Google ha accettato di pagare allo Stato del Texas 1,375 miliardi di dollari per risolvere due cause legali sulla privacy. L’azienda è stata accusata di tracciare la posizione degli utenti e di archiviare i loro dati biometrici, tra cui impronte vocali e geometrie facciali, senza il loro consenso.

L’importo del pagamento supera tutte le sanzioni precedentemente imposte da Google in casi simili. In precedenza, nel novembre 2022, la società aveva accettato di pagare 391 milioni di dollari a un gruppo di 40 stati. A gennaio 2023, 29,5 milioni di dollari all’Indiana e a Washington e a settembre, 93 milioni di dollari alla California.

La causa, intentata nel 2022, riguardava la raccolta di dati di geolocalizzazione , attività in modalità di navigazione in incognito e dati biometrici . Secondo i procuratori, Google ha monitorato gli utenti anche quando la funzione Cronologia delle posizioni era disattivata e ha memorizzato i dati biometrici senza preavviso.

“Per anni, Google ha tracciato segretamente i movimenti delle persone, le ricerche private, le impronte vocali e la geometria facciale attraverso i suoi prodotti e servizi”, ha affermato il procuratore generale del Texas Ken Paxton. Ha sottolineato che l’accordo rappresenta una “vittoria storica” ​​per la privacy dei residenti dello Stato.

In risposta alle critiche, Google ha modificato il modo in cui archivia i dati degli utenti: Maps Timeline viene ora archiviato localmente sui dispositivi anziché nel cloud. Sono stati introdotti anche nuovi strumenti che consentono di eliminare automaticamente la cronologia delle posizioni.

Meta, accusata anche di aver raccolto illegalmente i dati biometrici di milioni di utenti, in precedenza aveva pagato la somma equivalente a 1,4 miliardi di dollari al Texas.

Questa iniziativa si inserisce nel contesto della crescente attenzione rivolta alle attività di Google negli Stati Uniti e in Europa. Le autorità di regolamentazione chiedono che il monopolio dell’azienda venga limitato e che venga rivisto il suo approccio al trattamento dei dati personali.

L'articolo Google paga 1,375 miliardi al Texas: la multa sulla privacy più alta di sempre proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

For circuit simulation, we have always been enthralled with the Falstad simulator which is a simple, Spice-like simulator that runs in the browser. [Brandon] has a simulator, too, but it simulates semiconductor devices. With help from [Paul Falstad], that simulator also runs in the browser.

This simulator takes a little thinking and lets you build devices as you might on an IC die. The key is to use the dropdown that initially says “Interact” to select a tool. Then, the drop-down below lets you select what you are drawing, which can be a voltage source, metal, or various materials you find in semiconductor devices, like n-type or a dielectric.

It is a bit tricky, but if you check out the examples first (like this diode), it gets easier. The main page has many examples. You can even build up entire subsystems like a ring oscillator or a DRAM cell.

Designing at this level has its own quirks. For example, in the real world, you think of resistors as something you can use with great precision, and capacitors are often “sloppy.” On an IC substrate, resistors are often the sloppy component. While capacitor values might not be exact, it is very easy to get an extremely precise ratio of two capacitors because the plate size is tightly controlled. This leads to a different mindset than you are used to when designing with discrete components.

Of course, this is just a simulation, so everything can be perfect. If, for some reason, you don’t know about the Falstad simulator, check it out now.

hackaday.com/2025/05/12/semico…

Sometimes, a little goes a long way. I believe that’s the case with this tiny media control bar from [likeablob] that uses an ESP32-C3 Super Mini.

Image by [likeablob] via Hackaday.IOFrom left to right you’ve got a meta key that allows double functions for all the other keys. The base functions are play/pause, previous track, and next track while the knob handles volume.

And because it uses this Wi-Fi-enabled microcontroller, it can seamlessly integrate with Home Assistant via ESPHome.

What else is under the hood? Four low-profile Cherry MX Browns and a rotary encoder underneath that nicely-printed knob.

If you want to build one of these for yourself, all the files are available on GitHub including the customizable enclosure which [likeablob] designed with OpenSCAD.

Portable Endgame, If It Exists

Perhaps [Palpatine]’s one mistake in creating this 36-key portable endgame is believing in the idea of the endgame in the first place. But I’m not here to judge.

Image by [Palpatine] via redditOh wait, yes I am! I really like this keyboard, and I think it would look right at home on the desk of the centerfold below it, although it’s supposed to be a go-anywhere contraption. Be sure to check out the gallery on this one to see it folded together for transport.

It would seem that [Palpatine] learned some nice tricks while designing this keyboard. Have you heard of 10440 batteries? They’re 3.7 V and usually cheaper than the square Li-Po batteries of the same size.

This bad boy is based on the Seeed Xiao nRF52840, which [Palpatine] believes is worth spending a little bit of extra money on instead of nice!nano clones, while being cheaper than an actual nice!nano would be.

As far as open-sourceness goes, [Palpatine] seems willing to share their design files, although they don’t seem to have been published anywhere at this time.

The Centerfold: White Light Might Bite At Night

Image by [Embarrased-Yak-3766] via redditSo this one isn’t quite as wide as usual, but it’s definitely more white than usual. I suppose that wiiiide monitor makes up for the missing pixels.

What do you think? Crisp and clean, or cold and clinical? I can’t decide. I definitely feel snowbound vibes, and I want to sleep in.

Do you rock a sweet set of peripherals on a screamin’ desk pad? Send me a picture along with your handle and all the gory details, and you could be featured here!

Historical Clackers: the Munson

Image by [Martin Howard] via Antique TypewritersThe delight of the Munson typewriter is in the exposed internal workings, which come to life when the machine is in use. Those octagonal key tops aren’t too shabby, either.

You may have noticed that this machine has no typebars. Instead, it uses a horizontal cylinder about the size of a finger. The cylinder slides from side to side and rotates to find the chosen character. Then a hammer strikes from behind the paper, pushing it against the ribbon and the type cylinder.

Much like the later IBM Selectrics and the daisy wheel machines of the 1970s and ’80s, one could easily change the font by swapping out the all-steel type cylinder. The Munson has two Shift keys, one for upper case and another for figures, so only three rows of keys are needed.

The Munson came out in 1890 and was well-received. It won the highest medal awarded at the World’s Fair Chicago, 1893, but the machines are hard to find these days. Eight years after its introduction, the design of the Munson was acquired by the Chicago Writing Machine Co. and rebranded the Chicago.

Finally, the MingKwai Typewriter Emerges From Obscurity

So you get a Historical Clackers two-fer this week; lucky you! After more than half a century, this fascinating Chinese typewriter turned up while a couple was cleaning out her grandfather’s basement in New York.

Jennifer Felix and her husband Nelson posted photos on a Facebook group trying to ID the machine. A flurry of enthusiastic comments flooded the forum, with many people offering to buy the machine.
Photo by Elisabeth von Boch, courtesy of Stanford Libraries; image via This Is Colossal
As it turns out, it’s a MingKwai — the only one in existence. And it’s now in the hands of Stanford Libraries.

This machine was invented in 1947 by a writer, translator, and linguist named Lin Yutang. The MingKwai, which means “clear and fast”, was the first compact concept Chinese typewriter to have a keyboard that was capable of producing 80,000+ characters.

How is that even possible? Mechanical sort and search. Seriously! Check this out: the 72-key board is made up of strokes and shapes, and the characters are arranged in linear order, like an English dictionary. To use it, you would press one of the 36 top keys and one of the 28 bottom keys simultaneously. This triggered a series of rotations in the internals and would bring eight characters into view in a small window that Lin called the “magic eye”. Finally, you would choose your desired character using the numbered keys in the bottom row.

The only known prototype was built by the Carl E. Krum company. Lin was unable to drum up commercial interest to produce it at scale, so he sold the rights and the prototype to Mergenthaler Linotype Company, where Jennifer Felix’s grandfather worked as a machinist. So it never went into production, and the prototype went home with with Grandpa.

youtube.com/embed/FR0RVluoim4?…

Got a hot tip that has like, anything to do with keyboards? Help me out by sending in a link or two. Don’t want all the Hackaday scribes to see it? Feel free to email me directly.

hackaday.com/2025/05/12/keebin…

It isn’t too often we post a hack that’s just a pure 3D print with no other components, but for this Giant Molecular Model kit by [3D Printy], we’ll make an exception. After all, even if you print with PLA every day, how often do you get to play with its molecular bonds? (If you want to see that molecule, check out the video after the break.)

There are multiple sizes of bonds to represent bond lengths, and two styles: flexible and firm. Flexible bonds are great for multiple covalent bonds, like carbon-carbon bonds in organic molecules. The bonds clip to caps that screw in to the atoms; alternately a bond-cap can screw the atoms together directly. A plethora of atoms is available, in valence values from one to four. The two-bond atom has 180 and 120-degree variations for greater accuracy. In terms of the chemistry this kit could represent, you’re only limited by your imagination and how long you are willing to spend printing atoms and bonds.

[3D Printy] was kind enough to release the whole lot as CC0 Public Domain, so we might be seeing these at craft fairs, as there’s nothing to keep you from selling the prints. Honestly, we can only hope; from an educational standpoint, this is a much better use of plastic than endless flexy dragons.

If you’d prefer your chemistry toys help you do chemistry, try this fidget spinner centrifuge. Perhaps you’d rather be teaching electronics instead?

youtube.com/embed/iVCQ7WUnU90?…

hackaday.com/2025/05/12/print-…

Lei è Flohra, una coccinella molto speciale, ed è la mascotte della nostra app

Flohra, l’app Android del riuso, è pronta per essere testata. L’app consente di visualizzare le istanze Flohmarkt come @fedimercatino
Se non hai ancora un account Flohmarkt, puoi sempre utilizzare la comunità Lemmy @Il Mercatino del Fediverso 💵♻️ anche dal tuo account Mastodon
#Flohra è un client open source basato su Kotlin Multiplatform e Compose Multiplatform che consente di accedere alle istanze basate su #Flohmarkt, un ambiente federato sviluppato da @midzer per creare nel #Fediverso un’alternativa etica e federata a eBay.

Gli annunci pubblicati su Flohmarkt sono visibili per tutti gli utenti ch hanno un account sui social del Fediverso, come Mastodon, Friendica, Pixelfed, Misskey o Pleroma

Per il momento Flohra è disponibile solo su Android, e chi vuole istallare l’ultima release alpha può farlo a questo link:

https://codeberg.org/RocketInSpace/Flohra/releases/tag/0.1.0-alpha02

NB: Al momento le funzionalità sono in sola lettura, ma prevediamo implementarne altre a breve.

Per chi è curioso, ecco un po’ di schermate:

Flohra, la schermata iniziale e l’accesso ai contenuti dell’istanza locale o delle istanze federate

Flohra: le funzionalità di scorrimento laterale e la ricerca per tag

Flohra, la schermata dei preferiti (con tanto di scorrimento laterale) e la schermata delle impostazioni

Vuoi segnalare un errore o dare un suggerimento? Scrivici su Friendica, Twitter, Mastodon o sul gruppo telegram Comunicazione Pirata

Segui il canale di InformaPirata

informapirata.it/2025/05/12/fl…

informapirata

2025-05-12 12:34:42

Flohra, l’app del riuso, consente di visualizzare le istanze Flohmarkt come Fedimercatino. Ecco come scaricarla

Ecco un’app open source per vusualizzare gli annunci di prodotti usati attraverso la piattaforma libera e federata Flohmarkt

informapirata.it/2025/05/12/fl…

#Fedimercatino #Fediverso #Flohmarkt #Flohra #Mercatino #Riuso

[ap_content

Flohra, l’app del riuso, consente di visualizzare le istanze Flohmarkt come Fedimercatino. Ecco come scaricarla

Ecco un'app open source per vusualizzare gli annunci di prodotti usati attraverso la piattaforma libera e federata Flohmarkt

^{informapirata}

Sei pronto a toccare il cielo con le dita?

Vieni a scoprire un itinerario mozzafiato sopra i 2000 metri, dove la bellezza dell'Abruzzo si mostra in tutta la sua essenzialità.

Esploreremo un angolo nascosto tra il Parco Regionale del Velino Sirente e la Riserva Naturale delle Montagne della Duchessa, un luogo magico per gli amanti della montagna.

Ci immergeremo in un mondo incantato dominato dal silenzio, tra boschi di faggio, valli glaciali e cime panoramiche.

Raggiungeremo un punto di osservazione a 360 gradi, dove potrai ammirare la grandiosità di questi luoghi. In giornate di cielo limpido, le catene montuose più lontane si staglieranno all'orizzonte: dal Terminillo ai Monti Sibillini, fino alla Majella.

Non perdere l'occasione di vivere in buona compagnia una giornata indimenticabile in natura.

Cosa aspetti? Prepara la zaino!

CLICCA QUI PER TUTTE LE INFO ed ISCRIZIONE

#escursioni #escursionismo #escursione #Abruzzo #montagna #natura #trekking #hiking #outdoor #camminare #foto #fotografia