Amidst the glossy marketing for VPN services, it can be tempting to believe that the moment you flick on the VPN connection you can browse the internet with full privacy. Unfortunately this is quite far from the truth, as interacting with internet services like websites leaves a significant fingerprint. In a study by [RTINGS.com] this browser fingerprinting was investigated in detail, showing just how easy it is to uniquely identify a visitor across the 83 laptops used in the study.

As summarized in the related video (also embedded below), the start of the study involved the Am I Unique? website which provides you with an overview of your browser fingerprint. With over 4.5 million fingerprints in their database as of writing, even using Edge on Windows 10 marks you as unique, which is telling.

In the study multiple VPN services were used, each of which resulted in exactly the same fingerprint hash. This is based on properties retrieved from the browser, via JavaScript and other capabilities exposed by the browser, including WebGL and HTML5 Canvas.

Next in the experiment the set of properties used was restricted to those that are more deterministic, removing items such as state of battery charge, and creating a set of 28 properties. This still left all 83 work laptops at the [RTINGS.com] office with a unique fingerprint, which is somewhat amazing for a single Canadian office environment since they should all use roughly the same OS and browser configuration.

As for ways to reduce your uniqueness, browsers like Brave try to mix up some of these parameters used for fingerprinting, but with Brave being fairly rare the use of this browser by itself makes for a pretty unique identifier. Ultimately being truly anonymous on the internet is pretty hard, and thus VPNs are mostly helpful for getting around region blocks for streaming services, not for obtaining more privacy.

youtube.com/embed/pJOpHSPkWMo?…

hackaday.com/2025/11/19/browse…

Whenever there’s a superlative involved, you know that degree of optimization has to leave something else on the table. In the case of [PegorK]’s f32, the smallest ESP32 dev board we’ve seen, the cost of miniaturization is GPIO.

There’s only one GPIO pin broken out, and it’s pre-wired to an LED. That’s the bad news, and depending on what you want an ESP32 for, it might not phase you at all. What is impressive here, if not the number of I/O pins, is the size of the board: at 9.85 mm x 8.45 mm barely overhangs the USB-C socket that takes up one side of the board.
Pegor provides this helpful image in the readme so you know what you’re getting into with the 01005 resistors.
In order to get the ESP32-C3FH4 onto such a tiny board, all of the other support hardware had to be the smallest possible sizes– including resistors in 01005. If you don’t speak SMD, one could read that number code as “oh god too small” — at 0.4 mm x 0.2 mm it’s as minuscule as you’ll find– and [Pegor] hand soldered them.

OK, he did use a hot plate for the final step, but he did tin the pads manually with a soldering iron, which is still impressive. Most of us probably would have taken PCBWay up on their offer of assembly services, but not [Pegor]. Apparently part of the reason for this project was that he was looking for an excuse to use the really small footprint components.

Aside from leaving out GPIO and needing too-small SMD components, [Pegor] admits that pesky little details like antenna matching circuits and decoupling capacitors had to get cut to make the tiny footprint, so this board might be more of a stunt than anything practical. So what can you do with the smallest ESP32 board? Well, [Pegor] put up a basic web interface up to get you started blinking the built-in LED; after that, it’s up to you. Perhaps you might fancy a teeny-tiny minecraft server? If you can stand to increase the volume a little bit, we’ve seen how to hack a C3 for much better wifi performance.

Thanks to [Pegor] for the tip, and remember– submit your projects, big or small, we read ’em all!

hackaday.com/2025/11/19/possib…

La Commissione legale e per i diritti umani del partito DEM ha condannato la gestione del caso del massacro in carcere del 19 dicembre e ha affermato che l’impunità è un risultato inaccettabile. L’operazione condotta il 19 dicembre 2000, pubblicizzata come operazione “Ritorno alla Vita”, ebbe un esito grave e devastante. Persone che lo Stato era tenuto a proteggere furono uccise e ferite. Trentadue persone persero la vita, tra cui due membri delle forze di sicurezza che avevano preso parte all’operazione, e centinaia rimasero gravemente ferite.

Successivi esami forensi hanno stabilito che tutti i decessi causati da ferite da arma da fuoco, compresi quelli degli agenti di sicurezza, erano dovuti ad armi utilizzate dal personale statale. I rapporti hanno confermato che non sono stati sparati colpi dall’interno verso l’esterno. Le armi che hanno causato le morti erano armi da fuoco militari ad alta energia cinetica, armi estremamente potenti e a canna lunga.

I metodi utilizzati nel reparto femminile erano pura barbarie. Vennero aperti dei buchi nel tetto e materiale incendiario fu lanciato nei dormitori. Agenti incendiari a base chimica, proibiti all’uso in spazi chiusi, furono rilasciati in grandi quantità provocando l’incendio dei reparti e rendendo impossibile respirare alle prigioniere. Quando le detenute, rendendosi conto che sarebbero state uccise, tentarono di raggiungere il cortile, furono colpite anche lì. Sei persone persero la vita in questo attacco.

Nonostante le istanze e le denunce presentate, furono avviati procedimenti contro le vittime, mentre non fu concessa alcuna autorizzazione a procedere contro gli agenti coinvolti nell’operazione. L’indagine fu deliberatamente protratta fino al 2010.

Quell’anno furono infine presentate accuse contro 37 coscritti, ma non contro alcun ufficiale di grado superiore. L’avvio tardivo del procedimento contro coloro che avevano comandato l’operazione non ne alterò l’esito. Il tribunale respinse le richieste di audizione personale degli imputati e di deposizione di persona di vittime e testimoni. Le dichiarazioni sono rimaste incomplete per anni. La mancata presentazione dei documenti e delle informazioni richiesti dal tribunale ha intenzionalmente prolungato il processo per molti anni. Alla fine il caso è stato archiviato per prescrizione.

Tuttavia, secondo la giurisprudenza consolidata della Corte europea dei diritti dell’uomo (CEDU), la prescrizione non può essere invocata quando i ritardi sono causati dalle autorità giudiziarie o dai funzionari statali. I crimini che possono essere considerati crimini contro l’umanità non possono essere conclusi impunemente, poiché ciò viola sia la legge sia i principi normativi fondamentali che sostengono i diritti umani.

Per queste ragioni, la CEDU ha stabilito il 15 novembre 2016,nel caso Hamdemir e altri contro la Turchia, che la forza e i metodi utilizzati nel carcere di Bayrampaşa erano sproporzionati e che il diritto alla vita era stato violato. Inoltre, lo Stato non aveva rispettato le Regole minime standard delle Nazioni Unite per il trattamento dei detenuti, di cui è parte.

La perdita di diritti causata dalle politiche carcerarie dello Stato e il fatto che un altro massacro abbia portato all’impunità sono inaccettabili. Respingiamo l’archiviazione dell’ultimo caso riguardante le operazioni simultanee condotte in 20 carceri, il caso del raid nel carcere di Bayrampaşa, attraverso l’applicazione della prescrizione e il conseguente esito di impunità.”

L'articolo Partito Dem: il caso della strage in carcere non può concludersi impunito proviene da Retekurdistan.it.

When Stranger Things premiered in 2016, it was a cultural force. Foreign DJs gushed over the lush 80s soundtrack, fashionistas loved the clothing, and the world became obsessed with the idea of using Christmas lights to communicate across material planes. [kyjohnso] has recreated that experience with the technology of today.

If you haven’t watched the show — Joyce Byers is trying to communicate with her son Will, who just so happens to be stuck in another plane of existence called the Upside Down. She screams questions at her living room wall, upon which hangs a series of Christmas lights, marked with the letters A to Z. Will is able to communicate back by causing the lights to flash, one letter at a time.

This build works a little differently. You basically type a message into a terminal on a Raspberry Pi, and it gets sent to a large language model—namely, the Claude API. The response from Claude (or Will Byers, if you’re imagining) is then flashed out on a WS2812B set of LED Christmas lights on the wall. [kyjohnso] added dramatic pauses whenever there’s a space in the output, somewhat replicating the dramatic elements of the show itself. Files are on GitHub for the spooky and curious.

It’s a neat build that would be a hit at any Halloween party. We can’t imagine how much more immersive it would be if paired with a speech-to-text engine so you could actually scream at the thing like a distraught Midwestern parent who has just lost her youngest child. It’s all about committing to the bit; if you build such a thing, don’t hesitate to notify the tipsline!

hackaday.com/2025/11/19/build-…

Piccolo spazio promozionale pre-natalizio per un'artista indipendente e attivista LGBTQ+ (ma per niente "social"... anche se le dico sempre che sul Fediverso si troverebbe bene...)

Cinzia è attrice e speaker/voiceover artist e ha uno shop di prodotti parlanti!

Su PrintedVOICE trovate magliette, felpe, shopper, tazze, borracce... su ognuna delle quali c'è un QR che rimanda a una clip con la sua voce.

I design sono ispirati al contenuto delle clip: le frasi più emozionanti della letteratura italiana, inglese (in inglese) e non solo (ci sono anche il francese e il latino!).

Nelle foto potete vedere qualche esempio interessante... ma vi consiglio di esplorare il sito e provare le combinazioni di colori che preferite!

Qui invece trovate un esempio delle clip che si apriranno inquadrando il QR!

E... vi consiglio di approfittare degli sconti di novembre / black friday: fino a domenica c'è il 20% di sconto, mentre il 28-29 ci sarà uno sconto speciale del 25% su ordini a partire da 70 €

Ricondivisioni molto gradite... Grazie!

printed-voice.myspreadshop.it/

Il 20 novembre alle ore 16.00, presso la Sala Nassirya del Senato, si terrà la conferenza stampa “Io Coltivo: che fine ha fatto la proposta di legge popolare?” dedicata al Disegno di Legge di iniziativa popolare S.1317 – “Depenalizzazione della coltivazione per uso personale e in forma associata della cannabis”, promosso da Meglio Legale, Associazione Coscioni, Forum Droghe e con il sostegno di oltre 70 organizzazioni.

A quasi un anno dal deposito della proposta, sostenuta da 54.000 firme, e a dieci mesi dalla sua assegnazione alle Commissioni Giustizia, Sanità e Lavoro, il Senato non ha ancora avviato l’esame del testo, violando apertamente l’Art. 74 del Regolamento.

Una mancata discussione che svilisce e di fatto denigra lo strumento della proposta di legge di iniziativa popolare, previsto dalla Costituzione per garantire ai cittadini un canale diretto di partecipazione democratica.

“Siamo da anni al fianco della battaglia per la legalizzazione della cannabis e siamo al fianco di Meglio Legale”, dichiara la Segretaria di Possibile Francesca Druetti, “con la convinzione che sia urgente e necessario togliere il mercato della cannabis dalle mani della criminalità organizzata, separarlo da quello delle droghe pesanti, trovare risorse per le casse dello Stato che possono essere investite in una corretta informazione sulle droghe e sulla sanità pubblica. Che il Parlamento non voglia nemmeno discutere una proposta firmata e condivisa da decine di migliaia di persone è un danno che la maggioranza fa non solo a noi, ma alla qualità del rapporto tra istituzioni e cittadinanza”.

In quest’ottica, Druetti ha partecipato alla Controconferenza nazionale sulle Droghe a Roma insieme alla Consigliera Regionale del Piemonte Giulia Marro, che aggiunge: “La Controconferenza è stato un luogo di confronto serio e necessario in un momento in cui le politiche governative procedono a colpi di “tolleranza zero”, senza risultati e senza ascolto.

È emerso con chiarezza quanto queste scelte – dalle oscillazioni continue sulla canapa agli interventi punitivi sulle sostanze – stiano producendo solo danni: non diminuisce l’uso, non si riduce la circolazione delle droghe, che anzi oggi sono più varie e più diffuse che mai.

Si continua a combattere battaglie simboliche, inseguendo un nemico immaginario, invece di confrontarsi con ciò che cinquant’anni di studi e pratiche ci insegnano: la repressione non funziona. Funzionano l’informazione corretta, la comunicazione trasparente, la riduzione del danno, il coinvolgimento delle persone e delle associazioni di consumatori.

Per questo considero grave che il Senato non abbia ancora avviato l’esame del DDL di iniziativa popolare sulla coltivazione domestica.

Rispettare la volontà di migliaia di cittadine e cittadini è un obbligo democratico. Continuare a rinviare la discussione significa lasciare spazio a politiche inefficaci e punitive, mentre avremmo bisogno di responsabilità, dati e prevenzione”.

Interverranno:

Antonella Soldo, presidente Meglio Legale e vicesegretaria +Europa

Marco Perduca, Associazione Luca Coscioni

Francesca Druetti, segretaria Possibile

Leonardo Fiorentini, Forum Droghe

Mattia Cusani, Canapa Sativa Italia

Denise Amerini, CGIL

Parlamentari, rappresentanti istituzionali, stampa e organizzazioni sono invitati a partecipare.

L'articolo Druetti-Marro (Possibile): Cannabis, il Senato blocca l’esame del DDL di iniziativa popolare in violazione del proprio regolamento. Conferenza stampa il 20 novembre, ore 16.00 – Sala Nassirya proviene da Possibile.

Oggi in piazza a Roma insieme a tanti amministratori e amministratrici da tutta Italia per partecipare al presidio organizzato da Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra che denuncia i tagli agli enti locali fatti dal governo Meloni.

139,5 milioni su 140 tagliati al fondo per la messa in sicurezza di scuole, strade ed edifici pubblici.

100 milioni su 200 tagliati ai fondi contro il dissesto idrogeologico.

400 milioni su 400 di taglio ai fondi per gli interventi di sviluppo sostenibile.

29,9 milioni su 30 tagliati a opere per la messa in sicurezza di edifici e strutture pubbliche.

Soldi, tantissimi soldi, tolti all’edilizia scolastica, agli edifici pubblici, al contrasto al dissesto idrogeologico, all’edilizia pubblica.

Tagli che significano la cancellazione o riduzione di servizi essenziali, di politiche per la casa, di interventi sull’efficientamento energetico, della messa in sicurezza di infrastrutture e territorio. In un paese in cui milioni persone vivono in aree a rischio idrogeologico, in cui l’emergenza abitativa dovrebbe essere in cima alle priorità di qualunque governo. Tagli che investono fondi in gran parte destinati al Mezzogiorno e alle Aree interne.

In un paese in cui l’astensionismo alle urne è un dato allarmante, il governo decide tagli che vanno a depotenziare le amministrazioni comunali, le istituzioni più vicine ai cittadini e alle cittadine, quelle che dovrebbero poter garantire servizi essenziali nella vita quotidiana delle persone, che dovrebbero essere la fondazione del rapporto tra cittadinanza e chi in sua rappresentanza amministra la cosa pubblica. Se i Comuni non hanno i mezzi per erogare questi servizi, si incrina ulteriormente la fiducia tra cittadinanza e istituzioni, si infierisce su chi è più fragile, aumentando ulteriormente le disuguaglianze, si mina la tenuta delle città e dei territori di fronte alla crisi economica, sociale, climatica.

L'articolo Basta tagli: al presidio AVS contro i tagli agli enti locali proviene da Possibile.

Ahmad Salem è un nome che alla maggior parte di noi non dice niente, ed è questo il problema.

Salem è un ragazzo palestinese, da sei mesi detenuto in regime di alta sicurezza in un carcere della nostra regione per aver denunciato il genocidio che il suo popolo stava e sta subendo per mano di Israele.
Durante l’iter per ottenere asilo politico in Italia il suo telefono è stato sequestrato e perquisito: spezzoni decontestualizzati di un video in cui invita la società civile a mobilitarsi per la Palestina sono bastati per accusarlo di “propaganda jihadista”.
Altri filmati presenti sul suo cellulare sono considerati dall’accusa “video istruttivi” di matrice terroristica. I filmati — diffusi in passato dalle principali testate giornalistiche italiane — non contengono però effettive indicazione tecniche o di addestramento.
I reati contestati a Salem — istigazione a delinquere e autoaddestramento con finalità di terrorismo — sono stati introdotti dal DDL Sicurezza, cardine della repressione del dissenso che è l’unico tratto distintivo del governo Meloni. Un provvedimento che, tramite l’introduzione di nuovi reati e l’inasprimento di pene, aggravanti e sanzioni, limita diritti e libertà fondamentali.
Salem ora va sostenuto, come lui ha tentato di fare col popolo palestinese. Dobbiamo diventare la sua voce, amplificare la sua rabbia e aggiungerci la nostra verso un governo sempre più securitario e criminalizzante.
Raccogliendo l’appello delle attiviste e degli attivisti, come @vincenzo23fullone, vi invitiamo a spezzare l’indifferenza che circonda la detenzione di Salem.

Il 21 novembre è stato organizzato un presidio di solidarietà davanti al Tribunale de L’Aquila per altri tre giovani palestinesi — Ahmad, Anan Yaeesh, Ali Irar e Mansour Doghmosh — accusati di terrorismo, in cui manifestare anche la solidarietà ad Ahmad Salem.

L'articolo Ahmad Salem libero: la mobilitazione per la Palestina non è reato proviene da Possibile.

This week Jonathan chats with Kevin, Colin, and Curtis about Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead! It’s a rogue-like post-apocalyptic survival game that you can play in the terminal, over SSH if you really want to! Part of the story is a Kickstarter that resulted in a graphics tile-set. And then there’s the mods!

• cataclysmdda.org/
• github.com/CleverRaven/Catacly…

youtube.com/embed/XzS8cOnVFgg?…

Did you know you can watch the live recording of the show right on our YouTube Channel? Have someone you’d like us to interview? Let us know, or have the guest contact us! Take a look at the schedule here.

play.libsyn.com/embed/episode/…

Direct Download in DRM-free MP3.

If you’d rather read along, here’s the transcript for this week’s episode.

Places to follow the FLOSS Weekly Podcast:

• Spotify
• RSS

Theme music: “Newer Wave” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

hackaday.com/2025/11/19/floss-…

We aren’t here to praise the penny, but rather, to bury it. The penny, and its counterparts, have been vanishing all around the world as the cost of minting one far outweighs its value. But hackers had already lost a big asset: real copper pennies, and now even the cheaply made ones are doomed to extinction.

If you check your pockets and find a pre-1982 penny, it’s almost all copper. Well, 95% of its slightly-more-than-3-gram heft is pure copper. Since then, the copper penny’s been a fraud, weighing 2.5 g and containing only a 2.5% copper plate over a zinc core. During WWII, they did make some oddball steel pennies, but that was just a temporary measure.

Penny Science

If you are a certain age, you might remember building a “voltaic pile.” These primitive batteries use pennies, cardboard soaked in vinegar, and aluminum foil. Granted, it wasn’t very practical, so raiding your couch for change to make a battery was never really practical, but it was a fun science experiment. There are dozens of YouTube videos showing this popular experiment, including the [ScienceBuddies] video below.

youtube.com/embed/JcRRTHkAl6A?…

Old pennies were also a cheap and easy source of copper. Vinegar or lemon juice and some voltage made it simple to copperplate another metal object, like a nail. Copper also makes a good heatsink. We’ve seen Raspberry Pis and similar boards with heatsinks that cost an integer number of pennies, because that’s all they were. An oxidized penny shows up in some foxhole radios. They were also handy little weights if you made a balance or for taming a wobbly ceiling fan.

If you were a real kid chemist, you might have done the classic trick of turning a penny into “silver” and then “gold.” You used not-so-lovely-to-handle sodium hydroxide, some zinc, and a flame to actually convert the penny to brass. It wasn’t really a precious metal, but still a good trick if you were a kid with a chemistry set. As the video from [Simon] below shows, that will still work with the copperplate pennies.

youtube.com/embed/wmd2teoPUu0?…

New Pennies

Not that you can’t have fun with zinc pennies. If you scratch the plating a bit and dip it in HCL, the zinc core fizzes away. What’s left is a hollow copper penny. If you don’t like using HCL, we hear you can do it over a stove and simply melt the zinc. We wouldn’t try either one of those without a vent hood and an unhealthy disregard for your personal safety, so, you know, don’t do that. But know that you could. [Craig] shows how to remove the zinc or the copper in the video below.

youtube.com/embed/5Cf0gH2LtiE?…

The legality of all this has always been a little suspect. Since 2006, it has been illegal to melt down coins for their metal value. Technically, using it in a science class probably won’t bring the Treasury agents swooping into your classroom, but you have been warned.

Household Hacker

Of course, it is going to take some time for all the pennies to really vanish. There are plenty of them, and you can still get around a hundred for a buck. But when they are gone, what other household items are easy to hack for science? Aluminum foil, maybe? Tell us your favorite in the comments.

Whether they were copper slugs or thinly plated zinc tokens, pennies were a weirdly perfect hacker material: cheap, conductive, sacrificial, and everywhere. We’ll miss them.

Featured image: “wealth of pennies” by [Reza]

hackaday.com/2025/11/19/hacker…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

President Donald Trump shamefully welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House today. He brushed aside questions about Prince Mohammed’s role in the gruesome murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, commenting that “things happen” and “You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.”

Freedom of the Press Foundation Director of Advocacy Seth Stern said:

“Somehow calling a female reporter ‘piggy’ was only the second-most offensive anti-press utterance to come out of the president’s mouth in recent days. And somehow Biden’s infamous fist bump is now only the second-most disgusting public display of flattery by a U.S. president to journalist-murderer Mohammed bin Salman.

“Scolding a U.S. reporter for asking questions about MBS ordering a fellow journalist to be bonesawed signals to dictators everywhere that they can murder journalists with impunity — as if Trump hadn’t already sent that message clearly enough by bankrolling and arming Israel while it does just that in Gaza.

“Today’s fiasco felt like the nail in the coffin for whatever was left of the U.S.’s global standing as a leader on press freedom. The next president is going to have their work cut out for them in rebuilding that credibility. In the meantime, judges, lawmakers, and everyone else in a position to slow the backslide need to step up and rise to the moment before more journalists get killed.”

Please contact us if you would like further comment.

freedom.press/issues/press-hat…

Today the European Commission has published two Digital Omnibus proposals, reopening the EU’s core protections against harm in the digital age. This step risks dismantling the rules-based system that was hard-won over decades, endangering the very foundation of human rights and tech policy in the EU.

The post Press Release: Commission’s Digital Omnibus is a major rollback of EU digital protections appeared first on European Digital Rights (EDRi).

Today, the Commission will present a “Digital Omnibus” package, a series of measures to allegedly ease administrative burdens for businesses across areas like privacy, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. This will include one proposal dedicated to the AI Act, and another to simplifying digital rules, reopening and amending both the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy Directive.

The post Why the Digital Omnibus puts GDPR and ePrivacy at risk appeared first on European Digital Rights (EDRi).

Nella giornata di ieri, il Ministro dell’Interno Matteo Piantedosi ha rivolto un appello alla partecipazione al voto. Un invito che ogni rappresentante delle istituzioni ha il dovere di fare, ma che rischia di apparire contraddittorio se non accompagnato dalle misure necessarie a rendere realmente possibile l’esercizio del diritto di voto per tutte e tutti.

Ancora ad oggi, infatti, il Governo non ha introdotto una norma che consenta ai fuorisede di votare senza dover affrontare costi e disagi significativi. Sono migliaia di persone che, pur volendo partecipare, vengono di fatto ostacolate da un sistema che non tiene conto dei problemi. Studentesse e studenti, lavoratrici e lavoratori che vivono lontano dal proprio comune. Parliamo anche di persone temporaneamente domiciliate fuori sede per motivi di cura.

Il diritto di voto deve essere garantito pienamente, senza discriminazioni territoriali o economiche. È necessario introdurre subito una legge sul voto dei fuorisede: una misura di civiltà, di democrazia e di rispetto verso chi studia, lavora e contribuisce al Paese.

Chiediamo che il Governo abbandoni rinvii e ambiguità e si assuma la responsabilità di rendere l’Italia una democrazia più accessibile e inclusiva. Invitare al voto è importante; permettere davvero a tutte e tutti di votare lo è ancora di più.

L'articolo Piantedosi, faccia votare i fuorisede proviene da Possibile.

The folks at Low Tech Magazine are here again, this time with a solar powered coffee maker. Lest you think of a large parabolic mirror with a pot at its focus, in this case the device is much more friendly. It’s a table-top appliance that relies upon a 100 W 12 V panel for its operation.

They make the point that an electric coffee pot requires at least 300 W to work, so what’s the secret? In this case, insulation, as a standard moka pot is placed within a nichrome heating element set in mortar and surrounded by cork. On the outside are tiles, though they appear largely ornamental and the write-up suggests you could experiment with other materials to serve as an enclosure.

It appears to be an effective coffee maker, with the significant caveat that it’s hardly fast. In full sunlight the first pot takes over an hour to brew, with subsequent ones once it’s up to temperature being somewhat faster. But you can’t argue with the idea of free power, even if your favourite caffeinated beverage may now take a while to appear.

We like this idea, despite its slow brewing. We’ve featured Low Tech Magazine before, not least in their solar powered oven.

hackaday.com/2025/11/19/damn-f…

È passato un anno dall’arresto di Alberto Trentini, non si è mosso nulla.
“Sono qui dopo 365 giorni a esprimere indignazione. Per Alberto non si è fatto ciò che era doveroso fare. Sono stata troppo paziente ed educata ma ora la pazienza è finita”.
Sono le parole di Armanda Colusso, mamma dell’operatore umanitario detenuto in Venezuela da un anno senza un’accusa formale a suo carico.
L’immobilismo del governo Meloni non può essere tollerato, facciamo pressione, chiediamo che si attivi e adoperi ogni strumento diplomatico necessario alla sua liberazione.
Facciamolo per Alberto e la sua famiglia, facciamolo per la giustizia che perde valore ogni minuto che Alberto passa nella cella in cui è detenuto senza colpa.
Insistiamo.

L'articolo Alberto Trentini, dal governo un anno di silenzio intollerabile proviene da Possibile.

We’re taught how to call emergency numbers from a young age; whether it be 911 in the US, 999 in the UK, or 000 in Australia. The concept is simple—if you need aid from police, fire, or ambulance, you pick up a phone and dial and help will be sent in short order.

It’s a service many of us have come to rely on; indeed, it’s function can swing the very balance between life or death. Sadly, in Australia, that has come to pass, with a person dying when their Samsung phone failed to reach the Triple Zero (000) emergency line. It has laid bare an obscure technical issue that potentially leaves thousands of lives at risk.

Peril

Triple Zero is the number to dial for Australian emergency services. Credit: TripleZero.gov.au
Australia’s Triple Zero emergency service becoming a hot-button issue. September 2025 saw widespread failures of emergency calls on the Optus network, an incident that was tied to at least three deaths of those unable to reach help. A series of further isolated cases have drawn more attention to edge case failures that have prevented people from reaching emergency services.

A bigger potential issue with the Triple Zero service has since bubbled up with the increased scrutiny on the system’s operation. Namely, the fact that a huge swathe of older Samsung smartphones cannot be trusted to successfully call 000 in an emergency. The potential issue has been on the radar of telcos and authorities since at least 2024. Since then, on November 13 2025, an individual in Sydney passed away after their phone failed to dial the emergency line. Their phone was using a Lebara SIM card, as managed by TPG and using the Vodafone network, when the incident occurred. Subsequent investigation determined that the problem was due to issues already identified with a wide range of Samsung phones.

The issue surrounds the matter of Australia’s shutdown of 3G phone service, which took place from 2023 to 2024. If you had a 3G phone, it would no longer be able to make any calls after the networks were shut down. Common sense would suggest that phones with 4G and 5G connectivity would be fine going forward. However, there was a caveat. There were a number of phones sold that offered 4G or 5G data connections, but could not actually make phone calls on these networks. This was due to manufacturers failing to implement Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) functionality required to carry voice calls over 4G LTE networks. Alternatively, in some cases, the 4G or 5G handset could make VoLTE calls, but would fail to make emergency calls in certain situations.

Communication Breakdown

It all comes down to the way voice calls work on 4G and 5G. Unlike earlier 2G and 3G cellular networks, 4G and 5G networks are data only. Phone calls are handled through VoLTE, which uses voice-over-IP technology, or using Voice over NR (VoNR) in a purely 5G environment. Either way, the system is a data-based, packet-switched method of connecting a phone call, unlike the circuit-switched methods used for 2G and 3G calling.
Phones like the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are compatible with 4G networks. However, with the shutdown of 3G services, they cannot reliably make emergency voice calls on current Australian networks. Credit: GadgetsGuy, CC BY 3.0
The problem with this is that while 2G and 3G emergency calls worked whenever you had a tower nearby, VoLTE calling is more complex and less robust. VoLTE standards don’t guarantee that a given handset will be interoperable with all LTE networks, particularly when roaming. A given handset might only like IPv4, for example, which may be fine in its home region on its regular carrier. However, when roaming, or when doing an emergency call, that handset might find itself only in range of a different network’s towers, which only like IPv6, and thus VoLTE calling will fail. There are any number of other configuration mismatches that can occur between a handset and a network that can also cause VoLTE calling to fail.

Usually, when you’re in range of your phone’s home network with a modern 4G or 5G handset, you won’t have any problems. Your phone will use its VoLTE settings profile to connect and the emergency call will go through. After all, older models with no VoLTE support have by and large been banned from networks already. However, the situation gets more complex if your home network isn’t available. In those cases, it will look to “camp on” to another provider’s network for connectivity. In this case, if the phone’s VoLTE settings aren’t compatible with the rival network, the call may fail to connect, and you might find yourself unable to reach emergency services.

Specifically, in the Australian case, this appears to affect a range of older Samsung phones. Testing by telecommunications company Telstra found that some of these phones were unable to make Triple Zero emergency calls when only the Vodafone network was available. These phones will happily work when a Telstra or Optus network is available, but fallback to the Vodafone network has been found to fail. Research from other sources has also identified that certain phones can reach Triple Zero when using Telstra or Optus SIM cards, but may fail when equipped with a Vodafone SIM.

For its part, Samsung has provided a list of models affected by the issue. Some older phones, mostly from 2016 and 2017, will need to be replaced, as they will not be updated to reliably make emergency calls over 4G networks. Meanwhile, newer phones, like the Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G, will be given software updates to enable reliable emergency calling. Telecom operators have been contacting users of affected phones, indicating they will need to replace or upgrade as necessary. Devices that are deemed to be unable to safely make emergency calls will be banned from Australian mobile networks 28 days after initial notification to customers.

Broader Problem

Telecommunications providers have been reaching out to customers with instructions to update or replace their devices to ensure they can safely call Triple Zero, whichever local network is available. Credit: Amaysim, via screenshot
This issue is not limited to just Australia. Indeed, European authorities have been aware of issues with VoLTE emergency calling since at least 2022. Many phones sold in European markets are only capable of making emergency calls on 2G and 3G networks, and could fail to reach emergency services if only 4G connections are available. This issue was particularly noted to be a risk when roaming internationally, where a handset sold in one country may prove inoperable with VoLTE calling on a foreign network.

Some blame has been laid on the loose standardization of the VoLTE standard. Unlike 2G and 3G standards, global interoperability is pretty much non-existent when it comes to phone calls. This wasn’t seen as a big issue early on, as when 4G devices first hit the market, 2G and 3G phone networks were readily available to carry any voice calls that couldn’t be handled by VoLTE. However, with 2G and 3G networks shutting down, the lack of VoLTE standardization and interoperability between carriers has been laid bare.

While Australia is currently tangling with this issue, expect it to crop up in other parts of the world before long. Europe is currently working towards 2G and 3G shutdowns, as our other jurisdictions, and issues around roaming functionality still loom large for those taking handsets overseas. Ultimately, end users will be asking a very simple question. If 2G and 3G technologies could handle emergency calls on virtually any compatible network around the world, how did it go so wrong when 4G and 5G rolled around? Old networks existed as a crutch that avoided the issue for a time, but they were never going to last forever. It surely didn’t have to be this way.

hackaday.com/2025/11/19/why-sa…

If you get a small cut, you might throw a plastic bandage on it to help it heal faster. However, there are fancier options on the horizon, like this advanced AI-powered smart bandage.

Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have developed a proof-of-concept device called a-Heal, intended for use inside existing commercial bandages for colostomy use. The device is fitted with a small camera, which images the wound site every two hours. The images are then uploaded via a wireless connection, and processed with a machine learning model that has been trained to make suggestions on how to better stimulate the healing process based on the image input. The device can then follow these recommendations, either using electrical stimulation to reduce inflammation in the wound, or supplying fluoxetine to stimulate the growth of healthy tissue. In testing, the device was able to improve the rate of skin coverage over an existing wound compared to a control.

The long-term goal is to apply the technology in a broader sense to help better treat things like chronic or infected wounds that may have difficulty healing. It’s still at an early stage for now, but it could one day be routine for medical treatment to involve the use of small smart devices to gain a better rolling insight on the treatment of wounds. It’s not the first time we’ve explored innovative methods of wound care; we’ve previously looked at how treatments from the past could better inform how we treat in future.

hackaday.com/2025/11/19/smart-…