Transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are a class of material that’s been receiving significant attention as a possible successor of silicon. Recently, a team of researchers has demonstrated the use of TMDs as an alternative to through-silicon-vias (TSV), which is the current way that multiple layers of silicon semiconductor circuitry are stacked, as seen with, e.g., NAND Flash ICs and processors with stacked memory dice. The novelty here is that the new circuitry is grown directly on top of the existing circuitry, removing the need for approaches like TSV to turn 2D layers into 3D stacks.

As reported in the paper in Nature by [Ki Seok Kim] and colleagues (gift article), this technique of monolithic 3D (M3D) integration required overcoming a number of technological challenges, most of all enabling the new TMD single-crystals to grow at low enough temperatures that it doesn’t destroy the previously created circuitry. The progress is detailed in the paper’s schematic (pictured above): from TSV to M3D by transfer of layers and high- and low-temperature growth of single-crystal layers.

Ultimately, the demonstration device with vertically grown transistor arrays (nMOS and pMOS) on a silicon substrate was grown at 385℃, which, if commercially developed, could mean a significant boost in transistor density and possibly the development of 3D semiconductor circuits rather than stacked 2D ones. We are still worried about making them the old-fashioned way.

hackaday.com/2025/01/06/growin…

We found it nostalgic to watch [ve3iku] fire up an old Loran-A receiver and, as you can see in the video below, he got it working. If you aren’t familiar with LORAN, it was a common radio navigation technique before GPS took over everything.

LORAN — an acronym for Long Range Navigation — was a US byproduct of World War II and was similar in many ways to Britain’s Gee system. However, LORAN operated at lower frequencies to improve its range. It was instrumental in helping convoys cross the Atlantic and also found use in the Pacific theater.

youtube.com/embed/CAYVwltGHSQ?…

How it Worked

The video shows a Loran-A receiver, which, in its day, would have been known as LORAN. The A was added after versions B and C appeared. Back in the 1940s, something like this with a CRT and precision electronics would have been very expensive.

Unlike GPS, keeping a highly synchronized clock over many stations was impractical at the time. So, LORAN stations operated in pairs on different frequencies and with a known distance between the two. The main station sends a blip. When the secondary station hears the blip, it sends its own blip. Sometimes there were multiple secondaries, too.

If you receive both blips, you can measure the time between them and use it to get an idea of where you are. Suppose the stations were 372 miles apart. That means the secondary will hear the blip roughly 2 milliseconds after the primary sends it (the speed of light is about 186 miles per millisecond). You can characterize how much the secondary delays, so let’s just say that’s another millisecond.

Reception

Now both transmitted blips have to make it to your receiver. Let’s take a sill example. Suppose you are on top of station B. You’ll hear station A at the same time station B hears it. Then, when you subtract out the delay for station B, you’ll hear its blip immediately. You could easily guess you were 372 miles from station A.

It is more likely, though, that you will be somewhere else, which complicates things. If you find there is a 372-mile difference in your distance from station A to station B, that could mean you were 186 miles away from each station. Or, you could be 202 miles from station A and 170 miles from station B.

If you plot all the possibilities, you’ll get a hyperbolic curve. You are somewhere on the curve. How do you know where? You take a reading on a different pair of transmitters, and the curves should touch on two points. You are on one of those points.

This is similar to stellar navigation, and you usually have enough of an idea where you are to get rid of one of the points as ridiculous. You do, however, have to take into account the motion of your vehicle between readings. If there are multiple secondary stations, that can help since you can get multiple readings without switching to an entirely new pair. The Coast Guard video below explains it graphically, if that helps.

youtube.com/embed/PDtHulWGMGg?…

Receiver Tech

The receiver was able to inject a rectangular pulse on both channels to use as a reference, which is what the video talks about being the “pedestal” (although the British typically called it a cursor).

LORAN could operate up to 700 nautical miles in the day, but nighttime propagation would allow measurements up to 1,400 nautical miles away. Of course, the further away you are, the less accurate the system is.

During the day, things were simple because you typically just got one pulse from each station. But at night, you could get multiple bounces, and it was much more difficult to interpret.

If you want to dive really deep into how you’d take a practical fix, [The Radar Room] has a very detailed video. It shows multiple pulses and uses a period-appropriate APN-4 receiver.

In Care Of…

The U.S. Army Air Force originated LORAN. The Navy was working on Loran-B, but later gave up on it and took over an Air Force project with similar goals. In 1957, the Coast Guard took over both systems and named them Loran-A and Loran-C and decided they weren’t acronyms anymore. Loran-A started going away in the mid-1970s, although some overseas systems were active well into the 1990s. Loran-C survived even longer than that.

Oddly, the development of LORAN took place in a radiation laboratory. GPS isn’t that different other than having super synchronized clocks, many transmitters, and some very fancy math.

Featured Image: Detail of USAF special Loran chart. (LS-103) from the David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries.

hackaday.com/2025/01/06/before…

Recensione : No Strange Chiedilo a Te Stesso
No Strange e il loro nuovo album Chiedilo a Te Stesso: un inno alla creatività dell'epoca d'oro del garage e della psychedelia italiana. Scopri la magia! @Musica Agorà

iyezine.com/no-strange-chiedil…

No Strange Chiedilo a Te Stesso

No Strange Chiedilo a Te Stesso - No Strange e il loro nuovo album Chiedilo a Te Stesso: un inno alla creatività dell'epoca d'oro del garage e della psychedelia italiana. Scopri la magia! - No Strange Chiedilo a Te Stesso

^{Il Santo (In Your Eyes ezine)}

Cassette tapes were a major way of listening to (and recording) music througout the 1980s and 1990s and were in every hi-fi stereo, boom box, and passenger vehicle of the era. Their decline was largely as a result of improvements in CD technology and the rise of the MP3 player, and as a result we live in a world largely absent of this once-ubiquitous technology. There are still a few places where these devices crop up, and thanks to some modern technology their capabilities as a music playback device can be greatly enhanced.

The build starts, as one might expect, by disassembling the cassette and removing the magnetic tape from the plastic casing. With the interior of the cassette empty it’s capable of holding a small battery, USB-C battery charger, and a Bluetooth module. The head of an old tape deck can be wired to the audio output of the Bluetooth module and then put back in place in the housing in place of the old tape. With the cassette casing reassembled, there’s nothing left to do but pair it to a smartphone or other music-playing device and push play on the nearest tape deck.

As smartphones continue to lose their 3.5 mm headphone jacks, builds like this can keep lots of older stereos relevant and usable again, including for those of us still driving older vehicles that have functioning tape decks. Of course, if you’re driving a classic antique auto with a tape technology even older than the compact cassette, there are still a few Bluetooth-enabled options for you as well.

youtube.com/embed/yFBVTpooZD0?…

hackaday.com/2025/01/06/casset…

I ricercatori di sicurezza informatica hanno scoperto un nuovo malware chiamato PLAYFULGHOST che ha ampie capacità di raccolta di informazioni. Le sue funzionalità includono keylogging, acquisizione di schermate e audio, accesso remoto alla riga di comando e trasferimento ed esecuzione di file.

Come sottolinea il team di Google Cloud Security, questo malware presenta somiglianze con Gh0st RAT, un noto strumento di amministrazione remota il cui codice sorgente è stato divulgato nel 2008. Le principali vie di infezione di PLAYFULGHOST sono le e-mail di phishing e lo spoofing SEO.

In uno dei casi di phishing gli aggressori hanno utilizzato un archivio RAR mascherato da immagine con estensione “.jpg”. Una volta estratto ed eseguito, l’archivio scarica un file eseguibile dannoso sul dispositivo, che alla fine scarica e attiva PLAYFULGHOST da un server remoto.

Un altro metodo di infezione tramite spoofing SEO prevede il download del programma di installazione LetsVPN, che contiene codice dannoso intermedio responsabile dell’installazione di componenti malware.

Per effettuare l’attacco, gli aggressori utilizzano tecniche come DLL Hijacking e DLL Sideloading per lanciare una libreria dannosa che carica e decrittografa PLAYFULGHOST nella memoria del dispositivo. In scenari complessi, più file vengono combinati per formare una DLL dannosa utilizzando una versione modificata dell’utilità Curl.

PLAYFULGHOST viene fissato nel sistema tramite chiavi di registro, pianificazione delle attività, cartella di avvio e servizi Windows. Il malware è in grado di raccogliere dati digitati, screenshot, audio, informazioni sull’account, contenuti degli appunti, metadati di sistema e prodotti antivirus installati. Può anche bloccare l’input da tastiera e mouse, cancellare i registri eventi di Windows, eliminare le cache del browser, i profili di messaggistica ed eseguire altre operazioni pericolose.

Inoltre, PLAYFULGHOST può distribuire strumenti aggiuntivi, inclusi Mimikatz e rootkit che nascondono file e processi. Uno di questi strumenti è Terminator, che sfrutta le vulnerabilità dei driver per distruggere i processi di sicurezza. Ad un certo punto dell’analisi, gli esperti hanno registrato che PLAYFULGHOST viene distribuito utilizzando il caricatore BOOSTWAVE, che utilizza il codice shell per iniettare file eseguibili dannosi.

App mirate come Sogou, QQ e 360 ​​Safety, nonché esche sotto forma di LetsVPN, indicano una possibile attenzione agli utenti Windows di lingua cinese. In precedenza, nel luglio 2024, la società canadese eSentire aveva segnalato operazioni dannose simili in cui venivano utilizzati falsi programmi di installazione di Google Chrome per distribuire Gh0st RAT.

L'articolo VPN Con Sorpresa! Oltre all’Anonimato, Offerta anche una Backdoor Gratuitamente proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

EROE DI CARTA

Vorrei avere il dono di viaggiare nel tempo
Un tappeto volante per il passato
E artigli,
più lunghi e decisi
Per riprendermi qualcosa cui dar nome non so
Qualcosa, che solamente il cuore
Isole genuine e pure che anima ignota
sicuro mi rubò

Nel tempo, così pensavo
osservando il fantasma di greto
d'un rivo antico disseccato
Combatterei a capo di mille guerrieri
se fosse servito a farti voltare
Donna mia
dallo sguardo che avvolge
Fuoco che consuma
e addolcisce il mio giorno
Saper di avere più cose in comune
Un senso di strano e un brandello di pelle
Tutti i guai in attesa di volo
Qualcuno - meno male
col passaporto già scaduto

E mi risvegliai sereno
dopo averti in qualche modo vissuto
Eri un bianconero di fumetto
E nel ricordo di acqua pura e fresca
la voce d’eremita
di un ruscello stretto in quota
S'accende la Grigna d'arancione
saluta la luce d'occaso
C'è chi ne resta ipnotizzato
Io non ci casco, e sarà pure bello e che
Però Io
Io Rivoglio solo te

Un altro anno nasce; e sarà già duro e vecchio
Oltre il passo delle luci e dei bicchieri
Oltre la montagna lo stesso sole
Con la testa sopra il mio cuscino di gambe
curiosa mi domandavi ripetendo: E poi
E poi, e poi ma cosa mai vuoi
che Io ti dica di più
Donna mia
Fotogramma di sorrisi e un pizzico di follia
Amore già sublimato via

Rotolando nei meandri del giorno
Strattonato dalla luce
Frettolosa
Dei pomeriggi d'inverno
Un ruscello di pietra guarda giù
Non vede e tacito insiste e illuso reclama
Ma l'acqua pura di ieri, di qui
più non passerà. Ed Io

Vorrei avere il dono di viaggiare nel tempo
Tappeto volante per dove ho già dato…

Dear Friend of Press Freedom,

I’m Lauren Harper, the first Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), and welcome to “The Classifieds.” This is FPF’s weekly newsletter highlighting important secrecy news that shows how the public is harmed when the government keeps too many secrets.

EPA’s silence on ‘forever chemicals’ in fertilizer a public health risk

For over 20 years, the Environmental Protection Agency has promoted a fertilizer it knows contains “forever chemicals” linked to birth defects and cancer.

An investigation by veteran environmental reporter Hiroko Tabuchi for The New York Times shows that, in the early 2000s, chemical manufacturer 3M found high levels of the toxic chemicals it produced in the nation’s sewage supply. Because the wastewater was used to fertilize farmland as part of a practice promoted by the EPA, the company concluded its “chemicals were being unwittingly spread on fields across the country.”

3M told the EPA about its findings during a 2003 meeting.

The EPA sat on the study, continues to promote the fertilization method that may “permanently contaminate” soil, and does not require testing for forever chemicals in wastewater. The only reason we know about the public health risk at all is because Tabuchi dug through thousands of pages of records — all stored on CDs — that were released by 3M as part of a legal settlement.

For more information on the dangers of these same chemicals found in drinking water, which the EPA only recently began regulating, read here and here.

CIA’s mind-control programs declassified

The National Security Archive (where I used to work) recently published a collection of over 1,200 declassified documents on the CIA’s infamous mind-control research programs, projects MKULTRA, BLUEBIRD, and ARTICHOKE. The publication comes 50 years after journalist Seymour Hersh broke the story about the existence of the illegal programs in The New York Times.

The most infamous example of the CIA’s illegal experiments — often conducted on U.S. citizens who had no idea they were being targeted — may be Operation Midnight Climax. As part of this 1950s program, prostitutes working under the direction of the agency lured unsuspecting men back to CIA-run brothels in San Francisco and New York City. The CIA’s own records show the victims were unwittingly fed a variety of drugs, including LSD manufactured by companies like Eli Lilly. The prostitutes then attempted to coax information from the drugged victims so CIA officials, hidden behind one-way mirrors, could assess the drugs’ impact on the men’s ability to tell the truth.

The legacy of these projects, and the medical community’s willingness to support the agency’s illegal and unethical work, goes beyond mind-control experiments. Former New York Times journalist Stephen Kinzer notes that MKULTRA in particular “contributed decisively to the development of techniques that Americans and their allies used at detention centers in Vietnam, Latin America, Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, and secret prisons around the world.”

Federal police accountability database issues first report. Will Trump maintain it?

The Justice Department released its first annual report assessing statistics from the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database. The database was mandated by President Joe Biden’s 2022 executive order, “Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices To Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety,” and mirrors similar efforts by the Biden administration to bring accountability and transparency to local policing.

The database, which is used by agencies when making personnel decisions like hiring and promotions, contains information on federal law enforcement misconduct for 2018 through 2023. It currently consists of 4,790 records and shows 63% of incidents “were for sustained complaints or records of disciplinary action based on findings of serious misconduct.”

While the order mandates annual reporting, it’s possible President-elect Donald Trump will rescind the requirement and discontinue the database.

Incentivized lying plagued U.S. efforts in Afghanistan across decades

The Special Inspector General on Afghanistan Reconstruction will issue its final report this year.

SIGAR’s work has been instrumental in informing the public how the U.S. government lied for decades about its progress in Afghanistan, particularly concerning the effectiveness of the billions of dollars spent training Afghanistan’s security forces. A large part of the problem, which IG John Sopko highlights in a recent New York Times op-ed, is the “perverse incentive” for military officials and contractors to justify previous spending levels to keep their budgets from getting cut, no matter how ineffective or useless the programs were.

The IG’s office was, by its own assessment, “the only government agency reliably reporting on the situation” in Afghanistan, and did so in spite of “stiff opposition from officials in the departments of Defense and State, USAID and the organizations that supported their programs.” (SIGAR was not universally transparent with the public, however. Washington Post reporter Craig Whitlock had to sue SIGAR under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain copies of the “lessons learned” interviews SIGAR conducted with policymakers, military officials, and contractors who worked in Afghanistan for his book, “The Afghanistan Papers.”)

What I’m reading

The American oil industry’s playbook, illustrated: How drillers offload costly cleanup onto the public (ProPublica). In more environmental secrecy news, ProPublica reports that the Interior Department has known for 35 years that unplugged oil and gas wells can leak dangerous material into the water supply. The public health impact of this problem needs get more attention as the incoming Trump administration works to “increase the number of sales for oil leases on public lands and shrink federal environmental agencies.”

Trump advisers seek to shrink or eliminate bank regulators (Wall Street Journal). The Trump transition team is exploring ways to eliminate the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, an agency that maintains “public confidence in the nation’s financial system.” The public regularly demonstrates its interest in the FDIC’s work, filing nearly 700 FOIA requests with the agency in 2023 alone. These requests seek a wide swath of information, ranging from bank acquisitions to communications with Congress.

He leaked Trump’s tax returns. Will Biden protect him? (The Intercept). Tax law professors are encouraging President Biden to commute the sentence of former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn. Littlejohn leaked Trump’s tax returns to The New York Times after Trump broke tradition and refused to release them. Littlejohn also leaked returns of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and other billionaires, showing how the superrich exploit the tax system.

freedom.press/issues/epa-has-k…

Nasce a Cinisi, Palermo, Peppino Impastato.
Ruppe con la parte mafiosa della sua famiglia.
Dai microfoni di Radio Aut incalzò politici e capimafia, in particolare il boss Gaetano Badalamenti, che abitava a soli cento passi da casa Impastato.
Venne ucciso nella notte fra l’8 e il 9 maggio del 1978, in una Italia distratta dal ritrovamento del corpo dell' onorevole Moro.
Nel 2002 Badalamenti fu riconosciuto mandante dell’omicidio e condannato all’ergastolo.

@Storia
@Storiaweb

Mi sono spesso chiesto cosa differenzi il rock del XX secolo da quello del XXI secolo. La differenza di forma è lampante e in qualche modo fisiologica, perché legata necessariamente alle risorse tecnologiche a disposizione al momento della produzione, all' evoluzione tecnico stilistica dei musicisti stessi, ecc. Ma c'è qualcosa di più profondo.

Senza mettermi a scrivere un trattato a riguardo, in primis perché non ne sarei in grado, citerei giusto qualche episodio.

- 4 gennaio 1969. giusto ieri ricorreva il cinquantaseiesimo anniversario del ban di Jimi Hendrix dalla BBC. Il buon Jimi in quell'occasione decise di non seguire le regole del programma che imponevano di far salire la presentatrice Lulu durante il finale di Hey Joe, ma bloccò la sua hit più famosa a metà, e partì a dedicare "Sunshine of your love" a quelli che da poco erano diventati gli ex-Cream. La cosa fece incazzare non poco i bacchettoni della rete britannica. bbc.co.uk/programmes/p032vp1d
- Gennaio 1970. Concerto improvvisato dai Beatles sul tetto dello studio di registrazione dopo un mese di session, abbandoni e ritorni, Yoko Ono onnipresente che-fa-cose-a-caso e improbabili ospiti a spot, creatività alle stelle e frizioni. Serie documentario di Peter Jackson da vedere assolutamente. youtube.com/watch?v=Auta2lagtw…
- Anno 1982. Fondamentalisti cristiani americani danno dei satanisti agli Iron Maiden per l'album "the Number of the Beast", i quali di tutta risposta li prendono bellamente per il culo. Guarda caso a tutt'oggi la più grande band heavy metal della storia non è ancora stata inserita nella rock and roll hall of fame di Cleveland. A detta della stessa band non gliene può fregare di meno, e a ragione, visto che dopo cinquant'anni continuano ancora a riempire stadi in tutti e cinque i continenti. youtube.com/watch?v=A5W2A0PW0X…
- Anno 1992. Nirvana agli MTV video music awards. Vorrebbero eseguire "Rape me", la rete rifiuta per il testo troppo esplicito che potrebbe urtare delle sensibilità, così si accordano per "Lithium". Al momento dell'esibizione, dopo aver accennato qualche verso di "Rape me", Kurt parte con "Lithium" affiancato da Kris che nel mentre fa il gesto del saluto militare. Alla fine sfasciano tutto e Kris quasi sviene dopo essersi beccato il basso in testa. Punkissimi. youtube.com/watch?v=fOmUEHxZFq…

Voltiamo pagina.

- Il film "school of rock" col simpatico, positivo, sopra le righe ma non troppo Jack Black: posette, corna, linguacce, mitizzazioni che diventano formalizzazioni, conformazioni al sistema dominante. Dissacriamo, ma con la giusta misura, alle nove si va a nanna e ricordiamoci di mangiare le nostre verdure. youtube.com/watch?v=5afGGGsxvE…
- Celebrazione della musica dei Led Zeppelin con tanto di medaglie e autorità. Esecuzione (tecnicamente meravigliosa, tanto di cappello agli organizzatori) di "Stairway to Heaven" con presidente degli Stati Uniti in platea che annuisce orgoglioso. youtube.com/watch?v=2cZ_EFAmj0…

Fade to black.

Ricapitolando, la domanda è : "perché adoro Jimi Hendrix, i Beatles, gli Iron Maiden, i Nirvana, ma non riesco a farmi piacere i Foo Fighters, detesto Jack Black, adoro la musica delle tre messicane (musiciste meravigliose) The Warning ma senza particolare coinvolgimento emotivo? È solo perché sto diventando vecchio o c'è dell'altro?" La risposta è nell'accostamento di due immagini: da una parte Kris Novoselic che mima provocatoriamente un "Signorsì, Signore" ai soloni di MTV, dall'altra Obama che approva orgoglioso l'incasellamento nel sistema dominante di una delle band simbolo del rock degli anni settanta.

È toccato al jazz (da qualche tempo si insegna persino nei conservatori), è toccato al rock, toccherà all'hip-hop. L'assimilazione è il modo preferito dal capitalismo per eliminare tutto ciò che rappresenta in qualche modo un intralcio al proprio dominio.

"We are Borg, resistance is futile".