The story of Commodore computers is one of some truly great machines for their time, and of the truly woeful marketing that arguably spelled their doom. But there’s another Commodore computing story, that of the machines we never received, many of which came close enough to production that they might have made it.

[Old VCR] has the story of one of these, and it’s a portable. It’s not a C64 like the luggable which did emerge, neither is it the legendary LCD portable prototype in the possession of our Hackaday colleague [Bil Herd]. Instead it’s a palmtop branded under licence from Toshiba, and since it’s a rare device even its home country of Japan the article gives us perhaps the only one we’ll ever see with either badge.

The Commodore HHC-4 was announced at Winter CES 1983, and since it was never seen again it’s aroused some curiosity among enthusiasts. The article goes to some lengths to cross-reference the visible features and deduce that it’s in fact a Toshiba Pasopia Mini, a typical palmtop computer of the era with not much in the way of processing power, a small alphanumeric display, and a calculator-style QWERTY keyboard. We’re treated to a teardown of a Toshiba unit and its dock, revealing some uncertainty about which processor architecture lurks in those Toshiba custom chips.

Looking at the magazine reviews and adverts it seems as though Commodore may have had some machines with their branding on even if they never sold them, so there exists the tantalizing possibility of one still lurking forgotten in the possession of a former staffer. We can hope.

If Commodore history interests you, you really should read [Bil]’s autobiographical account of the company in the 1980s.

hackaday.com/2024/10/29/anothe…

La sfida digitale tra Usa e Cina in corso nel continente asiatico riguarda data center, intelligenza artificiale e cavi sottomarini.

The post Data center, IA, Internet… Usa e Cina combattono in Asia la battaglia per il futuro appeared first on InsideOver.

So far in this series, we’ve talked about man-made byproducts — Fordite, which is built-up layers of cured car enamel, and Trinitite, which was created during the first nuclear bomb test.
A lovely fulgurite pendant. Image via Etsy
But not all byproducts are man-made, and not all of them are basically untouchable. Some are created by Mother Nature, but are nonetheless dangerous. I’m talking about fulgurites, which can form whenever lightning discharges into the Earth.

It’s likely that even if you’ve seen a fulgurite, you likely had no idea what it was. So what are they, exactly? Basically, they are natural tubes of glass that are formed by a fusion of silica sand or rock during a lightning strike.

Much like Lichtenberg figures appear across wood, the resulting shape mimics the path of the lightning bolt as it discharged into the ground. And yes, people make jewelry out of fulgurites.

Lightning Striking Again

Image via NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory
Lightning is among the oldest observed phenomena on Earth. You probably know that lightning is just a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere. It can occur between clouds, the air, or the ground and often hits tall things like skyscrapers and mountaintops.

Lightning is often visible during volcanic eruptions, intense forest fires, heavy snowstorms, surface nuclear detonations, and of course, thunderstorms.

In lightning’s infancy, air acts as an insulator between charges — the positive and negative charges between the cloud and the ground. Once the charges have sufficiently built up, the air’s insulating qualities break down and the electricity is rapidly discharged in the form of lightning.

When lightning strikes, the energy in the channel briefly heats up the air to about 50,000 °F, which is several times the surface of the Sun. This makes the air explode outward. As the shock wave’s pressure decreases, we hear thunder.

Of Sand and Rock and Other Stuff

Fulgurites, also known as fossilized lightning, don’t have a fixed composition: they are composed of whatever they’re composed of at the time of the lightning strike. Four main types of fulgurites are officially recognized: sand, soil, caliche (calcium-rich), and rock fulgurites. Sand fulgurites can usually be found on beaches or in deserts where clean sand devoid of silt and clay dominates. And like those Lichtenberg figures, sand fulgurites tend to look like branches of tubes. They have rough surfaces comprised of partially-melted grains of sand.
Sand fulgurites, aka forbidden churros. Image via Wikimedia Commons
When sand fulgurites are formed, the sand rapidly cools and solidifies. Because of this, they tend to take on a glassy interior. As you might imagine, the size and shape of a fulgurite depends on several factors, including the strength of the strike and the depth of the sand being struck. On average, they are 2.5 to 5 cm in diameter, but have been found to exceed 20 cm.

Soil fulgurites can form in a wide variety of sediment compositions including clay-, silt-, and gravel-rich soils as well as leosses, which are wind-blown formations of accumulated dust. These also appear as tubaceous or branching formations, vesicular, irregular, or a combination thereof.

Calcium-rich sediment fulgurites have thick walls and variable shapes, although it’s common for multiple narrow channels to appear. These can run the gamut of morphological and structural variation for objects that can be classified as fulgurites.

Rock fulgurites are typically found on mountain peaks, which act as natural lightning rods. They appear as coatings or crusts of glass formed on rocks, either found as branching channels on the surface, or as lining in pre-existing fractures in the rock. They are most often found at the summit or within several feet of it.

Fact-Finding Fulgurites

Aside from jewelry and such, fulgurites’ appeal comes in wherever they’re found, as their presence can be used to estimate the number of lightning strikes in an area over time.

Then again there’s some stuff you may not necessarily want to use in jewelry making. Stuff that can be found in the dark, dank corners of the Earth. Stay tuned!

hackaday.com/2024/10/29/boss-b…

L’esperto di sicurezza informatica Alexander Hagenah ha pubblicato lo strumento Chrome-App-Bound-Encryption-Decryption per aggirare la nuova funzionalità di sicurezza App-Bound Encryption in Chrome, progettata per proteggere i dati sensibili, inclusi i cookie.

Ricordiamo che la funzionalità di crittografia associata all’app è stata introdotta l’estate scorsa, con il rilascio di Chrome 127. Come hanno affermato gli sviluppatori del browser, lo scopo è crittografare i cookie e le password memorizzate utilizzando un servizio Windows che funziona con privilegi di sistema.

Ciò impedisce al malware in esecuzione come utente che ha effettuato l’accesso di rubare i segreti archiviati in Chrome. In teoria, infatti, per aggirare tale protezione, il malware avrà bisogno dei privilegi di sistema, e non sarà possibile ottenerli senza che nessuno se ne accorga.

Dopo che le persone hanno iniziato a parlare online del fatto che il malware aveva imparato a bypassare la crittografia associata all’app, i rappresentanti di Google hanno detto ai media che ciò era previsto.

L’azienda non si aspettava di creare una protezione “a prova di proiettile” e la crittografia App-Bound aveva solo lo scopo di gettare le basi per la creazione graduale di un sistema più affidabile.

“Siamo consapevoli che la nuova protezione ha suscitato scalpore tra gli sviluppatori di infostealer. Come abbiamo scritto nel blog, ci aspettiamo che questa protezione sposti il ​​comportamento degli aggressori verso metodi di attacco più visibili, tra cui iniezioni e memory scraping. Questo è esattamente ciò a cui stiamo assistendo adesso”, disse all’epoca Google.

Ora che Hagena ha rilasciato pubblicamente la sua soluzione di bypass della crittografia associata all’app su GitHub , chiunque può imparare e compilare lo strumento.

“Questo strumento decodifica le chiavi di crittografia associate all’app archiviate nel file di stato locale di Chrome utilizzando il servizio IElevator interno basato su COM di Chrome”, afferma la descrizione del progetto. “Lo strumento consente di estrarre e decrittografare le chiavi che Chrome protegge con la crittografia associata all’app per impedire l’accesso a dati protetti come cookie, password e informazioni di pagamento.”

Come riporta Bleeping Computer, citando uno specialista di sicurezza informatica noto come g0njxa, lo strumento di Hagena utilizza un metodo di base per aggirare la crittografia associata all’app, che la maggior parte degli infostealer ha già superato. Tuttavia, questo metodo funziona ancora poiché gli sviluppatori di Chrome non hanno ancora rilasciato le patch.

Queste informazioni sono confermate anche dagli analisti di eSentire, i quali affermano che il metodo di Hagena è simile ai primi metodi per aggirare la protezione utilizzati dagli aggressori quando era appena stata introdotta la crittografia associata all’app.

“Lumma ha utilizzato questo metodo per creare un’istanza dell’interfaccia Chrome IElevator tramite COM per accedere al servizio Chrome Elevation per decrittografare i cookie, ma è piuttosto rumoroso e facile da rilevare. Ora gli hacker utilizzano la decrittazione indiretta senza interagire direttamente con Chrome Elevation Service”, afferma eSentire.

Gli sviluppatori di Google hanno dichiarato che non vedono nulla di sbagliato nel rilascio di un simile strumento. Poiché richiede diritti di amministratore per funzionare, la società ritiene di aver “aumentato con successo il livello di accesso richiesto affinché questo tipo di attacco sia efficace”.

L'articolo La crittografia di Chrome è stata violata! lo Strumento di Hagenah sblocca l’App-Bound Encryption proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

Qual è il bilancio dopo 10 mesi di governo Tusk, a un anno dalla vittoria nelle elezioni parlamentari? Ho scritto un'analisi per ResetDoc, partendo dalla svolta securitaria in materia di immigrazione.

What's the balance after 10 months of Tusk's government, one year after the victory in the parliamentary elections? I wrote an analysis for ResetDoc.

resetdoc.org/story/polands-imm…

Poland’s Immigration Law: Tusk’s Struggle to Hold the Center

“Regain control, ensure security.” This is the slogan of a draft law promoted by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and adopted by his government to outline the country’s migration strategy from 2025 to 2030.

^{Reset DOC}

Dealing with all the wiring can quickly become a challenge on robots, especially the walking variety which have actuators everywhere. [Eric Yufeng Wu] sidestepped the wiring issue by creating Q8bot, a little quadruped where all the components, including the actuators, are mounted directly on the PCB.

[Eric] uses a custom PCB as the spine of the robot, and the eight servos plug directly into connectors on the PCB. With their bottom covers removed, the servos screw neatly into a pair of 3D printed frames on either side of the PCB, which also have integrated 14500 battery holders. The PCB is minimalist, with just the XIAO ESP32C3 module, a boost converter circuit to drive the servos, and a battery fuel gauge. Each SCARA-style leg consists of four SLS 3D printed segments, with press-fit bearings in the joints.

The little one moves quickly, and can even do little jumps. For this prototype, most of the control processing is done on a laptop, which sends raw joint angles to the onboard ESP32 via the ESP-Now protocol. We think this little robot has a lot of development potential, and fortunately [Eric] has made all the hardware and software files available for others to build their own.

youtube.com/embed/YJDc1xAhaOI?…

hackaday.com/2024/10/29/little…

Frontiere Sonore Radio Show Ep. 4: Simone inizia una sezione di presentazione di piccole etichette italiane, in questa puntata presentiamo Stanze Fredde Records di Torino

iyezine.com/frontiere-sonore-r…

#radio

Frontiere Sonore Radio Show Ep. 4

Frontiere Sonore Radio Show Ep. 4 - Frontiere Sonore Radio Show Ep. 4: Simone inizia una sezione di presentazione di piccole etichette italiane, in questa puntata presentiamo Stanze Fredde Records di Torino -

^{Simone Benerecetti (In Your Eyes ezine)}

The Animal Kingdom, In un futuro prossimo alcuni umani iniziano a mutare trasformandosi gradualmente in animali.

iyezine.com/the-animal-kingdom

The Animal Kingdom

The Animal Kingdom - The Animal Kingdom, In un futuro prossimo alcuni umani iniziano a mutare trasformandosi gradualmente in animali. - The Animal Kingdom

^{Roberto Pardini (In Your Eyes ezine)}

La legge Calderoli spezzetta l'Italia e peggiora i iservizi "per tutti". Quello che migliora, se si vuol dire così, è il potere dei Presidenti di Regione e la "vicinanza" fra grossi imprenditori locali ed il sistema di potere.
Altro proprio non mi sovviene.

#autonomiadifferenziata