We haven’t seen any projects from serial experimenter [Les Wright] for quite a while, and honestly, we were getting a little worried about that. Turns out we needn’t have fretted, as [Les] was deep into this exploration of the Pockels Effect, with pretty cool results.

If you’ll recall, [Les]’s last appearance on these pages concerned the automated creation of huge, perfect crystals of KDP, or potassium dihydrogen phosphate. KDP crystals have many interesting properties, but the focus here is on their ability to modulate light when an electrical charge is applied to the crystal. That’s the Pockels Effect, and while there are commercially available Pockels cells available for use mainly as optical switches, where’s the sport in buying when you can build?

As with most of [Les]’s projects, there are hacks galore here, but the hackiest is probably the homemade diamond wire saw. The fragile KDP crystals need to be cut before use, and rather than risk his beauties to a bandsaw or angle grinder, [Les] threw together a rig using a stepper motor and some cheap diamond-encrusted wire. The motor moves the diamond wire up and down while a weight forces the crystal against it on a moving sled. Brilliant!

The cut crystals are then polished before being mounted between conductive ITO glass and connected to a high-voltage supply. The video below shows the beautiful polarization changes induced by the electric field, as well as demonstrating how well the Pockels cell acts as an optical switch. It’s kind of neat to see a clear crystal completely block a laser just by flipping a switch.

Nice work, [Les], and great to have you back.

youtube.com/embed/RxjqMh3gkx8?…

hackaday.com/2025/06/25/homebr…

This week Jonathan chats with Davide Bettio and Paul Guyot about AtomVM! Why Elixir on embedded? And how!? And what is a full stack Elixir developer, anyways? Watch to find out!

• atomvm.org/
• github.com/atomvm/AtomVM
• popcorn.swmansion.com/
• kickstarter.com/projects/multi…

youtube.com/embed/3H5OU28TrTI?…

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 contact the guest and have them 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
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Theme music: “Newer Wave” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

hackaday.com/2025/06/25/floss-…

Clamoroso in Francia: smantellata una delle più grandi reti globali di cybercriminalità. Gli hacker di BreachForum erano… francesi. Le autorità francesi hanno sgominato una vasta operazione di criminalità informatica, arrestando cinque giovani hacker francesi responsabili della gestione di BreachForum, uno dei mercati underground digitali più attivi al mondo per la compravendita di dati rubati. L’operazione è stata condotta con raid sincronizzati su tutto il territorio francese.

In un primo momento, si riteneva che dietro BreachForum ci fossero gruppi russi o operanti in territori russofoni. Ma le indagini della Brigata per la Criminalità Informatica (BL2C) della questura di Parigi hanno ribaltato lo scenario: quattro dei principali gestori del forum erano giovani francesi poco più che ventenni, arrestati lunedì. Un quinto membro, noto con lo pseudonimo di “IntelBroker“, era già stato catturato nel febbraio 2025 durante un’operazione separata.

Con la cattura dei principali gestori francesi, le attività di BreachForum subiranno una battuta d’arresto significativa e sembrerebbe che l’eredità dell’ultima versione presa in carico da IntelBroker, possa cessare del tutto, lasciando piede libera ai nuovi insider, come ad esempio DarkForums.

La piattaforma era diventata uno snodo centrale nel traffico globale di dati trafugati, favorendo la vendita di milioni di informazioni sensibili e credenziali personali. Questo colpo alle infrastrutture del cybercrimine evidenzia quanto la cooperazione internazionale stia diventando sempre più decisiva nel combattere le minacce digitali transnazionali.

Dopo che l’FBI ha fermato Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, alias “Pompompurin”, fondatore originale del forum, un gruppo di giovani hacker francesi ha raccolto il testimone, mantenendo attiva la piattaforma sotto nuova gestione. Operando nell’ombra attraverso identità fittizie, sono riusciti a proseguire indisturbati per quasi un anno. L’arresto di “IntelBroker” ha però innescato un’ondata di panico che ha portato alla sospensione del sito nell’aprile 2024.

Le forze dell’ordine francesi hanno coordinato una serie di blitz simultanei in diverse zone, tra cui Hauts-de-Seine, la Normandia e il territorio d’oltremare della Réunion. Gli arrestati agivano sotto pseudonimi come “ShinyHunters”, “Hollow”, “Noct”, “Depressed” e “IntelBroker”. Sono accusati di aver violato sistemi informatici di grandi organizzazioni francesi, tra cui il colosso dell’elettronica Boulanger, l’operatore SFR, France Travail e la Federazione Calcistica Francese.

BreachForum, erede del famigerato RaidForums, è stato definito “un punto d’incontro tra attaccanti e acquirenti di dati” dall’esperto Benoît Grunenwald di ESET. Il fatto che fossero francesi i nuovi registi della piattaforma ha sorpreso molti, ma per Grunenwald si tratta di un segnale della presenza di competenze cyber avanzate anche all’interno del Paese. Questi soggetti avevano raggiunto un tale livello di sofisticazione tecnica da guadagnarsi fiducia e credibilità all’interno dei circuiti criminali underground.

L'articolo Shock in Francia: i signori di BreachForums erano ventenni cittadini Francesi! proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

If you ever look at projects in an old magazine and compare them to today’s electronic projects, there’s at least one thing that will stand out. Most projects in “the old days” looked like something you built in your garage. Today, if you want to make something that rivals a commercial product, it isn’t nearly as big of a problem.
Dynamic diode tester from Popular Electronics (July 1970)
For example, consider the picture of this project from Popular Electronics in 1970. It actually looks pretty nice for a hobby project, but you’d never expect to see it on a store shelf.

Even worse, the amount of effort required to make it look even this good was probably more than you’d expect. The box was a standard case, and drilling holes in a panel would be about the same as it is today, but you were probably less likely to have a drill press in 1970.

But check out the lettering! This is a time before inkjet and laser printers. I’d guess these are probably “rub on” letters, although there are other options. Most projects that didn’t show up in magazines probably had Dymo embossed lettering tape or handwritten labels.

Another project from the same issue of Popular Electronics. Nice lettering, but the aluminum box is a dead giveaway
Of course, even as now, sometimes you just make a junky looking project, but to make a showpiece, you had to spend way more time back then to get a far less professional result.

You notice the boxes are all “stock,” so that was part of it. If you were very handy, you might make your own metal case or, more likely, a wooden case. But that usually gave away its homemade nature, too. Very few commercial items come in a wooden box, and those that do are in fine furniture, not some slap-together box with a coat of paint.

The Inside Story

A Dymo label gun you could buy at Radio Shack
The insides were also a giveaway. While PC boards were not unknown, they were very expensive to have produced commercially. Sure, you could make your own, but it wasn’t as easy as it is now. You probably hand-drew your pattern on a copper board or maybe on a transparency if you were photo etching. Remember, no nice computer printers yet, at least not in your home.

So, most home projects were handwired or maybe wirewrapped. Not that there isn’t a certain aesthetic to that. Beautiful handwiring can be almost an art form. But it hardly looks like a commercial product.

Kits

The best way to get something that looked more or less professional was to get a kit from Heathkit, Allied, or any of the other kit makers. They usually had nice cases with lettering. But building a kit doesn’t feel the same as making something totally from scratch.

Sure, you could modify the kit, and many did. But still not quite the same thing. Besides, not all kits looked any better than your own projects.

The Tao

Of course, maybe we shouldn’t emulate commercial products. Some of the appeal of a homemade product is that it looks homemade. It is like the Tao of Programming notes about software development:

3.3 There was once a programmer who was attached to the court of the warlord of Wu. The warlord asked the programmer: “Which is easier to design: an accounting package or an operating system?”

“An operating system,” replied the programmer.

The warlord uttered an exclamation of disbelief. “Surely an accounting package is trivial next to the complexity of an operating system,” he said.

“Not so,” said the programmer, “When designing an accounting package, the programmer operates as a mediator between people having different ideas: how it must operate, how its reports must appear, and how it must conform to the tax laws. By contrast, an operating system is not limited by outside appearances. When designing an operating system, the programmer seeks the simplest harmony between machine and ideas. This is why an operating system is easier to design.”

Commercial gear has to conform to standards and interface with generic things. Bespoke projects can “seek the simplest harmony between machine and ideas.”

Then again, if you are trying to make something to sell on Tindie, or as a prototype, maybe commercial appeal is a good thing. But if you are just building for yourself, maybe leaning into the homebrew look is a better choice. Who would want to mess with a beautiful wooden arcade cabinet, for example? Or this unique turntable?

Let us know how you feel about it in the comments.

hackaday.com/2025/06/25/the-ta…

Era ora, ERA ORA!

Non capisco perché ci abbiano messo tanto.

E comunque da questa iniziativa resta fuori per lo meno la Toscana.

EDIT: come segnalato da Baylee, al boicottaggio partecipano anche Unicoop Firenze e Unicoop Tirreno.

#bds

ilpost.it/2025/06/24/coop-supe…