Which would you rather feel? The blast of a fire hose, or a cool, digital rain? That’s what we thought. Introducing Blue Rain — the fire hose that is the BlueSky feed, falling semi-cryptically down your screen in Matrix-style letter droplets. Ahh, isn’t that nice?

Now, the rain doesn’t have to be blue. You can change the color, the speed at which it falls, the font, the font size, and other stuff like toggling NSFW, uh, tweets. (Wait, what are we calling BlueSky messages, anyway? Skeets? Really?)

You can even choose between a few fonts for the rain. And if you want to like, actually read one of the skeets, just shoot one carefully with your mouse while it’s still falling.

[Simone] has the project files on GitHub, but you should really read the blog post. Inspired by the lovely firehose3d, [Simone] thought instead of displaying the BlueSky fire hose as digital rain.

First, she collects as many skeets as there are empty columns on a screen from a Jetstream sever. This is calculated based on font style and size. She wrote an algorithm loosely inspired by CodePen, which does digital rain. If the skeet doesn’t fully render by the time it reaches the bottom of the screen, the rest appears at the top of the same column and falls until it’s done displaying. Then the column clears out and waits for a new skeet.

Want to take Matrix-style digital rain on the go? You can cram it onto a Pico, you know.

Thanks for the tip, [FrancisF]!

hackaday.com/2025/01/28/its-ra…

Innovery, società di consulenza leader in Italia e in Europa specializzata in soluzioni innovative di ICT e cybersecurity, annuncia il rebranding e assume ufficialmente il nuovo marchio NEVERHACK.

Dopo l’acquisizione, avvenuta a settembre 2024, da parte delgruppo francese NEVERHACK esperto di cybersecurity, il cambio di brand segna la fine di un’era per Innovery, marcando al tempo stesso l’inizio di un nuovo capitolo della sua storia: un nuovo corso che si apre nel solco degli stessi valori che hanno guidato l’attività dell’azienda dalla sua fondazione e che può contare sulle solide competenze e sulla lunga esperienza maturata negli ultimi vent’anni nel campo della sicurezza informatica.
Gianvittorio Abate, Managing Partner NEVERHACK Southern Region
“Da oggi adottiamo il nuovo brand NEVERHACK, sancendo ufficialmente il nostro ingresso in un grande gruppo internazionale, leader di mercato nel settore della cybersecurity. Siamo pronti a cogliere nuove opportunità di crescita e sfide sempre più globali, portando avanti un sogno condiviso, che va oltre i confini nazionali, unendo talenti, esperienze e culture dei diversi Paesi che fanno parte del gruppo. Un ulteriore passo in avanti, che ci proietta al futuro, per continuare a garantire ai nostri clienti servizi e soluzioni informatiche per la sicurezza, personalizzate in base alle loro esigenze e con standard qualitativi sempre più elevati”, commenta Gianvittorio Abate, Managing Partner NEVERHACK Southern Region.

L’entrata di Innovery in NEVERHACK ha consentito di estendere il portfolio di servizi e soluzioni a disposizione dei clienti, con un’offerta di “one-stop-shop” integrata e allargata, nonché di espandere la presenza internazionale del gruppo, consolidandone la leadership sia nei Paesi dove Innovery era già presente (Spagna, Messico e USA), che in nuovi mercati.

Sul mercato italiano, NEVERHACK conserverà la leadership già acquisita da Innovery nell’incident response, espandendola a livello internazionale. Inoltre, continuerà a rappresentare un punto di riferimento nell’ambito della consulenza strategica e nella fornitura di soluzioni innovative per la sicurezza informatica, la definizione e l’integrazione dell’architettura informatica e la progettazione e la gestione dell’infrastruttura ICT, rispondendo con precisione alle esigenze dei propri clienti in materia di network operations center e sicurezza.

L'articolo Innovery cambia brand e diventa NEVERHACK. Si consolida la leadership del gruppo nel campo della cybersecurity proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

I was fascinated by the idea of jet packs when I was a kid. They were sci-fi magic, and the idea that you could strap into an oversized backpack wrapped in tinfoil and fly around was very enticing. Better still was when I learned that these things weren’t powered by complicated rockets but by plain hydrogen peroxide, which violently decomposes into water and oxygen when it comes in contact with a metal like silver or platinum. Of course I ran right to the medicine cabinet to fetch a bottle of peroxide to drip on a spoon from my mother’s good silverware set. Needless to say, I was sorely disappointed by the results.

My little impromptu experiment went wrong in many ways, not least because the old bottle of peroxide I used probably had little of the reactive compound left in it. Given enough time, the decomposition of peroxide will happen all by itself. To be useful in a jet pack, this reaction has to proceed much, much faster, which was what the silver was for. The silver (or rather, a coating of samarium nitrate on the silver) acted as a catalyst that vastly increased the rate of peroxide decomposition, enough to produce jets of steam and oxygen with enough thrust to propel the wearer into the air. Using 90% pure peroxide would have helped too.

As it is for jet packs, so it is with industrial chemistry. Bulk chemical processes can rarely be left to their own devices, as some reactions proceed so slowly that they’d be commercially infeasible. Catalysts are the key to the chemistry we need to keep the world running, and reactors full of them are a major feature of many of the processes of Big Chemistry.

Catalysis 101

The high school chemistry description of a catalyst is pretty simple: it’s a substance that helps a reaction to proceed without being consumed in the process. Take the case of the jet pack reaction, or rather a close alternative using another catalyst, manganese dioxide:

Manganese dioxide does not appear on either the reactant side of the equation or in the products. It only facilitates the reaction, and no matter how much peroxide you pour on it, the manganese dioxide will still be there — with a few practical caveats, which we’ll discuss below. The usual explanation for how catalysts work is that they lower the activation energy of a reaction, which in turn increases the rate of the reaction. That’s fine as far as it goes, and probably enough of an explanation for the practical needs of bulk chemistry, but diving just a bit deeper into the concepts will help explain the engineering of catalysts and chemical reactors.

youtube.com/embed/S86mL5kEfBE?…

Most of the catalysts used in bulk chemistry processes are heterogenous surface catalysts; heterogenous in that they are in a different physical state from the reactants, usually a solid catalyst with liquid or gaseous reactants, and surface in that the catalysis occurs at the interface between the reactant phase and the solid surface of the catalyst. Reactants can diffuse from their liquid or gaseous phase and adsorb onto the catalyst’s surface in close enough proximity to react with each other. Alternatively, reactants can migrate across the surface of the catalyst so they get close enough to react, but the key concept is that the catalyst acts something like a jig to keep the adsorbed reactants together long enough to do their thing. Once the reaction is complete, the product will release or desorb from the catalyst, freeing up the surface to be used by fresh reactants. This process — diffusion, adsorption, reaction, and desorption — is referred to as the catalytic cycle.

Catalyst Structure

Most catalysts for bulk chemistry rely on elements from the transition metals groups, that block of elements that lives between the “towers” at either side of the periodic table. In addition to silver and manganese, metals from this block commonly used as catalysts include palladium, platinum, rhodium, rhenium, and iridium. Vanadium, used to produce sulfuric acid from sulfur dioxide, is another important transition metal catalyst, as is iron, which catalyzes ammonia synthesis in the Haber-Bosch process. The rare earth elements in this block are also used for some processes.

While it makes for a good demonstration of catalysis, the example above of dripping hydrogen peroxide onto a pile of manganese is a bit simplistic. Practical industrial catalysts are highly engineered to maximize their effectiveness while standing up to reaction conditions, which often require (or create) extreme temperatures and pressures. Most industrial catalysts are classified as supported, which simply means that the active element or elements are applied to a non-catalytic physical structure that provides mechanical stability. Support materials run the gamut, from simple inorganic compounds like magnesium chloride to complex shapes made from silica, ceramics, or even plastics. The catalytic element can either be part of the support matrix or applied to the outer surface of the support, which is common for precious metal catalysts such as palladium or platinum.
Forbidden candies. Supported catalysts for fixed bed reactors take many forms, all optimized for packing, reactant flow, and maximum surface area. Source: Shubhrapdil, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The size and shape of the catalyst support is critical to its efficiency. A wide range of forms are used, with a tendency to shy away from spherical shapes as these tend to minimize surface area for a given volume. Cylindrical shapes are often used, and many catalysts have one or more holes passing through them, to increase their surface area. The size and shape of the particles also determine the flow characteristics of the catalyst, which is important in continuous chemical processes where the reactants need to pass through a catalyst. Catalytic cracking of crude oil into products like diesel, gasoline, and butane is a good example of a continuous flow catalytic process.

Even though catalysts aren’t used up in a reaction, they still wear out over time. Back in the days when it was still possible to buy leaded gasoline, it was pretty obvious when someone had mistakenly used the wrong gas in a car with a catalytic converter. The tetraethyl lead poisoned the catalysts in the exhaust system by coating the surface with lead compounds, blocking the active surface and leading to a characteristic rotten egg reek. Poisoning is just one way that catalysts become less effective over time; other common catalyst deactivation mechanisms include coking with heavy carbon deposits, fouling with unreacted compounds or contaminants, sintering of catalytic metal into large crystals rather than a smooth layer, and solid-phase transformation, where molecules from the support material migrate through the active layer and block access to it. Catalyst deactivation eventually reduces the efficiency enough that the spent catalyst has to be replaced.

Catalyst Service With a Smile

Containing reactants and the catalyst media requires some sort of vessel. These are generically known as reactors, and while they range widely in size and features, for big chemistry processes like crude oil refining or polymer production, reactors can be among the biggest components of a plant. Reactors often take the form of a large tank or even a tower, many meters high, wrapped in pipes and equipped with catwalks and manholes and bristling with sensors and monitors. Big reactors are often very strong, able to resist high temperatures and pressures, and depending on the corrosivity and reactivity of the reactants, they may be made from materials such as stainless steel or even alloys like Monel or Inconel.

A large refinery or chemical plant may have dozens or even hundreds of reactors, all of which will require service at some point. Changing out spent catalyst is a challenging and dangerous job, so chemical operators usually outsource the job to specialist firms that do nothing but service reactors. They employ catalyst technicians who are trained for confined-space entry so they can safely get inside the reactor to inspect or clean it. Even with the proper training and safety equipment such as hazmat suits that are just this side of legitimate space suits, confined-space entry is very dangerous and can be terrifying; claustrophobiacs need not apply.

Unloading a reactor is a slow and deliberate process. Reactors tend to run very hot, so operators have to plan ahead and leave plenty of time for the reactor to cool down before unloading. Consideration also has to be given to any physical or chemical changes that occurred to the catalyst during its life, which could present a dangerous situation. Some catalysts may have accumulated metal oxides which would react violently if exposed to air, releasing deadly gasses like sulfur dioxide. In such cases, the reactor may be filled with nitrogen, which complicates technician access. Alternatively, a protective resin can be added to the reactor to coat the catalyst particles and lock away the reactive oxides, making them safer to handle.

With some reactors holding tons of catalyst, removing the spent media can be a challenge. Some reactors have dump gates at the bottom, allowing the spent material to flow out under gravity. Other reactors only have a manhole at the top, meaning that the spent catalyst has to be vacuumed out. Large, powerful vacuum trucks are used for this job, often with confined-entry techs guiding the hose inside the reactor.

The spent catalyst presents a disposal problem. In days past, spent material was either landfilled or sometimes ground up and used as a replacement for sand or gravel in concrete. This isn’t terribly sustainable, though, and when the active material of the catalyst is something like platinum, downright wasteful. Catalyst recycling is a big industry now, with companies specializing in the process. Spent catalyst is trucked off to facilities where it is classified and graded before being stripped of any remaining reactants, which are recovered and recycled where possible. Stripped catalyst is roasted in a rotary kiln to oxidize the active metal, with sulfur dioxide and particulates captured by electrostatic precipitators and filters. The roasted media, known as calcine, is ground and leached with acids to solubilize the metals, and the leachate goes through a series of pyrometallurgical processes to recover the metals.

Once a reactor has been unloaded and inspected and any necessary repairs made, it needs to be refilled with fresh catalyst. There are two main methods for this. Sock loading is where catalyst service techs enter the reactor wearing full protective suits with breath apparatus. They often need to wear special shoes to distribute their weight — think snowshoes — and prevent crushing the catalyst bed. A long flexible tube, traditionally made of canvas and hence the name of the method, is lowered to the bottom of the reactor. Catalyst particles flow down the sock from a hopper while the techs guide the sock around to make an even bed. The sock is withdrawn as the bed rises, and the techs often use rakes and shovels to evenly distribute the material.

youtube.com/embed/iHyBIT_mdd0?…

Another method is called dense loading. No technicians are required in the reactor; rather, a specialized dense loading tool in inserted into the tank through a central manhole at the top. The tool has a series of platforms that spin, distributing catalyst particles that are fed into the center of the tool from a hopper above. The gentle rain of catalyst particles free-falls in the reactor until it reaches the rising bed, where the particles bounce around until they settle into their lowest energy state. As the name suggests, dense loading yields a denser, more homogeneous catalyst bed, which allows more material to be packed into the same volume. This tends to make the reactor more efficient overall and increases catalyst life by decreasing hot spots.

hackaday.com/2025/01/28/big-ch…

Marco Santarelli, esperto del settore sicurezza, analizza il possibile impatto di Starlink e offre un'ipotesi alternativa.

The post Marco Santarelli: “Starlink per l’Italia? Solo finché non arriva l’IRIS2 europeo” appeared first on InsideOver.

The Pebble smartwatch was introduced in 2012 as part of a Kickstarter campaign and saw moderate success before the company behind it got bought out by Fitbit. Although a group of enthusiasts kept their Pebble devices alive, including via the alternate Rebble project for online services, it seemed that no new Pebble devices would grace this Earth. However, we now got a flurry of Pebble updates, with Google, the current owner of Fitbit, open sourcing the PebbleOS source, and [Eric Migicovsky] as the original Pebble founder announcing new Pebble watches.

These new Pebble watches would be very much like the original Pebble, though switching from a memory LCD to an e-paper screen but keeping compatibility with the original Pebble watch and its hackability. Currently there’s just a rePebble site where you can sign up for announcements. Over at the Rebble project people are understandably excited, with the PebbleOS source available on GitHub.

A lot of work still remains, of course. The Apache 2.0-licensed PebbleOS source was stripped of everything from fonts to the voice codec and Bluetooth stack, and of course bootstrapping whole new hardware production will require serious investment. Even so, for lovers of smart watches that work with modern-day smartphones, featuring an always-on display and amazing battery life the future has never been more bright.

Thanks to [Will0] for the tip.

hackaday.com/2025/01/28/google…

Clone of Giornata della protezione dei dati: Solo l039;1,3% dei casi sottoposti alle autorità di protezione dei dati dell039;UE si conclude con una multa
Le autorità europee per la protezione dei dati non comminano quasi mai multe per le violazioni del GDPR
mickey28 January 2025

noyb.eu/it/data-protection-day…

noblogo.org/transit/mettiamo-u…

Transit

2025-01-27 13:26:04

Mettiamo una croce su "X"

(163)

“X” non è più un #socialmedia. Ci sono voluti molti mesi dopo la fine di “Twitter” e l’acquisizione da parte di #Musk. Per arrivarci è stato necessario sopportare una campagna elettorale americana (di cui ci si potrebbe tranquillamente fregare) e la rielezione di uno come #Trump. Vedere il “paron del vapore” scodinzolare affettuoso con il nuovo Presidente, in compagnia di tutti gli altri miliardari della ex “Silicon Valley”, è stato il terzo ed ultimo atto della parabola discendente di questa piattaforma. Durante i mesi che hanno preceduto le urne, Musk ha donato soldi e fango a piene mani: tutto pur di compiacere un anziano “tycoon”, pregiudicato, scapestrato, ignorante e razzista. Non deve essere parso vero al fabbricante d’auto quando un tale soggetto, eletto da milioni di fenomeni uguali a lui, lo ha chiamato addirittura a far parte del governo. Sembra un film di quelli per la TV, sciatto e con una sceneggiatura ridicola.

Eppure è così. Trump vuole ridare il diritto di parola, che nessuno ha mai tolto, all’America e un megafono come il social di Musk è lì, pronto e praticamente gratis. Via i controlli sulle fake news, via le restrizioni al linguaggio volgare, sessista e offensivo, via le moderazioni sulle vagonate di scemenze che scrive la gente: avanti con la libertà totale di insulto, con i contenuti pornografici e con un algoritmo talmente invasivo da diventare il vero gestore del tutto.

Quando “#Twitter” cambiò nome e dirigenza, molti se ne andarono perché non vedevano più quel social che avevano imparato ad usare (e amare?), quello vero, quello iniziale. Ancora più utenti resistettero, eroici, alle prime avvisaglie di disfacimento, arrivate con la personalità strabordante e cafona di Musk. Ma dopo il Novembre del 2024 tantissime persone hanno veramente raggiunto il limite di sopportazione ed hanno abbandonato la nave, che da allora batte decisamente la bandiera del “Non c’è nessun controllo.”

Dapprima gente famosa, poi moltissimi giornali, tanti attivisti e tante ONG hanno chiuso i loro account, seguiti dai profili della gente “comune”, stanca di continuare ad essere offesa, di non trovare più i post degli amici e di non uscire mai e poi mai sulla TL. Ormai conti, se l’algoritmo decide che sei utile allo sforzo propagandistico del vate o se, al contrario, sei talmente offensivo e razzista da veicolare un traffico importante. Il resto non serve a nulla: ci si illude per qualche giorno, magari con riscontri che appaiono gratificanti, per poi tornare a scrivere quasi solo per se stessi.

Portiamo noi come esempio. Abbiamo perso più di trecento follower nel giro di tre mesi, ed eravamo a quota 7000: ogni giorno continua una lenta emorragia, che a volte si ferma e la rotta si inverte, ma non dura mai. I post sono visti al massimo 500 volte: le interazioni sono praticamente nulle e i commenti raramente raggiungono la decina. Questi sono gli aridi numeri, che, comunque, sono relativi. Non siamo su “X” per la fama e la gloria (magari i soldi…), ma per veicolare la nostra opinione su cose che riteniamo importanti. Anche per cazzeggiare, ovvio: è lo scopo esiziale di un social.

La cosa che fa propendere per la chiusura è che non si riesce ad interagire più. A parte fare decine di post al giorno per uscire, prerogativa di quegli sfigati degli influencer o di chi non ha altri impegni, dovresti commentare ogni tre secondi da qualche parte per avere un minimo di contraddittorio. Ma non era questo lo scopo dei social? Non era discutere, confrontarsi, anche incazzarsi? Se una formula matematica si mette contro questa cosa, il social non è più quello per cui è stato pensato: è solo un enorme frullatore di cose, alcune validissime, la maggior parte pessime, in cui si gira a vuoto senza alcun approdo. Ci ripetiamo: alcuni continuano bellamente a fare “numeri” enormi, ma sono sempre gli stessi e la maggior parte è schierata decisamente con Musk e il suo enorme conflitto di interessi.

Il tempo scorre sempre e solo in avanti (l'abbiamo già detto) e perderne troppo in rete è abbastanza stupido. Poi, per amor del cielo, ognuno è libero di fare e dire ciò che gli pare, ma davvero ha ancora senso stare su “X”? Non apriamo il capitolo delle alternative, perché resta nel campo delle scelte personali e proporre un social più di un altro è veramente assurdo. Però è arrivato il momento, anche per noi (Ale è silente da molti mesi, ma l’account è il suo), di dire “Stop.”

“X” è diventato politica e quella che a noi non piace, quella di una nazione che vediamo allo sbando, sempre più arrogante, cinica, spietata, esattamente come i suoi rappresentanti. E’ il covo di una informazione fatta di dichiarazioni rocambolesche, di gesti plateali, di offese continue a chi non si allinea, di razzismo evidente, di violenza verbale e non, di sdoganamento dell’inutile a sfavore della profondità.

Basterebbe questo a rendere la nostra decisione dovuta. Aggiungiamo anche che il fatto di non leggere mai le persone che abbiamo a cuore (ve lo ricordate, sì, l’algoritmo?), quelle a cui ci siamo affezionati e che stimiamo, rende tutto più frustrante. Ecco, è per loro che siamo rimasti finora: per quelle risposte, per le loro domande, per le nostre domande, per il sostenerci nei nostri ideali e nelle tante utopie. Mancheranno, tanto, ma proprio per la coerenza che dovrebbe sempre muovere le azioni di tutti, dobbiamo andarcene.

Le vie del web sono infinite. Magari percorrendone una meno battuta ci si ritroverà.

[Alessandra & Daniele]

#SocialMedia #X #Blog #Personal #Opinioni #Opinion

Mastodon: @alda7069@mastodon.unoTelegram: t.me/transitblogFriendica: @danmatt@poliverso.orgBio Site (tutto in un posto solo, diamine): bio.site/danielemattioli

Gli scritti sono tutelati da “Creative Commons” (qui)

Tutte le opinioni qui riportate sono da considerarsi personali. Per eventuali problemi riscontrati con i testi, si prega di scrivere a: corubomatt@gmail.com

Transit

Il blog di Alessandra Corubolo & Daniele Mattioli. On line -in varie forme- dal 2005.

^Telegram

C'è un chiacchierio di campane
Più giù nella valle
ma si confonde
con lo stormir del vento
che carezza l'erba alta
Rifugio per cose ronzanti
Puntini di giallo
di viola e d'arancione
Profumo di legna antica
Scherzan le cornacchie non viste
oltre un arco di blu
Un'ombra percorre senza fatica
l'erto sentiero che punta all'insù
La vecchia cascina
ritrova le sue fronde

Tacciono i grilli un istante
Corre un bimbetto
e allegro mena strilli.
Respira, la natura;
In un refolo di vento repentino
comincia davvero a scaldare
il pigro sole del mattino -
Ti porge l'omaggio
di un volo di stormo
e richiama nel tempo passato
un ricordo vago speziato
S'apre un bivio,
nel folto del bosco
stampato su un tronco
un messaggio d’amore