Typically, when we think about forming metal parts, we think about beating them with hammers, or squeezing them with big hydraulic presses. But what if magnets could do the squeezing? As it turns out—Grumman Aerospace discovered they can, several decades ago! Even better, they summed up this technique in a great educational video which we’ve placed below the break.
The video concerns the development of the Grumman EMF Torque Tube. The parts are essentially tubes with gear-like fittings mounted in either end, which are fixed with electromagnetic forming techniques instead of riveting or crimping. Right away, we’re told the key benefits—torque tubes built this way are “stronger, lighter, and more fatigue resistant” than those built with conventional techniques. Grumman used these torque tubes in such famous aircraft as the F-14 Tomcat, highlighting their performance and reliability.
Before……and after. The part is formed and the coil is destroyed. The video goes on to explain the basics of the EMF torque tube production process. A tube is placed inside a coil, with the end fitting then installed inside. A capacitor bank dumps current through the coil to generate a strong electromagnetic field. This field is opposed by a secondary field generated by eddy currents. The two forces result in an explosive force which drives the tube inwards, gripping into the grooves of the end fitting, and destroys the coil in the process. Grumman notes that it specifically optimized a grooving profile for bonding tubes with end fittings, which maximised the strength of these EMF-produced joints.
This tip was sent in by [irox]. The video itself was posted by [Greg Benoit], who notes his father Robert Benoit was intimately involved with the development of the technique. Indeed, it was useful enough that the technology was licensed to Boeing, generating many millions of dollars for Grumman.
We feature all kinds of machining and forming techniques here, but this sort of forming isn’t something we see a lot of around these parts. Still, we’re sure someone will be Kickstarting a home EMF forming machine before the end of next week.
This project submitted to the 2025 Pet Hacks Contest brings a bit of IoT to your finned friends. Aquassist is a fish feeder that is primarily 3D printed only requiring a servo and a microcontroller to give you remote control of feeding your fish.
The Aquassist consists of just six 3D-printed parts. At its core is an Archimedes screw, a mechanism that ensures consistent portions of fish food are dispensed into the fish tank. A small hopper on top holds the food, and to minimize the part count, all 3D-printed components are designed to be glued together.
The brains of the operation take place in a Wemos D1 mini, a compact ESP8266 board programed using the Arduino IDE. The feeding mechanism relies on an SG90 continuous rotation servo, which rotates the Archimedes screw to dispense food. Unlike standard servos, this model offers ample torque in a small package and can rotate continuously without hitting an angular limit.
The Aquassist is controlled via a web-based application accessible from any device. The D1 Mini connects to Firebase to check the feeding schedule or detect if the “Feed Now” button has been pressed. Users can set feeding times or trigger an immediate feeding through the app’s intuitive interface. Check out a video below to see the Aquassist in action, and check our our other entries into the 2025 Pet Hacks Contest.
Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) has informed Paramount Global executives that it plans to file a lawsuit if Paramount settles with President Donald Trump over his court case against CBS News.
News reports indicate Paramount Global is prepared to settle Trump’s frivolous and unconstitutional complaint against its subsidiary, CBS News, over its editing of an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. United States senators and others have said the purpose of settling may be to bribe the president to clear the path for Paramount to finalize a merger with Skydance Media.
We’ve written previously about how Trump’s complaint against CBS is a clear First Amendment violation and threatens the basic press freedom rights of other news outlets.
So today, FPF sent a letter to Paramount Chair Shari Redstone to put her and other Paramount executives on notice that it plans to file a shareholder’s derivative lawsuit should Paramount settle with Trump, and to demand that Paramount preserve all records that may be relevant to its claims. FPF is a Paramount Global shareholder.
A derivative lawsuit is a procedure that allows shareholders of a company to recover damages incurred due to impropriety by executives and directors. Any damages award would go to Paramount, not FPF.
Paramount executives have reportedly feared liability for settling, and this week, U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren opened an investigation of whether settling would violate bribery laws and asking whether Paramount had evaluated the risk of derivative liability.
FPF Director of Advocacy Seth Stern said:
“Corporations that own news outlets should not be in the business of settling baseless lawsuits that clearly violate the First Amendment and put other media outlets at risk. A settlement of Trump’s meritless lawsuit may well be a thinly veiled effort to launder bribes through the court system. Not only would it tank CBS’s reputation but, as three U.S. senators recently explained, it could put Paramount executives at risk of breaking the law.
“Our mission as a press freedom organization is to defend the rights of journalists and the public, not the financial interests of corporate higher-ups who turn their backs on them. When you run a news organization, you have the responsibility to protect First Amendment rights, not abandon them to line your own pockets.
“We hope Paramount will reconsider the dangerous path it appears to be contemplating but, if not, we are prepared to pursue our rights as shareholders. And we hope other Paramount shareholders will join us.”
John Cusack, an FPF founding board member, activist and actor, added, “I’m proud that Freedom of the Press Foundation is doing what CBS’s corporate owners won’t — standing up for press freedom and against authoritarian shakedowns. People who aren’t willing to defend the First Amendment should not be in the news business.”
[Dmytro] was able to lay his hands on a InfiRay T2S+ camera. It’s a capable thermal imaging unit that comes at a cheaper price than many of its rivals. [Dmytro] decided to pull it apart to see what makes it tick, and he discovered a few interesting things along the way.
Like so much modern hardware, pulling the case apart does require some spudging and levering. Once inside, though, it comes apart in a relatively straightforward manner. Once inside, [Dmytro] notes some similarities between this camera and the Flir Lepton, another affordable thermal camera on the market. He also finds a clone of the Cypress FX2LP chip, which is used for talking USB. There’s also an Gowin FPGA inside, with [Dmytro] suspecting the gateware onboard could be modified. If so, the camera may be a candidate for running open source firmware in future.
What bothered [Dmytro] about this camera, though, was the software. When used with an Android phone, the camera demands the use of a proprietary app with with questionable permissions. It can be used on a regular computer, where it appears as a standard webcam. However, in this mode, the camera fails to self-calibrate, and the images quickly become useless. [Dmytro] worked to hack around this, by figuring out a way to trigger calibrations and run the proper image corrections manually when using the camera without the smartphone app. He also explores techniques to improve the resolution of the thermal measurements made by the camera.
We’ve seen some other neat thermal camera hacks over the years. Video after the break.
This week we examine how leaks are fueling reporting in spite of crackdowns on whistleblowers and journalists. And Rümeysa Öztürk may be out of jail but her ordeal isn’t over. It’s now the 59th day that she’s facing deportation by the United States government for writing an op-ed it didn’t like. More press freedom news below.
Recent leaks show why source protection matters
Our Freedom of Information Act request for an intelligence community memo and the reporting that’s followed have turned into “exhibit A” on why leaks to the press serve the public interest.
Journalists have written about how the memo belies the Trump administration’s own rationale for mass deporting Venezuelans, and we’ve explained how it confirms that Attorney General Pam Bondi’s basis for repealing her predecessor’s safeguards against subpoenaing journalists was bunk.
But even more revelations have followed. This week the Times reported that Director of National Intelligence official Joe Kent pressured intelligence agencies to rewrite their assessment on the Venezuelan government’s control of gang members to support Trump’s position and then supported the release of the rewritten memo because he didn’t understand what it actually said. We also learned that there is a major rift between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the intelligence community.
Rümeysa Öztürk never supported terrorism. That’s not even debatable now.
But lack of evidence isn’t stopping the Trump administration’s efforts to deport her and others. So when Congress contemplates further empowering the same administration to arbitrarily deem its opponents’ conduct “support of terrorism,” alarm bells should sound.
Well, ring-a-ling. Last year’s “nonprofit killer” bill, which would allow the administration to deem rights organizations and nonprofit news outlets terrorist supporters and revoke their tax-exempt status, is making a comeback. Read more here.
An open letter to leaders of American institutions
Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) was proud to join a letter led by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University urging leaders of civic and other major institutions to defend free speech amid the Trump administration’s multifront assault on First Amendment freedoms.
As the letter says, “If our democracy is to survive, the freedoms of speech and the press need a vigorous, determined defense.” Read the whole thing.
US press freedom groups launch Journalist Assistance Network
Five major U.S.-based press freedom organizations (including FPF) announced the launch of a network to provide legal and safety resources and training to journalists and newsrooms in the United States. Read more about it here.
It’s been a universal trait among the different faithful Hackaday Hounds who have loped around these parts over the decades, that there is no place warm enough for their tastes. Fire up the stove and the dog is there stretched out in front of it, leaving one to wonder whether our house temperature is being cruel to the mutt, or simply that they are heat sponges with infinite capacity. There’s got to be some joy in doggy circles then at the prospect of [John.r.sheahan]’s heated dog bed, designed in particular with the comfort of an older dog in mind.
In electronics terms it’s a relatively low-tech project, using as it does a 12 volt electric lap blanket aimed at motorists. It’s none the less a hack though, because it has a frame made of PVC pipe to hold it, and a blanked clipped in place. This forms a box-like structure above the sleeping position keeping the dog very comfortable indeed over chilly nights. We’ve cared for more than one geriatric dog over the years, and can see that something like this is vital for their comfort and well-being.
This project is part of the 2025 Pet Hacks contest, so look out for more like it. Alternatively if your faithful friend uses something you made, why not enter yourself!
Our Spring 2025 conference will be Sunday, June 15th in the Lavender Room at Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. The conference starts at 10am and ends by 4pm.
Arts at the Armory is wheelchair accessible, has free parking in the back, is on the Route 88 and 90 bus lines and walking distance from the Gilman and Magoun Squares MBTA Green Line stations. The Lavender Room is in the basement and is accessible by stair and elevator.
We’re back in Europe for this week’s Hackaday podcast, as Elliot Williams is joined by Jenny List. In the news this week is the passing of Ed Smylie, the engineer who devised the famous improvised carbon dioxide filter that saved the Apollo 13 astronauts with duct tape.
Closer to home is the announcement of the call for participation for this year’s Hackaday Supercon; we know you will have some ideas and projects you’d like to share.
Interesting hacks this week include a new Mac Plus motherboard and Doom (just) running on an Atari ST, while a LoRa secure messenger and an astounding open-source Ethernet switch captivated us on the hardware front. We also take a dive into the Mouse programming language, a minimalist stack-based environment from the 1970s. Among the quick hacks are a semiconductor dopant you can safely make at home, and a beautiful Mac Mini based cyberdeck.
Finally, we wrap up with our colleague [Maya Posch] making the case for a graceful degradation of web standards, something which is now sadly missing from so much of the online world, and then with the discovery that ChatGPT can make a passable show of emulating a Hackaday scribe. Don’t worry folks, we’re still reassuringly meat-based.
Dopo le offerte dell’asse Leonardo-Rheinmetall, dell’azienda spagnola Indra e del fondo statunitense Bain Capital, sembra che anche il Czechoslovak group (Csg), conglomerata ceca i cui ricavi sono schizzati da 1,7 milioni del 2023 a 4 miliardi di euro del 2024 grazie alle commesse dovute alla guerra in Ucraina stia
Il prossimo 27 maggio il Consiglio europeo si esprimerà sul pacchetto Safe (parte del piano ReArm/Readiness 2030), lo strumento da 150 miliardi di euro in prestiti garantiti dalla Commissione destinato a potenziare le capacità
This week, we discuss the benefits of spending 14 hours a day on the internet, getting cozy for AI slop, and a what a new law in Sweden means for the rest of us.#BehindTheBlog
Il fantasma di Donna Olimpia continua a perseguitarmi 😮
Ieri il destino, complice anche l'ukulele e il Monopolele Fest, mi ha portato a suonare di nuovo nei luoghi in cui visse Donna Olimpia, uno dei personaggi storici più influenti e affascinanti della Roma del 1600, e quindi del mondo intero probabilmente. Già qualche anno fa ebbi il piacere di partecipare a una bellissima residenza artistica organizzata da MarteLive presso Palazzo Pamphilj a San Martino al Cimino (VT), la dimora signorile in cui Olimpia Maidalchini morì in esilio di peste nel 1657, residenza durante la quale scrissi delle canzoni dedicate a questo sfaccettato personaggio storico, anche noto come La Pimpaccia e La Papessa, per poi cantarle dal vivo durante uno spettacolo multidisciplinare come restituzione della residenza stessa. Ieri invece con una bella rappresentanza del Monopolele Fest abbiamo suonato sempre dentro Palazzo Pamphilj, ma stavolta a Piazza Navona, in quello che è una vera gemma della Roma barocca, voluta da quel Papa Innocenzo X che tale divenne soprattutto grazie al sostegno proprio di Donna Olimpia, in un'epoca in cui le femmine se volevano contare qualcosa il meglio che potevano fare era tenersi quanto meno un passo dietro a qualche uomo, magari anche meno valente di loro stesse. E così ieri con quelle simpaticissime mattacchione de Le Cumbinate e con tanti altri ottimi artisti, tra cui i miei fratelli Danilo Vignola e Giovanni Gio Didonna, ci siamo ritrovati a fare backstage proprio dentro le stanze in cui Donna Olimpia viveva e riceveva le sue visite. Dal 1920 Palazzo Pamphilj è sede dell'Ambasciata del Brasile, e in effetti quello che si è tenuto ieri è stato un piccolo gemellaggio tra questo paese, da cui proviene uno degli artisti ospiti del Monopolele Fest, ossia il bravissimo Vinicius Vivas, e Monopoli, cittadina costiera perla della Puglia, che settimana prossima ospiterà la quinta edizione di quello che è ormai il festival dell'ukulele più importante del mediterraneo.
Insomma quella di ieri, complice anche l'apparizione per un attimo del fantasma dell'austera Donna Olimpia nella sala del concerto, proprio mentre fuori a un certo punto cominciava a piovere e tuonare, è stata una serata di quelle che non si dimenticano facilmente, anche quando hai qualcosa come 2500 live alle tue spalle 😋
Un uomo con barba e cappello nero posa con una bicicletta da strada davanti a un edificio storico illuminato. Indossa una giacca con colori vivaci: rosso, giallo e verde, e pantaloni scuri. La bicicletta è bianca con manubri e sella bianchi, e ha un portapacchi sul retro. Il terreno è di pietra bagnata, riflettendo le luci. Sullo sfondo, si vede un edificio con una cupola e statue, suggerendo un contesto urbano notturno.
Fornito da @altbot, generato localmente e privatamente utilizzando Ovis2-8B
L'ultimo articolo di Connessioni, la rivista online del Centro Milanese di Terapia della Famiglia. Lo specchio unidirezionale è ancora valido e utile? Quali sono le implicazioni epistemologiche, etiche e relazionali in terapia e in formazione? Di Beppe Pasini
Di Beppe PasiniLo specchio unidirezionale è ancora valido e utile? Quali sono le implicazioni epistemologiche, etiche e relazionali in terapia e in formazione?
@Privacy Pride Il post completo di Christian Bernieri è sul suo blog: garantepiracy.it/blog/e-privac… Un bel posto, Bari. Un bell'evento, e-privacy. Un bel presidente, Marco Calamari (Cassandra)... questo però non si può dire senza sorridere e per più di un motivo. Un bel tema: «La vita è tutto un dossier» Avere come obiettivo solo una riduzione del danno alla…
Il 21 maggio del 1980 usciva nelle sale il secondo capitolo della Trilogia di George Lucas, capace di portare la saga verso vette di perfezione assoluta
Meta AI: il Tribunale tedesco non ha concesso un'ingiunzione provvisoria. La decisione finale sarà presa nel procedimento principale. Le DPA tedesche hanno avviato la procedura d'urgenza. Oggi, un tribunale della regione tedesca di Colonia ha dovuto decidere su un'ingiunzione provvisoria contro Meta per aver addestrato la sua IA con i dati degli utenti senza chiedere il consenso mr23 May 2025
L'assemblea del 17 maggio ha eletto a larga maggioranza Aldo Soldi nuovo presidente. L'ex direttore generale Alessandro Messina si è fermato al di sotto del 13%.
E' scaduto il passaporto e ho dovuto rifarlo, ho preso un appuntamento tramite il sito, è stato facilissimo e avevano disponibilità già a partire dal giorno dopo, ho potuto addirittura scegliere l'orario. Ho inserito i miei dati e il sistema mi ha dato la richiesta già compilata.
Stamattina sono andato al commissariato e mi hanno ricevuto 10 minuti prima dell'orario a cui avevo l'appuntamento. Ho fatto tutto in pochi minuti, adesso devo aspettare che mi arrivi l'email (l'email!!!) che mi avvisa che il passaporto è pronto per passare a ritirarlo (avrei persino potuto farmelo spedire a casa pagando una decina di euro in più).
Sono esterrefatto.
L'unica cosa che mi ha ricordato di essere davanti allo Stato sono stati gli ambienti: all'esterno l'erbaccia che cresce tra i gradini della scala di accesso, all'interno la contro-soffittatura rovinata da infiltrazioni, i muri da imbiancare e, appese, delle tristissime foto scolorite dal tempo.
Marco Denti – La Terra di Tutti freezonemagazine.com/articoli/… Poliedrico, non c’è dubbio. Non potrei trovare aggettivo diverso per definire la personalità di Marco Denti. Capace di passare dalla letteratura (mirabile la sua rubrica Books Highway parte integrante e sostanziale del sito Roots Highway creato da Fabio Cerbone), fino ad arrivare al gradito rientro nelle file del Buscadero e la musica che da anni […] L'articolo Marco Denti – La Terra di Tutti
Paolo Pasi – L’albergo del tempo sospeso freezonemagazine.com/news/paol… In libreria dal 28 Maggio Che cosa spinge tante persone a tornare ogni estate nello stesso luogo, nella stessa stanza, nella stessa ritualità balneare? Paolo Pasi si muove tra queste domande nel suo nuovo romanzo L’albergo del tempo sospeso. Una storia sospesa tra nostalgia e ironia, che racconta mezzo secolo di storia italiana attraverso le […] L'articolo Paolo Pasi – L’albergo
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo Cresce tra ebrei americani e israeliani il dissenso verso la guerra a Gaza: accuse di genocidio e crimini di guerra rompono vecchi tabù. L'articolo Alcuni dei più convinti sostenitori di Israele
@Politica interna, europea e internazionale Il Parlamento Europeo, in collaborazione con The Post Internazionale (TPI), ha organizzato la tavola rotonda “Un nuovo modello di lavoro: la direttiva UE per stage di qualità” per venerdì 23 maggio, alle ore 11,30, presso Esperienza
senso di giustizia umano? uhmmmm... ah si forse questo: quello che è mio è sicuramente ed eternamente mio. quello che è tuo beh... si è tuo per adesso, ma dovrebbe comunque essere mio, a rigor di logica: tu non lo meriti. (che poi è come ragiona un isaeliano)
Mario Giacomelli freezonemagazine.com/articoli/… Chi ancora si domanda se la fotografia sia un‘arte deve obbligatoriamente andare a vedere la mostra allestita a Palazzo Reale a Milano, dal 22 maggio al 7 settembre, su Mario Giacomelli. Così scoprirà anche che Giacomelli non è un fotografo ma un poeta, un poeta che scrive non con la parola ma con la luce. […] L'articolo Mario Giacomelli proviene da FREE ZONE MAGAZINE. Chi ancora si domanda se la fotografia sia un‘arte
Fabrizio Coppola freezonemagazine.com/articoli/… Fabrizio Coppola è un artigiano della parola, uno di quegli artisti abituati a “curvare le parole”, per citare il testo di Dostojevskij, brano di Massimo Bubola, grande poeta e cantautore italiano, che non a caso, richiama il rapporto tra musica e letteratura, accostamento che caratterizza anche l’opera di Coppola, che come Bubola, è a sua […] L'articolo Fabrizio Coppola proviene da FREE ZONE MAGA Fabrizio Coppola è un
L'articolo proviene da #StartMag e viene ricondiviso sulla comunità Lemmy @Informatica (Italy e non Italy 😁) Google: il gigante americano torna sul mercato degli occhiali connessi. L’articolo di Le Figaro tratto dalla rassegna di Liturri nel suo canale Telegram.
Bluesky begins rolling out support for livestreaming on other platforms, Leaflet is a blogging and publishing platform that has added ATProto integration, easier bridging between ATProto and other protocols, and a whole lot more.
Bluesky begins rolling out support for livestreaming on other platforms, Leaflet is a blogging and publishing platform that has added ATProto integration, easier bridging between ATProto and other protocols, and a whole lot more.
I also run a weekly newsletter, where you get all the articles I published this week directly in your inbox, as well as additional analysis. You can sign up right here, and get the next edition tomorrow!
The News
Bluesky is starting to roll out a new feature where people can add their Twitch and YouTube livestreams to their account, and the Bluesky app will display an indicator on your profile that you are live. Bluesky is rolling out the feature slowly, with only a select few accounts being able to go live so far. It is mainly focused on sports communities so far, with the NBA being one of the first partners. Bluesky is taking it slow with this feature, CTO Paul Frazee said that major effort is in verifying if the linked account on the streaming platform is the same person as the Bluesky account. Another concern is moderation, Bluesky is only linking to Twitch and YouTube, as these are platforms with a well-established moderation infrastructure. For example Bluesky wants ATProto streaming platform Streamplace to have solid moderation in place before it is considered to be added as a potential source of livestreams. Similar to how Bluesky has rolled out verification, some core pieces of how going live works as only accessible on ATProto, and available for others to use. Bluesky client TOKIMEKI already added the ability for any user to go live. However, same as with verification, this is only visible to other people who also use TOKIMEKI. The real impact of a livestreaming integration will likely come when the feature becomes more widely available, but for now it is already a good demonstration of Bluesky’s willingness to send traffic outside of their app. While Big Tech platforms are taking greater and greater efforts to stop people from leaving their app, Bluesky is taking the opposite approach, by adding features which make people switch to another app.
Leaflet is a publishing platform where anyone can easily create and publish their own documents, posts and pages. These documents can be shared as simple web pages, with a lot of features for customisation. Leaflet’s latest update is Leaflet Publications, which adds ATProto integration. They describe the update as Leaflet becoming as a social publishing platform. With the update, you can now create a ‘publication’, which is a collection of documents and posts. For this you log into Leaflet with your ATProto (Bluesky) account, so that the data is stored on ATProto on your PDS. This makes Leaflet an ATProto blogging platform similar to WhiteWind. Future plans include for more social integration, such as subscribing, commenting, following and more. The organisation says that the key goals is to build social publishing, and to support creators, with paid subscriptions being “a high priority and on our roadmap”.
A New Social, the organisation behind Bridgy Fed, has launched a dedicated page to for people to manage their account bridging. Bridgy Fed is a piece of software that allows people to ‘bridge’ their account across multiple protocols. This allows people on Mastodon (using the ActivityPub protocol) to interact with people on Bluesky (using AT Protocol). For this, people need to manually opt-in their accounts to be bridged to other networks (largely due to cultural reasons from the fediverse communities). Up until now, doing so was a fairly confusing process that involved manually following other accounts. With the new update, people can log in to Bridgy Fed with the account they want to bridge, and simply turn it on or off. It also has an easier option to update the handles for Mastodon accounts that are bridged to Bluesky: for example, by default my Mastodon account on Bluesky can be found at @[url=did:plc:43qcmg2xbxakj6mp4puqyayv]Laurens Hof[/url], which is a fairly cumbersome handle, to put it mildly. At the settings page I can now change it to any handle I want, similar to how any Bluesky account can change their handle. A New Social is also launching a Patreon as they are working towards financial sustainability, with plans to launch merch soon as well.
Custom feed builder Graze has released an integration with Patreon. This integration gives feed creators two new options. Feed creators can now give members of their Patreon the ability to see their custom feeds without sponsored content. They can also limit access to their custom feed to only members of their Patreon. Custom feeds present a large amount of new design space to explore, and they can be used for a wide variety of purposes. One of those is using custom feeds as a form of community, as Blacksky is doing, for example. Restricting access to a a custom feed to only members of a Patreon is another step in the direction of ‘feeds as communities’.
Grain Social is a new photo sharing app build on ATProto. The app is for creating and sharing galleries of photos. The app uses it’s own lexicon, giving people a space to upload and share photos that do not automatically end up on Bluesky. The app has some simple features right now: a timeline that shows all the galleries and photo’s that are created on the platform, and the ability for people to upload photos and create galleries.
Germ Network is an end-2-end encrypted (E2EE) messaging app that is currently in development. The app has announced that they are working on ATProto integration, where people can use Germ Network with their ATProto account. The actual E2EE messaging happens off-protocol. Germ Network says that they are hoping for a common on-protocol implementation in the future, where Germ Network and other ATProto messaging apps can interoperate. A thread by Germ Network CEO Tessa Brown also illustrates why platforms are interested in integrating with ATProto: getting a new social platform off the ground without an existing social graph is incredibly hard. ATProto provides the possibility for other platforms to tap into an existing social graph. This observation is not new, Bluesky PBC has been explicit that this is one of the advantages and design goals of ATProto. We are now starting to see this play out, with new apps that are starting to come out that use ATProto to bootstrap a social graph.
The developers for Bluesky client Flashes said they are working on the concept of a PDS that runs on mobile phones. The Flashes developers are interested in working together with others on this, and have started a Working Group where they have shared their proposed design.
One of the core ideas of ATProto is that the network is effectively one giant pool of data, where a variety of apps and tools can access the same data and process and present that data in a way that fits them best. A Bluesky post can be viewed in the Bluesky Social app for regular doomscrollingmicroblogging, but the same post can also be opened in a PDS browser tool like PDSls or atp.tools, viewed in Skythread for a threading view, or more. Switching between apps to view the same post in different context is quite cumbersome. at://wormhole is a tool to make this easier, it is an Apple Shortcut that allows easy switching between apps. You can view the same content, using the different context that each app provides. As the ecosystem develops, I’m expecting to see more experimentation and development in this direction.
An update for moderation software Ozone (it can now display, issue, and revoke, verification) as well as a new proposal by Bluesky PBC to expand the set of reporting reasons available to users and labelers.
Streamplace has launched a new tool for OAuth, OATProxy, which helps prevent users being logged out of their apps every few days.
Streamplace redesigned the homepage, and made their first hire after their funding round.
Popsky is a media review app on ATProto, and the app is now available for testing on Android as well as iOS. Popsky also supports Goodreads imports now.
BookHive is another media review platform that added support for Goodreads imports this week.
Jetrelay is a custom designed relay that is intended to serve a large number of clients with high efficiency.
In the Media
Wired has an extensive interview with Bluesky CEO Jay Graber, and Graber answers a wide variety of questions on the network. Some quotes that stood out to me:
Graber says that Bluesky is great at sending traffic to news organisations. Wired themselves confirm this, saying that “The platform has become a top traffic driver and source of new subscribers“. Washington Times reporter Drew Harwell also agrees that Bluesky has become a great drive of referral traffic.
Wired boils down questions of moderation to its core, by asking: “Would you welcome President Trump?” Graber is clear that Bluesky will, saying: “Yeah—Bluesky’s for everyone, and we think that over time, the broader public conversation needs to be on an open protocol. That lets people choose their own moderation preferences. We think that it’s flexible enough to serve every use case and everyone.” The follow-up questions on how Graber relates this to free speech being under thread is worth reading as well.
On growing the team: “In November, during our growth spurt, we were around 20. Now we’re at 25, and we’ll probably pass 30 soon. We’re growing at a pace that’s sustainable to us.”
Graber talks about an upcoming ‘communities’ feature that’s scheduled for the end of the year: “A lot of people don’t realize that Bluesky is a bit like Reddit and Twitter at the same time, because you can build feeds that are essentially communities—the science feed is run by scientists, is moderated by scientists, and has its own rules.” The ability to build custom feeds is also planned to come to within the Bluesky app.
On making money, Graber reiterates the current plans: “Subscriptions are coming soon. The next steps are to look into what marketplaces can span these different applications.”
Some interesting and fun experiments in building on ATProto that caught my eye this week:
A tool to scan your timeline and see how how much every account you follow contributes to your feed. Gives good insight in how dominant the loudest voices can be on your timeline, compared to the Quiet Posters.
Sure why not make your browsing history publicly available on ATProto.
That’s all for this week, thanks for reading! If you want more analysis, you can subscribe to my newsletter. Every week you get an update with all this week’s articles, as well as extra analysis not published anywhere else. You can subscribe below, and follow this blog @fediversereport.com and my personal account @laurenshof.online on Bluesky.
All the lefties fled to Bluesky following Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover. But CEO Jay Graber says the app is for everyone—and could revolutionize how people communicate online.
Julian Assange insieme alla moglie Stella sul red carpet a Cannes per presenziare la presentazione di “The Six Billion Dollar Man, l'uomo da 6 miliardi di dollari”, un film documentario diretto da Eugene Jarecki sul giornalista Julian Assange.
Altbot
in reply to Adriano Bono • • •Un uomo con barba e cappello nero posa con una bicicletta da strada davanti a un edificio storico illuminato. Indossa una giacca con colori vivaci: rosso, giallo e verde, e pantaloni scuri. La bicicletta è bianca con manubri e sella bianchi, e ha un portapacchi sul retro. Il terreno è di pietra bagnata, riflettendo le luci. Sullo sfondo, si vede un edificio con una cupola e statue, suggerendo un contesto urbano notturno.
Fornito da @altbot, generato localmente e privatamente utilizzando Ovis2-8B
🌱 Energia utilizzata: 0.167 Wh