A regular comment we see on electric aircraft is to “just add solar panels to the wings.” [James] from Project Air has been working on just such a solar plane, and as he shows in the video after the break, it is not a trivial challenge.

A solar RC plane has several difficult engineering challenges masquerading as one. First, you need a solid, efficient airframe with enough surface area for solar panels. Then, you need a reliable, lightweight, and efficient solar charging system and, finally, a well-tuned autopilot to compensate for a human pilot’s limited endurance and attention span.

In part one of this project, a fault in the electrical system caused a catastrophe so James started by benching all the electricals. He discovered the MPPT controller had a battery cutoff feature that he was unaware of, which likely caused the crash. His solution was to connect the solar panels to the input of a 16.7 V voltage regulator—just under the fully charged voltage of a 4S LiPo battery— and wire the ESC, control electronics, and battery in parallel to the output. This should keep the battery charged as long as the motor doesn’t consume too much power.

After rebuilding the airframe and flight testing without the solar system, [James] found the foam wing spars were not up to the task, so he added aluminum L-sections for stiffness. The solar panels and charging system were next, followed by more bench tests. On the test flight, it turned out the aircraft was now underpowered and struggled to gain altitude thanks to the added weight of the solar system. With sluggish control responses,[James] eventually lost sight of it behind some trees, which led to a flat spin and unplanned landing.

Fortunately, the aircraft didn’t sustain any damage, but [James] plans to redesign it anyway to reduce the weight and make it work with the existing power system.

We’ve seen several solar planes from [rctestflight] and meticulously engineered versions from [Bearospace Industrues]. If long flight times is primarily what you are after, you can always ditch the panels and use a big battery for 10+ hour flights.

youtube.com/embed/xp0TCoPgcdM?…

hackaday.com/2024/10/12/solar-…

Physicist John Archibald Wheeler made groundbreaking contributions to physics, and [Amanda Gefter] has a fantastic writeup about the man. He was undeniably brilliant, and if you haven’t heard of him, you have certainly heard of some of his students, not to mention his work.

Ever heard of wormholes? Black holes? How about the phrase “It from Bit”? Then you’ve heard of his work. All of those terms were coined by Wheeler; a knack for naming things being one of his talents. His students included Richard Feynman and Kip Thorne (if you enjoyed The Martian, you at least indirectly know of Kip Thorne) and more. He never won a Nobel prize, but his contributions were lifelong and varied.

One thing that set Wheeler apart was the highly ambitious nature of his research and inquiries. He was known for pushing theories to (and past) their absolute limits, always seeking deeper insights into the nature of reality. The progress of new discoveries in the fields of general relativity (for which his textbook, Gravitation, remains highly relevant), space-time, and quantum mechanics frequently left Wheeler feeling as though more questions were raised than answered. His thirst for a greater understanding of the nature of reality was one he pursued until his death in 2006. He pondered not just the ultimate nature of our universe but also why we seem to have the same basic experience of it. Wheeler saw these questions as having answers that were far from being self-evident.

Wheeler’s relentless curiosity pushed the boundaries, reminding us that the search for knowledge never truly ends. If that inspires you, then take the time to check out the full article and see whether his questions inspire and challenge your own perspective.

Scientists can now make black holes — sort of. You can even make your own wormhole. Sort of.

hackaday.com/2024/10/12/rememb…

As the current frontier of humanity in space, the International Space Station is heavily reliant on Earth not only for fresh supplies but also as a garbage disposal service for the various types of waste produced on the ISS by its human occupants. As future manned missions take humans further away from Earth, finding ways to reprocess this waste rather than chucking it out of the nearest airlock becomes a priority. One suggested solution comes from a Polish company, Astronika, with their insect bioreactor that can process organic material into useful biomass.

Interestingly, the cockroach species picked was the Madagascar hissing cockroach, one of the largest (5 – 7.5 cm) species. This is also a cockroach species which is often kept as a pet. In this closed-loop bioreactor that Astronika has developed, these cockroaches would chew their way through up to 3.6 kg of waste per week in the large version, with the adult cockroaches presumably getting turned into fresh chow and various materials at some point. Beyond the irrational ‘yuck’ factor that comes with eating insect protein, one of the biggest issues we can see with this system is that the long-duration mission crew may get attached to the cockroaches, as they are rather cute.

Joking aside, even if a final version of such a bioreactor ends up using far less cute bacteria and kin, the idea to recycle as much human biowaste as possible is a crucial step towards making remote space stations and long-duration space travel possible. A small version of this bioreactor will be sent up to the ISS, where the principle would get its first shot at showing off its space legs.

For some reason, cockroaches and NASA seem inextricably linked. We remembered that the Madagascar cockroaches apparently make pretty good robotics platforms if you are a deft hand at roach surgery.

hackaday.com/2024/10/12/cockro…

[Igor] made a VU meter with LEDs using 8 LEDs and 8 comparators. This is a fast way to get one of 8 bits to indicate an input voltage, but that’s only the equivalent of a 3-bit analog to digital converter (ADC). To get more bits, you have to use a smarter technique, such as successive approximation. He shows a chip that uses that technique internally and then shows how you can make one without using the chip.

The idea is simple. You essentially build a specialized counter and use it to generate a voltage that will perform a binary search on an unknown input signal. For example, assuming a 5 V reference, you will guess 2.5 V first. If the voltage is lower, your next guess will be 1.25 V. If 2.5 was the low voltage, your next guess will be 3.75 V.

The process repeats until you get all the bits. You can do this with a microcontroller or, as [Igor] shows, with a shift register quite simply. Of course, you can also buy the whole function on a chip like the one he shows at the start of the video. The downside, of course, is the converter is relatively slow, requiring some amount of time for each bit. The input voltage also needs to stay stable over the conversion period. That’s not always a problem, of course.

If that explanation didn’t make sense, watch the video. An oscilloscope trace is often worth at least 1,000 words.

There are, of course, many ways to do such a conversion. Of course, when you start trying to really figure out how many bits of resolution you have or need, it gets tricky pretty fast.

youtube.com/embed/fSeNl2bQi5Y?…

hackaday.com/2024/10/12/approx…

Credits Alessia Mastropietro

Cyber Defence: A Modern Approach to Secure Data

11:00-11:10 Introduction: Gianpiero Strisciuglio, CEO and General Director, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI), Italy

11:10-11:55 Moderator: Arturo Di Corinto, Head of Communications & Media Relations, National Cybersecurity Agency (ACN), Italy

Aldo Sebastiani, SVP Global CyberSec Center, Cyber & Security Solutions Division, Leonardo, Italy

Davide Annovazzi, Emea Security Practice Lead, Google Cloud, France

Col. Christian Wagner, Acting Director, CIS and Cyber Defence EU Military Staff, EU External Action Service, Austria

Richard Owen-Thomas, Head, Cyber Security Assessment and Advisory Services (CySAAS), Defence Digital, Strategic Command, MoD, UK

Cybertech2024

—————————————

Millions of attacks’ attempts are conducted every day against targets worldwide according to various cybersecurity entities. This is a broad range of activities, from automated bots scanning for vulnerabilities, to targeted phishing campaigns, ransomware attacks, Distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), advanced persistent threats (APT).

The kill chain of a cyberattack can take from days to years to complete successfully, depending on the target’s defenses, quality, readiness, and the resources available to the attacker. A cyberattack backed by a state actor can count on substantial resources and time to complete successfully.

However the targets of these attacks, they are expected to have good preparedness of the personnel and good technical defenses to stop those aiming at espionage or service disruption of state departments or critical infrastructures. Cybercriminals usually attack less prepared targets like small and medium enterprises, hospitals, transports and local public administrations. These attacks, often lasting several days, are mainly driven by the pursuit of financial gain. In ransomware scenarios, this typically involves disrupting the target organization’s operations and demanding a ransom to restore them.

Unfortunately, we live in an era of strong political tensions and these attacks, sometimes are politically motivated, preceeding, or following kinetic attacks.

Moreover the actors of these attacks, state-actors, cybercriminals and hacktivist, overlap.

Hence, digital sovereignty faces various threats. A cyberattack on critical infrastructure can compromise a nation’s control over its cyberspace, similar to how a terrorist attack challenges its ability to secure its territory.

Disinformation campaigns on social media can erode trust in national institutions and influence public opinion and decision-making, potentially impacting elections and undermining democracy.

The ways in which digital sovereignty can be undermined are diverse, ranging from technological exploitation, like cyber-attacks, advanced AIs and quantum computers, to non-technical factors like market practices, social engineering, disinformation and others.

How Europe, States and the private sector, is dealing with the most relevant and impacting threats is the topic of this panel.

Infact, as technology develops, new vulnerabilities arise: software vulnerabilities, human vulnerabilities, societal vulnerabilities, economic and trading vulnerabilities. Think of the supply chain attacks.

We live in the new era of DLT, AI, and Quantum computing. Countries are thus aligning to leverage quantum technologies and Al. Furthermore, the constant evolution and blending of these technologies outpace our ability to secure them.

Attacks requiring centuries of computation could now be solved in a short time

To make an example. Apart from the societal benefits and well-being improvements, the development of powerful quantum computers offers a significant strategic geopolitical advantage. The foundation of RSA asymmetric cryptography, which currently safeguards much of Internet protocols and online transaction data (like credit card information), relies on the prime number factorization problem: a BQP problem that can be easily solved by Quantum computers.

This means that we must also be vigilant and proactive in managing the associated multifaceted risks of technological innovation, possibly preventing them. This entails understanding the threats of digital sovereignty and governing such risks through an holistic approach with the aim of maintaining the maximum level of autonomy in an interconnected world.

Nevertheless, digital sovereignty is more than just control and security; it’s about creating an ecosystem conducive to economic growth and innovation. A country with a solid digital sovereignty offers a competitive, secure environment for businesses, fosters innovation, and actively shapes the global digital economy. Therefore, the country’s competitiveness is closely tied to its degree of digital sovereignty, and their combined synergy is crucial for success in the ever-evolving landscape of cyberspace.

It is important to emphasize that cyberspace comprises products and platforms developed by private companies, most of which are more powerful than nation states. In cyberspace, services are both delivered and managed by these private entities.

Consequently, safeguarding digital sovereignty is inseparable from the private sector. For example, it would be impossible to combat disinformation without the cooperation of social networks. Therefore, digital sovereignty necessitates a robust, open and frank multistakeholder collaboration between public and private sectors.

This collaboration escalates to an alliance in times of conflict, and we are here also to talk about this.

(Credits to the author of Charting digital sovereignity, prof. Roberto Baldoni)

dicorinto.it/formazione/cyberd…

You know what your mom would say, right? This week, we got an above average number of useless negative comments. A project was described as looking like a “turd” – for the record I love the hacker’s angular and futuristic designs, but it doesn’t have to be to your taste. Then someone else is like “you don’t even need a computer case.” Another commenter informed us that he doesn’t like to watch videos for the thirtieth time. (Yawn!)

What all of these comments have in common is that they’re negative, low value, non-constructive, and frankly have no place on Hackaday. The vast majority are just kind of Eeyorey complaining about how someone else is enjoying a chocolate ice cream, and the commenter prefers strawberry. But then some of them turn nasty. Why? If someone makes a project that you don’t like, they didn’t do it to offend you. Just move on quietly to one you do like. We publish a hack every three hours like a rubidium clockwork, with a couple of original content pieces scattered in-between on weekdays.

And don’t get us wrong: we love comments that help improve a project. There’s a not-so-fine line between “why didn’t you design it with trusses to better hold the load?” and “why did you paint it black, because blue is the superior color”. You know what we mean. Constructive criticism, good. Pointless criticism, bad.

It was to the point that we were discussing just shutting down the comments entirely. But then we got gems! [Maya Posch]’s fantastic explainer about the Lagrange points had an error: one of the satellites that Wikipedia said was at an earth-moon Lagrange point is actually in normal orbit around the moon. It only used the Lagrange point as a temporary transit orbit. Says who? One of the science instrument leads on the space vehicle in question. Now that is a high-value comment, both because it corrects a mistake and enlightens us all, but also because it shows who is reading Hackaday!

Or take [Al Williams]’s article on mold-making a cement “paper” airplane. It was a cool technique, but the commenters latched onto his assertion that you couldn’t fly a cement plane, and the discussions that ensued are awesome. Part of me wanted to remind folks about the nice mold-making technique on display, but it was such a joy to go down that odd rabbit hole, I forgive you all!

We have an official “be nice” policy about the comments, and that extends fairly broadly. We really don’t want to hear what you don’t like about someone’s project or the way they presented it, because it brings down the people out there who are doing the hard work of posting their hacks. And hackers have the highest priority on Hackaday.

This article is part of the Hackaday.com newsletter, delivered every seven days for each of the last 200+ weeks. It also includes our favorite articles from the last seven days that you can see on the web version of the newsletter. Want this type of article to hit your inbox every Friday morning? You should sign up!

hackaday.com/2024/10/12/if-you…

Over the decades the technology behind flat panel displays has continuously evolved, and we’ve seen many of them come and go. Among the popular ones there are a few that never quite made the big time, usually because a contemporary competitor took their market. An example is in a recent [Wenting Zhang] video, a mystery liquid powder display. We’d never heard of it, so we were intrigued.

The first segment of the video is an examination of the device, and a comparison with similar-looking ones such as a conventional LCD, or a Sharp Memory LCD. It’s clearly neither of those, and the answer finally came after a lot of research. A paper described a “Quick response liquid powder” as a mechanism for a novel display, and thus it was identified. It works by moving black and white electrically charged powder to flip a pixel from black to white, and its operation is not dissimilar to the liquid-based e-ink displays which evidently won that particular commercial battle.

The process of identifying the driver chip and pinout should be an essential watch for anyone with an interest in display reverse engineering. After a lot of adjusting timing and threshold voltages the dead pixels and weird effects fall away, and then it’s possible to display a not-too-high-quality image on this unusual display, through a custom PCB with an RP2040. Take a look at the video below the break.

We’ve seen [Wenting Zhang]’s work here a few times before, most recently in a very impressive mirror-less camera project.

youtube.com/embed/2wenFr8H1Zw?…

hackaday.com/2024/10/12/have-y…

Geoffrey Hinton, noto come uno dei pionieri dell’intelligenza artificiale (IA), ha suscitato grande interesse quando ha lasciato Google e ha espresso preoccupazioni crescenti riguardo ai rischi dell’IA avanzata. Secondo Hinton, la rapida evoluzione dell’IA potrebbe portare a conseguenze imprevedibili e pericolose. Dopo decenni di lavoro nel campo, incluso lo sviluppo di tecnologie cruciali come le reti neurali, Hinton ha messo in guardia sul potenziale di IA più potenti degli esseri umani, che potrebbero diventare incontrollabili o essere utilizzate per scopi dannosi.

Hinton ha lasciato Google non solo per poter parlare liberamente, ma anche per distanziarsi da un’industria che, a suo avviso, si muove verso lo sviluppo di IA superintelligenti senza avere una chiara comprensione dei rischi associati. Ha sottolineato che, sebbene l’IA abbia già portato enormi benefici, il suo uso senza regole adeguate potrebbe alterare significativamente la società, il mercato del lavoro e la politica globale.

Le sue dichiarazioni sono particolarmente rilevanti in un momento in cui giganti tecnologici come Google, OpenAI e altre aziende investono miliardi nello sviluppo di IA sempre più avanzate. Hinton teme che una corsa sfrenata alla supremazia tecnologica possa farci perdere di vista l’importanza di regolamentare queste innovazioni.

La questione sollevata da Hinton non è solo tecnologica, ma anche etica. Invita i governi e le istituzioni a intervenire rapidamente per stabilire regolamentazioni che impediscano l’uso dell’IA per attività pericolose o incontrollabili. L’uso dell’IA in settori come la guerra, la sorveglianza e la manipolazione dell’opinione pubblica rappresenta uno dei principali timori espressi dallo scienziato.

Il messaggio finale di Hinton è chiaro: la strada verso l’intelligenza artificiale deve essere percorsa con grande cautela e responsabilità, con la consapevolezza che le decisioni prese oggi influenzeranno il futuro della civiltà umana.

L'articolo Il Premio Nobel Geoffrey Hinton Avverte: L’IA Potrebbe Superare l’Umanità. Siamo Pronti? proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

OpenAI, lo sviluppatore del popolare chatbot ChatGPT, ha presentato un rapporto sull’effetto insolito (e persino divertente) dell’utilizzo dell’intelligenza artificiale per scopi dannosi. Si scopre che i recenti tentativi da parte degli aggressori di utilizzare ChatGPT non hanno fatto altro che aiutare le indagini: il sistema ha rivelato molte informazioni preziose sulle loro intenzioni e metodi.

Isolati i Criminali informatici di Cina, Iran e Israele

Durante lo studio, OpenAI ha identificato 20 casi di uso improprio dei suoi prodotti. Questi includono lo sviluppo di malware più complessi e la creazione di post falsi sui social network. Il rapporto menziona le attività di gruppi provenienti da paesi come Cina, Iran e Israele.

Uno dei casi più significativi riguarda il gruppo SweetSpecter, presumibilmente operante dalla Cina. Gli hacker hanno utilizzato le richieste inviate a ChatGPT per preparare una campagna di phishing rivolta a funzionari governativi e dipendenti di OpenAI. Nelle e-mail, fingendosi utenti comuni, hanno riferito di aver riscontrato problemi tecnici sulla piattaforma. L’allegato e-mail conteneva il malware SugarGh0st RAT, in grado di prendere immediatamente il controllo di un computer infetto.

Tracciando le richieste di SweetSpecter a ChatGPT, OpenAI è riuscita a rilevare il primo attacco noto del gruppo contro un’azienda statunitense che si occupa anche di soluzioni AI. Gli hacker hanno chiesto al chatbot quali argomenti potrebbero interessare i dipendenti pubblici e come aggirare i sistemi di filtraggio degli allegati.

Un altro caso ha coinvolto un gruppo chiamato CyberAv3ngers, ritenuto associato all’esercito iraniano. Gli aggressori, noti per i loro attacchi distruttivi alle infrastrutture negli Stati Uniti, Irlanda e Israele, hanno prestato particolare attenzione alla raccolta di dati sui controllori logici programmabili (PLC) e al tentativo di trovare combinazioni standard di login e password per hackerarli. Alcune delle richieste hanno indicato interesse per siti in Giordania e in Europa centrale. L’analisi delle richieste al chatbot ha rivelato ulteriori tecnologie e programmi che il team potrebbe utilizzare durante le operazioni future.

Allo stesso modo sono state interrotte le attività del gruppo hacker iraniano STORM-0817. L’azienda ha scoperto i primi sforzi del gruppo volti a utilizzare modelli di intelligenza artificiale e ha acquisito una visione unica dell’infrastruttura e delle funzionalità in fase di sviluppo. Ad esempio, dalle domande al chatbot è emerso che il gruppo stava testando un codice per raccogliere dati dai profili Instagram di un giornalista iraniano critico nei confronti del governo del paese. Oltre a ChatGPT i criminali hanno tentato di utilizzare anche il generatore di immagini DALL-E di OpenAI.

Più si avvicinano a ChatGPT, più possono essere smascherati

Il rapporto afferma inoltre che altri paesi, tra cui Iran e Israele, hanno utilizzato ChatGPT per creare disinformazione sui social media e articoli falsi sui siti web.

Sebbene il rapporto OpenAI documenti i tentativi di abusare degli strumenti di intelligenza artificiale, gli autori sembrano minimizzare i potenziali danni dei chatbot. L’azienda sottolinea ripetutamente che i loro modelli non hanno fornito agli aggressori alcuna nuova funzionalità che non avrebbero potuto ottenere da altre fonti disponibili al pubblico.

Infatti, quanto più gli aggressori si affidano agli strumenti di intelligenza artificiale, tanto più facile sarà identificarli e neutralizzarli. OpenAI cita ad esempio il caso dell’interferenza elettorale di quest’estate. Dall’inizio del 2024, gli aggressori hanno cercato di utilizzare l’intelligenza artificiale per creare contenuti che potessero influenzare l’esito della corsa presidenziale. Sono stati registrati tentativi di generare fake news, post sui social network e altro materiale. Dopo aver bloccato l’accesso al sistema all’inizio di giugno, gli account dei social media associati a questa operazione hanno cessato l’attività per l’intero periodo critico.

L’azienda ha bloccato molte altre reti che distribuiscono notizie false. Uno di loro aveva sede in Ruanda, dove venivano creati account falsi e pubblicati contenuti relativi alle elezioni locali. Ad agosto sono stati scoperti i resoconti di un gruppo iraniano che generavano articoli sulle elezioni americane e sul conflitto a Gaza. Sono state registrate anche operazioni contro le elezioni in India e al Parlamento europeo. Nessuna di queste false campagne ha attirato un’attenzione significativa.

Man mano che i modelli ChatGPT miglioreranno, saranno in grado di analizzare gli allegati dannosi che i criminali inviano ai dipendenti dell’azienda durante gli attacchi di phishing. Gli sviluppatori ritengono che questo sia un passo avanti molto significativo nella lotta alle minacce informatiche.

L'articolo Ecco come Chat-GPT sa tutti di noi! Quando l’AI Diventa il Nemico degli Hacker proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

Secondo gli specialisti di Silent Push, il gruppo di hacker FIN7 ha lanciato una rete di siti con falsi generatori di contenuti AI per adulti. I visitatori di tali risorse vengono infettati da malware che rubano dati.

Il gruppo FIN7 (alias Sangria Tempest, Carbon Spider e Carbanak) è attivo da più di dieci anni, dal 2013. Inizialmente il gruppo si è impegnato in attacchi per rubare dati di pagamento, per poi passare all’hacking di grandi aziende e alla distribuzione di ransomware. FIN7 è stato quindi associato a gruppi di estorsione comeDarkSide, BlackMatter e BlackCat.

In genere, FIN7 è specializzato in complessi attacchi di phishing e ingegneria per ottenere l’accesso primario alle reti aziendali. Ad esempio, esiste un caso noto in cui gli hacker si sono spacciati per BestBuy e hanno inviato unità USB dannose ai loro obiettivi.

Ora, gli aggressori sono stati collegati a un’intricata rete di siti che promuovono generatori di deepnudes basati sull’intelligenza artificiale che presumibilmente aiutano a generare foto esplicite basate su fotografie di persone vestite.

I falsi siti FIN7 fungono da esca per le persone interessate a creare deepfake di celebrità nude e altre persone. Vale la pena notare che gli aggressori hanno utilizzato trucchi simili per diffondere malware nel 2019, molto prima del boom globale dell’intelligenza artificiale.

La rete di hacker opera con il marchio AI Nude ed è attivamente promossa utilizzando tecniche SEO black hat per garantire che i siti generatori di falsi siano in cima ai risultati di ricerca. Tutti i siti hanno un design simile e promettono la creazione gratuita di nudi profondi basati su qualsiasi foto caricata.

Secondo Silent Push, il gruppo controllava direttamente siti come aiNude[.]ai, easynude[.]website e nude-ai[.]pro, che offrivano ai visitatori prove e download gratuiti, ma in realtà distribuivano semplicemente malware.

I siti consentivano agli utenti di caricare qualsiasi foto da cui desideravano creare un vero e proprio deepfake. Tuttavia, dopo che il sistema sembrava generare le immagini, questa non è apparsa sullo schermo. All’utente è stato invece richiesto di seguire un collegamento per scaricare il risultato.

Di conseguenza, la vittima è finita su un altro sito, dove le è stato fornito un link e una password per accedere a un archivio protetto ospitato su Dropbox.

Naturalmente, invece di un’immagine generata dall’intelligenza artificiale, l’archivio conteneva l’infostealer Lumma, che, dopo il lancio, ruba credenziali e cookie archiviati nei browser, dati dai portafogli di criptovaluta e altre informazioni dal computer della vittima.

I ricercatori hanno anche trovato diversi siti che pubblicizzano software per la creazione di deepnude in Windows. Queste risorse distribuiscono il malware Redline Stealer e D3F@ck Loader, che rubano anche informazioni dai dispositivi compromessi.

Attualmente tutti e sette i siti scoperti dagli specialisti di Silent Push sono già stati cancellati.

L'articolo Scoperti Siti AI per Deepfake: Ma dietro si Nasconde FIN7 e un Malware Micidiale! proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

If you are involved in any sort of radio transmission, you probably have at least heard of SWR or standing wave ratio. Most transmitters can measure it these days and most ham radio operators have tuners that measure it, also. But what are you measuring? [KI8R] points out that if your coax has loss — and what coax doesn’t? — you are probably getting an artificially low reading by measuring at the transmitter.

The reason is that most common SWR-measuring instruments pick up voltage. If you measure, for example, 10V going out and 1V going back, you’d assume some SWR from that. But suppose your coax loses half the voltage (just to make an obvious example; if your coax loses half the voltage, you need new coax).

Now, you really have 5V getting to your antenna, and it returns 2V. The loss will affect the return voltage just like the forward voltage. Reflecting 2V from 5 is a very different proposition from reflecting 1V out of 10!

On the other hand, as [KI8R] points out, SWR isn’t everything. In the old days, you’d load your transmitter’s finals into just about anything. Now, solid-state rigs expect to drive a low SWR, or they will crank down the power to prevent the reverse voltage from damaging them.

Overall, it is a good talk about a subject that is often taken for granted. Of course, with cheap VNAs, you can easily measure SWR right at the antenna, often with disappointing results. If you have trouble visualizing standing waves, we know someone who can help.

youtube.com/embed/L1_NLEpsW90?…

hackaday.com/2024/10/12/whats-…

L’energia nucleare, una volta considerata in declino, sta tornando sotto i riflettori, soprattutto grazie all’interesse di giganti tecnologici come Google. Il settore tecnologico sta riconoscendo il potenziale del nucleare per soddisfare la crescente domanda di energia affidabile e a basse emissioni di carbonio, fondamentale per alimentare data center, servizi cloud e calcoli complessi di intelligenza artificiale.

Uno dei principali vantaggi del nucleare è la sua capacità di fornire energia costante, a differenza di fonti come l’energia solare o eolica che sono soggette a fluttuazioni. Le centrali nucleari possono funzionare ininterrottamente, garantendo una fornitura energetica stabile, essenziale per operazioni su larga scala come quelle di Google. Inoltre, il contributo alla riduzione delle emissioni di CO2 rende il nucleare una soluzione preziosa nella lotta contro il cambiamento climatico.

Google, in particolare, sta valutando il ruolo del nucleare come parte della sua strategia energetica a lungo termine, cercando di raggiungere un futuro a zero emissioni. L’azienda ha già implementato iniziative per ridurre l’impatto ambientale dei propri data center, ma l’energia nucleare rappresenta una nuova opportunità per andare oltre l’efficienza attuale.

L’interesse verso il nucleare non è limitato solo ai giganti tecnologici. Start-up innovative e società del settore energetico stanno esplorando tecnologie come i piccoli reattori modulari (SMR), che potrebbero rivoluzionare l’industria nucleare rendendo più accessibili e sicuri gli impianti di nuova generazione. Questi SMR potrebbero fornire energia non solo alle grandi aziende, ma anche a città e industrie in tutto il mondo.

Le preoccupazioni per la sicurezza e i rifiuti nucleari, tuttavia, rimangono argomenti di dibattito. Tuttavia, con l’avanzamento delle tecnologie, è possibile che le future generazioni di reattori siano in grado di affrontare queste problematiche in modo più efficace, rendendo l’energia nucleare un pilastro della transizione energetica.

In conclusione, l’energia nucleare sta emergendo come una soluzione cruciale per il futuro, non solo per l’industria tecnologica, ma per l’intera economia globale. Con il continuo aumento della domanda energetica e la necessità di ridurre le emissioni, il nucleare potrebbe svolgere un ruolo chiave nella trasformazione del settore energetico verso un modello più sostenibile.

L'articolo Rivoluzione Nucleare: Come Google vuole Ridisegnando l’Energia per l’IA e i Data Center proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

We always thought the older console games looked way better back in the day on old CRTs than now on a modern digital display. [Stephen Walters] thinks so too, and goes into extensive detail in a lengthy YouTube video about the pros and cons of CRT vs digital, which was totally worth an hour of our time. But are CRTs necessary for retro gaming?

The story starts with [Stephen] trying to score a decent CRT from the usual avenue and failing to find anything worth looking at. The first taste of a CRT display came for free. Left looking lonely at the roadside, [Stephen] spotted it whilst driving home. This was a tiny 13″ Sanyo DS13320, which, when tested, looked disappointing, with a blurry image and missing edges. Later, they acquired a few more displays: a Pansonic PV-C2060, an Emerson EWF2004A and a splendid-looking Sony KV24FS120. Some were inadequate in various ways, lacking stereo sound and component input options.
A poor analog cable coupled with rendering inaccuracy gives a nice filtering effect
A large video section discusses the reasons for the early TV standards. US displays (and many others using NTSC) were designed for 525 scan lines, of which 480 were generally visible. These displays were interlaced, drawing alternating fields of odd and even line numbers, and early TV programs and NTSC DVDs were formatted in this fashion. Early gaming consoles such as the NES and SNES, however, were intended for 240p (‘p’ for progressive) content, which means they do not interlace and send out a blank line every other scan line. [Stephen] goes into extensive detail about how 240p content was never intended to be viewed on a modern, sharp display but was intended to be filtered by the analogue nature of the CRT, or at least its less-than-ideal connectivity. Specific titles even used dithering to create the illusion of smooth gradients, which honestly look terrible on a pixel-sharp digital display. We know the differences in signal bandwidth and distortion of the various analog connection standards affect the visuals. Though RGB and component video may be the top two standards for quality, games were likely intended to be viewed via the cheaper and more common composite cable route.

Component video inputs are arguably the sweet spot for analog connectivity
One debatable point is the effect of modern digital image processing on display lag. Modern TVs may have analog inputs, but these are sampled into the digital domain before being filtered and upscaled to fit the screen. This takes some time to process. We reckon that with games needing pixel-perfect timing reflexes, this could affect gameplay. It is also a perfect excuse to bust out some old games, you know, for science.

It’s an interesting discussion with newer tech that perhaps has a detrimental effect on the gameplay experience. Emulators such as Retroarch have some excellent video shader plugins that can accurately render some of these effects, so even if you can’t find a physical CRT that works, you can still at least experience the joy that these things once brought.

We touched on this subject a couple of months back with a somewhat opposite opinion, but all this stuff is subjective anyway. Want to know what makes CRTs tick? Then, take them to bits with a hammer. And did we mention how light guns are no longer just for CRTs?

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hackaday.com/2024/10/11/are-cr…

In the 2020s we’re used to software being readily accessible, and often free, whether as-in-beer or as-in-speech. This situation is a surprisingly new one, and in an earlier era of consumer software it was most often an expensive purchase. An anti-piracy industry sprang up as manufacturers tried to protect their products, and it’s one of those companies that [GloriousCow] examines in detail, following their trajectory from an initial success through to an ignominious failure driven by an anti-piracy tech too extreme even for the software industry.

Vault Corporation made a splash in the marketplace with Prolok, a copy protection system for floppies that worked by creating a physically damaged area of the disc which wouldn’t be present on a regular floppy. The write-up goes into detail about the workings of the system, including how to circumvent a Prolok protected title if you find one. This last procedure resulted in a lawsuit between Prolok and Quaid Software, one of the developers of circumvention tools, which established the right of Americans to make backup copies of their owned software.

The downfall of Vault Corporation came with their disastrously misjudged Prolok Plus product, which promised to implant a worm on the hard disks of pirates and delete all their files in an act of punishment. Sensing the huge reputational damage of being tied to such a product the customers stayed away, and the company drifted into obscurity.

For those interested further in the world of copy protection from this era, we’ve previously covered the similar deep dives that [GloriousCow] has done on Softguard’s Superlok as well as the Interlock system from Electronic Arts.

hackaday.com/2024/10/11/pc-flo…

It used to be you could crack open a TV or radio and really work on the components inside. The smallest thing in there was maybe a disc capacitor a little smaller than your pinky’s nail. Nowadays, consumer electronic boards are full of tiny SMD components. Luckily [StezStix Fix?] has a microscope and the other tools you need. Someone sent him an Amazon Echo Show with a bad touchscreen. Can it be fixed?

The video below shows that it can, but there’s a twist. The bad capacitor was mounted on one of those flexible PCB cables that are so hard to work with. It is hard enough not to damage these when you aren’t trying to remove and replace a component from the surface of the cable.

[StezStix] didn’t have schematics, so he had to use the “Columbus method” (you know, hunt until you find it), but that worked in this case. Turns out a burned finger broke the case. We liked that he showed his hot air mess-ups, where he blew a handful of components off the board. You may, however, want to hover over the mute button for the fast-forward dance party music.

We envy [StezStix] the feeling you get when a repair like this works. SMD fixes can be rewarding. We’ll remind you of the utility of covering parts you don’t want to heat with hot air using tape.

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Thanks [Jim] for the tip!

hackaday.com/2024/10/11/repair…

Glass! It’s, uh, not very conductive. And sometimes we like that! But other times, we want glass to be conductive. In that case, you might want to give the glass a very fine coating of tin oxide. [Vik Olliver] has been working on just that, in hopes he can make a conductive spot on a glass printing bed in order to use it with a conductive probe.

[Vik’s] first attempt involved using tin chloride, produced by dissolving some tin in a beaker of hydrochloric acid. A droplet of this fluid was then dropped on a glass slide that was heated with a blowtorch. The result was a big ugly white splotch. Not at all tidy, but it did create a conductive layer on the glass. Just a thick, messy one. Further attempts refined the methodology, and [Vik] was eventually able to coat a 1″ square with a reasonably clear coating that measured an edge-to-edge resistance around 8 megaohms.

If you’re aware of better, easier, ways to put a conductive coating on glass, share them below! We’ve seen similar DIY attempts at this before, too. If you’ve been cooking up your own interesting home chemistry experiments (safely!?) do let us know!

hackaday.com/2024/10/11/how-to…

Il Presidente della Repubblica, Sergio Mattarella, ha convocato il Consiglio Supremo di Difesa per il 23 ottobre al Quirinale. Durante questa riunione cruciale, saranno affrontati diversi temi legati alla sicurezza nazionale e alle missioni militari italiane, con particolare attenzione ai conflitti in Ucraina e Medio Oriente.

Il Consiglio esaminerà inoltre l’impatto della situazione internazionale sull’Italia e le sue alleanze strategiche. La riunione arriva in un momento delicato per la politica estera, con la partecipazione attiva del paese nelle missioni di pace e difesa collettiva.

Il Consiglio Supremo di Difesa, uno degli organi chiave nella gestione della sicurezza italiana, è presieduto dal Capo dello Stato e comprende, tra gli altri, il Presidente del Consiglio e i ministri competenti in materia di difesa, esteri, e interno. Questa convocazione segue un anno di crescenti tensioni geopolitiche, con un focus sui conflitti in corso e l’impatto della guerra in Ucraina, come ad esempio sul fronte del settore energetico. La recente escalation in Medio Oriente rende ancora più urgente una riflessione strategica sulla presenza italiana in quelle aree e sulle possibili ripercussioni a livello globale.

La riunione del 23 ottobre offrirà l’occasione per valutare le decisioni future e garantire che la politica estera e di difesa italiana risponda in modo adeguato alle sfide globali. Il Consiglio potrebbe anche affrontare i futuri sviluppi nel contesto della NATO e dell’Unione Europea, soprattutto considerando il ruolo di leadership dell’Italia in diverse operazioni di pace e in ambito di sicurezza internazionale.

L’Italia mantiene diverse missioni attive nel Mediterraneo, che rappresentano non solo un impegno militare ma anche geopolitico di primaria importanza per la stabilità e la sicurezza del paese.

L'articolo Mattarella convoca il Consiglio Supremo di Difesa. Focus su Medio Oriente, Ucraina e Sicurezza Nazionale proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

The Commodore 64 was quite a machine in its time, though a modern assessment would say that it’s severely lacking in the graphical department. [Vossi] has whipped up a bit of an upgrade for the C64 and C128, in the form of a graphics expansion card running Yamaha hardware.

As you might expect, the expansion is designed to fit neatly into a C64 cartridge slot. The card runs the Yamaha V9958—the video display processor known for its appearance in the MSX2+ computers. In this case, it’s paired with a healthy 128 kB of video RAM so it can really do its thing. The V9958 has an analog RGB output that can be set for PAL or NTSC operation, and can perform at resolutions up to 512×212 or even 512×424 interlaced. Naturally, it needs to be hooked directly up to a compatible screen, like a 1084, or one with SCART input. [Vossi] took the time to create some demos of the chip’s capabilities, drawing various graphics in a way that the C64 couldn’t readily achieve on its own.

It’s a build that almost feels like its from an alternate universe, where Yamaha decided to whip up a third-party graphics upgrade for the C64. That didn’t happen, but stranger team ups have occurred over the years.

[Thanks to Stephen Walters for the tip!]

hackaday.com/2024/10/11/c64-ge…

Here we are in October, improbably enough, and while the leaves start to fall as the goblins begin to gather, Elliot and Dan took a break from the madness to talk about all the wonderful hacks that graced our pages this week. If there was a theme this week, it was long-term projects, like the multiple years one hacker spent going down dead ends in the quest for DIY metal 3D printing. Not to be outdone, another hacker spent seven years building a mirrorless digital camera that looks like a commercial product. And getting a solderless PCB to do the blinkenlight thing took a long time too.

Looking to eliminate stringing in your 3D prints? Then you’ll want to avoid the “pause and attach” approach, which intentionally creates strings in your prints. Wondering if you can 3D print bearings? You can, but you probably shouldn’t unless you have a particular use in mind. And what happens when you have an infinitely large supply of Lego? Why, you build a Turing machine on steroids, of course.

Finally, we take a look at this week’s “Can’t-Miss” articles with a look into plastic recycling and why we can’t have nice things yet, and we take a trip out into orbit and examine the ins and outs of Lagrange points.

And a little mea culpa from the editing desk: Sorry the podcast is coming out late this week. Audacity ate my files. If you’re ever in a similar circumstance, you can probably halfway save your bacon with audacity-project-tools. Ask me how I know.

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Episode 292 Show Notes:

News:

• The Internet Archive Has Been Hacked

What’s that Sound?

• It was an old treadle Singer sewing machine, guessed correctly by [Charlie]. Congrats!

Interesting Hacks of the Week:

• An Open Source Mirrorless Camera You’d Want To Use
• First Benchies In Stainless Steel, With Lasers
  
  • Ender 3 Meets MIG Welder To Make A Metal Benchy — Kind Of

  
  

• See The “Pause-and-Attach” Technique For 3D Printing In Action
  
  • 3D Printed String Vase Shows What’s Possible
  • Intentional Filament Stringing Helps Santa Soar
  • Wonderful Foldable Printable Dodecahedron

  
  

• The Turing Machine Made Real, In LEGO
  
  • TMD-1 Makes Turing Machine Concepts Easy To Understand
  • TMD-2: A Bigger, Better, More Collaborative Turing Machine
  • TMD-3: Clever Hall Sensor Hack Leads To Better Turing Demo

  
  

• Towards Solderless PCB Prototyping
  
  • Open Source Pick And Place Has A $450 BOM Cost
  • (Re)designing The LumenPnP Tape Feeder

  
  

• 3D Printed Bearings With Filament Rollers

Quick Hacks:

• Elliot’s Picks
  
  • Fail Of The Week: The Case Of The Curiously Colored Streetlights
  • That’ll Go Over Like A Cement Airplane
  • What Happened To Duracell PowerCheck?

  
  

• Dan’s Picks:
  
  • The Piezoelectric Glitching Attack
  • GPS Tracking In The Trackless Land
  • V-Cut Vias Test Your Whole Panel At Once

  
  

Can’t-Miss Articles:

• Lagrange Points And Why You Want To Get Stuck At Them
• Recycling Tough Plastics Into Precursors With Some Smart Catalyst Chemistry
  
  • Big Chemistry Series

  
  

hackaday.com/2024/10/11/hackad…

Un recente esperimento ha cercato di eseguire “Doom“, il classico videogioco del 1993, su un computer quantistico di avanguardia. Questo tentativo, denominato “Quandoom”, è stato portato avanti da un programmatore conosciuto come Lumorti, che ha voluto testare i limiti della potenza di calcolo quantistica.

Il computer utilizzato, con ben 1.225 qubit, rappresenta uno dei sistemi più potenti mai costruiti, ma si è rivelato incapace di far girare il gioco. Le sfide principali risiedono nella complessità del codice di “Doom”, che richiederebbe un numero molto maggiore di qubit, circa 70.000, e ben 80 milioni di porte logiche per essere eseguito correttamente.

Attualmente, i computer quantistici, sebbene straordinariamente potenti per determinati calcoli e simulazioni, sono ancora lontani dal poter competere con i computer tradizionali nell’esecuzione di software complesso come i videogiochi. Questo esperimento evidenzia le limitazioni tecnologiche attuali e il fatto che l’esecuzione di compiti come il gaming richiede risorse ben oltre le capacità attuali dei dispositivi quantistici.

Nonostante queste difficoltà, Lumorti è riuscito a simulare parzialmente il gioco, ma solo con l’ausilio di hardware classico che ha integrato il processore quantistico, dimostrando così che, al momento, la simulazione quantistica ha dei limiti pratici significativi.

Il tentativo di far girare un gioco iconico come “Doom” su una macchina quantistica è comunque un esercizio interessante e simbolico, che mette in luce la strada ancora lunga che la tecnologia deve percorrere. I computer quantistici eccellono in ambiti diversi, come la crittografia e la simulazione molecolare, ma non sono progettati per sostituire i tradizionali processori nei giochi o altre applicazioni più comuni.

Il progetto “Quandoom” è un esempio di come gli appassionati e i ricercatori stiano esplorando l’applicazione dei computer quantistici in contesti creativi. Tuttavia, l’esperimento ha chiarito che, per quanto potente, la tecnologia quantistica è ancora in fase di sviluppo e non pronta per applicazioni consumer come i videogiochi.

In conclusione, l’esperimento ha fornito preziose informazioni sui limiti e le potenzialità dei computer quantistici. Sebbene Doom non possa essere eseguito su una piattaforma quantistica attuale, il campo rimane affascinante e promette sviluppi futuri.

L'articolo 1.225 Qubit Non Bastano! Eseguire Doom è ancora un sogno per un Computer Quantistico proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.