If you’re looking for a more open, unenclosed 3D printer design than a cubic frame can accommodate, but don’t want to use a bed-slinger, you don’t have many options. [Boothy Builds] recently found himself in this situation, so he designed the Hi5, a printer that holds its hotend between two cantilevered arms.

The hotend uses bearings to slide along the metal arms, which themselves run along linear rails. The most difficult part of the design was creating the coupling between the guides that slides along the arms. It had to be rigid enough to position the hotend accurately and repeatably, but also flexible enough avoid binding. The current design uses springs to tension the bearings, though [Boothy Builds] eventually intends to find a more elegant solution. Three independent rails support the print bed, which lets the printer make small alterations to the bed’s tilt, automatically tramming it. Earlier iterations used CNC-milled bed supports, but [Boothy Builds] found that 3D printed plastic supports did a better job of damping out vibrations.

[Boothy Builds] notes that the current design puts the X and Y belts under considerable load, which sometimes causes them to slip, leading to occasional layer shifts and noise in the print. He acknowledges that the design still has room for improvement, but the design seems quite promising to us.

This printer’s use of cantilevered arms to support the print head puts it in good company with another interesting printer we’ve seen. Of course, that design element does also lend itself to the very cheapest of printers.

youtube.com/embed/9SezI9cAfXA?…

Thanks to [Keith Olson] for the tip!

hackaday.com/2025/07/12/an-ope…

[Kevin Cheung] likes to upcycle old soda cans into — well — things. The metal is thin enough to cut by hand, but he’d started using a manual die-cutting machine, and it worked well. The problem? The machine was big and heavy, weighing well over 30 pounds. The solution was to get a lightweight die cutter. It worked better than expected, but [Kevin] really wanted it to be more portable, so he stripped it down and built the mechanism into a new case.

The video below isn’t quite a “how-to” video, but if you like watching someone handcraft something with a lot of skill, you’ll enjoy it. It also might give you ideas about how you could use one of these cutters, even if you don’t bother building a nice case for it.

We’ve seen cutters that use computer control, but they aren’t inexpensive. They will, however, make the same kind of cuts. But these manual die cutters are very inexpensive, and you simply have to find a way to make the die. You can easily make them for cutting paper, and, with the right materials, you can make the kind you see in [Kevin]’s video, too.

We have to admit, carrying the gizmo into a public place seemed to make a lot of people happy. So maybe portability is a good goal. But either way, you can have some fun with a machine like that.

If you want to cut paper, these work great. If you want paper to make the cuts, we have just the thing for you.

youtube.com/embed/AKVGbrK1mh0?…

hackaday.com/2025/07/12/die-cu…

Molto interessanti anche i commenti.

ilpost.it/2025/07/12/telefono-…

#fairphone #fairphone6

Un telefono più giusto

Gli smartphone prodotti da Fairphone sono riparabili e costruiti con materie prime estratte in modo più responsabile, e hanno un loro piccolo mercato

^{Il Post}

Display technology has come a long way since the advent of the CRT in the late 1800s (yes, really!). Since then, we’ve enjoyed the Nixie tubes, flip dots, gas plasma, LCD, LED, ePaper, the list goes on. Now, there’s a new kid on the block — water.

[Steve Mould] recently got his hands on an OpenDrop — an open-source digital microfluidics platform for biology research. It’s essentially a grid of electrodes coated in a dielectric. Water sits atop this insulating layer, and due to its polarized nature, droplets can be moved around the grid by voltages applied to the electrodes. The original intent was to automate experiments (see 8:19 in the video below for some wild examples), but [Steve] had far more important uses in mind.

When [Steve]’s €1,000 device shipped from Switzerland, it was destined for greatness. It was turned into a game console for classics such as Pac-Man, Frogger, and of course, Snake. With help from the OpenDrop’s inventor (and Copilot), he built paired-down versions of the games that could run on the 8×14 “pixel” grid. Pac-Man in particular proved difficult, because due to the conservation of mass, whenever Pac-Man ate a ghost, he grew and eventually became unwieldy. Fortunately, Snake is one of the few videogames that actually respects the laws of classical mechanics, as the snake grows by one unit each time it consumes food.

[Steve] has also issued a challenge — if you code up another game, he’ll run it on his OpenDrop. He’s even offering a prize for the first working Tetris implementation, so be sure to check out his source code linked in the video description as a starting point. We’ve seen Tetris on oscilloscopes and 3D LED matrices before, so it’s about time we get a watery implementation.

youtube.com/embed/rf-efIZI_Dg?…

Thanks to [deʃhipu] for the tip!

hackaday.com/2025/07/12/playin…

Riceviamo spesso documenti condivisi da compilare su Google Docs: da scuole pubbliche e private, associazioni e persino enti pubblici!
Ed è comodo, no? Tanto un account Google ce l'abbiamo tutti!
Cosa c'è che non va? Questo!

Se mi invii un documento o un foglio Google da compilare, stai dando per scontato che io abbia un account o mi stai obbligando a farmene uno.
E per avere un'idea di che cosa sia veramente un account Google, basta leggere il funetto: è molto carino, in italiano e si legge in fretta.

Contra Chrome
contrachrome.com/comic/806/

Trovare un'altra soluzione può sembrare scomodo, ma ci si rende presto conto anche anche qui c'è DI MEGLIO.

Appena iscritto alla scuola di arteterapia, la tutor ha inviato a me e ai miei colleghi un foglio Google da compilare.
Ho fatto il rompiscatole della situazione e le ho proposto un'alternativa basata su software libero.
Ha capito subito ed ha acconsentito a provare la nuova piattaforma (OnlyOffice DocSpace).
Ha mandato il nuovo link a tutti e ora abbiamo anche uno spazio in più per condividere file e contenuti didattici, rispettoso degli utenti e ottimizzato anche per il cellulare!

[N.B.: non ho incluso Infomaniak perché è più un'alternativa a tutto l'ecosistema Google (email, calendario, meeting e tanto altro - ne parlerò in un prossimo post) comunque, tra le altre cose, anche loro forniscono una suite d'ufficio collaborativa inclusa nel piano gratuito, con 20 Gb di storage]

1) OnlyOffice DocSpace
Il piano gratuito è già un rimpiazzo perfetto delle funzioni di collaborazione di GDocs, con uno spazio di 2 Gb dove si possono creare stanze e gestire gli inviti e i permessi, invitando a collaborare su un singolo documento o permettendo l'accesso anche come creatori di contenuti.
Per chi riceve un link per collaborare (a un singolo documento o a una stanza) funziona esattamente come in GDocs: si può fare tutto da browser senza la necessità di installare le loro app.
Per chi possiede un proprio spazio web è inoltre possibile installare e amministrare tutto in locale (si integra anche con Nextcloud e tanti altri servizi).
Sicuramente l'alternativa (libera con piano gratuito) più immediata e completa.
[N.B.: conosco i problemi e i dubbi legati alla compagnia lettone, tuttavia secondo me è importante consigliare un'alternativa che sia il più vicina possibile a ciò che si sta cercando di scardinare, soprattutto con utenti "medi" che sono troppo abituati alla semplicità d'uso, alla gratuità e alla comodità delle note soluzioni monopolistiche... lo considero un primo passo per poter proporre in seguito alternative ancora migliori]

2) Collabora Online
Soluzione altrettanto valida e molto simile, basata su Collabora Office (versione web di LibreOffice), con la differenza che non offre un piano gratuito ma solo una "free demo" e il sito non è tradotto in italiano.
Per gli amministratori di sistema è da considerare come un'opzione (probabilmente migliore) alternativa alla precedente.

3) CryptPad
Un'alternativa decentralizzata (ciascuno può installare un'istanza sul proprio server e si trovano molte istanze pubbliche locali) e completamente crittografata.
C'è qualche differenza rispetto a Google Docs, ma le funzionalità alla fine sono le stesse.
Fornisce anche app diverse come Kanban (organizzazione flussi di lavoro), moduli, sondaggi, diagrammi di flusso e tante altre.
Si può usare come ospite senza registrarsi o con registrazione (email non richiesta, senza possibilità di recupero password).
Istanza italiana gestita da @Devol ⁂ .

4) Etherpad/EtherCalc
Per esigenze più semplici, questi due software online ultraleggeri permettono di collaborare a documenti di testo e fogli di calcolo in tempo reale, senza login ma anche senza crittografia.
Una soluzione veloce e senza troppe pretese.
Etherpad (documenti): istanza italiana a cura di Devol
EtherCalc (fogli di calcolo): istanza francese a cura di Framasoft

5) NextCloud/OwnCloud (per amministratori)
Naturalmente, l'opzione migliore per avere uno spazio collaborativo sicuro e privato è quello di installarlo localmente utilizzando un software di cloud storage open source, nel quale integrare a proprio piacimento OnlyOffice, Collabora e tanto altro!
Occorre però essere amministratori di sistema e avere a disposizione uno spazio di storage locale, o appoggiarsi a un servizio di storage fidato (a pagamento).
P.S.: per chi è un utente attivo di uno dei social del Fediverso offerti da Devol, il collettivo offre 25 Gb di spazio Nextcloud gratuito! Un motivo in più per scoprire mastodon.uno, pixelfed.uno e peertube.uno...

#Google #nogoogle #googledocs #degafam #monopolio #alternative #onlyoffice #collaboraoffice #cryptpad #etherpad #ethercalc #Nextcloud #owncloud

contrachrome.com/comic/806/

Framacalc - Foglio di calcolo collaborativo online

Foglio di calcolo collaborativo online

^{framacalc.org}

If you’ve worked with germanium transistors, you’ll know that many of them have a disappointingly low maximum frequency of operation. This has more to do with some of the popular ones dating from the earliest years of the transistor age than it does to germanium being inherently a low frequency semiconductor, but it’s fair to say you won’t be using an OC71 in a high frequency RF application. It’s clear that [Ken Yap]’s project is taking no chances though, because he’s using a vintage germanium transistor at a very low frequency — 1 Hz, to be exact.

The circuit is a simple enough phase shift oscillator that flashes a white LED, in which a two transistor amplifier feeds back on itself through an RC phase shift network. The germanium part is a CV7001, while the other transistor is more modern but still pretty old these days silicon part, a BC109. The phase shift network has a higher value resistor than you might expect at 1.8 MOhms, because of the low frequency of operation. Power meanwhile comes from a pair of AA cells.

We like this project not least for its use of very period passive components and stripboard to accompany the vintage semiconductor parts. Perhaps it won’t met atomic standards for timing, but that’s hardly the point.

This project is an entry in the 2025 One Hertz Challenge. Why not enter your own second-accurate project?

hackaday.com/2025/07/12/2025-o…

Penso che fare una donazione sia importante, prima di tutto per portare un minimo di sollievo ai palestinesi ma anche perché su quei 30 euro che doniamo ci scriviamo che il mondo non è tutto Trump, Meloni e compagnia bella, che ci siamo anche noi. E credo che loro riescano a leggerlo.

E da ultimo serve anche a noi, per la soddisfazione che dà sentirsi dalla parte giusta in un mondo che sembra correre a rompicollo nella direzione sbagliata.

unponteper.it/it/campagna/acqu…

There are many ways to learn, but few to none of them compare to that of spending time standing over the shoulder of a master of the craft. This awesome page sent in by [JohnU] is a fantastic corner of the internet that lets us all peek over that shoulder to see someone who’s not only spent decades learning the art of of creating cable harnesses, but has taken the time to distill some of that vast experience for the rest of us to benefit from.

This page is focused on custom automotive and motorcycle modifications, but it’s absolutely jam-packed with things applicable in so many areas. It points out how often automotive wiring is somewhat taken for granted, but it shouldn’t be; there are hundreds of lines, all of which need to work for your car to run in hot and cold, wet and dry. The reliability of wiring is crucial not just for your car, but much larger things such as the 530 km (330 mi) of wiring inside an Airbus A380 which, while a large plane, is still well under 100 m in length.

This page doesn’t just talk about cable harnessing in the abstract; in fact, the overwhelming majority of it revolves around the practical and applicable. There is a deep dive into wiring selection, tubing and sealing selection, epoxy to stop corrosion, and more. It touches on many of the most common connectors used in vehicles, as well as connectors not commonly used in the automotive industry but that possess many of the same qualities. There are some real hidden gems in the midst of the 20,000+ word compendium, such as thermocouple wiring and some budget environmental sealing options.

There is far more to making a thing beyond selecting the right parts; how it’s assembled and the tools used are just as important. This page touches on tooling, technique, and planning for a wire harness build-up. While there are some highly specialized tools identified, there are also things such as re-purposed knitting needles. Once a harness is fully assembled it’s not complete, as there is also a need for testing that must take place which is also touched on here.

Thanks to [JohnU] for sending in this incredible learning resource. If this has captured your attention like it has ours, be sure to check out some of the other wire harness tips we’ve featured!

hackaday.com/2025/07/12/wire-l…

Dear Friend of Press Freedom,

It’s the 107th day that Rümeysa Öztürk is facing deportation by the United States government for writing an op-ed it didn’t like, and the 27th day that Mario Guevara has spent behind bars for covering a protest. Read on for news on more recent affronts by the government on the free press.

LA journalists reflect on protest attacks

Journalists covering recent demonstrations in California have been assaulted, detained, shot with crowd-control munitions, and had their equipment searched — simply for doing their jobs.

Independent journalists from Los Angeles talk to FPF about the attacks from law enforcement they endured while covering recent demonstrations.

Screenshot.

Independent reporters are especially vulnerable. We hosted an online discussion with some of them — Ben Camacho, Sean Beckner-Carmitchel and Tina-Desiree Berg — to hear their firsthand accounts of their efforts to uphold the public’s right to know. We were also joined by Adam Rose, press rights chair at the Los Angeles Press Club, which, along with others, has sued law enforcement agencies for violating freedom of the press at the recent protests. Since our discussion, the judge in one of those lawsuits has ordered the Los Angeles Police Department to stop violating the First Amendment rights of journalists covering protests.

Listen to the conversation here.

New Jersey prosecutors ignore Constitution

Prosecutors are pursuing blatantly unconstitutional criminal charges against two Red Bank, New Jersey, journalists for declining to remove a police blotter entry about an arrest from a news website after the arrest was expunged, as FPF’s U.S. Press Freedom Tracker first reported.

They’re alleged to have engaged in disorderly conduct by revealing the existence of an arrest, knowing that the arrest record has been expunged or sealed, in violation of New Jersey Revised Statutes Section 2C:52-30.

We said in a press release that “prosecuting journalists for declining to censor themselves is alarming and blatantly unconstitutional … Any prosecutors who would even think to bring such charges either don’t know the first thing about the Constitution they’re sworn to uphold, or don’t care.” Read more here.

The rise and fall of FOIA Gras

Tom Hayden never intended to become a journalist. But in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hayden decided to look into how his local school district in Evanston, Illinois, was making decisions about when to send kids back to school.

That led to his Substack newsletter, FOIA Gras. As the name implies, it focused on Freedom of Information Act-based reporting. He broke important stories about local schools and more, and FOIA Gras became an invaluable resource for Evanstonians.

But earlier this year, he decided to shut it down after growing tired of the personal toll of being an unpaid citizen journalist covering politically charged news. Read more here.

Secrecy surrounds ICE’s for-profit detention network

President Donald Trump’s signature budget legislation allocates Immigration and Customs Enforcement a staggering $45 billion to expand immigrant detention efforts. Much of this money will go towards tripling ICE’s for-profit detention facility network.

Even though these private facilities hold human beings in federal custody under federal law, they are not subject to FOIA, the federal transparency law. This must change. Read more here.

Speaking of secret police…

Louisiana is the latest state to ignore the First Amendment to restrict journalists and others from recording police up close. Countless important news stories have come from footage of police abuses — which is exactly why we keep seeing laws like these.

We joined a legal brief led by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and National Press Photographers Association. If you’re able, NPPA is definitely an organization you should support. They do an incredible job protecting the rights of photojournalists and all journalists, but they’re in financial trouble and need your help. Read the brief here.

What we’re reading

SPJ urges caution on anti-doxing laws, warns of threat to press freedom (Society of Professional Journalists). Anti-doxing laws, if not drafted carefully, could become tools to punish journalism. Read the letter we signed urging the Uniform Law Commission to pause potential legislation.

‘I am being persecuted’ | Atlanta journalist held in ICE custody releases letter (WALB News). “I am being persecuted for having carried out my journalistic work ... I need to get out in order to continue with my life, return to my work, and support my family,” wrote imprisoned journalist Mario Guevara.

Immigration officials used shadowy pro-Israel group to target student activists (The New York Times). Students exercising their First Amendment rights shouldn’t concern the government. And officials should base decisions on real intelligence, not “research” by amateur internet trolls.

Trump officials want to prosecute over the ICEBlock app. Lawyers say that’s unconstitutional (Wired). “ICE and the Trump administration are under the misimpression that law enforcement in the United States is entitled to operate in secret,” we told Wired.

I chaired the FCC. The ‘60 Minutes’ settlement shows Trump has weaponized the agency (The Guardian). “What was once an independent, policy-based agency is now using its leverage to further the Maga message,” writes former Federal Communications Commission Chair Tom Wheeler.

Gabbard’s team has sought spy agency data to enforce Trump’s agenda (The Washington Post). This retaliation could chill FOIA releases across the government. We are filing FOIA requests to learn how Gabbard’s agency is trying to stifle lawful disclosures.

Wishing for a world where corporate motives didn’t clash with the sacred trust of journalism (Poynter). “The ethics of the professional and the business can bump into each other. When they do, it is imperative that the ethics of the profession take precedence.”

freedom.press/issues/la-journa…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Prosecutors are pursuing baseless criminal charges against two Red Bank, New Jersey, journalists for refusing to remove a police blotter entry from a news website, as the Freedom of the Press Foundation’s U.S. Press Freedom Tracker first reported.

The defendants are Redbankgreen publisher Kenny Katzgrau and reporter Brian Donohue. They’re alleged to have engaged in disorderly conduct by revealing the existence of an arrest, knowing that the arrest record has been expunged or sealed, in violation of New Jersey Revised Statutes Section 2C:52-30. They’re represented by Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C., who have moved to dismiss the ridiculous charges. (Read their motion to dismiss below.)

On Sept. 18, 2024, Redbankgreen published the August 2024 blotter provided by the Red Bank Police Department, which contained information about the arrest. The arrest was later expunged on March 27, 2025. The blotter published by the Redbankgreen includes an update that the arrest was expunged, as well as a note that arrests in general are not determinations of guilt.

Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Advocacy Director Seth Stern said:

Prosecuting journalists for declining to censor themselves is alarming and blatantly unconstitutional, as is ordering the press to unpublish news reports. Any prosecutors who would even think to bring such charges either don’t know the first thing about the Constitution they’re sworn to uphold, or don’t care. Failure to immediately correct and apologize for this inexplicable error would put prosecutors’ competence in doubt and warrant investigation of whether they should keep their law licenses.

The Supreme Court has held over and over that journalists are entitled to publish truthful information they lawfully obtain, in cases dealing with matters as sensitive as closed juvenile court proceedings and identities of rape victims. The Supreme Court of New Jersey has also upheld the right to publish expunged information. There is no exception for expunged arrest records and any state law that says otherwise violates the First Amendment. Any first-year law student should know that.

Journalists don’t work for the government and can’t be compelled to do its bidding. In the rare instances where the government is allowed to keep records from public view, it is the government’s responsibility, not the media’s, to ensure that they aren’t disclosed.

This is the latest in a string of egregious press freedom violations by local police and prosecutors across the country. Virtually all of them have failed and left taxpayers on the hook for needless legal fees, settlement payments, or both.

Earlier this year, Clarksdale, Mississippi, officials got a judge to order a newspaper to take down an editorial critical of the mayor. After national headlines about their frivolous antics led to public ridicule, they dropped the case.

Last year, the city of Los Angeles was forced to pay a settlement to journalist Ben Camacho after it sued him for publishing public records. Authorities in LA are also facing a lawsuit over an unconstitutional investigation of a journalist who obtained police disciplinary records.

In 2023, prosecutors in Atmore, Alabama, charged a journalist and news publisher for reporting on grand jury proceedings. The case was thrown out after becoming a national embarrassment, and a lawsuit is pending.

And most famously, the same year, authorities in Marion, Kansas, raided the newsroom of the Marion County Record as part of an investigation premised on the absurd notion that reporters violated computer crime laws by accessing a public website to confirm a news tip. The ordeal has led to multiple settlements and lawsuits, and even criminal charges against the ex-police chief who orchestrated it.

This is also, unfortunately, not the first recent instance of authorities harassing journalists over lawful reporting on arrests. Last year, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu threatened civil penalties against a journalist, Jack Poulson, who reported on a sealed report of tech executive Maury Blackman’s arrest for domestic violence. A judge held that the California law that Chiu referenced to threaten Poulson was unconstitutional and, in a separate proceeding, a lawsuit brought by Blackman against Poulson was dismissed.

Please contact us if you would like further comment.

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Sixteen Israeli experts in international law warned in a public letter that the plans presented by Israel's defense minister to concentrate Gaza's population in a "humanitarian city" constitute a manifestly illegal order and a war crime.

us18.campaign-archive.com/?e=0…