolution color images onto pretty much anything. It also uses proprietary ink cartridges (which integrate a magnetic stirrer, nice) which are far more expensive than UV ink in bulk. So [charliex] set out to figure out how to refill the ink cartridges, including the cleaning cartridge.
If one doesn’t mind a bit of fiddling, cartridges can be refilled without having to add any new holes.
UV printing in general is a bit of a maintenance hog, which has helped keep it from hobbyist use. UV ink doesn’t really like sitting idle in a machine, but the E1 automates cleaning and flushing of the print head as well as having swappable cartridges for each ink. This makes it a lot more user-friendly than UV printing has historically been.
The cartridge hardware can have a longer serviceable life than the ink inside, so it makes sense to try to refill them. There are more reasons to do this than just limiting costs. What if one wishes to print and the parent company is sold out of cartridges? What if they shut down? Refilling cartridges, and emptying waste from the cleaning cartridge, would become imperatives — lest an expensive prosumer UV printer turn into a paperweight. Thankfully software DRM control of the cartridges seems limited, at least so far.
Refilling cartridges can be carefully done with syringes combined with manual bypass of spring-loaded valve mechanisms. Emptying the cleaning cartridge can similarly be done by syringe, and it even has a hidden refill port under some plastic at its top.
[charliex] approaches all of this from a reverse-engineering perspective, indeed, he has a whole separate blog post about the software for the printer. So his solution is much more informed and elegant than, for example, just melting a new refill hole in the side of the things. It’s an interesting read, so check it out.
Our own Tom Nardi took a close, hands-on look at the E1 printer last year and came away pretty impressed with its capabilities. The cartridges are a big part of the user-friendliness of the system, but we hope there remains a viable option for manual refill for those of us who want to control costs or don’t wish to be locked in, and don’t mind violating a warranty or two in the process.
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2026-03-31 08:00:10 GMT

The D in DNS Stands for DOOM
As literally everything ought to be able to play DOOM in some fashion, [Adam Rice] recently set out to make the venerable DNS finally play the game after far too many decades of being DOOM-less. You may be wondering how video games and a boring domain records database relate to each other. This is where DNS TXT records come into play, which are essentially fields for arbitrary data with no requirements or limitations on this payload, other than a 2,000 character limit.
Add to this the concept of DNS zones which can contain thousands of records and the inkling of a plan begins to form. Essentially the entire game (in C#) is fetched from TXT records, loaded into memory and run from there. This is in some ways a benign form of how DNS TXT records can be abused by people with less harmless intentions, though [Adam] admits to using the Claude chatbot to help with the code, so YMMV.
The engine and WAD file with the game’s resources are compressed to fit into 1.7 MB along with a 1.2 MB DLL bundle, requiring 1,966 TXT records in Base64 encoding on a Cloudflare Pro DNS zone. With a free Cloudflare account you’d need to split it across multiple zones. With the TXT records synced across the globe, every DNS server in the world now has a copy of DOOM on it, for better or worse.
You can find the project source on GitHub if you want to give this a shake yourself.
Thanks to [MrRTFM] for the tip.
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2026-03-31 05:00:37 GMT

PDP-11 Lives in Literal Computer Desk Once More
When you think of iconic parings, your brain probably goes more to “cookies and milk” than “DEC and Ikea” but after watching [Dave]’s latest on Usagi Electric where he puts a PDP-11 into an Ikea desk, you may rethink that.
The PDP-11 is vintage hardware that actually lived inside of a different desk, once upon a time, serving as the control unit for an FTIR spectrometer. While the lab equipment has thankfully survived the decades, the desk did not and when [Dave] got the unit it was as a pile of parts. He revived it, of course– it’s kind of what he does– but it didn’t get a new desk for years, until his latest shop re-organization.
The one concession to modernity– and missing parts– is using switching power supplies rather than the bulky linear PSU that would have originally powered the unit. It’s a good thing, too, or we have trouble picturing how everything would fit! This particular PDP-11 comes with the high performance vector processing unit in order to crunch those spectrographs, and apparently those chips idle at about 60C, so the desk-case got some decent-sized 120V fans to keep everything cool and running for years to come.
This isn’t the most aesthetic or fanciest case-mod we’ve seen, mostly being made of surplus plywood and scrap metal fittings, but it certainly gets the job done. Given that the PDP-11 has been crammed into every form-factor known to man, from a system-on-a-chip (before anybody really talked about SOCs) to desktop workstations, and of course the hulking cabinets with their iconic blinkenlights-– it’s hard to say that this installation isn’t reasonably authentic, even if it isn’t the original desk.
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2026-03-30 19:32:40 GMT

Come trasformare qualsiasi cosa in un routerNon mi piace molto coprire “gli eventi attuali”, ma il governo americano ha appena rivelato una politica davvero sconcertante che vieta di fatto l'importazione di nuovi modelli di router consumer. Questo è ridicolo per molte ragioni, ma se ciò dovesse effettivamente accadere potrebbe essere utile imparare a “produrre in casa” un router.
Fortunatamente, è possibile realizzare un router utilizzando praticamente qualsiasi cosa assomigli a un computer.
nbailey.ca/post/router/
@nprofile…fwcg

2026-03-30 17:00:54 GMT

Medieval Alhambra’s Pulser Pump and Other Aquatic Marvels
Recently the Practical Engineering YouTube channel featured a functional recreation of a pump design that is presumed by some to have been used to pump water up to the medieval Alhambra palace and its fortress, located in what is today Spain. This so-called pulser pump design is notable for not featuring any moving parts, but the water pump was just one of many fascinating engineering achievements that made the Alhambra a truly unique place before the ravages of time had their way with it.
Although the engineering works were said to still have been functional in the 18th century, this pumping system and many other elements that existed at the peak of its existence had already vanished by the 19th century for a number of reasons. During this century a Spanish engineering professor, Cáceres, tried to reconstruct the mechanism as best as he could based on the left-over descriptions, but sadly we’ll likely never know for certain that it is what existed there.
Similarly, the speculated time-based fountain in the Court of the Lions and other elements are now forever lost to time, but we have plenty of theories on how all of this worked in a pre-industrial era.Alhambra
Evening panorama of Alhambra from Mirador de San Nicolás, Granada, Spain. (Credit: Slaunger, Wikimedia)
A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984, the Alhambra saw its first construction in 1238 CE by Muhammad I, the first Nasrid emir. The Nasrid dynasty would last from 1238 to 1491 CE when the Muslim state of al-Andalus fell during the Christian Reconquista.
Even after the end of the Nasrid dynasty would the Alhambra see further construction by Charles V in the 16th century. This made the Alhambra a rather unique amalgamation of Islamic and Renaissance-era architecture and engineering. Sadly by the 18th century the structure had been abandoned for centuries, invaded by squatters, and partially destroyed by the troops of Napoleon in 1812.
Only after these troubled times did an appreciation for such cultural heritage begin to flourish, with European and American tourists alike frequenting the area. One of them – US author Washington Irving – was so inspired by his visit in 1828 that he’d end up writing Tales of the Alhambra, containing many myths, stories, sketches, and essays pertaining to the site. This book in particular was instrumental in making an international audience aware of this site and its legacy.
This renewed attention resulted in the site becoming recognized first as a Spanish Cultural Heritage monument in 1870 and subsequently by UNESCO more than a century later.
Water Features
Most fortresses of the era relied primarily on water cisterns that collected rainwater, as well as access to local rivers in some form, usually requiring human or animal labor to transport the latter. This was also how the Alhambra started in its initial fortress form, called the Alcazaba, meaning ‘citadel’ in Spanish, from Arabic al-qaṣabah. The water from this cistern didn’t just supply drinking water, but also for the bathhouse (hammam) and water elements like a pool or fountain for houses in the interior urban area. These houses additionally featured latrines that were flushed using this cistern water.
As the Alhambra expanded, with many palaces and related structures added, its water requirements increased correspondingly. Rather than some small decorative water features for a dozen houses and a communal bath, there were now reflective pools, fountains and a much larger population. This necessitated finding more efficient ways to get more water up the hill on which the Alhambra was constructed.
Aqueduct of the Alhambra as it enters the wall. (Credit: Sharon Mollerus, Wikimedia)
In addition to the aforementioned pump, there was also an aqueduct (the Acequia Real) that carried water from the Darro River. At a distance of 6.1 km from the fortress the river is at a sufficiently high elevation to provide water using just gravity. This aqueduct additionally provided water via additional branches to gardens and settlements beyond the Alhambra’s walls.
Many details can be found in this 2019 summary of applied hydraulic techniques at al-Andalus fortresses by Luis José García-Pulido and Sara Peñalver Martín.
As noted in that overview article, the reason for the Alhambra being significantly more advanced than other fortresses in the al-Andalus region was that it was the seat of the Nasrid dynasty, ergo it was only natural that it’d not only get all the palaces and comforts, but also the most advanced technologies for supplying water.
Unfortunately the unique pumping device that was used to supply the Alcazaba with water from the aqueduct was replaced in the 18th century with a more basic syphon system and the original device was removed. Up till that point the previous device had continued to work, despite the new owners of the Alhambra not understanding its operating principles. This left 19th century researchers like Cáceres to essentially fully rely on notes made during the previous century.
That said, there are also hints that the Alcazaba of the Antequera fortress used a similar device to pump water uphill, featuring ceramic pipes and other features that are described in by Sancho de Toledo in 1545. Unfortunately these accounts were all written by people who lacked the engineering know-how of the original Nasrid engineers – or any engineering knowledge at all – and thus had no understanding of the workings of these pumps.
This means that we will unfortunately never know exactly what this device looked like or how it worked, but we can still look at some mechanisms which we are familiar with today that could have been used. The concept of the hydraulic ram or pulser pump would seem to come closest compared to what little we do know.
Self-Powered Pumps
1) Inlet – drive pipe; 2) Free flow at waste valve; 3) Outlet – delivery pipe; 4) Waste valve; 5) Delivery check valve; 6) Pressure vessel (Source: Wikimedia)
Unlike a water pump that uses e.g. an impeller to impart kinetic energy and thus move the liquid, a self-powered pump uses physical phenomena like the water hammer effect or the fact that gas in a liquid will rise in order to effect a pumping effect. The hydraulic ram, for example, uses the water hammer effect and relies only on the kinetic energy of the incoming water.
The basic hydraulic ram functional sequence involves the water current pushing the normally open waste valve close, at which point the water hammer effect from the sudden current cessation forces the delivery valve open and pushing water into the delivery pipe.
This process will reverse again after a short while, sending a pressure wave upstream and eventually leading to the waste valve reopening. The downstream flow will then resume again, restarting the whole process.
In terms of technological complexity this is a very straightforward design, with the most complex parts being the valves and the pressure vessel that cushions the system against pressure shocks. This is however a design that would have been technologically quite feasible to manufacture and operate.
Basic pulser pump design. (Credit: Belbury, Wikimedia)
Another, similar type of pump is the gas lift pump. A very small variant of this is commonly used in devices like coffee percolators, with the pulser pump being in effect a very large implementation of the same general principle. Rather than applying heat to the water reservoir in order to create gas (i.e. steam), the pulser pump uses an air compressing effect that’s also used with water-powered trompe air compressors.
As water falls down a pipe it drags air bubbles along with it, which eventually arrive at the bottom where said air is trapped in a cavity while the water flows on to a lower elevation.
The thinner pipe through which water ultimately is pumped is inserted into this air chamber in such a way that it’ll alternately ingest water and air as the level of the latter varies over time. This way pockets of water become trapped between pockets of air, with a resulting pulsing output of water at the end of this pipe.
Whether the original device at the Alhambra or Antequera exactly matches either pump design will likely remain forever a mystery, but neither were beyond the technological means of the time, with the pulser pump arguably even more straightforward due to a lack of need for any valves and pressure vessels.
Time Or Reflective Fountain
Although the Practical Engineering video focuses on this pump design, its author – Grady – was inspired by a Primal Space video that’s basically just history slop content, not citing any proper sources and propagating myths and misinformation as fact. The worst offender is probably the myth that the fountain that is found in the Court of the Lions was time-activated, with the only evidence for it being a clock being that there are twelve lion statues and there are two times twelve hours in a day.
Court of the Lions and its fountain in 2021. (Credit: Sean Adams, Wikimedia)
When we consider the archaeological evidence that exists so far, as well as the findings during the recent restorations, it seems clear that the marble block with its many holes through which the water entered the bowl was intended to diffuse the flow. Around the bowl we can see a corresponding poem of twelve verses by the vizier and poet Ibn Zamrak.
In verses 3 through 7 it specifically refers to “[..] which runs to that which is still, that we know not which of them is flowing”. This quite strongly suggests that the theme was similar to that of the many reflective pools that were so popular around the Alhambra and elsewhere. The idea of it being a time-controlled mechanism would thus seem to be a purely Western interpretation, barring some hitherto unknown evidence appearing.
Lossy History
Perhaps the most cruel aspect of history is that, much like time itself, it has no concern for those of us who live in the present. Throughout the eons as empires rise and crumble back into dust, wondrous inventions are made and soon again forgotten, leaving behind only echoes of deeds and wonder.
If we’re lucky some of it is recorded in a form as durable as Sumerian clay tablets buried underneath desert sands, but if not then what once was shall never be again. This impermanence is the eternal curse of the past, and also the reason why it’s always so important to make multiple copies of your important data.
Due to the passage of time history is mostly just ruins, pot shards and bones buried in mud and sand. Some will try to spruce things up with one’s imagination resulting in faux romanticism, but this naturally bears little connection to the past. That today the Alhambra has been largely restored is testament to how much more respectful we now approach the past, but the parts that were erased after the demise of the Nasrid dynasty are sadly likely to be lost forever.
Featured image: Reflective pool of the Court of the Myrtles, looking north towards the Comares Tower. (Credit: Tuxyso, Wikimedia)
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2026-03-30 14:38:20 GMT

AI Act, la semplificazione che complica: meno regole, più incoerenza?
@nprofile…fwcg
L’adozione da parte del Parlamento UE della propria posizione sul cosiddetto digital omnibus, il settimo pacchetto di semplificazione che interviene, tra gli altri, sull’AI Act, non è una semplice calibrazione dei tempi di applicazione o razionalizzazione degli obblighi, ma

2026-03-30 11:00:57 GMT

Platform governance goes to court
SUPPORTED BY
IT'S MONDAY, AND THIS IS DIGITAL POLITICS. I'm Mark Scott, and as the war in the Middle East enters its second month, here's a map that explains we are all in for major energy price hikes (or shortages) in April.
— American and European courts are doing more for social media oversight than the growing list of online safety regimes worldwide.
— Middle Powers are now testbeds for different forms of AI, competition and platform governance regulation. Some will work, others will not.
— Two-thirds of people polled worldwide say they have used AI, in some form, over the last 12 months.
Let's get started:
digitalpolitics.co/newsletter0…
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2026-03-30 11:00:34 GMT

Using a Scientific Satellite for Passive Radar
The basic principle of radar systems is simple enough: send a radio signal out, and measure the time it takes for a reflection to return. Given the abundant sources of RF signals – television signals, radio stations, cellular carriers, even Wi-Fi – that surround most of us, it’s not even necessary to transmit your own signal. This is the premise of passive radar, which uses passive RF illumination to form an image. The RF signal doesn’t even need to come from a terrestrial source, as [Jean Michel Friedt] demonstrated with a passive radar illuminated by the NISAR radar-imaging satellite (pre-print paper).
NISAR is a synthetic-aperture radar satellite jointly built by NASA and ISRO, and it completes a pass over the world every twelve days. It uses an L-band chirp radar signal, which can be picked up with GNSS antennas. One antenna points up towards the satellite, and has a ground plane blocking the signal from directly reaching the second antenna, which picks up reflections from the landscape under observation. Since the satellite would illuminate the scene for less than a minute, [Jean-Michel] had to predict the moment of peak intensity, and achieved an accuracy of about three seconds.
The signals themselves were recorded with an SDR and a Raspberry Pi. High-end, high-resolution SDRs such as the Ettus B210 gave the best results, but an inexpensive homebuilt MAX2771-based SDR also produced recognizable images. This setup won’t be providing any particularly detailed images, but it did accurately show the contours of the local geography – quite a good result for such a simple setup.
If you’re more interested in tracking aircraft than surveying landscapes, check out this ADS-B-synchronized passive radar system. Although passive radar doesn’t require a transmitter license, that doesn’t mean it’s free from legal issues, as the KrakenSDR team can testify.
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2026-03-29 23:00:36 GMT

Hackaday Links: March 29, 2026
Whether it’s a new couch or a rare piece of hardware picked up on eBay, we all know what it feels like to eagerly await a delivery truck. But the CERN researchers involved in a delivery earlier this week weren’t transporting anyone’s Amazon Prime packages, they were hauling antimatter.
Moving antimatter, specifically antiprotons, via trucks might seem a bit ridiculous. But ultimately CERN wants to transfer samples between various European laboratories, and that means they need a practical and reliable way of getting the temperamental stuff from point A to B. To demonstrate this capability, the researchers loaded a truck with 92 antiprotons and drove it around for 30 minutes. Of course, you can’t just put antiprotons in a cardboard box, the experiment utilized a cryogenically cooled magnetic containment unit that they hope will eventually be able to keep antimatter from rudely annihilating itself on trips lasting as long as 8 hours.
Speaking of deliveries, anyone building a new computer should be careful when ordering components. Shady companies are looking to capitalize on the currently sky high prices of solid-state drives by counterfeiting popular models, and according to the Japanese site AKIBA PC Hotline, there are some examples in the wild that would fool all but the most advanced users. They examine a bootleg drive that’s a nearly identical replica of the Samsung 990 PRO — the unit and its packaging are basically a mirror image of the real deal, the stated capacity appears valid, and it even exhibits similar performance when put through a basic benchmark test.
But while the drive’s sequential read and write speeds are within striking distance of the official numbers from Samsung, things start to fall apart when doing random speed tests or performing real-world operations. It took the fake drive over 25 minutes to write a 370 GB file, while the authentic one ripped through the same file in less than 4: giving a true write speed of 261 MB/s and 1,861 MB/s, respectively.
Luckily you don’t have to time how long it takes to dump 100+ GB of data on the drive just to see if it’s legitimate, Samsung offers a tool that can communicate with the drive and determine if it’s an original or not. If they don’t already, we imagine other manufacturers will roll out similar capabilities in an effort to combat these sophisticated clones.
Of course, computers aren’t the only things in our modern world that are impacted by the rising prices of memory and flash storage. On Friday, Sony announced that they would be implementing higher prices across their PlayStation line starting this week to compensate for what they call “pressures in the global economic landscape.”
Starting April 2nd (presumably they didn’t want consumers to think this was a joke), the base model PS5 will be bumped up to $649.99 in the US and €649.99 in Europe, while the PS5 Pro will be set at an eye-watering 899.99 in both currencies. Admittedly we’ve done absolutely no research to support this, but surely that must make the latter system the most expensive home game console in history by a considerable margin. In comparison, Microsoft’s top of the line Xbox Series X is currently priced at $799, though the model with the smaller 1 TB drive is still available for $649.
One might think that the skyrocketing cost of memory would force developers to take a lesson from the early days of computing, and usher in a new era of highly optimized code that manages to do more with less. That would be nice. Instead, we have now have DOOM rendered in the browser using CSS.
As Niels Leenheer explains in the write-up, the original goal was to have the entire game running in CSS. But he quickly ran into issues trying to implement the game logic. So he settled for letting Claude port the open source C code for the base game over to JavaScript, which freed him up to work on doing the graphics in CSS.
NASA Astronaut Mike Fincke
If you’re interested in web development it’s a fascinating look at how far the modern browser can be pushed, and even if you don’t, it’s a surprisingly smooth way to play the classic shooter without having to install anything.
Lastly, the public is finally getting some information about the health scare aboard the International Space Station that triggered the first-ever medical evacuation from the orbiting laboratory back in January. As we predicted in our previous coverage, NASA was unwilling to put personal information about one of their astronauts on the public record, and have remained tight-lipped about the situation. So it was Crew-11 Pilot Mike Fincke himself that decided to not only come forward as the individual who experienced the issue, but to detail what he went through in an interview with the Associated Press.
So what happened? Well, nobody is quite sure yet. Fincke says he was eating dinner the night before he was scheduled to go on a spacewalk outside the Station, and suddenly realized he couldn’t speak. His crewmates realized he was in distress, and contacted medical personnel at Mission Control on his behalf. Testing performed both on the Station and back on Earth has yet to provide any explanation for the episode. It lasted approximately 20 minutes, and he’s experienced no issues since. Space is kinda crazy like that sometimes.
See something interesting that you think would be a good fit for our weekly Links column? Drop us a line, we’d love to hear about it.
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2026-03-29 20:00:22 GMT

Laser Ranging Makes GPS Satellites More Accurate
Although GNSS systems like GPS have made pin-pointing locations on Earth’s sphere-approximating surface significantly easier and more precise, it’s always possible to go a bit further. The latest innovation involves strapping laser retroreflector arrays (LRAs) to newly launched GPS satellites, enabling ground-based lasers to accurately determine the distance to these satellites.
Similar to the retroreflector array that was left on the Moon during the Apollo missions, these LRAs will be most helpful with scientific pursuits, such as geodesy. This is the science of studying Earth’s shape, gravity and rotation over time, which is information that is also incredibly useful for Earth-observing satellites.
Laser ranging is also essential for determining the geocentric orbit of a satellite, which enables precise calibration of altimeters and increasing the accuracy of long-term measurements. Now that the newly launched GPS III SV-09 satellite is operational this means more information for NASA’s geodesy project, and increased accuracy for GPS measurements as more of its still to be launched satellites are equipped with LRAs.
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2026-03-29 17:00:20 GMT

Clean Enclosures, No Printing Necessary
Unless you’re into circuit sculptures, generally speaking, a working circuit isn’t the end-point of a lot of electronics projects. To protect your new creation from grabby hands, curious paws, and the ravages of nature, you’ll probably want some kind of enclosure. These days a lot of us would probably run it off on the 3D printer, but some people would rather stay electronics hobbiests without getting into the 3D printing hobby. For those people, [mircemk] shares how he creates professonal-looking enclosures with handtools.
The name [mircemk] will seem familiar to longtime readers– we’ve featured many of his projects, and they’ve always stood out for the simple but elegant enclosures he uses. The secret, it turns out, is thin PVC sheeting from a sign shop. At thicknesses upto and including 5 mm, the material can be bent by hand and cut with hobby knives. It’s obviously also amenable to drilling and cutting with woodworking tools as well. Drilling is especially useful to make holes for indicator LEDs. [mircemk] recommends cyanoacrylate ‘crazy’ glue to hold pieces together. For holding down the PCB, the suggestion of double-sided tape will work for components that won’t get too hot.
Rather than paint, the bold contrasting colours we’ve become used to are applied using peel-and-stick wallpaper, which is a great idea. It’s quick, zero mess, and the colour is guaranteed to be evenly applied. It might even help hold the PVC enclosure together ever so slightly. You can watch him do it in the video embedded below.
We hate to say it, but for a one-off project, this technique probably does beat a 3D printed box for professional looks, assuming you have [mircemk]’s motorskills. If you don’t have said motor skills, check out this parametric project box generator. If you’d rather avoid PVC while making a square box to hold a PCB, have you considered using PCBs?
Thanks to [mircemk] for the tip! If you have a tip or technique you want to share, please box it up and send it to the tipsline
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2026-03-29 11:00:36 GMT

Multicolor 5-Axis 3D Printing
Usually, when we see non-planar 3D printers, they’re rather rudimentary prototypes, intended more as development frames than as workhorse machines. [multipoleguy]’s Archer five-axis printer, on the other hand, breaks this trend with automatic four-hotend toolchanging, a CoreXY motion system, and print results as good-looking as any Voron’s.
The print bed rests on three ball joints, two on one side and one in the center of the opposite side. Each joint can be raised and lowered on an independent rail, which allows the bed to be tilted on two axes. The dimensions of the extruders their motion system limit how much the bed can be angled when the extruder is close to the bed, but it can reach sharp angles further out.
The biggest difficulty with non-planar printing is developing a slicer; [multipoleguy] is working on a slicer (MaxiSlicer), but it’s still in development. It looks as though it’s already working rather well, to the point that [multipoleguy] has been optimizing purge settings for tool changes. It seems that when a toolhead is docked, the temperature inside the melt chamber rises above the normal temperature in use, which causes stringing. To compensate for this, the firmware runs a more extensive purge when a hotend’s been sitting for a longer time. The results for themselves: a full three-color double helix, involving 830 tool changes, could be printed with as little as six grams of purge waste.
As three-axis 3D printers become consumer products, hackers have kept looking for further improvements to make, which perhaps explains the number of non-planar printing projects appearing recently, including a few five-axis machines. Alternatively, some have experimented with non-planar print ironing.
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2026-03-29 02:00:50 GMT

Watch Electricity Slosh: Visualizing Impedance Matching
It’s one thing to learn about transmission lines in theory, and quite another to watch a voltage pulse bounce off an open connector. [Alpha Phoenix] bridges the gap between knowledge and understanding in the excellent videos after the break. With a simple circuit, he uses an oscilloscope to visualize the propagation of electricity, showing us exactly how signals travel, reflect, and interfere.
The experiment relies on a twisted-pair Y-harness, where one leg is left open and the other is terminated by a resistor. By stitching together oscilloscope traces captured at regular intervals along the wire, [Alpha Phoenix] constructs a visualization of the voltage pulse propagating. To make this intuitive, [Alpha Phoenix] built a water model of the same circuit with acrylic channels, and the visual result is almost identical to the electrical traces.
For those who dabble in the dark art of RF and radio, the real payoff is the demonstration of impedance matching in the second video. He swaps resistors on the terminated leg to show how energy “sloshes” back when the resistance is too high or too low. However, when the resistor matches the line’s characteristic impedance, the reflection vanishes entirely—the energy is perfectly dissipated. It really makes it click how a well-matched, low SWR antenna is crucial for performance and protecting your radio.
[Alpha Phoenix] is a genius at making physics visible. He even managed “film” a laser beam traveling at light speed.
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2026-03-28 18:30:16 GMT

Attacchi cyber a Commissione Ue e Fbi: che sta succedendo?
@nprofile…fwcg
Due episodi molto diversi mostrano quanto la minaccia cyber resti alta anche su profili istituzionali altissimi. Il caso della mail del direttore Fbi Patel violata da hacker iraniani sembra legato a dati personali datati mentre la violazione del cloud della Commissione europea

2026-03-28 11:00:13 GMT

Magic-less 8 Ball Finds New Life With Pi Pico Inside
There’s an old saying that goes: when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. [lds133] must have heard that saying, because when life took the magic liquid out of his Magic 8 Ball, [lds133] made not eight-ball-aide, but an electronic replacement with a Raspberry Pi Pico and a round TFT display.
In case the Magic 8 Ball is unknown in some corners of the globe, it is a toy that consists of a twenty-sided die with a set of oracular messages engraved on it, enclosed in a magical blue liquid — and by magical, we mean isopropyl alcohol and dye. The traditional use is to ask a question, shake the eight-ball, and then ignore its advice and do whatever you wanted to do anyway.
[lds133]’s version replicates the original behavior exactly by using the accelerometer to detect the shaking, the round display to show an icon of the die, and a Raspberry Pi Pico to do the hard work. There’s also the obligatory lithium pouch cell for power, which is managed by one of the usual TP4056 breakout boards. One very nice detail is that instead of a distracting battery indicator, the virtual die changes color as the battery wears out.
We’ve seen digital 8 Balls before, like this one that used an STM32, or another that used a Raspberry Pi to display reaction GIFs. Some projects are just perennial.
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2026-03-28 08:00:17 GMT

Making a Nichrome Wirewound Power Resistor
Although not really a cost-effective or a required skill unless you have some very specific needs not met by off-the-shelf power resistor options, making your own own wirewound power resistor is definitely educational, as well as a fascinating look at a common part that few people spare a thought on. Cue [TheElectronBench]’s video tutorial on how to make one of these components from scratch.
The resistance value is determined by the length of nichrome wire, which is an alloy of nickel and chromium (NiCr) with a resistivity of around 1.12 µΩ/m. It’s also extremely durable when heated, as it forms a protective outer layer of chromium oxide. This makes it suitable for very high power levels, but also requires the rest of the power resistor assembly to be able to take a similar punishment.
For the inner tube of this DIY power resistor a tube of alumina ceramic was used, around which the nichrome wire is wound. This resistor targets 15 Ohm at a maximum load of 50 Watt, this means a current of about 1.83 A is expected at 27.4 V. The used nichrome wire has a measured resistance of 10.4 Ohm, ergo 1.44 meter has to be cut and wound.
This entire assembly is then embedded in refractory cement (fireproof cement), as this will keep the wire in place, while also able to take the intense temperature cycling during operation. As a bonus this will prevent toasting the surrounding environment too much, never mind lighting things on fire as the nichrome wire heats up.
As explained in the video, this is hardly the only way to create such a power resistor, with multiple types of alternative alloys available, different cores to wind around and various options to embed the assembly. The demonstrated method is however one that should give solid results and be well within the capabilities and budget of a hobbyist.
An important point with nichrome is that you cannot really solder to it, so you’ll need something along the lines of a mechanical (crimping) connection. There are also different winding methods that can affect the inductance of the resistor, since this type of resistor is by its design also a coil. This is however not covered in the video as for most applications it’s not an issue.
Overall, this video tutorial would seem to be a solid introduction to nichrome power resistors, including coverage of many issues you may encounter along the way. Feel free to sound off in the comment section with your own experiences with power resistors, especially if you made them as well.
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2026-03-28 02:00:09 GMT

Using FireWire on a Raspberry Pi Before Linux Drops Support
Once the premium option for data transfers and remote control for high-end audiovisual and other devices, FireWire (IEEE 1394) has been dying a slow death ever since Apple and Sony switched over to USB. Recently Apple correspondingly dropped support for it in MacOS 26, and Linux will follow in 2029. The bright side of this when you’re someone like [Jeff Geerling] is that this means three more years of Linux support for one’s FireWire gear, including on the Raspberry Pi with prosumer gear from 1999.
If you’re not concerned about running the latest and greatest – and supported – software, then using an old or modern Mac or PC is of course an option, but with Linux support still available [Jeff] really wanted to get it working on Linux. Particularly on a Raspberry Pi in order to stay on brand.
Adding a FireWire port to a Raspberry Pi SBC is easy enough with an RPi 5 board as you can put a Mini PCIe HAT on it into which you slot a mini PCIe to Firewire adapter. At this point lspci shows the new device, but to use it you need to recompile the Linux kernel with Firewire support. On the Raspberry Pi you then also need to enable it in the device tree overlay, as shown in the article.
With this you now have FireWire 400 support right off the bat, but to use the FireWire 800 port you need to also connect external power to the adapter, which [Jeff]’s Canon GL1 video camera with its FW400 port does not require, so he didn’t bother with that.
Capturing the video from the GL1 via FW400 was done using the DVgrab utility, with a subsequent capture attempt successful. This means that at least until 2029 [Jeff] will be happily using his GL1 camera this way.
Meanwhile over on the Dark Side, you can still happily install FireWire drivers made for older Windows versions on Windows 10 and 11, which is great news for e.g. people who have expensive DAW gear kicking around. Perhaps the demise of FireWire is still a long while off as long as you’re not too picky about the OS you’re running.
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2026-03-27 20:00:10 GMT

Laser Welding Helps YouTuber Get Ahead with Aluminum Sheet
Laser Welding is apparently the new hotness, in part because these sci-fi rayguns masquerading as tools are really cool. They cut! They weld! They Julienne Fry! Well, maybe not that last one. In any case, perhaps feeling the need to cancel out that coolness as quickly as he possibly could, YouTuber [Wesley Treat] decided to make a giant version of his own head.
[Wesely] had previously been 3D scanned as part of the maker scans project, which you can find over on Printables. Those of you who really hate YouTubers, take note: finally you have something to take your frustrations out on. [Wesely] takes that model into Blender to decimate and decapitate– fans of the band Tyr may wonder if the model questioned his sword–before feeding that head through an online papercraft tool called PaperMaker to generate cut files for his CNC. There are also a lot of welding montages interspersed there as he practices with the new tool. [Wesely] did first try out his new raygun on steel in a previous video, but even knowing that, he makes the learning curve on these lasers look quite scalable.
While we’re not likely to follow in [Wesely]’s footsteps and create our own low-poly Zardoz– Zardozes? Zardii?– using a papercraft toolchain and CNC equipment with sheet aluminum is absolutely a great idea worth stealing. It’s very similar to what another hacker did with PCBs— though that project was perhaps more reasonable in scale and ego.
We are no strangers to papercrafts that use actual paper here, either, having featured everything from model retrocomputers to fully-mobile strandbeasts.
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2026-03-27 18:30:23 GMT

Use a Gap-Cap to Embed Hardware In Your Next 3D Print
Embedding fasteners or other hardware into 3D prints is a useful technique, but it can bring challenges when applied to large or non-flat objects. The solution? Use a gap-cap.
The gap-cap technique is essentially a 3D printed lid. One pauses a print, inserts hardware, then covers it with a lid before resuming the print. The lid — or gap-cap — does three things. It seals in the part, it fills in empty space left above the component, and it provides a nice flat surface for subsequent layers which makes the whole process much cleaner and more reliable.
This whole technique is a bit reminiscent of the idea of manual supports, except that the inserted piece is intended to be sealed into the print along with the embedded hardware under it.
If you have never inserted anything larger than a nut or small magnet into a 3D print, you may wonder why one needs to bother with a gap-cap at all. The short version is that what works for printing over small bits doesn’t reliably carry over to big, odd-shaped bits.
For one thing, filament generally doesn’t like to stick to embedded hardware. As the size of the inserted object increases, especially if it isn’t flat, it increasingly complicates the printer’s ability to seal it in cleanly. Because most nuts are small, even if the printer gets a little messy it probably doesn’t matter much. But what works for small nuts won’t work for something like an LED strip mounted on its side, as shown here.
Cross-section of a print with an embedded LED strip. The print pauses (A), LED strip is inserted and capped with a gap-cap (B, C), then printing resumes and completes (D).
In cases like these a gap-cap is ideal. By pre-printing a form-fitting cap that covers the inserted hardware, one provides a smooth and flat surface that both seals the component in snugly while providing an ideal surface upon which to resume printing.
If needed, a bit of glue can help ensure a gap-cap doesn’t shift and cause trouble when printing resumes, but we can’t help but recall the pause-and-attach technique of embedding printed elements with the help of a LEGO-like connection. Perhaps a gap-cap designed in such a way would avoid needing any kind of adhesive at all.
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2026-03-27 18:00:21 GMT

Hackaday Podcast Episode 363: The History of PLA, Laser DIY PCBs, and Corporate Craziness
What did Elliot Williams and Al Williams read on Hackaday last week? Tune in and find out. After a bit of news, [Vik Oliver] chimes in with some deep PLA knowledge. Then the topic changed to pressure advance measurements, SDRs, making super-resolution PCBs with a fiber laser, and more.
Want to 3D print wire strippers? A robot arm? Or just make your own Z-80? Those hacks are in there, too.
For the long articles, we talked about old tech, including the :CueCat and the Iomega Zip Drive. Let us know if you had either one in the comments.
What do you think? Leave us a comment or record something and send it to our mailbag.
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News:
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TICKETS TO HOPE 26 — 2600 Magazine
Get Your Green Power On!
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History of PLA from Vik Oliver
The Latest From RepRapMicron – Nail Gel, First Objects, And More
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Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Direct Pressure Advance Measurement For Fast Calibration
BambuLab eddy sensor
Why strain gauge?
Building A $50 SDR With 20 MHz Bandwidth
Using A Fiber Laser To Etch 0.1 Mm PCB Traces
Laser Etching Printed Circuit Boards
Why Are You Still Making PCBs?
Supercon 2024: Quick High-Feature Boards With The Circuit Graver
Build This Open-Source Graphics Calculator
Build This Open-Source Graphics Calculator
The Most Intricate Of Freeform Digital Clocks
Bend It Like Bhoite: Circuit Sculptures Shatter The Bounds Of Flatland
PicoZ80 Is A Drop-in Replacement For Everyone’s Favorite Zilog CPU
770 Zilog Z80 :: Quicker, easier and cheaper to make your own chip!
Retrocomputing For $4 With A Z80
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
3D Printed Wire Stripper Uses PLA Blades
Hot Wire Strippers
Electric Motorcycles Don’t Have To Be Security Nightmares, But This One Was
Demonstrating Gray Codes With Industrial Display
3D Printed Robot Arm Built For Learning Purposes
Al’s Picks:
Arduino Code on My 8051: It’s More Likely Than You Think
Analog Video From An 8-Bit Microcontroller
A Candle-Powered Game Boy For Post-Apocalyptic Tetris
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Retail Fail: The :CueCat Disaster
From Zip To Nought: The Rise And Fall Of Iomega
Storage Media Forgotten
hackaday.com/2026/03/27/hackad…
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https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/hackaday/Hackaday_Podcast-Ep363.mp3

2026-03-27 15:30:33 GMT

Luthier Crafts Guitar from Cardboard
The people at Signal Snowboards are well known not only for producing quality snowboards, but doing one-off builds out of unusual and perhaps questionable materials just to see what’s possible. From pennies to glass, if it can go on their press (and sometimes even if it can’t) they’ll build a snowboard out of it. At some point, they were challenged to build different types of boards from paper products which resulted in a few interesting final products, but this pushed them to see what else they could build from paper and are now here with an acoustic guitar fashioned almost entirely from cardboard.
For this build, the luthiers are modeling the cardboard guitar on a 50s-era archtop jazz guitar called a Benedetto. The parts can’t all just be CNC machined out of stacks of glued-up cardboard, though. Not only because of the forces involved in their construction, but because the parts are crucial to a guitar’s sound. The top and back are pressed using custom molds to get exactly the right shape needed for a working soundboard, and the sides have another set of molds. The neck, which has the added duty of supporting the tension of the strings, gets special attention here as well. Each piece is filled with resin before being pressed in a manner surprisingly similar to producing snowboards. From there, the parts go to the luthier in Detroit.
At this point all of the parts are treated similarly to how a wood guitar might be built. The parts are trimmed down on a table saw, glued together, and then finished with a router before getting some other finishing treatments. From there the bridge, tuning pegs, pickups, and strings are added before finally getting finished up. The result is impressive, and without looking closely or being told it’s made from cardboard, it’s not obvious that it was the featured material here.
Some of the snowboards that Signal produced during their Every Third Thursday series had similar results as well, and we actually featured a few of their more tech-oriented builds around a decade ago like their LED snowboard and another one which changes music based on how the snowboard is being ridden.
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2026-03-27 11:00:21 GMT

Understand Your Printer Better With The Interactive Inkjet Simulator
Love them or hate them, inkjets are still a very popular technology for putting text and images on paper, and with good reason. They work and are inexpensive, or would be, if not for the cartridge racket. There’s a bit of mystery about exactly what’s going on inside the humble inkjet that can be difficult to describe in words, though, which is why [Dennis Kuppens] recently released his Interactive Printing Simulator.
[Dennis] would likely object to that introduction, however, as the simulator targets functional inkjet printing, not graphical. Think traces of conductive ink, or light masks where even a single droplet out-of-place can lead to a non-functional result. If you’re just playing with this simulator to get an idea of what the different parameters are, and the effects of changing them, you might not care. There are some things you can get away with in graphics printing you really cannot with functional printing, however, so this simulator may seem a bit limited in its options to those coming from the artistic side of things.
You can edit parameters of the nozzle head manually, or select a number of industrial printers that come pre-configured. Likewise there are pre-prepared patterns, or you can try and draw the Jolly Wrencher as the author clearly failed to do. Then hit ‘start printing’ and watch the dots get laid down.
[Dennis] has released it under an AGPL-3.0 license, but notes that he doesn’t plan on developing the project further. If anyone else wants to run with this, they are apparently more than welcome to, and the license enables that.
Did you know that there’s an inkjet in space? Hopefully NASA got a deal on cartridges. If not, maybe they could try hacking the printer for continuous ink flow. Of course that’s all graphics stuff; functional printing is more like this inkjet 3D printer.
hackaday.com/2026/03/27/unders…
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2026-03-27 09:17:29 GMT

La cyber sicurezza del settore sanitario in Italia: cosa sapere e su cosa riflettere
@nprofile…fwcg
Il recente attacco al settore sanitario francese spinge a chiedersi quali rischi ci sono che scenari simili si verifichino anche in Italia, Paese già preso di mira dal criminal hacking. Il parere dell’esperto
L'articolo La cyber sicurezza del settore sanitario in Italia: cosa sapere e su

2026-03-27 08:00:27 GMT

This Flow Battery Operates With No Pump Required
Flow batteries are rather unique. They generate electricity by the combination of two fluids flowing on either side of a membrane. Typically, this involves the use of some kind of pump to get everything moving. However, [Dusan Caf] has demonstrated another way to make a flow battery operate.
[Dusan]’s build is a zinc-iodide flow battery. It uses two 3D printed reservoirs, each holding a ZnI2 solution and a graphite electrode. Unlike traditional flow batteries, there is no mechanism included to mechanically push the fluid around. Instead, fluid motion is generated by the magnetohydrodynamic effect, which you may know from that Japanese boat that didn’t work very well.
When charging the liquid-based cell, current flows through the conductive electrolyte that sits between both electrodes. This sees zinc electroplated onto the graphite anode, while iodide ions are oxidized at the cathode. There’s also a permanent magnet installed beneath the electrodes, which provides a stable magnetic field. This field, combined with the current flowing through the electrolyte, sees the Lorentz force pushing the electrolyte along, allowing the flow battery to operate. When the cell is being discharged, the reactions happen in reverse, with the flow through the electrodes changing direction in turn. Neatly, as current draw or supply increases, the flow rate increases in turn, naturally regulating the system.
[Dusan] notes this isn’t feasible for large batteries, due to the limited flow rate, but it’s fine for small-scale demos regarding the operation of a flow battery. We’ve featured some more typical flow battery designs in the past, too.
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2026-03-27 05:00:55 GMT

Improving Soda by Turning It Into Mead
Test tasting soda mead. (Credit: Golden Hive Mead, YouTube)
You can certainly just chug down that bottle of soda you purchased, but if you accept the premise that the preparation of food and drink is just a subset of chemistry, and that chemistry is fun, then it naturally follows that using soda as the basis for brewing up some mead makes perfect sense. Thus the [Golden Hive Mead] blokes over on YouTube decided to create some Coca Cola flavored mead.
Mead is essentially just water mixed with honey that is left to ferment after adding yeast, resulting in what is also called ‘honey wine’, with an ethanol content of usually between 3.5% and 20%. Since soda is mostly water and comes with its own supply of sugar for yeast to feast on, this isn’t such a crazy choice in that respect. Just make sure to remove the carbonation, as the CO2 makes the soda too acidic for the yeast to be happy.
Instead of straight honey, caramelized honey was used for extra flavor after which the brew was left to ferment for a while. For extra flavor notes aged oak, vanilla and cinnamon were added as well, to ensure that the fermentation didn’t erase those core notes of the coke. The result was apparently rather flavorful, with about a 10.5% ethanol content, receiving the full approval of both tame test tasters.
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2026-03-26 23:00:09 GMT

Comparing the Power Usage of 12 VDC and 240 VAC Kettles
If you have a 12 VDC power system, like the battery of a PV solar system or car, would it be more efficient to boil water for that cup of tea with that 12V straight from the battery, or use a 240 VAC mains kettle via a ~90% efficient inverter instead? That’s the question that [Cahn] decided to answer experimentally, using a bulky 3 kW inverter and a collection of electric kettles.
Although the used amount of 500 mL of water is boiled much faster in the 2,200 Watt mains kettle than in the 150 and 350 Watt low-voltage kettles, this obvious difference is somewhat irrelevant if you’re only concerned with efficiency. To measure the power used a Victron smart shunt was used with each run, keeping in mind that a perfect efficiency for heating 500 mL from room temperature to boiling is around 43-44 Wh.
With two runs per kettle, the 240 VAC kettle used 65-70 Wh. The first ‘150 Watt’ kettle pulled nearly 200 Watt to boil the water after about 20 minutes, using 62-64 Wh. The second ‘150 Watt’ kettle pulled around 180 Watt, took 23-25 minutes and used 68-74 Wh. Finally, the ‘350 Watt’ kettle drew over 420 Watt and used 50-56 Wh in just over 8 minutes.
When you look at the final results, it’s interesting to note that the low-voltage kettles got both first and last place in this contest, even when factoring in the inverter losses for the 2.2 kW kettle. This makes it quite obvious that the issue at hand is less about DC vs AC or mains vs low-voltage.
The 350 Watt kettle is clearly better designed, featuring a level of insulation that the cheap 12V kettles lack, while pumping more energy into the water at a much faster pace due to the higher current.
Of course, this also shows the whole headache of using 12 VDC appliances like this, as you can only pull so much current from a cigarette lighter socket, while connecting directly to the battery and its juicy 100 A or more poses its own logistical problems. Taking the inverter losses as the price to pay for convenience is thus another totally valid option whenever you’re out camping or at that off-grid cabin.
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2026-03-26 18:29:26 GMT

Gemini sul Dark Web: strumento di difesa o nuova frontiera del controllo?
@nprofile…fwcg
Google ha integrato Gemini in Google Threat Intelligence per monitorare automaticamente il Dark Web: fino a 10 milioni di post al giorno analizzati con una precisione dichiarata del 98%. Un salto tecnologico reale che pone domande scomode su cosa significhi

2026-03-26 11:01:38 GMT

An AI gateway designed to steal your data
A significant proportion of cyber incidents are linked to supply chain attacks, and this proportion is constantly growing. Over the past year, we have seen a wide variety of methods used in such attacks, ranging from creation of malicious but seemingly legitimate open-source libraries or delayed attacks in such seemingly legitimate libraries, to the simplest yet most effective method – compromising the accounts of popular library owners to subsequently release malicious versions of their libraries. Such libraries are used by developers everywhere and are included in many solutions and services. The consequences of an attack can vary widely, ranging from delivering malware to a developer’s device to compromising an entire infrastructure if the malicious library has made its way into the code of a service or product.
This is exactly what happened in March 2026, when attackers injected malicious code into the popular Python library LiteLLM, which serves as a multifunctional gateway for a large set of AI agents. The attackers released two trojanized versions of LiteLLM that delivered malicious scripts to the victim’s system. Both versions made their way into the PyPI repository for Python. A technical analysis revealed that the attackers’ primary targets were servers storing confidential data related to AWS, Kubernetes, NPM, etc., as well as various databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, etc.). In the latter case, the attackers were primarily interested in database configurations. In addition, the malware’s logic included functionality for stealing confidential data from crypto wallets and techniques for establishing a foothold in the Kubernetes cluster.
Repository compromise
The compromise affected the package distribution channel via PyPI: on March 24, 2026, malicious LiteLLM versions litellm==1.82.7 and litellm==1.82.8 were uploaded to the registry. It was specifically the package’s distribution contents that were compromised: in the version 1.82.7, the malicious code was embedded in proxy_server.py, and in 1.82.8, the file litellm_init.pth was added.
Technical analysis
Both versions of the library contained the same malicious code, but its execution was implemented differently. In the version 1.82.7, it was executed only when the proxy functionality was imported, while in 1.82.8, a .pth file was added that was able to execute the code every time the interpreter started.
Example of the malicious code in proxy_server.py
The malicious code in the proxy_server.py and litellm_init.pth files contained Python code encoded in Base64. After execution, the infected script saved this code alongside itself as a p.py file and immediately executed it.
The p.py script launched the main payload – another script, also encoded in Base64 – without saving it to disk. At the same time, it wrote the output of this payload to a file in the directory from which it was launched. Before being written, the output was encrypted using the AES-256-CBC algorithm with a random key generated in the code, which was saved to the session.key file. The key file was also encrypted – using a pre-initialized public RSA key.
The encrypted key and the output were combined into a tpcp.tar.gz archive and sent to the attackers’ remote server.
What exactly happened within the malicious payload, whose output was sent to the C2 server? After it was launched, a recursive scan of the working directories on the victim’s system (/root, /app/, /var/www, etc.) began. In each directory, the script scanned the contents of files, which it output to the stdout buffer, from where it was then saved to the aforementioned file as the result. Next, the script collected system information and also saved it to a file. After that, it proceeded to search for sensitive data. It was interested in the following data located on servers and within the infrastructures of various services:
SSH keys
GIT accounts
.env files
AWS, Kubernetes, email service, database, and WireGuard configurations
files related to Helm, Terraform, and CI
TLS keys and certificates
A notable feature of this malware is that it does not limit itself to stealing files and configurations from the disk, but also attempts to extract runtime secrets from the cloud infrastructure.
The code above uses the addresses 169.254.169.254 and 169.254.170.2. The first corresponds to the AWS Instance Metadata Service (IMDS), through which an EC2 instance (a virtual server in AWS, a machine running in the cloud) can retrieve metadata and temporary IAM role credentials (an AWS account with a set of permissions that a service or application can use to obtain temporary credentials for calls to the AWS API). The second is used in Amazon ECS to issue temporary credentials to a container during execution. Thus, the malicious script targets not only static secrets but also those issued by the cloud that can grant direct access to AWS resources at the moment of infection.
Additionally, the script searches for crypto wallet configurations, as well as webhooks associated with Slack and Discord messengers. The latter indicate that attackers are interested not only in infrastructure secrets and accounts, but also in communication channels within the development team.
In the next stage, the malware moves from data collection to establishing a foothold in the Kubernetes cluster infrastructure: if it has enough access, it configures a privileged pod (the smallest execution unit in Kubernetes, containing one or more containers) by enabling the securityContext.privileged=true option and mounts the node’s root filesystem via hostPath. This allows it to escape the container and perform actions at the node level.
Next, the malware executes another stage of infection – it saves a base64-encoded script disguised as a legitimate system component to the Kubernetes node’s disk at the path /root/.config/sysmon/sysmon.py, and registers it via systemd. After launching, the script waits for an initial delay of 300 seconds, then begins periodically contacting the C2 node checkmarx[.]zone/raw, retrieving a link to the next payload from there. If the received value differs from the state previously saved in /tmp/.pg_state, the script downloads a new file to /tmp/pglog, makes it executable, and runs it in the background. At this stage, the attackers gain a foothold in the system and is capable of regularly delivering updated payloads without the need for re-injection. Since the malicious payload is written not to the container’s temporary file directory but directly to the Kubernetes cluster node, the attackers will retain access to the infrastructure even after the container has terminated.
A similar scenario is used for local persistence: in the absence of Kubernetes, the sysmon.py script is deployed in the user’s directory at ~/.config/sysmon/sysmon.py and is also registered as a service via systemd.
OpenVSX version of the malware
While analyzing files communicating with the C2 server, we discovered malicious versions of two common Checkmarx software extensions: ast-results 2.53.0 and cx-dev-assist 1.7.0. Checkmarx is used for application security assessment. These trojanized extensions contained malicious code that delivered the NodeJS version of the malware described above.
This version is downloaded from checkmarx[.]zone/static/checkmarx-util-1.0.4.tgz using NodeJS package installation utilities and is named checkmarx-util. Its key difference from the Python version is that it does not attempt to elevate privileges to the Kubernetes node level and does not create a privileged pod for persistence. Instead, it implements local persistence within the current environment. This means that the NodeJS variant persists only where it is already running.
Additionally, the list of folders to search for and steal secrets from is significantly smaller in this version than in the Python variant.
Checkmarx extensions are used to scan code and infrastructure configurations, so their compromise is quite dangerous: an attacker gains access not only to project files but also to a significant portion of the development environment, tokens, and local configurations.
Victimology
While assessing the attack’s impact, we saw victims all over the world. Most infection attempts occurred in Russia, China, Brazil, Netherlands and UAE.
Conclusion
As the technical analysis shows, the malicious scripts found in the LiteLLM versions are dangerous not only because they steal files containing sensitive data, but also because they target multiple critical infrastructure components simultaneously: the local system, cloud runtime secrets, the Kubernetes cluster, and even cryptographic keys. Such a broad scope of data collection allows an attacker to quickly move from compromising a single system and Python environment to seizing service accounts, secrets, and entire infrastructures.
Prevention and protection
To protect against infections of this kind, we recommend using a specialized solution for monitoring open-source components. Kaspersky provides real-time data feeds on compromised packages and libraries, which can be used to secure the supply chain and protect development projects from such threats.
Home security solutions, such as Kaspersky Premium, help ensure the security of personal devices by providing multi-layered protection that prevents and neutralizes infection threats. Additionally, our solution can restore a device’s functionality in the event of a malware infection.
To protect corporate devices, we recommend using a complex solution such as Kaspersky NEXT, which allows you to build a flexible and effective security system. The products in this line provide threat visibility and real-time protection, as well as EDR and XDR capabilities for threat investigation and response.
At the time of writing, the compromised versions of LiteLLM have already been removed from PyPI and OpenVSX. If you have used them, and as a proactive response to the threat, we recommend taking the following measures on your systems and infrastructure:
Perform a full system scan using a reliable security solution.
Rotate all potentially compromised credentials – API keys, environment variables, SSH keys, Kubernetes service account tokens, and other secrets.
Check hosts and clusters for signs of compromise – the presence of ~/.config/sysmon/sysmon.py files, suspicious pods in Kubernetes.
Clear the cache and conduct an inventory of PyPI modules: check for malicious ones and roll back to clean versions.
Check for indicators of compromise (files on the system or network signs).
Indicators of Compromise:
URLs
models[.]litellm[.]cloud
checkmarx[.]zone
Infected packages
85ED77A21B88CAE721F369FA6B7BBBA3
2E3A4412A7A487B32C5715167C755D08
0FCCC8E3A03896F45726203074AE225D
Scripts
F5560871F6002982A6A2CC0B3EE739F7
CDE4951BEE7E28AC8A29D33D34A41AE5
05BACBE163EF0393C2416CBD05E45E74
securelist.com/litellm-supply-…
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2026-01-05 06:00:19 GMT

Reviving ReBoot With a Tape Deck Repair
Do you remember ReBoot? If you were into early CGI, the name probably rings a bell, since when it premiered in 1994 it was the first fully computer-animated show on TV. Some time ago, a group found a pile of tapes from Mainframe Studios in Canada, the people behind ReBoot, and the computer historians amongst us were very excited… until they turned out to be digital broadcast master tapes. Exciting for fans of lost media, sure, but not quite the LTO backups of Mainframe’s SGI workstations some of us had hoped would turn up. Still, [Mark Westhaver], [Bryan Baker] and others at the “ReBoot Rewind” project have made great strides, to the point that in their latest update video they declare “We Saved ReBoot”
What does it take to revive a 30-year-old television project? Well, as stated, they started with the tapes. These aren’t ordinary VHS tapes: the Sony D-1 tapes, which were also known by the moniker “4:2:2”, are a format that most people who didn’t work in the TV or film industry will have never seen, and the tape decks are rare as hen’s teeth these days. Just getting a working one, and keeping it working, was one of the biggest challenges [Mark] and Reboot Rewind faced. In the end it took three somewhat-dodgy machines long past their service lives and a miraculously located spare read/write head to get a stable scanning rate.
The uncompressed digital output of these tapes isn’t something you can just burn to a DVD, either. The 720 × 576 resolution video stream is captured raw, but there are minor editing tweaks that need to be made in addition to tape errors that have cropped up over the years, and those need to be dealt with before the video and audio data gets encoded into a modern format. The video briefly glosses [Bryan Baker]’s workflow to do just that. At least they aren’t stuck with terrible USB video capture dongles VHS lovers have to deal with. Even if you don’t care about ReBoot, this isn’t the only show that was archived on D1 tapes so that workflow might be of interest to media fans.
We covered ReBoot Rewind when they were first searching for tape decks, so it’s great to have an update. Alas, the rights holders haven’t yet decided how exactly they’re going to release this fine footage, so if like this author you have fond memories of ReBoot, you may have to wait a bit longer for a reWatch.
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2026-01-05 03:00:29 GMT

Bicycle Tows 15,000 Pounds
An old joke in physics is that of the “spherical cow”, poking fun at some of the assumptions physicists make when tackling a new problem. Making the problem simple like this can help make its fundamentals easier to understand, but when applying these assumptions to real-world problems these assumptions are quickly challenged. Which is what happened when [Seth] from Berm Peak attempted to tow a huge trailer with a bicycle — while in theory the bike just needs a big enough gear ratio he quickly found other problems with this setup that had to be solved.
[Seth] decided on a tandem bike for this build. Not only does the second rider add power, but the longer wheelbase makes it less likely that the tongue weight of the trailer will lift the front wheel off the ground. It was modified with a Class 3 trailer hitch, as well as a battery to activate the electric trailer brakes in case of an emergency. But after hooking the trailer up the first time the problems started cropping up. At such a high gear ratio the bike is very slow and hard to keep on a straight line. Some large, custom training wheels were added between the riders to keep it stable, but even then the huge weight still caused problems with the chain and even damaged the bike’s freehub at one point.
Eventually, though, [Berm Peak] was able to flat tow a Ford F-150 Lightning pulling a trailer a few yards up a hill, at least demonstrating this proof of concept. It might be the absolute most a bicycle can tow without help from an electric motor, although real-world applications for something like this are likely a bit limited. He’s been doing some other bicycle-based projects with more utility lately, including a few where he brings abandoned rental e-bikes back to life by removing proprietary components.
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2026-01-05 00:00:04 GMT

Print Pixel Art to a Floppy Disk
Here at Hackaday we love floppy disks. While they are by no means a practical or useful means of storing data in the age of solid state storage, there is something special about the little floppy disc of magnetic film inside that iconic plastic case. That’s why we were so excited to see the tool [dbalsom] developed for printing pixel art in a floppy’s track timing diagrams!
Floppy timing diagrams are usually used to analyze the quality of an individual disk. It represents flux transitions within the a single floppy tack as a 2D graph. But it’s also perfectly possible to “paint” images on a floppy this way. Granted, you can’t see these images without printing out a timing diagram, but if your painting images onto a floppy, that’s probably the point.
This is where pbm2track tool comes in handy! It takes bitmap images and encodes them onto floppy emulators, or actual floppies. The results are quite excellent, with near-perfect recreation in floppy graphical views. The results on real floppies are also recognizable as the original image. The concept is similar to a previous tool [dbalsom] created, PNG2disk
If you too love the nearly forgotten physical likeness of the save button, make sure to check out this modern Linux on a floppy hack next!
Thanks [gloriouscow] for the tip!
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2026-01-04 21:49:09 GMT

Il buio digitale di Caracas: cyber operazioni e resistenza anonima nella crisi venezuelana
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Mentre i titoli dei giornali di tutto il mondo raccontano del blitz militare statunitense in Venezuela e della cattura del presidente Nicolás Maduro, un’altra battaglia, più silenziosa ma non meno significativa, si sta combattendo nel

2026-01-04 21:00:23 GMT

Modifying a QingPing Air Quality Monitor for Local MQTT Access
The QingPing Air Quality Monitor 2 is an Android-based device that not only features a touch screen with the current air quality statistics of the room, but also includes an MQTT interface that normally is used in combination with the QingPing mobile app and the Xiaomi IoT ecosystem. Changing it to report to a local MQTT server instead for integration with e.g. Home Assistant can be done in an official way that still requires creating a cloud account, or you can just do it yourself via an ADB shell and some file modifications as [ea] has done.
By default these devices do not enumerate when you connect a computer to their USB-C port, but that’s easily resolved by enabling Android’s developer mode. This involves seven taps on the Device Name line in the About section of settings. After this you can enter Developer Options to toggle on Debug Mode and Adbd Debugging, which creates the option to connect to the device via USB with ADB and open up a shell with adb shell.
From there you can shoot off the QingSnow2 app and the watchdog.sh that’s running in the background, disable IPv6 and edit /etc/host to redirect all the standard cloud server calls to a local server. Apparently there is even SSH access at this point, with root access and password rockchip. The MQTT configuration is found under /data/etc/ in settings.ini, which is used by the QingPing app, so editing redirects all that.
Of course, the device also queries a remote server for weather data for your location, so if you modify this you have to provide a proxy, which [ea] did with a simple MQTT server that’s found along with other files on the GitHub project page.
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2026-01-04 18:00:40 GMT

Sleeping Rough in Alaska with a USPS Cargo Bike
Out of all 49 beautiful US states (plus New Jersey), the one you’d probably least want to camp outside in during the winter is arguably Alaska. If you were to spend a night camping out in the Alaskan winter, your first choice of shelter almost certainly wouldn’t be a USPS electric cargo trike, but over on YouTube [Matt Spears] shows that it’s not that hard to make a lovely little camper out of the mail bike.
We’re not sure how much use these sorts of cargo trikes get in Alaska, but [Matt] seems to have acquired this one surplus after an entirely-predictable crash took one of the mirrors off. A delta configuration trike — single wheel in front — is tippy at the best of times, but the high center of gravity you’d get from a loading the rear with mail just makes it worse. That evidently did not deter the United States Postal Service, and it didn’t deter [Matt] either.
His conversion is rather minimal: to turn the cargo compartment into a camper, he only adds a few lights, a latch on the inside of the rear door, and a wood-burning stove for heat. Rather than have heavy insulation shrink the already-small cargo compartment, [Matt] opts to insulate himself with a pile of warm sleeping bags. Some zip-tie tire chains even let him get the bike moving (slowly) in a winter storm that he claims got his truck stuck.
While it might not be a practical winter vehicle, at least on un-plowed mountain roads, starting with an electric-assist cargo trike Uncle Sam already paid for represented a huge cost and time savings vs starting from scratch like this teardrop bike camper we featured a while back. While not as luxurious, it seems more practical for off-roading than another electric RV we’ve seen.
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2026-01-04 15:00:23 GMT

Ray Marching in Excel
3D graphics are made up of little more then very complicated math. With enough time, you could probably compute a ray marching by hand. Or, you could set up Excel to do it for you!
Ray marching is a form of ray tracing, where a ray is stepped along based on how close it is to the nearest surface. By taking advantage of signed distance functions, such an algorithm can be quite effective, and in some instances much more efficient then traditional ray marching algorithms. But the fact that ray marching is so mathematically well defined is probably why [ExcelTABLE] used it to make a ray traced game in Excel.
Under the hood, the ray marching works by casting a ray out from the camera and measuring its distance from a set of three dimensional functions. If that distance is below a certain value, this is considered a surface hit. On surface hits, a simple normal shader computes pixel brightness. This is then rendered out by variable formatting in the cells of the spreadsheet.
For those of you following along at home, the tutorial should work just fine in any modern spreadsheet software including Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc. It also provides a great explanation of the math and concepts of ray marching, so is worth a read regardless your opinions on Excel’s status as a so-called “programming language.”
This is not the first time we have come across a ray tracing tutorial. If computer graphics are your thing, make sure to check out this ray tracing in a weekend tutorial next!
Thanks [Niklas] for the tip!
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2026-01-04 12:00:42 GMT

Exploring Nintendo 64DD Code Remnants in Ocarina of Time
What if you took a Nintendo 64 cartridge-based game and allowed it to also use a large capacity magnetic disc format alongside it? This was the premise of the Nintendo 64DD peripheral, and the topic of a recent video by [Skawo] in which an archaeological code dig is performed to see what traces of the abandoned product may remain.
The 64DD slots into the bottom of the console where the peripheral connector is located, following which the console can read and write the magnetic discs of the 64DD. At 64 MB it matched the cartridge in storage capacity, while also being writable unlike cartridges or CDs. It followed on previous formats like the Famicom Disk System.
For 1998’s Game of the Year title The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time such a 64DD-based expansion was worked on for a while before being cancelled along with the 64DD. With this Zelda game now decompiled, its source code has shown to be still full of 64DD-related code that [Skawo] takes us through in the video.
The Nintendo 64DD discs resembled ZIP discs. (Credit: Evan-Amos, Wikimedia)
As is typical for CD- and magnetic storage formats like these 64DD discs, their access times and transfer speeds are atrociously slow next to a cartridge’s mask ROM, which clearly left the developers scrambling to find some way to use the 64DD as an actual enhancement. Considering that the 64DD never was released outside of Japan and had a very short life, it would seem apparent that, barring PlayStation-level compromises, disc formats just weren’t a good match for the console.
The interface with the 64DD in the game’s code gives some idea of what the developers had in mind, which mostly consisted out of swapping on-cartridge resources like dungeon maps with different ones. Ultimately this content did make its way into a commercial release, in the form of the Master Quest option on the game’s re-release on the GameCube.
Although this doesn’t enable features once envisioned, such as tracking the player’s entire route and storing permanent map changes during gameplay, it at least gives us a glimpse of what the expansion game on the 64DD could have looked like.
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Top image: N64 with stacked 64DD, credit: Evan-Amos
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2026-01-04 09:00:33 GMT

Are We Ready for AR Smart Glasses Yet?
In a recent article from IEEE Spectrum, [Alfred Poor] asks the question what do consumers really want in smart glasses? And are you finally ready to hang a computer screen on your face?
[Alfred] says that since Google Glass was introduced in 2012, smart glasses haven’t yet found their compelling use-case. Apparently it looks like while virtual reality (VR) might be out, augmented reality (AR) might be in. And of course now we have higher levels of “AI” in the mix, whatever that means.
According to the article in the present day there are two competing visions of what smart glasses might be: we have One Pro from Xreal in Beijing, and AI Glasses from Halliday in Singapore, each representing different design concepts evolving in today’s market. The article goes into further detail. The video below the break is promotional material from Halliday showing people’s reactions to their AI Glasses product.
[Alfred] talks with Louis Rosenberg, CEO and chief scientist of Unanimous AI, who says he believes “that within five years, immersive AI-powered glasses will replace the smartphone as the primary mobile device in our digital lives.” Predicting the future is hard, but what do you think? Sound off in the comments!
All in all smart glasses remain a hot topic. If you’d like to read more check out our recent articles Making Glasses That Detect Smartglasses and Mentra Brings Open Smart Glasses OS With Cross-Compat.
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2026-01-04 06:12:29 GMT

DarkSpectre e Patchwork: quando l’attaccante entra dalla porta di servizio e nessuno se ne accorge
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Negli ultimi anni, l’immaginario collettivo della cybersecurity ha fin troppo spesso romanticizzato l’hacker solitario, genio ribelle in grado di violare sistemi con exploit a zero-day e toolkit fantascientifici. La

2026-01-04 06:07:28 GMT

Oltre il ransomware: Handala e l’evoluzione dell’attacco come messaggio
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Negli attacchi rivendicati dal collettivo Handala tra la fine del 2025 e l’inizio del 2026, il dato non è più soltanto l’obiettivo finale dell’intrusione, ma diventa un mezzo narrativo, un’arma semiotica utilizzata per costruire consenso, intimidire e orientare il dibattito

2026-01-04 06:00:51 GMT

Quote Printer Keeps Receipts
In the world of social media, “keeping receipts” refers to the practice of storing evidence that may come in handy for a callout post at a later date. For [Teddy Warner], though, it’s more applicable to a little printer he whipped up to record the very best banter from his cadre of friends.
[Teddy’s] idea was simple. He hoped to capture amusing or interesting quotes his friends made in his apartment, and store them in a more permanent form. He also wanted to allow his friends to do the same. To that end, he whipped up a small locally-hosted web interface which his friends could use to record quotes, along with proper attribution. Hosted on a Raspberry Pi 5, the web interface can then truck those quotes out to an 80 mm thermal receipt printer. The anecdote, epithet, or witticism is then spat out with a timestamp in a format roughly approximating a receipt you might get from your local gas station. What’s neat is that [Teddy] was also able to install the entire system within the housing of the Miemieyo receipt printer, by 3D printing a custom base that could house the Pi and a suitable power supply.
Beyond being fun, this system also serves a critical purpose. It creates a paper trail, such that in-jokes, rumors, and insults alike can be traced back to their originating source. No more can Crazy Terry claim to have invented “the Malaga bit,” because the server and the receipt clearly log that Gerald dropped it first at the Boxing Day do.
We’ve seen similar projects before, too. There’s just something neat about holding a bit of paper in your hand.
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2026-01-04 03:00:36 GMT

FPGA Dev Kit Unofficially Brings MSX Standard Back
In the 1980s there were an incredible number of personal computers of all shapes, sizes, and operating system types, and there was very little interoperability. Unlike today’s Windows-Mac duopoly, this era was much more of a free-for-all but that didn’t mean companies like Microsoft weren’t trying to clean up all of this mess. In 1983 they introduced the MSX standard for computers, hoping to coalesce users around a single design. Eventually it became very successful in Japan and saw some use in a few other places but is now relegated to the dustbin of history, but a new FPGA kit unofficially supports this standard.
The kit is called the OneChip Book and, unlike most FPGA kits, includes essentially everything needed to get it up and running including screen, keyboard, and I/O all in a pre-built laptop case. At its core it’s just that: and FPGA kit. But its original intent was to recreate this old 80s computer standard with modern hardware. The only problem is they never asked for permission, and their plans were quickly quashed. The development kit is still available, though, and [electricadventures] goes through the steps to get this computer set up to emulate this unofficially-supported retro spec. He’s also able to get original MSX cartridges running on it when everything is said and done.
Although MSX is relatively unknown in North America and Western Europe, it remains a fairly popular platform for retro computing enthusiasts in much of the rest of the world. We’ve seen a few similar projects related to this computer standard like this MSX-inspired cyberdeck design, but also others that bring new hardware to this old platform.
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2026-01-04 00:00:29 GMT

Apollo Lunar Module Thrust Meter Lives Again
[Mike Stewart] powers up a thrust meter from an Apollo lunar module. This bit of kit passed inspection on September 25, 1969. Fortunately [Mike] was able to dig up some old documentation which included the pin numbers. Score! It’s fun to see the various revisions this humble meter went through. Some of the latest revisions are there to address an issue where there was no indication upon failure, so they wired in a relay which could flip a lamp indicator if the device lost power.
This particular examination of this lunar thrust module is a good example of how a system’s complexity can quickly get out of hand. Rather than one pin there are two pins to indicate auto or manual thrust, each working with different voltage levels; the manual thrust is as given but the auto thrust is only the part of the thrust that gets added to a baseline thrust, so they need to be handled differently, requiring extra logic and wiring for biasing the thrust meter when appropriate. The video goes into further detail. Toward the end of the video [Mike] shows us what the meter’s backlights look like when powered.
If you’re interested in Apollo mission technology be sure to check out Don Eyles Walks Us Through The Lunar Module Source Code.
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2026-01-03 21:00:14 GMT

Teardown of Boeing 777 Cabin Pressure Control System
Modern passenger airliners are essentially tubes-with-wings, they just happen to be tubes that are stuffed full with fancy electronics. Some of the most important of these are related to keeping the bits of the tube with humans inside it at temperatures and pressures that keeps them alive and happy. Case in point the Boeing 777, of which [Michel] of Le Labo de Michel on YouTube recently obtained the Cabin Pressure Control System (CPCS) for a teardown.
The crucial parts on the system are the two Nord-Micro C0002 piezo resistive pressure transducers, which measure the pressure inside the aircraft. These sensors, one of which is marked as ‘backup’, are read out by multiple ADCs connected to a couple of FPGAs. The system further has an ARINC 429 transceiver, for communicating with the other avionics components. Naturally the multiple PCBs are conformally coated and with vibration-proof interconnects.
Although it may seem like a lot of hardware just to measure air pressure with, this kind of hardware is meant to work without errors over the span of years, meaning significant amounts of redundancy and error checking has to be built-in. Tragic accidents such as Helios Airways Flight 522 involving a 737-300 highlight the importance of these systems. Although in that case human error had disabled the cabin pressurization, it shows just how hard it can be to detect hypoxia before it is too late.
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2026-01-03 18:00:10 GMT

The Setun Was a Ternary Computer from the USSR in 1958
[Codeolences] tells us about the FORBIDDEN Soviet Computer That Defied Binary Logic. The Setun, the world’s first ternary computer, was developed at Moscow State University in 1958. Its troubled and short-lived history is covered in the video. The machine itself uses “trits” (ternary digits) instead of “bits” (binary digits).
When your digits have three discrete values there are a multiplicity of ways of assigning meaning to each state, and the Setun uses a system known as balanced ternary where each digit can be either -1, 0, or 1 and otherwise uses a place-value system in the normal way.
An interesting factoid that comes up in the video is that base-3 (also known as radix-3) is the maximally efficient way to represent numbers because three is the closest integer to the natural growth constant, the base of the natural logarithm, e, which is approximately 2.718 ≈ 3.
If you’re interested to know more about ternary computing check out There Are 10 Kinds Of Computers In The World and Building The First Ternary Microprocessor.
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2026-01-03 15:00:04 GMT

Pickle Diodes, Asymmetric Jacobs Ladders, and Other AC Surprises
While we’re 100 years past Edison’s fear, uncertainty, and doubt campaign, the fact of the matter is that DC is a bit easier to wrap one’s head around. It’s just so honest in its directness. AC, though? It can be a little shifty, and that results in some unexpected behaviors, as seen in this video from [The Action Lab].
He starts off with a very relatable observation: have you ever noticed that when you plug in a pickle, only half of it lights up? What’s up with that? Well, it’s related to the asymmetry he sees on his Jacobs ladder that has one side grow hotter than the other. In fact, it goes back to something welders who use DC know about well: the Debye sheath.
The arc of a welder, or a Jacobs ladder, or a pickle lamp is a plasma: ions and free electrons. Whichever electrode has negative is going to repel the plasma’s electrons, resulting in a sheath of positive charge around it. This positively-charged ions in the Debye sheath are going to accelerate into the anode, and voila! Heating. That’s why it matters which way the current goes when you’re welding.
With DC, that makes sense. In AC, well — one side starts as negatively charged, and that’s all it takes. It heats preferentially by creating a temporary Debye sheath. The hotter electrode is going to preferentially give off electrons compared to its colder twin — which amplifies the effect every time it swings back to negative. It seems like there’s no way to get a pure AC waveform across a plasma; there’s a positive feedback loop at whatever electrode starts negative that wants to introduce a DC bias. That’s most dramatically demonstrated with a pickle: it lights up on the preferentially heated side, showing the DC bias. Technically, that makes the infamous electric pickle a diode. We suspect the same thing would happen in a hot dog, which gives us the idea for the tastiest bridge rectifier. Nobody tell OSHA.
[The Action Lab] explains in more detail in his video, and demonstrates with ring-shaped electrode how geometry can introduce its own bias. For those of us who spend most of our time slinging solder in low-voltage DC applications, this sort of thing is fascinating. It might be old hat to others here; if the science of a plain Jacobs ladder no longer excites you, maybe you’d find it more electrifying built into a blade.
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2026-01-03 12:00:36 GMT

Printing in Metal with DIY SLM
An accessible 3D printer for metals has been the holy grail of amateur printer builders since at least the beginning of the RepRap project, but as tends to be the case with holy grails, it’s proven stubbornly elusive. If you have the resources to build it, though, it’s possible to replicate the professional approach with a selective laser melting (SLM) printer, such as the one [Travis Mitchell] built (this is a playlist of nine videos, but if you want to see the final results, the last video is embedded below).
Most of the playlist shows the process of physically constructing the machine, with only the last two videos getting into testing. The heart of the printer is a 500 Watt fiber laser and a galvo scan head, which account for most of the cost of the final machine. The print chamber has to be purged of oxygen with shielding gas, so [Travis] minimized the volume to reduce the amount of argon needed. The scan head therefore isn’t located in the chamber, but shines down into it through a window in the chamber’s roof. A set of repurposed industrial servo motors raises and lowers the two pistons which form the build plate and powder dispenser, and another servo drives the recoater blade which smooths on another layer of metal powder after each layer.
As with any 3D printer, getting good first-layer adhesion proved troublesome, since too much power caused the powder to melt and clump together, and too little could result in incomplete fusion. Making sure the laser was in focus improved things significantly, though heat management and consequent warping remained a challenge. The recoater blade was originally made out of printed plastic, with a silicone cord along the edge. Scraping along hot fused metal in the early tests damaged it, so [Travis] replaced it with a stainless steel blade, which gave much more consistent performance. The final results looked extremely promising, though [Travis] notes that there is still room for redesign and improvement.
This printer joins the very few other DIY SLM machines we’ve seen, though there is an amazingly broad range of other creative ideas for homemade metal printers, from electrochemical printers to those that use precise powder placement.
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2026-01-03 09:00:39 GMT

Zork Running on 4-Bit Intel Computer
Before DOOM would run on any computing system ever produced, and indeed before it even ran on its first computer, the game that would run on any computer of the pre-DOOM era was Zork. This was a text-based adventure game first published in the late 70s that could run on a number of platforms thanks to a virtual machine that interpreted the game code. This let the programmers write a new VM for each platform rather than porting the game every time. [smbakeryt] wanted to see how far he could push this design and got the classic game running on one of the oldest computers ever produced.
The computer in question is the ubiquitous Intel 4004 processor, the first commercially available general-purpose microprocessor produced. This was a four-bit machine and predates the release of Zork by about eight years. As discussed earlier, though, the only thing needed to get Zork to run on any machine is the Z-machine for that platform, so [smbakeryt] got to work. He’s working on a Heathkit H9 terminal, and the main limitation here is the amount of RAM needed to run the game. He was able to extended the address bus to increase the available memory in hardware, but getting the Z-machine running in software took some effort as well. There’s a number of layers of software abstraction here that’s a bit surprising for 70s-era computing but which make it an extremely interesting challenge and project.
As far as [smbakeryt]’s goal of finding the “least amount of computer” that would play Zork, we’d have a hard time thinking of anything predating the 4004 that would have any reasonable user experience, but we’d always encourage others to challenge this thought and [smbakeryt]’s milestone. Similarly, DOOM has a history of running on machines far below the original recommended minimum system requirements, and one of our favorites was getting it to run on the NES.
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2026-01-03 06:13:06 GMT

NIS2, linee guida ACN su gestione incidenti pubblicate a fine 2025: cosa cambia
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Le linee guida ACN sulla gestione incidenti NIS2 arrivano a fine anno, ma il contenuto è tutt'altro che marginale. Processo obbligatorio in cinque fasi per soggetti essenziali e importanti: dalla preparazione documentata al miglioramento continuo.

2026-01-03 06:06:14 GMT

Sul Referente CSIRT esterno
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ACN ha chiarito la possibilità di nominare un Referente CSIRT esterno alle organizzazioni per la gestione degli incidenti ma questo ha portato ad una serie di incomprensioni che è bene […]
L'articolo Sul Referente CSIRT esterno proviene da Edoardo Limone.
L'articolo proviene edoardolimone.com/2026/01/02/s…

2026-01-03 06:00:00 GMT

Benchmarking Windows Against Itself, from Windows XP to Windows 11
Despite faster CPUs, RAM and storage, today’s Windows experience doesn’t feel noticeably different from back in the 2000s when XP and later Windows 7 ruled the roost. To quantify this feeling, [TrigrZolt] decided to run a series of benchmarks on a range of Windows versions.
Covering Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8.1, 10 and 11, the Pro version of each with the latest service packs and updates was installed on the same laptop: a Lenovo ThinkPad X220. It features an Intel i5 2520M CPU, 8 GB of RAM, built-in Intel HD Graphics 3000 and a 256 GB HDD.
For start-up, Windows 8.1 won the race, probably due to having the Fast Boot feature, while Windows 11 came in dead last as it showed the desktop, but struggled to show the task bar. Windows XP’s install size was the smallest and also had the lowest RAM usage with nothing loaded at 800 MB versus 3.3 GB for Windows 11 in last place.
Using the Chrome-based Supermium browser, memory management was tested, with XP performing as poorly as Windows 11, while Windows 7 and 8.1 took home the gold at over two-hundred tabs open before hitting the total RAM usage limit of 5 GB. That XP performed so poorly was however due to an issue with virtual memory and not hitting the RAM limit, which means that Windows 11 is the real dunce here.
This is a pattern that keeps repeating: Windows 11 was last in the battery test, took longer to render a video project in OpenShot, took its sweet time opening the File Explorer window, and opening built-in applications like MS Paint left enough time to fetch a fresh cup of coffee. Not to mention Windows 11 taking the longest to open websites and scoring worst of all in single-threaded CPU-Z.
Much seems to be due to the new code in Windows 11, as Microsoft has opted to start doing major rewrites since Windows 7, hitting a crescendo with Windows 11. Although there’s the unhelpful fact that Windows 11 by default encrypts the storage with the very slow software-based BitLocker, its massive RAM usage and general sluggishness are such a big deal that even Microsoft has acknowledged this and added workarounds for the slow File Explorer in Windows 11 by preloading components into RAM.
All of this appears to be part of the same trend in software development, where more resources are pointlessly used due to developing for the hardware, and performance increasingly takes a backseat to abstractions and indirections that effectively add bloat and latency.
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2026-01-03 03:00:00 GMT

A Steam Machine Clone For An Indeterminate but Possibly Low Cost
For various reasons, crypto mining has fallen to the wayside in recent years. Partially because it was never useful other than as a speculative investment and partially because other speculative investments have been more popular lately, there are all kinds of old mining hardware available at bargain prices. One of those is the Asrock AMD BC250, which is essentially a cut down Playstation 5 but which has almost everything built into it that a gaming PC would need to run Steam, and [ETA PRIME] shows us how to get this system set up.
The first steps are to provide the computer with power, an SSD, and a fan for cooling. It’s meant to be in a server rack so this part at least is pretty straightforward. After getting it powered up there are a few changes to make in the BIOS, mostly related to memory management. [ETA PRIME] is uzing Bazzite as an operating system which helps to get games up and running easily. It plays modern games and even AAA titles at respectable resolutions and framerates almost out-of-the-box, which perhaps shouldn’t be surprising since this APU has a six-core Zen 2 processor with a fairly powerful RDNA2 graphics card, all on one board.
It’s worth noting that this build is a few weeks old now, and the video has gotten popular enough that the BC250 cards that [ETA PRIME] was able to find for $100 are reported to be much more expensive now. Still, though, even at double or triple the price this might still be an attractive price point for a self-contained, fun, small computer that lets you game relatively easily and resembles the Steam Machine in concept. There are plenty of other builds based on old mining hardware as well, so don’t limit yourself to this one popular piece of hardware. This old mining rig, for example, made an excellent media server.
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2026-01-03 00:00:58 GMT

Qron0b: a Minimalist, Low-Power BCD Wristwatch
Over the decades we have seen many DIY clocks and wrist watches presented, but few are as likely to get you either drawing in the crowds, or quietly snickered at behind your back, as a binary watch of some description does. A wrist watch like [qewer]’s qron0b project which also uses BCD encoding to display the current time is among our more rare project types here, with us having to go all the way back to 2018 for a similar project as well as a BCD desk clock.
As is typical, a single CR2032 coin cell powers the entire PCB, with an ATtiny24A or compatible as the MCU, a DS1302 RTC and the requisite 4×4 LED matrix to display the hours and minutes. Technically three LEDs are unneeded here, but it looks nicely symmetrical this way, and the extra LEDs can be used for other tasks as the firmware is expanded from the current setting and reading of the time.
The AVR C firmware can be found in the above linked GitHub repository, along with the KiCad PCB project and FreeCAD design files for the watch body. The body accepts a 22 mm GT2/GT3-style watch strap to complete the assembly. With a single CR2032 you’re assured of at least a few months of runtime.
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2026-01-02 21:00:44 GMT

Adding Solar Power to an Electric Tractor
In my country, we have a saying: the sun is a deadly lazer. Well, it’s not so much a folk saying as a meme, and not so much in one country as “the internet”. In any case, [LiamTronix] was feeling those cancer rays this harvest season when running his electric tractor, and realized that– since he’s already charging it with ground-mounted solar panels anyway–if he’s going to build a roof for his ride, he might as well make charge the batteries.
Another bonus is safety: the old Massey-Ferguson at the heart of the electric tractor build didn’t come with any rollover protection from the factory back in the 1960s. Since having however many tons of tractor roll onto you was bad enough before it got a big hefty battery pack, we heartily approve of including a roll cage in this build. Speaking of battery packs, he’s taking this chance to upgrade to a larger LiFePo pack from the LiIon pack he installed when we first featured this conversion in 2024.
Atop the new roll cage, and above the new battery, [Liam] installed four second-hand 225 W solar panels. Since that’s under 1kW even if the panels have not degraded, the tractor isn’t going to be getting much charge as it runs. In the northern winter, [Liam] is only able to pull 80 W from the set. That’s not getting much work done, but who wants a tractor without a cab or heater when it’s below freezing? In the summer it’s a much better story, and [Liam] estimates that the roof-mounted panels should provide all of the energy needed to run the tractor for the couple hours a day he expects to use it.
If you’re wondering how practical all this is, yes, it can farm — we covered [Liam] putting the project through its paces in early 2025.
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2026-01-02 18:00:00 GMT

Jailbreaking the Amazon Echo Show
As locked-down as the Amazon Echo Show line of devices are, they’re still just ARM-based Android devices, which makes repurposing it somewhat straightforward as long as what you want is another Android device.
Running Home Assistant on an Echo Show 8 with LineageOS.
In this case, we’re talking about the first-generation Amazon Echo Show 8, which is a 2019-era device that got jailbroken back in November by [Rortiz2]. The process was then demonstrated in a video by [Dammit Jeff].
Currently only two devices are supported by this jailbreak, with the Echo Show 5 being the other one. If there’s enough interest, there doesn’t appear to be any technical reason at least for why this support couldn’t be extended to other devices. One major reason for jailbreaking is to put LineageOS on your Echo device courtesy of these Echo Show devices recently beginning to show advertisements, with no way to disable this.
The process of jailbreaking and installing the LineageOS ROM is somewhat long as usual, with plenty of points where you can make a tragic mistake. Fortunately it’s pretty simple as long as you follow the steps and afterwards you can even install the Google apps package if that’s your thing. Just mind the 1 GB RAM and 8 GB of storage on the Echo Show 8. In the case of [Jeff] he mostly replicated the home automation and entertainment features of Amazon’s FireOS with far less locked-down alternatives like Home Assistant.
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2026-01-02 17:00:45 GMT

Hackaday Podcast Ep 351: Hackaday Goes To Chaos Communication Congress
Elliot was of at Europe’s largest hacker convention: Chaos Communication Congress. He had an awesome time, saw more projects than you might think humanely possible, and got the flu. But he pulled through and put this audio tourbook for you.
So if you’ve never been to CCC, give it a listen!
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In the far future, all the cool kids will be downloading MP3s of their favorite podcasts.
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What’s That Sound
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2025-12-31 19:30:40 GMT

Escaping the Linux Networking Stack at Cloudflare
Courtesy of the complex routing and network configurations that Cloudflare uses, their engineers like to push the Linux network stack to its limits and ideally beyond. In a blog article [Chris Branch] details how they ran into limitations while expanding their use of soft-unicast functionality that fits with their extensive use of anycast to push as much redundancy onto the external network as possible.
The particular issue that they ran into had to do with the Netfilter connection tracking (conntrack) module and the Linux socket subsystem when you use packet rewriting. For soft-unicast it is important that multiple processes are aware of the same connection, yet due to how Linux works this made it impossible to use packet rewriting. Instead they had to use a local proxy initially, but this creates overhead.
To work around this the solution appeared to be to abuse the TCP_REPAIR socket option in Linux, which normally exists to e.g. migrate VM network connections. This enables one to describe the entire socket connection state, thus ‘repairing’ it. Combined with TCP Fast Open to skip the whole handshake bit with a TFO ‘cookie’. This still left a few more issues to fix, with an early demux providing a potential solution.
Ironically, ultimately it was decided to not break the Linux networking stack that much and stick with the much less complicated local proxy to terminate TCP connections and redirect traffic to a local socket. Unfortunately escaping the Linux networking stack isn’t that straightforward.
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2025-12-31 18:00:00 GMT

Rectal Oxygenation Could Save Your Life One Day
Humans have lots of basic requirements that need to be met in order to stay alive. Food is a necessary one, though it’s possible to go without for great stretches of time. Water is more important, with survival becoming difficult beyond a few days in its absence. Most of all, though, we crave oxygen. Without an air supply, death arrives in mere minutes.
The importance of oxygen is why airway management is such a key part of emergency medicine. It can be particularly challenging in cases where there is significant trauma to the head, neck, or surrounding areas. In these cases, new research suggests there may be an alternative route to oxygenating the body—through the rear.When Nothing Else Works
Promising rials have been run with mammal subjects, while human testing is at an early stage. Credit: research paper
Most of us are familiar with the usual route of human respiration. We take in air through the mouth and nose, and it passes through the windpipe and into the lungs, where oxygen diffuses into the blood. When everything in the body is functional, this system works well. However, when things go wrong, it can suddenly become very difficult to keep a body alive.
Head or neck injuries can block the airway entirely, or infections can fill the lungs with fluid, preventing the transfer of oxygen to the blood. Supportive ventilation methods can help, but can often damage the lungs themselves while in use. When the lungs themselves cease to function at all, often the only real option is the use of a technique called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO. This is where complicated machinery is used to manually oxygenate the blood outside the body. It’s a complex method that can result in major complications, and comes with a wide range of potential side effects, some of which can be fatal.
In these life-or-death situations, it would be desirable to have an alternative oxygenation technique that could be used when the lungs or airway are badly compromised. New research has suggested that enteral ventilation could be just the ticket. It’s a rather out of the box method, involving the use of a special oxygen-carrying liquid called perfluorodecalin. By administering this fluid rectally, it may be possible to deliver oxygen to a patient without having to rely on the function of the lungs themselves.
As you might guess by the name, perfluorodecalin is a flurocarbon. Its molecules are made up of 10 carbon and 18 fluorine atoms, and it exists as a liquid at room temperature. It’s considered chemically and biologically inert, which is key to its use in a medical context. Beyond that, it’s capable of dissolving a great deal of oxygen, with 100 mL of perfluorodecalin able to dissolve 49 mL of oxygen at a temperature of 25 C. The fluid can also carry carbon dioxide, too. Historically, it’s been used as a method to supply oxygen to specific areas of the body in a topical application, and also used as a way to preserve organs or other tissues in an oxygen-rich environment.
Thus far, research remains at an early stage. Initial testing focused on supplying a rectal dose of non-oxygenated perfluorodecalin of 25 to 1,500 mL for up to 60 minutes, at which point patients would excrete the fluid on their own terms. Patients had their vital signs monitored and were studied for any possible adverse effects. The study found that only mild side effects occurred, specifically involving abdominal bloating and pain at higher levels which resolved without further intervention after the procedure was completed. No perfluorodecalin or related compounds were detected in the bloodstream in the immediate aftermath.
Enteral ventilation is still highly experimental, but early phase testing has shown promising results. Credit: research paper
The first stage of clinical testing was focused on establishing safety profiles rather than outright testing the efficacy of rectal oxygenation. Nonetheless, even in testing with non-oxygenated perfluorodecalin, the study showed a “modest increase” in oxygen saturation in patients dosed with higher amounts of the fluid (500 mL and 1000 mL). This is a positive sign that this could be a viable route for oxygenation, but more research will be needed to verify the findings and develop the technique into something that could have actual clinical applications. That can be a particularly slow process due to the extensive safety requirements of new medical treatments, but such regulations exist for good reason.
First Rodeos And All That
Regular mechanical ventilation can be a highly invasive procedure; liquid ventilation via the lungs would likely be far more so. In contrast, enteral ventilation doesn’t put the usual airway at any real risk of damage. Credit: Nolundi Rawana, CC BY-SA 3.0
It’s not the first time that physicians have explored alternate methods of delivering oxygen to the body. Other methods of liquid ventilation have been developed, albeit with a focus on delivering oxygen-rich liquids to the lungs themselves. The aim is generally to avoid the lung damage that is often caused by traditional positive-pressure ventilation systems, which can be particularly harmful to patients who are already badly unwell. Similarly, these methods typically use oxygen-rich flurocarbons to do the job. While there have been some promising studies, ultimately the technique remains experimental and challenging to implement.
Enteral ventilation has one major benefit over liquid ventilation using the lungs, precisely because it doesn’t involve the lungs at all. The body’s main airway can remain entirely unobstructed during such a treatment, and does not have to be filled with fluids or tubes that could cause damage on their own. In cases where the airway or lungs are badly damaged or compromised, these techniques could potentially help where liquid ventilation via the lungs would simply not be possible. There can be immediate risks in delivering any kind of liquid to a patient’s lungs, particularly if the transition to liquid breathing doesn’t go to plan. The same simply isn’t true of doing so via the enteral pathway, as the regular airway remains untouched and as functional as it ever was.
As it stands, you’re unlikely to be breathing via the rectum any time soon. However, some years down the line, your local emergency room or ICU might just have another route to administer oxygen when all the standard methods fail. It might be weird and unconventional, but it could help save lives.
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2025-12-31 17:11:22 GMT

Intelligenza artificiale e scuola in Cina: un altro pianeta rispetto all’istruzione Europea
Il Ministero dell’Istruzione cinese ha annunciato un rafforzamento strutturato dell’educazione all’intelligenza artificiale, differenziato in base ai diversi livelli scolastici, con l’obiettivo di preparare competenze adeguate alle trasformazioni dell’era digitale.
L’annuncio è stato fatto il 30 dicembre durante una conferenza stampa ufficiale. In quell’occasione, Zhou Dawang, direttore del Dipartimento di Scienza, Tecnologia e Informatica del Ministero dell’Istruzione, ha ricordato che già lo scorso anno, in occasione dell’evento “3•28”, era stata presentata l’iniziativa Artificial Intelligence Empowering Education Action, pensata per individuare modelli efficaci di integrazione dell’IA nei sistemi educativi.
Nel corso del 2025, il Ministero ha poi avviato la versione 2.0 della Strategia nazionale per la digitalizzazione dell’istruzione. La formazione è stata individuata come uno degli assi strategici principali, accompagnata da un’estensione progressiva dell’uso dell’intelligenza artificiale in ambito educativo. Secondo Zhou, i risultati finora ottenuti si articolano in cinque aree principali.
1. Pianificazione strategica e indirizzo normativo
Il Ministero ha rafforzato la progettazione di alto livello introducendo il concetto dei “Quattro futuri”: futuri insegnanti, future classi, future scuole e futuri centri di apprendimento.
Parallelamente, sono stati pubblicati diversi documenti di indirizzo per supportare scuole e istituzioni di ogni ordine e grado nell’adozione di soluzioni basate sull’IA, promuovendo uno sviluppo regolato e sostenibile dell’educazione intelligente.
2. Diffusione delle competenze di base sull’AI
L’obiettivo è rendere l’IA una componente comune della formazione di docenti e studenti e un sapere fondamentale accessibile all’intera società. Attraverso la Piattaforma Nazionale per il Servizio Pubblico dell’Istruzione Intelligente sono stati raccolti oltre 1.000 corsi di alta qualità, rivolti all’istruzione di base, professionale, universitaria e permanente, in grado di rispondere alle esigenze formative di utenti con livelli educativi differenti.
Sul fronte della formazione avanzata, il Ministero ha organizzato corsi online dedicati al personale docente e universitario sul tema della formazione dei talenti nell’istruzione superiore supportata dall’IA.
L’iniziativa ha coinvolto più di 500.000 tra insegnanti e studenti, provenienti da oltre 2.000 università. A questi si aggiungono programmi online rivolti ai laureati delle università tradizionali sulle applicazioni complete dell’intelligenza artificiale, che hanno registrato la partecipazione di 1,31 milioni di studenti.
3. Potenziamento delle applicazioni e l’integrazione profonda delle tecnologie
La Piattaforma Nazionale per l’Educazione Intelligente è stata utilizzata come infrastruttura centrale per il rilascio di numerosi strumenti basati sull’IA. Tra questi figura “AI Testbed”, che riunisce 14 applicazioni di intelligenza artificiale disponibili sul portale nazionale.
È stata inoltre avviata la trasformazione intelligente della piattaforma stessa, con il lancio dell’agente “Nurturing Seedlings”, progettato per aiutare studenti e insegnanti delle scuole primarie e secondarie ad accedere più rapidamente alle risorse educative.
Un ulteriore agente intelligente è stato sviluppato per l’educazione ideologica e politica, con copertura di sette scenari applicativi, tra cui l’iscrizione degli studenti e le attività di Partito e Lega Giovanile.
Questo strumento è già in fase di sperimentazione in alcune università. A completare il quadro, l’agente “Science and Technology Exchange“, rilasciato sulla piattaforma di scambio dei risultati scientifici e tecnologici universitari, consente di individuare in modo intelligente le esigenze delle imprese e facilitare l’abbinamento con i risultati della ricerca.
4. meccanismi di promozione e la sperimentazione sul campo
Il Ministero ha avviato la creazione di un’alleanza aperta sull’intelligenza artificiale, promosso progetti pilota di istruzione basata sull’IA e istituito 509 istituti di formazione dedicati all’intelligenza artificiale in tutto il Paese.
È stato inoltre introdotto un percorso “AI+” all’interno della China International College Student Innovation Competition e sono state avviate basi pilota per le applicazioni industriali dell’IA.
5. Sicurezza
Secondo quanto spiegato da Zhou Dawang, lo sviluppo dell’intelligenza artificiale in ambito educativo sarà accompagnato da un rafforzamento delle misure di tutela. La sicurezza dell’IA viene integrata nel quadro complessivo della sicurezza dell’istruzione, con particolare attenzione alla protezione tecnologica, dei dati, dei contenuti, degli algoritmi e agli aspetti etici.
Guardando al futuro, il Ministero dell’Istruzione intende proseguire nel rafforzamento dell’educazione supportata dall’intelligenza artificiale. Per il prossimo anno è prevista la pubblicazione di nuovi documenti di indirizzo, finalizzati a promuovere in modo sistematico l’insegnamento e le applicazioni dell’IA.
L’educazione generale sull’intelligenza artificiale sarà sviluppata in modo differenziato, tenendo conto delle caratteristiche dei vari livelli scolastici, con l’obiettivo di formare talenti altamente qualificati in grado di affrontare le sfide dell’era intelligente.
L'articolo Intelligenza artificiale e scuola in Cina: un altro pianeta rispetto all’istruzione Europea proviene da Red Hot Cyber.

2025-12-31 16:52:33 GMT

Nave cargo sequestrata per danneggiamento cavo sottomarino nel golfo di Finlandia
Le autorità finlandesi hanno sequestrato, nella giornata di mercoledì 31 dicembre, una nave cargo ritenuta coinvolta nel danneggiamento di un cavo di telecomunicazioni sottomarino che collega Helsinki a Tallinn, in Estonia. L’intervento è scattato dopo la segnalazione di un’anomalia tecnica rilevata dal provider Elisa nelle prime ore della mattina.
L’imbarcazione, identificata come Fitburg, è stata individuata con l’ancora calata in prossimità del punto in cui è stato registrato il guasto. L’area interessata si trova all’interno della zona economica esclusiva estone.
Una nave e un elicottero della Guardia di frontiera finlandese hanno intercettato il cargo, intimando all’equipaggio di interrompere la navigazione, recuperare l’ancora e dirigersi verso le acque territoriali della Finlandia.
Il presidente finlandese Alexander Stubb ha commentato l’operazione con un messaggio pubblicato su X, sottolineando che il Paese è pronto a fronteggiare minacce alla sicurezza di varia natura e ad agire quando le circostanze lo richiedono.
L’episodio ha contribuito ad aumentare il livello di allerta nella regione, già sensibile al tema della sicurezza delle infrastrutture sottomarine. La polizia finlandese ha avviato un’indagine ipotizzando i reati di danno criminale aggravato, tentato danno criminale aggravato e interferenza aggravata con i sistemi di telecomunicazione.
Secondo le informazioni disponibili su MarineTraffic, la Fitburg batte bandiera di Saint Vincent e Grenadine ed era salpata da San Pietroburgo, in Russia, con destinazione Haifa, in Israele. A bordo dell’imbarcazione si trovavano 14 membri dell’equipaggio, che sono stati arrestati nell’ambito dell’operazione.
Sul piano diplomatico, il ministro degli Esteri estone Margus Tsahkna ha confermato che le autorità di Finlandia ed Estonia stanno operando in stretto coordinamento, mantenendo un flusso costante di informazioni sull’evoluzione dell’indagine.
Negli ultimi anni, in particolare dopo l’invasione su larga scala dell’Ucraina da parte della Russia, si sono verificati numerosi episodi che hanno coinvolto cavi elettrici, reti di telecomunicazione e gasdotti nel Nord Europa, nei Paesi baltici e in altre aree del continente. Diversi analisti e rappresentanti politici ritengono che questi eventi possano rientrare in una strategia di “guerra ibrida” attribuita a Mosca.
In risposta al crescente numero di incidenti, la NATO ha annunciato all’inizio dell’anno un rafforzamento delle attività di pattugliamento nel Mar Baltico, con l’obiettivo di tutelare le infrastrutture critiche della regione.
L'articolo Nave cargo sequestrata per danneggiamento cavo sottomarino nel golfo di Finlandia proviene da Red Hot Cyber.
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2025-12-31 16:35:29 GMT

Arriva Windows X-Lite! Il Windows 11 ottimizzato per PC che tutti aspettavano
Il 31 dicembre, per i giocatori e gli utenti di computer più vecchi che puntano alle massime prestazioni, la versione ufficiale di Windows 11 sembra essere spesso troppo pesante. Tuttavia, il celebre Windows X-Lite ha recentemente rilasciato una nuova versione basata su Windows 11 26H1.
Questo sistema operativo personalizzato, leggero e ad alte prestazioni, rimuove i componenti di sistema non necessari, risparmiando notevolmente l’utilizzo della memoria e dello spazio su disco e ottimizzando al contempo le impostazioni di sistema.
Alte prestazioni per PC datati
Per soddisfare le esigenze dei diversi utenti, Windows X-Lite offre più versioni, tra cui la versione Optimum adatta all’uso quotidiano, che offre prestazioni eccellenti e buona compatibilità. Le versioni Micro e Ultralight sono più adatte ai PC più vecchi e agli utenti di macchine virtuali, poiché riducono notevolmente i servizi di sistema e mantengono solo le funzioni principali, riducendo ulteriormente il consumo di risorse.
Tuttavia, le versioni Micro e Ultralight non sono consigliate per l’uso quotidiano a causa dei tagli significativi. Sebbene Windows X-Lite goda di un’ottima reputazione tra i giocatori d’oltreoceano e garantisca “sicurezza e pulizia al 100%”, gli utenti devono comunque valutare autonomamente i rischi prima di installarlo, poiché si tratta di una versione modificata da terze parti.
Questa versione consente di bypassare i controlli TPM, Secure Boot, RAM, CPU e storage, nonché la creazione forzata di account Microsoft durante la configurazione/installazione. Questo garantisce un’esperienza più fluida anche su computer con specifiche inferiori.
Questa versione di Windows X-Lite Optimum 11 24H2 include:
.NET Framework 3.5 preinstallato
Windows Defender facoltativo
Versione completa e aggiornabile
Memoria virtuale abilitata per impostazione predefinita
Driver Intel RST integrati nella configurazione
Include la trasparenza del sistema opzionale
Prestazioni estreme per le tue app e i tuoi giochi
Supporto completo per app UWP, Xbox, MS Store, ecc.
Supporto completo per pacchetti di lingue aggiuntivi, Speech, Voice, ecc.
Supporto completo per tutte le funzionalità opzionali, inclusi WSA e WSL2
Angoli arrotondati, acrilico e mica abilitati per impostazione predefinita
Ulteriori miglioramenti e ottimizzazioni inclusi
Nessuna app UWP preinstallata
E dal punto di vista della licenza?
Windows X-Lite Optimum 11 24H2 Pro/Home è una versione non ufficiale e modificata di Windows 11, realizzata da terzi e non rilasciata né approvata da Microsoft. Installare Windows X-Lite non è pirateria in senso stretto se utilizzi un codice Product Key originale e valido. X-Lite non “regala” Windows; è semplicemente un’immagine di sistema modificata.
Si tratta di una ISO personalizzata (“lite” o “ottimizzata”) in cui vengono rimossi o alterati componenti del sistema operativo originale, distribuita tramite canali non autorizzati e al di fuori dei circuiti ufficiali Microsoft.
Dal punto di vista legale, l’uso di queste versioni viola i termini di licenza di Microsoft: anche se basate su Windows 11, non possono essere considerate software ufficiale. Inoltre, chi scarica e installa questo software su un PC deve comunque essere in possesso di una licenza valida del Windows originale, acquistata tramite i canali ufficiali.
L'articolo Arriva Windows X-Lite! Il Windows 11 ottimizzato per PC che tutti aspettavano proviene da Red Hot Cyber.
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2025-12-31 16:30:24 GMT

Measuring Caffeine Content At Home
By far, the most widely used psychoactive substance in the world is caffeine. It’s farmed around the world in virtually every place that it has cropped up, most commonly on coffee plants, tea plants, and cocoa plants. But is also found in other less common plants like the yaupon holly in the southeastern United States and yerba maté holly in South America. For how common it is and how long humans have been consuming it, it’s always been a bit difficult to quantify exactly how much is in any given beverage, but [Johnowhitaker] has a solution to that.
This build uses a practice called thin layer chromatography, which separates the components of a mixture by allowing them to travel at different rates across a thin adsorbent layer using a solvent. Different components will move to different places allowing them to be individually measured. In this case, the solvent is ethyl acetate and when the samples of various beverages are exposed to it on a thin strip, the caffeine will move to a predictable location and will show up as a dark smudge under UV light. The smudge’s dimensions can then be accurately measured to indicate the caffeine quantity, and compared against known reference samples.
Although this build does require a few specialized compounds and equipment, it’s by far a simpler and less expensive way of figuring out how much caffeine is in a product than other methods like high-performance liquid chromatography or gas chromatography, both of which can require extremely expensive setups. Plus [Johnowhitaker]’s results all match the pure samples as well as the amounts reported in various beverages so he’s pretty confident in his experimental results on beverages which haven’t provided that information directly.
If you need a sample for your own lab, we covered a method on how to make pure caffeine at home a while back.
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2025-12-31 15:00:56 GMT

Why Can’t I 3D Print With Rubber?
A friend of mine and I both have a similar project in mind, the manufacture of custom footwear with our hackerspace’s shiny new multi-material 3D printer. It seems like a match made in heaven, a machine that can seamlessly integrate components made with widely differing materials into a complex three-dimensional structure. As is so often the case though, there are limits to what can be done with the tool in hand, and here I’ve met one of them.
I can’t get a good range of footwear for my significantly oversized feet, and I want a set of extra grippy soles for a particular sporting application. For that the best material is a rubber, yet the types of rubber that are best for the job can unfortunately not be 3D printed. In understanding why that is the case I’ve followed a fascinating path which has taught me stuff about 3D printing that I certainly didn’t know.
Newton strikes back, and I can’t force rubber through this thing.
A friend of mine from way back is a petrochemist, so I asked him about the melting points of various rubbers to see if I could find an appropriate filament His answer, predictably, was that it’s not that simple, because rubbers don’t behave in the same way as the polymers I am used to. With a conventional 3D printer filament, as the polymer is fed into the extruder and heated up, it turns to liquid and flows out of the nozzle to the print. It ‘s then hot enough to fuse with the layer below as it solidifies, which is how our 3D prints retain their shape. This property is where we get the term “plastic” from, which loosely means “Able to be moulded”.
My problem is that rubber doesn’t behave that way. As any casual glance at a motor vehicle will tell you, rubber can be moulded, but it doesn’t neatly liquefy and flow in the way my PLA or PET does. It’s a non-Newtonian fluid, a term which I was familiar with from such things as non-drip paint, tomato ketchup, or oobleck, but had never as an electronic engineer directly encountered in something I am working on.
This is rubber crumb, the shredded rubber from which they mould tyres. Michal Ďurfina, CC BY-SA 4.0.
A Newtonian fluid has a linear relationship between shear stress and shear rate. That’s dry language for saying that when you press it, it moves, if you press it more, it moves more, and the readiness with which it moves, or its viscosity, is the same across all pressures.
I’m used to viscosity, having run all manner of dodgy old cars I’m particularly familiar with selecting the correct oil by viscosity figure. A non-Newtonian fluid doesn’t have this linear relationship, and its viscosity changes with pressure. For example the non-drip paint has a high viscosity until you press it with a paint brush, at which point its viscosity falls and it becomes liquid enough to spread around. Rubber does this too, and were I to attempt to squeeze rubber filament through my extruder, it would become very viscous and block it up. The closest thing to a rubber I could reasonably use is TPU, or Thermoplastic PolyUrethane, but as you might guess from its name, it’s not a rubber in the same sense as the rubbers I’m looking at, even though it’s what many people use for shoes. It’s flexible, but not grippy.
So if rubber is non-Newtonian and I can’t print with it, how do they mould it? An online search finds specialist plants for rubber extrusion and moulding so it’s possible, but in fact those rubber moulded items you’re familiar with won’t be made with liquid rubber. Instead they press shredded rubber into a mould and heat it so that it fuses, resulting in a moulded shape. I was fascinated to find that the process doesn’t require excessive temperatures, though whether that makes it achievable in a hackerspace is yet to be determined. Has anyone out there experimented with real rubber? Meanwhile I have those multi-material uppers to work on.
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2025-12-31 14:24:16 GMT

Italia 2025: ransomware in crescita. Nel 2026 più notifiche, più casi
Nel 2025 il ransomware in Italia non ha “alzato la testa”. Ce l’aveva già alzata da anni. Noi, semmai, abbiamo continuato a far finta di niente. E i numeri – quelli che finiscono in vetrina, sui leak site, nelle rivendicazioni – raccontano esattamente questa storia: 170 vittime nel 2025 contro 146 nel 2024. Un +16% circa. Non è un’esplosione hollywoodiana. È peggio: è la crescita lenta e stabile di un mercato che funziona. Per loro.
E prima che qualcuno faccia il solito giochino del “eh ma sono solo i casi pubblicati”: certo. Questa non è la totalità degli incidenti, è la punta dell’iceberg. È la parte in cui l’attacco diventa estorsione, comunicazione, pressione, marketing criminale. Quando ci finisci dentro, non sei “solo stato bucato”: sei diventato materiale promozionale.
2025: un anno a ondate, con due schiaffi ben assestati
Il 2025 non è stato lineare. È stato un anno fatto di ondate: mesi più tranquilli (tranquilli… nel senso che si vede meno, non che succede meno) e poi due picchi che sembrano messi lì apposta per ricordarti chi comanda quando la prevenzione è lasciata a metà: luglio e dicembre.
E dicembre, in particolare, è la cartolina più utile: dentro ci trovi di tutto: aziende, siti, realtà locali e soprattutto trovi una cosa che molti continuano a ignorare: il ransomware non è “un gruppo”. È un’economia. Un mercato. Brand che nascono, muoiono, si riciclano, si rinominano. Affiliazioni che migrano. “Nuovi” gruppi che spesso sono vecchie facce con una maschera diversa.
La conseguenza pratica è semplice: non esiste la comfort zone del “non ci riguarda”. Il ransomware colpisce dove trova:
identità gestite male,
privilegi larghi come autostrade,
patching a calendario invece che a rischio,
backup che “ci sono” ma non si ripristinano mai sul serio,
e quell’eterna convinzione italiana che “tanto noi siamo piccoli”.
Spoiler: non siete piccoli. Siete solo più facili.
Il punto vero: il 2025 conferma che l’Italia è ancora conveniente
Se nel 2025 le vittime pubbliche aumentano, significa una cosa: il rapporto costo/beneficio è ancora favorevole ai criminali. E finché è così, non serve nemmeno l’exploit del secolo. Basta insistere, industrializzare, comprare accessi iniziali, lavorare di lateral movement e poi premere con doppia estorsione.
E quando vediamo mesi con numeri più bassi, non scambiamoli per “miglioramento”. Spesso è solo una pausa nella vetrina: riorganizzazione, rebranding, change di tooling, pipeline che si riallinea. Nel frattempo, nelle reti di molte aziende, il fumo c’è lo stesso. Solo che non lo vedete… finché non vi chiamano i giornalisti (o l’avvocato).
2026: il paradosso NIS2 (più protetti, ma più incidenti “ufficiali”)
Adesso arriva la parte bella. Nel 2026 entrerà davvero in gioco la NIS2 e molti mi diranno: “bene, quindi meno ransomware”.
Io rispondo: dipende da cosa stai misurando.
1) Sì: i soggetti NIS2, mediamente, saranno più protetti (se la smettono di fare teatro)
Se un soggetto NIS2 fa le cose seriamente, alcune basi migliorano davvero: governance, ruoli, gestione del rischio, controlli minimi, piani, test. E soprattutto – se si lavora bene – migliorano i pilastri che al ransomware danno fastidio: identità, segmentazione, recovery, detection, risposta.
Quindi sì: alcune aziende in perimetro diventeranno bersagli meno comodi. Non invulnerabili. Solo meno comodi. E già questo è un cambiamento enorme, per un Paese che spesso si muove solo quando è obbligato.
2) Però arriva l’obbligo di notifica: e vedremo più incidenti (perché finalmente li conteremo)
Qui sta il punto che tanti faranno finta di non capire: nel 2026, con l’obbligo di notifica, succederà una cosa inevitabile.
Il sottobosco emergerà.
Quelli che prima “gestivano internamente”, quelli che “non diciamo niente”, quelli che “tanto è solo un PC”, quelli che “paghiamo e chiudiamo”, quelli che “meglio non fare rumore”… nel 2026 avranno meno spazio per la retorica e più obblighi da rispettare.
Quindi prepariamoci: aumenteranno gli incidenti notificati, e qualcuno urlerà all’apocalisse. In realtà sarà soprattutto un mix di due cose:
più trasparenza forzata,
e una realtà che era già lì, solo che nessuno la voleva guardare.
3) Effetto spostamento: se alzi il muro davanti, ti entrano dal giardino (supply chain)
Terzo elemento: i criminali non spariscono perché tu diventi più maturo. Si spostano. Ottimizzano.
Se alcuni soggetti NIS2 alzano il livello, una parte della pressione si riverserà ancora di più sulla filiera e su chi sta fuori dal perimetro ma resta connesso a tutto: fornitori, terze parti, servizi gestiti, outsourcer, consulenti “onnipotenti” con credenziali ovunque.
In pratica: magari vedremo meno “buchi facili” sui più maturi, ma vedremo più attacchi laterali, più compromissioni indirette, più incidenti che partono da un anello debole e finiscono su tre aziende a cascata.
La mia previsione secca per il 2026
Nel 2026 vedremo più incidenti nei numeri ufficiali. Non perché la NIS2 fallisce, ma perché:
la NIS2 alza l’asticella su una parte del mercato,
l’obbligo di notifica fa emergere quello che prima veniva nascosto,
i criminali spingono sulla filiera e su chi resta fragile.
E qui chiudo con una frase che mi ripeto da anni: non si batte il ransomware con i documenti.
Lo batti con identità governate, segmentazione, backup ripristinabili davvero, logging che serve a qualcosa e un incident response che non inizia quando sei già sui leak site.
Il 2025 ci ha detto che il problema è vivo.
Il 2026 ci dirà, brutalmente, quanti hanno smesso di raccontarsela.
L'articolo Italia 2025: ransomware in crescita. Nel 2026 più notifiche, più casi proviene da Red Hot Cyber.

2025-12-31 12:14:13 GMT

Attacco cyber all’Agenzia spaziale europea (Esa)
@nprofile…2a7m
L'Agenzia Spaziale Europea (Esa) ha confermato di aver avviato indagini su un "problema di sicurezza informatica" che sembrerebbe aver coinvolto "un numero molto limitato di server esterni" utilizzati per attività non classificate. Tutti i dettagli.
L'articolo proviene dalla sezione #Cybersecurity

2025-12-31 12:01:24 GMT

Telegram e abusi su minori: perché il calo dei ban nel 2025 non è una buona notizia
Ogni giorno Telegram pubblica, attraverso il canale ufficiale Stop Child Abuse, il numero di gruppi e canali rimossi perché riconducibili ad abusi su minori.
Il confronto più significativo emerge osservando le sequenze di fine anno, in particolare il mese di dicembre, quando i volumi si stabilizzano e i trend diventano comparabili.
Negli ultimi tre anni, quei numeri raccontano una storia interessante – ma solo se li si osserva in sequenza e non come fotografie isolate.
I dati: cosa mostrano le rimozioni di fine dicembre
Confrontando gli ultimi giorni di dicembre (periodo omogeneo e comparabile), emergono tre fasi distinte.
Fine 2023
Negli ultimi giorni dell’anno, Telegram comunica una media di circa:
1.800–1.900 gruppi e canali rimossi al giorno
Totale mensile superiore alle 62.000 rimozioni
Un valore che rappresenta una baseline: alta attività repressiva, ma con strutture abusive ancora relativamente stabili e individuabili.
Fine 2024
Nel dicembre successivo il dato cresce in modo netto:
oltre 2.200 rimozioni giornaliere
totale mensile intorno alle 66.000
L’incremento è nell’ordine del 7–8% rispetto all’anno precedente.
Qui non siamo davanti a una fluttuazione casuale: il trend è coerente, ripetuto, strutturale.
Il fenomeno non solo persiste, ma aumenta in volume e velocità.
Fine 2025
Con la pubblicazione del dato del 31 dicembre, il quadro di fine 2025 risulta completo.
Negli ultimi giorni del mese i valori giornalieri si collocano stabilmente sotto quota 2.000, con una media compresa tra 1.700 e 1.900 rimozioni al giorno.
Il totale mensile di dicembre 2025 si attesta a 56.341 rimozioni, in calo rispetto sia al 2023 sia al 2024.
Il calo è quindi numericamente reale, ma la sua interpretazione richiede cautela.
Letti superficialmente, questi dati potrebbero suggerire un miglioramento.
Ma è una conclusione tecnicamente fragile.
Migrazioni e alternative: cosa non mostrano i numeri
Dopo le vicende che hanno coinvolto la piattaforma e l’inasprimento delle misure di contrasto, si sono intensificate le discussioni – soprattutto tra utenti attenti alla privacy e in alcune community underground – sulla ricerca di alternative a Telegram. Applicazioni come Signal, Session o SimpleX vengono spesso citate in questi dibattiti, ma non esistono evidenze di una migrazione di massa, nemmeno per quanto riguarda i network legati agli abusi su minori.
Ciò che si osserva è piuttosto una riconfigurazione tattica e frammentata: l’uso di ambienti a bassa visibilità o di canali privati come complemento operativo, non come alternativa strutturale. Telegram continua infatti a rappresentare il principale punto di aggregazione, discovery e rinnovamento delle reti, grazie alla sua ampia base di utenti e alle funzionalità di broadcast, nonostante l’aumento della pressione repressiva.
Meno ban non significa meno abuso
Il punto centrale è questo: i numeri pubblici non misurano il fenomeno criminale, ma il modello di contrasto.
Tra il 2024 e il 2025, i dati osservabili e il quadro normativo europeo risultano coerenti con un progressivo spostamento verso modelli di contrasto più preventivi e automatizzati, già adottati da molte grandi piattaforme digitali.
In assenza di dettagli tecnici pubblici sulle singole pipeline di moderazione, è plausibile che tali modelli includano una maggiore enfasi su interventi anticipati, l’uso di sistemi automatici di riconoscimento dei contenuti e analisi basate su pattern comportamentali e di rete, con l’obiettivo di ridurre la diffusione prima che i canali raggiungano ampia visibilità.
Il risultato è un sistema che intercetta di più prima, ma comunica di meno dopo.
Di conseguenza:
diminuiscono i “ban visibili”
aumentano le rimozioni silenziose
il dato pubblico perde correlazione diretta con la dimensione reale del fenomeno
La frammentazione come strategia
Un altro elemento chiave è l’evoluzione delle modalità operative dei gruppi abusivi.
Oggi si osserva:
meno canali grandi e persistenti
più micro-canali effimeri
uso crescente di DM, inviti temporanei, mirror
cicli di vita sempre più brevi
Questo rende:
più difficile il monitoraggio tradizionale
meno significativo il semplice conteggio dei “canali chiusi”
Il problema non si riduce. Si distribuisce.
La lezione (oltre Telegram)
Questa dinamica non riguarda solo Telegram né esclusivamente il fenomeno degli abusi su minori.
È una lezione più ampia, che interessa chiunque. I numeri, soprattutto quando sono pubblici e ripetuti, rischiano di diventare rassicuranti per abitudine, ma non sempre raccontano ciò che davvero conta. Quando i contatori scendono, infatti, non è automaticamente una buona notizia: spesso significa solo che il sistema ha imparato a nascondersi meglio di quanto il reporting riesca a mostrare.
Conclusione
Tra il 2023 e il 2024 i dati mostrano un aumento reale e misurabile delle rimozioni.
Il 2025 introduce un calo netto sul piano numerico che, letto correttamente, indica un cambio di strategia repressiva, non una riduzione del fenomeno.
In questi contesti, la domanda giusta non è “quanti ne chiudiamo”, ma “quanti riusciamo a non far nascere”.
E questa è una metrica molto più difficile da raccontare.
Soprattutto in pubblico.
L'articolo Telegram e abusi su minori: perché il calo dei ban nel 2025 non è una buona notizia proviene da Red Hot Cyber.
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2025-12-31 12:00:58 GMT

It’s Time To Make A Major Change to D-Bus On Linux
Although flying well under the radar of the average Linux user, D-Bus has been an integral part of Linux distributions for nearly two decades and counting. Rather than using faster point-to-point interprocess communication via a Unix socket or such, an IPC bus allows for IP communication in a bus-like manner for convenience reasons. D-Bus replaced a few existing IPC buses in the Gnome and KDE desktop environments and became since that time the de-facto standard. Which isn’t to say that D-Bus is well-designed or devoid of flaws, hence attracting the ire of people like [Vaxry] who recently wrote an article on why D-Bus should die and proposes using hyprwire instead.
The broader context is provided by [Brodie Robertson], whose video adds interesting details, such as that Arch Linux wrote its own D-Bus implementation rather than use the reference one. Then there’s CVE-2018-19358 pertaining to the security risk of using an unlocked keyring on D-Bus, as any application on said bus can read the contents. The response by the Gnome developers responsible for D-Bus was very Wayland-like in that they dismissed the CVE as ‘works as designed’.
One reason why the proposed hyperwire/hyprtavern IPC bus would be better is on account of having actual security permissions, real validation of messages and purportedly also solid documentation. Even after nearly twenty years the documentation for D-Bus consists mostly out of poorly documented code, lots of TODOs in ‘documentation’ files along with unfinished drafts. Although [Vaxry] isn’t expecting this hyprwire alternative to be picked up any time soon, it’s hoped that it’ll at least make some kind of improvement possible, rather than Linux limping on with D-Bus for another few decades.
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2025-12-31 09:00:30 GMT

Chamber Master: Control Your 3D Printer Enclosure Like a Pro
Having an enclosed 3D printer can make a huge difference when printing certain filaments that are prone to warping. It’s easy enough to build an enclosure to stick your own printer in, but it can get tricky when you want to actively control the conditions inside the chamber. That’s where [Jayant Bhatia]’s Chamber Master project comes in.
This system is built around the ESP32 microcontroller, which provides control to various elements as well as hosts a web dashboard letting you monitor the chamber status remotely. The ESP32 is connected to an SSD1306 OLED display and a rotary encoder, allowing for navigating menus and functions right at the printer, letting you select filament type presets and set custom ones of your own. A DHT11 humidity sensor and a pair of DS18B20 temperature sensors are used to sense the chamber’s environment and intake temperatures.
One of the eye-catching features of the Chamber Master is the iris-controlled 120 mm fan mounted to the side of the chamber, allowing for an adjustable-size opening for air to flow. When paired with PWM fan control, the amount of airflow can be precisely controlled.
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2025-12-31 08:05:34 GMT

Spazio e cybersicurezza: l’ESA indaga su una violazione che coinvolge partner esterni
L’Agenzia spaziale europea (ESA) ha confermato di aver gestito un incidente di sicurezza informatica che ha coinvolto un numero circoscritto di server esterni, rendendo pubblica una violazione che riguarda sistemi non direttamente integrati nella propria infrastruttura centrale.
La comunicazione ufficiale è arrivata martedì, quando l’ESA ha reso noto di aver individuato un problema di cybersicurezza relativo a server collocati al di fuori della rete aziendale dell’agenzia.
Secondo quanto dichiarato, è stata immediatamente avviata un’analisi forense di sicurezza, tuttora in corso, insieme all’adozione di misure preventive per mettere in sicurezza tutti i dispositivi potenzialmente esposti.
L’agenzia ha precisato che l’incidente ha avuto un impatto limitato. Le verifiche condotte finora indicano che solo una quantità ridotta di server esterni potrebbe essere stata interessata. Si tratta di sistemi utilizzati per attività di ingegneria collaborativa non classificate, impiegate all’interno della comunità scientifica. Tutti i soggetti coinvolti sono stati informati e ulteriori comunicazioni verranno diffuse non appena emergeranno nuovi elementi dall’indagine.
Restano al momento assenti informazioni dettagliate sulle modalità dell’attacco, sull’identità dei responsabili o su eventuali dati sottratti. L’ESA ha chiarito che i server in questione operano al di fuori delle proprie difese informatiche principali e risultano verosimilmente ospitati da partner terzi, nell’ambito di progetti di ricerca condivisi legati a missioni di osservazione della Terra o di esplorazione planetaria.
Pur non trattandosi di informazioni classificate, queste piattaforme possono contenere documentazione tecnica, modelli ingegneristici, dati di simulazione e informazioni di telemetria. Elementi che, se analizzati in modo aggregato, potrebbero fornire indicazioni utili a soggetti ostili interessati a colpire infrastrutture spaziali più critiche.
Secondo diversi analisti di cybersicurezza, l’episodio rappresenta un segnale da non sottovalutare per l’intero comparto spaziale. La dottoressa Elena Vasquez, analista di threat intelligence presso CyberSpace Watch, ha sottolineato come attori statali monitorino con continuità le agenzie spaziali alla ricerca di proprietà intellettuale. Anche dati definiti “non classificati”, ha ricordato, possono essere sfruttati in operazioni di attacco alla supply chain, come avvenuto nel caso dell’incidente informatico che ha colpito Viasat nel 2023, durante l’invasione russa dell’Ucraina.
L’ESA ha escluso ripercussioni sulle proprie attività operative principali.
Non risultano impatti sui lanci di Ariane 6 né sull’elaborazione dei dati scientifici provenienti dal telescopio Euclid. Tuttavia, l’episodio potrebbe portare a un rafforzamento dei controlli di sicurezza sugli endpoint dei partner della comunità scientifica, che includono università e grandi realtà industriali come Airbus.
Mentre le attività di analisi forense proseguono, la scelta dell’ESA di rendere pubblica la vicenda viene letta come un elemento di trasparenza, ma al tempo stesso mette in evidenza la crescente necessità di adottare modelli di sicurezza “zero-trust” anche su reti distribuite e collaborative.
Sono attesi ulteriori aggiornamenti in un contesto europeo in cui aumenta la pressione per l’introduzione di requisiti di cybersicurezza più stringenti nel settore spaziale.
L'articolo Spazio e cybersicurezza: l’ESA indaga su una violazione che coinvolge partner esterni proviene da Red Hot Cyber.
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2025-12-31 07:55:06 GMT

KMSAuto: il falso attivatore Windows usato per rubare criptovalute
Un hacker che ha rubato oltre 1,7 miliardi di won (circa 1,18 milioni di dollari) in criptovalute utilizzando un malware che falsificava segretamente gli indirizzi dei wallet è stato estradato in Corea del Sud.
Secondo l’Ufficio Investigativo Nazionale dell’Agenzia di Polizia Nazionale Coreana, il cittadino lituano di 29 anni è stato estradato dalla Georgia e successivamente arrestato in base a un mandato del tribunale.
Gli investigatori ritengono che da aprile 2020 a gennaio 2023 il sospettato abbia distribuito un malware chiamato KMSAuto, camuffandolo da strumento di attivazione di Microsoft Windows. Il programma ha preso di mira gli utenti che non utilizzavano strumenti di attivazione autorizzati e, secondo la polizia, è stato scaricato o installato circa 2,8 milioni di volte in tutto il mondo.
Il trucco chiave era il cosiddetto “memory hacking“. Durante una transazione di criptovaluta su un computer infetto, il malware sostituiva automaticamente l’indirizzo del wallet inserito con uno controllato dall’aggressore. Di conseguenza, l’utente inviava fondi a quello che sembrava essere l’indirizzo corretto, ma in realtà il trasferimento era indirizzato all’hacker crimi ale, e l’errore spesso passava inosservato fino a quando non è stata svolta una verifica.
Secondo le forze dell’ordine coreane, l’infezione ha interessato oltre 3.100 indirizzi di wallet e la criptovaluta è stata intercettata in oltre 8.400 transazioni. Il danno totale è stato stimato in circa 1,7 miliardi di won (circa 1,18 milioni di dollari). Tra le vittime figurano residenti sudcoreani: otto persone hanno perso un totale di 16 milioni di won (circa 11.000 dollari).
L’indagine è iniziata nell’agosto 2020 dopo che un utente ha segnalato la perdita di un bitcoin, del valore di circa 12 milioni di won (circa 8.300 dollari): il trasferimento è stato improvvisamente dirottato verso un altro indirizzo.
Ulteriori analisi hanno permesso di tracciare il movimento dei beni rubati attraverso sei paesi, inclusi gli exchange di criptovalute nazionali, e di identificare altre sette vittime coreane.
Una volta identificato il sospettato, la polizia coreana ha avviato un’operazione congiunta nel dicembre 2024 con il Ministero della Giustizia lituano, la procura e la polizia. Durante una perquisizione della residenza del sospettato in Lituania, sono stati sequestrati 22 oggetti, tra cui telefoni cellulari e computer portatili. La Corea del Sud ha richiesto un “Red Alert” dell’Interpol per processarlo e, ad aprile, la polizia georgiana ha arrestato l’uomo al suo ingresso nel Paese.
Seul ha quindi presentato una richiesta di estradizione e, secondo l’agenzia, dopo cinque anni e quattro mesi di indagini, il sospettato è stato infine condotto in Corea del Sud.
L'articolo KMSAuto: il falso attivatore Windows usato per rubare criptovalute proviene da Red Hot Cyber.

2025-12-31 07:39:06 GMT

Londra, la città “tap & go” e la privacy che resta sul marciapiede
Cinque giorni a Londra, e mi è sembrato di vivere dentro una demo permanente del futuro. Quello patinato, comodo, “frictionless”. Quello dove fai tutto con un tap. Solo che, a forza di tap, alla fine ti accorgi che non stai solo pagando: stai firmando, ogni minuto, un diario dettagliato della tua vita.
Il viaggio l’ho comprato su Ryanair. L’hotel su Booking. Poi arrivi lì e capisci subito l’andazzo: trasporti, musei, spostamenti, perfino la scelta del pub per la serata… tutto passa dal telefono. La metro ti incentiva a usare la carta: contactless e via, “uno per persona”, e ti costa meno che fare il romantico col biglietto comprato al volo.
I bus li gestisci con app e pagamenti digitali. Biciclette e monopattini? App. Prenotazioni per musei? Sito o app. Cerchi un posto carino per una pinta e, come sempre, Google Maps ti prende per mano: “gira qui, attraversa là, sei arrivato”.
Comodo? Da impazzire.
E infatti è qui la trappola: la comodità è l’esca perfetta, perché non la percepisci come una rinuncia. La vivi come un upgrade.
Poi torni a casa, fai il recap mentale della vacanza, e ti arriva addosso l’ennesima conferma: la rete sa perfettamente dove sono stato, minuto per minuto. Sa cosa ho comprato, quando, dove, quanto spesso. Sa i miei spostamenti, le mie abitudini, i miei orari. E non sto parlando della classica “profilazione” da pubblicità fastidiosa. Qui siamo oltre: è la possibilità concreta di ricostruire la tua vita come un film, con timestamp e geolocalizzazione.
A quel punto la parola “privacy” smette di essere un concetto astratto, un tema da convegno, una cosa da “impostazioni dell’account”. Diventa una sensazione fisica: quella di essere leggibile. Tracciabile. Prevedibile.
E la domanda diventa inevitabile: quando tutto passa dal digitale, quanto resta davvero della libertà? Perché la libertà non è solo “posso fare cose facilmente”. Quella è praticità. La libertà, nel senso profondo, è anche poter essere opaco quando vuoi. Poter fare una scelta senza lasciare una scia. Poter esistere senza dover produrre dati.
Qui entra in gioco il tema del contante, che viene sempre buttato in caciara con la storia dell’evasione fiscale. Io la metto giù semplice: non c’entra niente. Se pago un caffè in contanti, nessuno sa che l’ho bevuto, a che ora, in quale zona, con quale frequenza, e magari pure con che “gusti” (macchiato, cappuccino, d’orzo… quello che vuoi). Il barista può farmi lo scontrino, la fiscalità può essere perfettamente a posto: il punto non è “nascondere” qualcosa, il punto è non trasformare ogni gesto quotidiano in un dato permanente.
Se invece pago elettronicamente, quella singola azione diventa informazione strutturata: importo, luogo, orario, ricorrenza. E non la vede “solo la banca”. La vede un intero ecosistema, fatto di intermediari, circuiti, sistemi antifrode, provider, analytics, correlazioni, consensi “accettati” con un tap frettoloso mentre sei in coda. La narrativa è: “ti stiamo semplificando la vita”. La realtà è spesso: “stiamo rendendo la tua vita misurabile”.
La parte più sottile (e più pericolosa) è che questo controllo non serve necessariamente a “spiarti” in modo cinematografico. Serve a normalizzare l’idea che tutto debba essere osservabile. Che ogni cosa debba lasciare traccia. Che l’opacità sia sospetta, l’anonimato un difetto, la riservatezza una stranezza da complottisti.
E attenzione: non sto dicendo “torniamo alle candele”. Io per primo uso servizi digitali, prenoto online, mi muovo con mappe e pagamenti smart. Il punto non è demonizzare la tecnologia. Il punto è riconoscere il prezzo. Perché se il prezzo non lo vedi, lo paghi due volte: una in dati, l’altra in potere ceduto.
Il futuro, se non lo governi, tende sempre a scegliere la strada più comoda per chi raccoglie informazioni, non per chi le produce. E noi le produciamo continuamente, anche quando pensiamo di star semplicemente vivendo.
La vera domanda, allora, non è “privacy sì o no”. È: vogliamo un mondo in cui l’unico modo di funzionare è essere tracciati? Vogliamo che la partecipazione alla vita quotidiana passi da strumenti che, per progettazione, registrano e correlano tutto? Perché a quel punto la libertà non sparisce con un decreto: svanisce per assuefazione. Un tap alla volta.
Se vogliamo restare padroni del gioco, dobbiamo ricominciare a pretendere alternative sensate: pagamenti digitali sì, ma senza trasformare tutto in profilazione; servizi efficienti sì, ma con minimizzazione dei dati; comodità sì, ma senza ricatto “o così o niente”. E, ogni tanto, anche un gesto semplice e quasi sovversivo: scegliere di essere meno leggibili. Non perché abbiamo qualcosa da nascondere, ma perché abbiamo ancora qualcosa da difendere. La nostra autonomia.
L'articolo Londra, la città “tap & go” e la privacy che resta sul marciapiede proviene da Red Hot Cyber.

2025-12-31 07:34:41 GMT

Invece di salvare le aziende dal ransomware, le attaccavano. Due esperti affiliati di BlackCat
Nel panorama delle indagini sui crimini informatici, alcuni casi assumono un rilievo particolare non solo per l’entità dei danni economici, ma per il profilo delle persone coinvolte. Le inchieste sul ransomware, spesso associate a gruppi criminali stranieri e infrastrutture operative offshore, mostrano sempre più spesso dinamiche differenti, in cui competenze legittime vengono piegate a scopi illeciti.
Il procedimento giudiziario che coinvolge due professionisti della sicurezza informatica affiliati al ransomware ALPHV BlackCatsi inserisce in questo contesto, offrendo uno spaccato significativo sull’evoluzione del cybercrime e sulle sue modalità operative negli Stati Uniti.
A rendere questo procedimento giudiziario diverso da molte altre inchieste sui crimini informatici è il profilo degli imputati. I due uomini coinvolti, insieme a un terzo soggetto, erano professionisti attivi nel campo della sicurezza informatica. Invece di operare per la protezione dei sistemi, hanno utilizzato le competenze acquisite nel loro lavoro per finalità criminali.
Il Dipartimento di Giustizia ha sottolineato come la preparazione tecnica degli imputati sia stata un elemento centrale delle attività illecite.
“Questi imputati hanno sfruttato la loro sofisticata formazione e la loro esperienza in materia di sicurezza informatica per commettere attacchi ransomware, proprio il tipo di reato che avrebbero dovuto cercare di fermare”, ha dichiarato il Procuratore Generale Aggiunto A. Tysen Duva della Divisione Criminale del Dipartimento di Giustizia. “L’estorsione via Internet colpisce cittadini innocenti tanto quanto il prelievo diretto di denaro dalle loro tasche. Il Dipartimento di Giustizia si impegna a utilizzare tutti gli strumenti disponibili per identificare e arrestare gli autori di attacchi ransomware ovunque abbia giurisdizione”.
L’indagine contribuisce inoltre a smentire una convinzione ancora diffusa: quella secondo cui il ransomware sia un fenomeno confinato a gruppi criminali stranieri operanti da Paesi dell’Europa orientale o dell’Asia. Secondo il procuratore federale Jason A. Reding Quiñones, la minaccia può originarsi anche all’interno degli Stati Uniti, sfruttando accessi legittimi e competenze avanzate per colpire vittime sul territorio nazionale.
“Il ransomware non è solo una minaccia esterna: può provenire anche dall’interno dei nostri confini”, ha affermato il procuratore statunitense Jason A. Reding Quiñones per il distretto meridionale della Florida. “Goldberg e Martin hanno utilizzato un accesso affidabile e competenze tecniche per estorcere denaro alle vittime americane e trarre profitto dalla coercizione digitale. Le loro dichiarazioni di colpevolezza chiariscono che i criminali informatici che operano all’interno degli Stati Uniti saranno individuati, perseguiti e chiamati a rispondere delle loro azioni”.
Dagli atti giudiziari emerge che, tra aprile e dicembre 2023, i due imputati hanno agito come affiliati del programma ALPHV BlackCat, una delle principali piattaforme di Ransomware-as-a-Service. In questo modello operativo, gli sviluppatori del malware mantengono l’infrastruttura e il codice, mentre gli affiliati sono incaricati di individuare i bersagli, compromettere le reti e distribuire il ransomware.
Il sistema prevedeva una ripartizione prestabilita dei proventi: il 20% dei riscatti era destinato agli amministratori di BlackCat, mentre l’80% rimaneva agli affiliati. Un accordo che, in almeno un caso documentato, ha prodotto un’estorsione pari a circa 1,2 milioni di dollari in Bitcoin. La quota degli imputati è stata successivamente suddivisa tra i partecipanti e sottoposta a operazioni di riciclaggio per rendere più difficile la tracciabilità dei fondi.
Nel dicembre 2023, il Dipartimento di Giustizia ha annunciato un’azione su larga scala contro la rete ALPHV BlackCat. L’operazione ha portato al sequestro di numerosi siti web collegati al gruppo e alla distribuzione di uno strumento di decrittazione gratuito, che ha consentito alle vittime di evitare il pagamento di circa 99 milioni di dollari in riscatti potenziali.
Goldberg e Martin hanno ammesso la propria responsabilità dichiarandosi colpevoli di un’accusa di cospirazione finalizzata a ostacolare, ritardare o influenzare il commercio mediante estorsione. La sentenza è stata fissata per il 12 marzo 2026. Entrambi rischiano una pena massima fino a 20 anni di reclusione.
L'articolo Invece di salvare le aziende dal ransomware, le attaccavano. Due esperti affiliati di BlackCat proviene da Red Hot Cyber.

2025-12-31 07:21:46 GMT

Vulnerabilità critica in Apache StreamPipes: aggiornamento urgente necessario
Apache StreamPipes è una piattaforma open-source per l’analisi e l’elaborazione di dati in tempo reale (streaming analytics), pensata soprattutto per IoT, Industria 4.0 e sistemi di monitoraggio.
In parole semplici: serve a raccogliere, elaborare e analizzare flussi continui di dati (sensori, log, eventi, stream) senza dover scrivere molto codice.
Una vulnerabilità recentemente scoperta identificata come CVE-2025-47411, rivela che il meccanismo di identificazione dell’utente dello strumento può essere sfruttato per consentire agli utenti standard di assumere il controllo amministrativo totale.
Il team di sviluppo ha chiuso la vulnerabilità nell’ultima versione del software. Agli utenti che utilizzano le versioni interessate si consiglia di eseguire l’aggiornamento alla versione 0.98.0, che risolve il problema.
Secondo quanto affermato, un utente con un account legittimo e non amministratore può sfruttare questa vulnerabilità la quale colpisce un’ampia gamma di installazioni, in particolare le versioni di Apache StreamPipes dalla 0.69.0 alla 0.97.0.
Questo furto di identità viene realizzato “manipolando i token JWT”, le credenziali sicure utilizzate per gestire le sessioni utente. Creando token specifici, un aggressore può ingannare il sistema facendogli credere di essere l’amministratore, aggirando i controlli standard dei privilegi.
La vulnerabilità consente a un aggressore di “scambiare il nome utente di un utente esistente con quello di un amministratore”. Per uno strumento progettato per gestire i dati dell’IoT industriale, le implicazioni di un’acquisizione amministrativa sono gravi.
Una volta ottenuto il controllo amministrativo, un aggressore può mettere in atto “manomissioni dei dati, accessi non autorizzati e altre violazioni della sicurezza “. Ciò potrebbe consentire a malintenzionati di corrompere i dati analitici o interrompere il flusso di informazioni negli ambienti industriali.
L'articolo Vulnerabilità critica in Apache StreamPipes: aggiornamento urgente necessario proviene da Red Hot Cyber.
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2025-12-31 06:59:42 GMT

Cybercrime 2026: Quando gli attacchi informatici diventano violenza reale
Nel 2025, la criminalità informatica andrà sempre più oltre il “semplice denaro”: gli attacchi non riguardano solo fatture per tempi di inattività e pagamenti di riscatti, ma anche conseguenze umane reali, dalle interruzioni dell’assistenza sanitaria alle molestie delle vittime, fino a rapimenti, torture e minacce alle famiglie dei dirigenti.
Gli effetti collaterali degli attacchi informatici
Gli effetti collaterali degli attacchi informatici vengono solitamente discussi di sfuggita. Il settore è abituato a misurare i danni in termini monetari: pagamenti di riscatti, costi di inattività e reazioni degli investitori.
Ciò che rimane fuori è ciò che accade alle persone: pazienti, dipendenti, genitori, intere città. E così tante storie di questo tipo si sono accumulate nell’ultimo che sembra essere stato un punto di svolta: il costo umano degli incidenti informatici è diventato troppo evidente per essere ignorato.
L’esempio più tragico ha riguardato un attacco ransomware contro l’azienda britannica Synnovis, fornitore di servizi di laboratorio e di patologia per i principali ospedali londinesi. La violazione si è verificata nel 2024, ma nel 2025 una delle aziende sanitarie interessate ha confermato ufficialmente che un paziente era deceduto durante i disagi causati dall’attacco e dai problemi successivi . Questo è significativo non perché “possibili decessi correlati al ransomware” non fossero stati discussi prima, ma perché ha segnato la prima volta in cui è stato ufficialmente riconosciuto un collegamento diretto tra un attacco informatico e un decesso.
Un’altra vicenda di quest’anno dimostra quanto in basso siano disposti a scendere i criminali quando si tratta di fare pressione sulle loro vittime. Nel loro attacco alla rete di istituti per l’infanzia Kido International, gli autori sono andati oltre la pubblicazione di documenti: hanno anche reso pubbliche immagini di bambini e informazioni personali, inclusi indirizzi di casa e recapiti di adulti. In sostanza, le informazioni sui bambini in età prescolare sono diventate uno strumento di intimidazione. È significativo che ciò abbia persino provocato una reazione negativa all’interno della comunità criminale: un gruppo rivale ha pubblicamente umiliato gli aggressori su un forum specializzato, e alcuni dei materiali sono stati rimossi. Ma il fatto rimane: i confini di ciò che è accettabile nel ricatto continuano a sfumare.
Il colpo più significativo ha avuto un impatto sociale
Nel Regno Unito, l’attacco alla Jaguar Land Rover ha rappresentato il colpo economico più significativo. La produzione è stata interrotta per circa cinque settimane e i danni totali, la ripresa e gli effetti a cascata lungo la catena di approvvigionamento sono stati stimati in oltre 2 miliardi di sterline. L’incidente ha avuto anche una dimensione sociale: i fornitori dipendenti dagli ordini della casa automobilistica hanno dovuto affrontare problemi finanziari e licenziamenti, mentre le famiglie dei dipendenti vivevano in costante tensione: le persone temevano di perdere il reddito, di non pagare l’affitto e semplicemente di non arrivare a fine anno. L’azienda stessa non ha annunciato licenziamenti di massa, ma il livello di ansia tra i lavoratori ha contribuito all’impatto dell’attacco, sebbene non fosse quello riflesso nei dati contabili.
Un’altra tendenza allarmante per il 2025 è la convergenza tra criminalità informatica e violenza fisica, in particolare nel settore delle criptovalute. Ricercatori e aziende di sicurezza stanno documentando un aumento della cosiddetta “violenza come servizio”, in cui minacce, intimidazioni e attacchi stanno diventando parte integrante degli strumenti criminali. L’incidente più eclatante è stato il rapimento del co-fondatore di Ledger, David Ballan, e di sua moglie: i criminali hanno chiesto un riscatto ai colleghi di Ballan e l’incidente è stato accompagnato da una brutalità che di recente sarebbe sembrata “fuori luogo”. Allo stesso tempo, il settore sta richiamando l’attenzione sulle statistiche osservative: ad esempio, l’appassionato e imprenditore Jameson Lopp, che tiene un registro pubblico di tali incidenti, ha contato decine di attacchi violenti legati alle criptovalute nel 2025.
La pressione si intensifica nel 2026
La pressione si intensifica anche nell’estorsione “classica”. Uno studio di Semperis ha rilevato che circa il 40% delle vittime di estorsione ha subito minacce di violenza fisica, non solo astratte, ma anche mirate, quando i criminali dimostrano di conoscere la vita privata e i percorsi delle loro famiglie: dove vivono i loro capi, dove vanno a scuola i loro figli, cosa fanno a casa. Non si tratta più solo di una contrattazione per il riscatto, ma di un attacco psicologico che spinge la vittima a capitolare.
In mezzo a questa escalation, anche le notizie provenienti dalle forze dell’ordine sono preoccupanti. L’Europol ha riferito di un’operazione della Task Force Operativa GRIMM: 193 sospettati sono stati arrestati in casi di omicidi su commissione, intimidazioni e torture. Secondo l’agenzia, tali schemi spesso coinvolgono adolescenti, reclutati o costretti a svolgere compiti “per denaro”. Questa non è più una storia di malware, ma di cartelli criminali violenti in cui l’elemento digitale è solo il biglietto d’ingresso.
Un’altra tendenza di quest’anno sono i “rapimenti virtuali”, in cui i criminali utilizzano l’intelligenza artificiale. L’FBI ha avvertito che i truffatori utilizzano foto dai social media, generando immagini o audio/video convincenti tramite deepfake per ritrarre una persona in pericolo e chiedendo un riscatto ai familiari. A volte, si affidano persino a vere denunce di scomparsa per rendere la storia più credibile. Secondo l’FBI, centinaia di queste truffe hanno fruttato ai criminali circa 2,7 milioni di dollari lo scorso anno. Le raccomandazioni sono semplici ma essenziali: contattare la polizia, rispettare gli ordini di “non chiamata” e avere una parola d’ordine familiare in anticipo per verificare l’autenticità della situazione.
Concludendo
Il 2026 si prospetta molto frizzante è vero.
Ci sono conseguenze che potrebbero colpire intere città contemporaneamente, anche in assenza di vittime. A novembre, Crisis24, fornitore del sistema di allerta di emergenza CodeRED per i comuni statunitensi, è stato attaccato. L’incidente ha provocato il furto di dati ai cittadini, interrompendo temporaneamente l’accesso all’app di allerta e costringendo le autorità a replicare le notifiche tramite i social media. Fortunatamente, durante il periodo di inattività non si sono verificate emergenze gravi, ma la vulnerabilità in sé è evidente: un attacco riuscito a tali servizi potrebbe causare il caos non “in una sala server”, ma per le strade.
Se gli anni ’20 sono iniziati con il parlare di “estorsione come business”, il 2025 sembra sempre più l’anno in cui la criminalità informatica ha cessato di essere solo un business.
Dove c’è estorsione, c’è pressione sulle famiglie. Dove ci sono dati, c’è bullismo e il rischio di violenza fisica.
E più alta è la posta in gioco, che si tratti di criptovalute o di servizi critici, più è probabile che il prossimo attacco colpisca non solo i record, ma anche le persone.
L'articolo Cybercrime 2026: Quando gli attacchi informatici diventano violenza reale proviene da Red Hot Cyber.

2025-12-31 06:00:36 GMT

Modernizing a Classic Datsun Engine
Although Nissan has been in the doldrums ever since getting purchased by Renault in the early 2000s, it once had a reputation as a car company that was always on the cutting edge of technology. Nissan was generally well ahead of its peers when bringing technologies like variable valve timing, turbocharging, fuel injection, and adjustable suspension to affordable, reliable vehicles meant for everyday use. Of course, a lot of this was done before computers were as powerful as they are today so [Ronald] set out to modernize some of these features on his 1978 Datsun 280Z.
Of course there are outright engine swaps that could bring a car like this up to semi-modern standards of power and efficiency, but he wanted to keep everything fully reversible in case he wants to revert to stock in the future, and didn’t want to do anything to the engine’s interior. The first thing was to remove the complicated mechanical system to control the throttle and replace it with an electronic throttle body with fly-by-wire system and a more powerful computer. The next step was removing the distributor-based ignition system in favor of individual coil packs and electronic ignition control, also managed by the new computer. This was perhaps the most complicated part of the build as it involved using a custom-made hall effect sensor on the original distributor shaft to tell the computer where the engine was in its rotation.
The final part of this engine modernization effort was upgrading the fuel delivery system. The original fuel injection system fired all of the injectors all the time, needlessly wasting fuel, but the new system only fires a specific cylinder when it needs fuel. This ended up improving gas mileage dramatically, and dyno tests also showed these modifications improved power significantly as well. Nissan hasn’t been completely whiffing since the Renault takeover, either. Their electric Leaf was the first mass-produced EV and is hugely popular in all kinds of projects like this build which uses a Leaf powertrain in a Nissan Frontier.
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2025-12-31 03:00:47 GMT

All Projections Suck, So Play Risk on a Globe Instead
The worst thing about the getting people together is when everyone starts fighting over their favourite map projection– maybe you like the Watterman Butterfly, but your cousin really digs Gall-Peters, and that one Uncle who insists on defending Mercator after a couple of beers. Over on Instructables [madkins9] has an answer to that problem that will still let you play a rousing game of Risk– which will surely not drag on into the night and cause further drama– skip the projection, and put the game on a globe.
The pieces are from a 1960s version. The abstract tokens have a certain charm the modern ones lack.
Most globes, being cardboard, aren’t amenable to having game pieces cling to them. [madkins9] thus fabricates a steel globe from a pair of pre-purchased hemispheres. Magnets firmly affixed to the bases of all game pieces allow them to stick firmly to the spherical play surface. In a “learn from my mistakes” moment, [madkins] suggests that if you use two pre-made hemispheres, as he did, you make sure they balance before welding and painting them.
While those of us with less artistic flair might be tempted to try something like a giant eggbot, [madkins] was able to transfer the Risk world map onto his globe by hand. Many coats of urethane mean it should be well protected from the clicking or sliding magnet pieces, no matter how long the game lasts. In another teachable moment, he suggests not using that sealer over sharpie. Good to know.
Once gameplay is finished, the wooden globe stand doubles as a handsome base to hold all the cards and pieces until the next time you want to end friendships over imaginary world domination. Perhaps try a friendly game of Settlers of Catan instead.
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2025-12-31 00:00:43 GMT

TULIP: The Ultimate Intelligent Peripheral for the HP-41 Handheld Calculator
[Andrew Menadue] wrote in to let us know about the TULIP-DevBoard and TULIP-Module being developed on GitHub.
TULIP is short for “The Ultimate Intelligent Peripheral” and it’s an everything expansion board for the HP-41 line of handheld calculators sold by HP from 1979 to 1990. These particular calculators support Reverse Polish notation which seems to be one of those things, like the Dvorak keyboard, where once you get used to it you can never go back.
In doing the research for this article we came across the fan site hpcalc.org which has been online since 1997, although the Way Back Machine can only go back to late 1998. Still, we were impressed. It’s fun that the site still looks very much like it did 28 years ago!
The TULIP4041 is based around the RP2350 microcontroller which you might know as the heart of a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 board. The video below the break is a talk about the present and future of the TULIP project, and the slides are here: TULIP4041 – The Next Chapter.pdf (PDF).
Thanks to [Andrew] for writing in. If you’re interested in hacking the HP-41 check out HP-41C, The Forth Edition and Nonpareil RPN HP-41 Calculator Build.
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