La #sovranitàdigitale dovrebbe essere l'unico mantra possibile per l #Europa. Il club di miliardari alla corte di #trump non ha neanche il pudore di mostrarsi terzi rispetto ad un #potere che si fa vanto di scene come quella sotto. Ma le nostre #vite così legate al digitale sono in mano a questi signori del commercio, dello spazio, dei social. #politica dove sei?
Vehicle alternators are interesting beasts. Produced on a massive scale, these electric machines are available for a minimum of cost and contain all kinds of great parts: some power electronics and a belt-driven generator are generally standard fare. This generator can also be used as a motor with only minor changes to the machine as a whole, so thanks to economies of scale it’s possible to get readily-available, powerful, compact, and cheap motors for all kinds of projects using alternators as a starting point. [LeoDJ] noticed that this starter motor in a modern Mercedes had some interesting benefits beyond all of these perks, but it took a bit more work to get up and running than a typical alternator would have.
The motor, built by Bosch, can be found in the Mercedes E200 EQ Boost. This is a hybrid car, but different than something like a Prius in that it doesn’t have an electric motor capable of powering the car on its own. Instead it uses a combination starter motor/alternator/generator to provide extra power to the engine during acceleration, increasing efficiency and performance. It can also charge the small battery bank when the car slows down. Vehicles that use this system need much beefier alternators than a standard car, but liberating it from the car means that it has much more power available than a typical alternator would.
There were a number of issues to solve, though. Being that the motor/alternator has to do all of this extra work (and that it came out of a car whose brand is known for being tedious to work on in the first place) it is much more complicated than an off-the-shelf alternator. [LeoDJ] has been able to get his to spin by communicating with it over the CAN bus, but there’s still some work to be done before it goes into something like an impressively fast electric bicycle.
One of the major limitations of 3D printers is the size of the printable area. The robotic arm holding the printer head can only print where it can reach, after all. Some methods of reducing this constraint have been tried before, largely focusing on either larger printers or printer heads that are mobile in some way. Another approach to increasing the size of prints beyond the confined space typical of most consumer-grade 3D printers is to create some sort of joinery into the prints themselves so that larger things can be created. [Cal Bryant] is developing this jigsaw-based method which has allowed him to produce some truly massive prints.
Rather than making the joints by hand, [Cal]’s software will cut up a model into a certain number of parts when given the volume constraints of a specific 3D printer so it can not only easily print the parts, but also automatically add the jigsaw-like dovetail joints to each of the sections of the print. There were a few things that needed prototyping to get exactly right like the tolerance between each of the “teeth” of the joint, which [Cal] settled on 0.2 mm which allows for a strong glued joint, and there are were some software artifacts to take care of as well like overhanging sections of teeth around the edges of prints. But with those edge cases taken care of he has some working automation software that can print arbitrarily large objects.
[Cal] has used this to build a few speaker enclosures, replacing older MDF designs with 3D printed ones. He’s also built a full-size arcade cabinet which he points out was an excellent way to use up leftover filament. Another clever way we’ve seen of producing prints larger than the 3D printer is to remove the print bed entirely. This robotic 3D printer can move itself to a location and then print directly on its environment.
Lavrov, Ministro degli Esteri Russo, ha detto alcune cose sull'Italia pesantissime che dovrebbero farci riflettere. Soprattutto per capire in quale diamine di buco nero sono riusciti a cacciarci Draghi prima e Meloni poi, entrambi con la speciale collaborazione di gran parte della politica italiana, soprattutto quei guerrafondai del PD. Con Letta prima e con la "pacifista" Elly Schlein poi. Praticamente Lavrov ha detto così, secondo quanto riportato dalla Tass: "L' Italia non può partecipare al processo di pace per Kiev." Inoltre ha sottolineato che l'Italia è diventato un Paese ostile in quanto anti russo (riferendosi alla classe politica) ponendo l'accento sul fatto che le relazioni non siano mai state così in crisi tra Mosca e Roma. Non solo abbiamo rinunciato alle materie prime energetiche di Mosca martellandoci sulle palle, ma abbiamo compromesso quasi irrimediabilmente le relazioni con un Paese che ci è sempre stato amico e mai ci si è rivoltato contro. Una domanda, semplicissima: quanti atti ostili ricordate da parte della Russia contro l'Italia sia prima che dopo il 2022? Quanti invece ne ricordate per mano della CIA? Bombe, stragi, strategia della tensione, omicidi eccellenti e interferenze quotidiane vi dicono qualcosa? Però quelli brutti e cattivi stanno a Mosca mentre i democratici e i buoni stanno Washington. Pazzesco! Stendiamo un velo pietoso invece sul peso internazionale dell'Italia, che in quanto serva come mai di Washington non ha alcuna voce in capitolo, tanto da non essere nemmeno riconosciuta come partecipante a un eventuale tavolo di pace da un Paese come la Russia, i cui rapporti, prima di perdere l'ultimo briciolo di dignità, erano abbastanza solidi. Vi rendete conto di cosa sono riusciti a combinare, vero?
With the slow demise of physical media the past years, companies are gradually closing shop on producing everything from the physical media itself to their players and recorders. For Sony this seems to have now escalated to where it’ll be shuttering its recordable optical media storage operations, after more than 18 years of producing recordable Blu-ray discs. As noted by [Toms Hardware] this also includes minidisc (MD) media and MiniDV cassettes.
We previously reported on Sony ending the production of recordable Blu-ray media for consumers, which now seems to have expanded to Sony’s remaining storage media. It also raises the likelihood that Sony’s next game console (likely PlayStation 6) will not feature any optical drive at all as Blu-ray loses importance. While MiniDV likely was only interesting to those of us still lugging one of those MiniDV camcorders around, the loss of MD production may be felt quite strongly in the indie music scene, where MD is experiencing somewhat of a revival alongside cassette tapes and vinyl records.
Although it would appear that physical media is now effectively dead in favor of streaming services, it might be too soon to mark its demise.
“Il messaggio di Papa Francesco per la prossima Giornata mondiale delle comunicazioni sociali offre un’analisi lucida del panorama mediatico attuale e invita giornalisti e comunicatori a ‘disarmare la comunicazione’ denunciando il fenomeno della ‘dis…
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Trump’s assault on free press
President Donald Trump’s multipronged assault on the free press is already well underway. Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chair revived baseless complaints against networks his boss doesn’t like. More major news networks are reportedly considering settling frivolous lawsuits to get on Trump’s good side. He’s halted police reform agreements that include protections for journalists covering protests. His (alleged) Hitler-heiling homeboy is already threatening to wield his power against critics.
But that’s just the low-hanging fruit — there’s likely plenty more to come. Read about the three major press freedom threats we’re most concerned over: increased leak investigations, prosecutions of journalists, and surveillance of journalists.
Government secrecy issues to watch during Trump 2.0
There’s his consistent disregard for preserving presidential records during his first term, which we see no signs will change this time around. He has already resumed his efforts to thwart government oversight. And his administration will likely, once again, undermine the Freedom of Information Act, both by not creating public records and by finding ways to not share those they do create with the public.
Harper also covers the Biden administration’s failures on government secrecy, including refusing to issue a new executive order on classified national security information and neglecting to declassify documents the public has demanded (some of which Trump has now, to his credit, ordered declassified). Biden’s administration also continued to keep secret Office of Legal Counsel opinions, and failed to adequately fund the National Archives and Records Administration.
Biden’s press freedom legacy: empty words and hypocrisy
Sure, Trump is likely to make things worse, but that doesn’t mean Biden was a friend of the free press. He deserved one last kick on his way out the door, so here it is: our recap of Biden’s three worst press freedom failures.
His prosecutions of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and digital journalist Tim Burke open doors for Trump to prosecute journalists who tell both government and corporate secrets. His support for purported national security laws like the TikTok ban and the “spy draft” amendment to Section 702 of FISA will lead to further surveillance and censorship. And his administration’s silence on journalist killings in Gaza was a disgrace that even Trump would be hard-pressed to top.
Musk may hide DOGE records in plain sight
The new Department of Government Efficiency was long touted as a panel that would “provide advice and guidance from outside of government” to slash agency regulations and restructure the federal bureaucracy. But that didn’t pan out. The Jan. 20 executive order establishing DOGE says it will very much be a part of the federal government.
Why the change? Musk reportedly decided that if DOGE were a part of the government, it would be easier to avoid the Federal Advisory Committee Act’s requirements that advisory panels make all of their committee meetings and documents public. By placing DOGE within the government, Musk may have effectively bet that he can more easily flout FOIA than FACA. Harper explains it all here.
FPF, partners urge law enforcement to let press report on LA wildfires
We know policing the tragic situation in Los Angeles is chaotic but that's all the more reason reporters must be able to cover the fires. Unfortunately, there have been troubling instances where journalists have been illegally turned away from checkpoints and faced intimidation tactics and other interference.
We're one of 21 organizations calling on law enforcement to follow state law and give the press the access it needs to do its job. The same California law that gives law enforcement the ability to close areas during emergencies explicitly exempts the press. Police need to comply with the law, even in chaotic situations.
Tell DA to drop case against Portland journalist
We’ve also got some good news to report. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s office dropped its case against Portland-based independent journalist Alissa Azar. She had been set to stand trial Monday on trespass charges arising from her arrest while covering a protest at Portland State University in May.
We explained in a June letter to then-DA Mike Schmidt that the charges violated Azar’s First Amendment right — recognized by the 9th Circuit as well as the Department of Justice — to cover the protest, even after police dispersed demonstrators. Schmidt ignored us, but he’s gone. We reached out to his successor, Nathan Vasquez, who took over on Jan. 1st. Our friends at Defending Rights & Dissent also created a petition to Vasquez calling on him to drop the case. Yesterday, he did.
We thank Vasquez for cleaning up his predecessor’s mess and urge him to go one step further: Publicly commit to allowing journalists to cover protests and their aftermath and not prosecuting any similar cases going forward.
What we’re reading
Elon Musk’s battle with Wikipedia is part of his war on truth (The Independent). “He is the world’s leading free speech hypocrite, and his actions with respect to Wikipedia are further evidence of that,” we told the Independent following Musk’s call to “defund” Wikipedia for calling his obvious Nazi salute a Nazi salute.
Will the press fight like tigers against Trump? (Columbia Journalism Review). It’s vital for the press to now band together and fight like hell to protect their rights — just like they did during the Nixon administration. Legendary First Amendment lawyer James Goodale makes the case.
Decentralized social media is the only alternative to the tech oligarchy(404 Media). The first days of Trump 2.0 “have made it crystal clear that it is urgent to build and mainstream alternative, decentralized social media platforms that are resistant to government censorship and control, are not owned by oligarchs and dominated by their algorithms.”
Check out our other newsletters
If you haven’t yet, subscribe to FPF’s other newsletters, including “The Classifieds,” our new newsletter on overclassification and more from Lauren Harper, our Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy.
