The last time we used a scanning electron microscope (a SEM), it looked like something from a bad 1950s science fiction movie. These days SEMs, like the one at the IBM research center, look like computers with a big tank poised nearby. Interestingly, the SEM is so sensitive that it has to be in a quiet room to prevent sound from interfering with images.

As a demo of the machine’s impressive capability, [John Ott] loads two US pennies, one facing up and one face down. [John] notes that Lincoln appears on both sides of the penny and then proves the assertion correct using moderate magnification under the electron beam.

Some electron microscopes pass electrons through thin samples much as light passes through a sample on a microscope slide. However, SEMs and REMs (reflection electron microscopes) use either secondary electron emission or reflected electrons from the surface of items like the penny.

You often see SEMs also fitted with EDS — energy dispersive X-ray spectrometers, sometimes called EDX — that can reveal the composition of a sample’s surface. There are other ways to examine surfaces, like auger spectrometers (pronounced like OJ), which can isolate thin films on surfaces. There’s also SIMS (secondary ion mass spectrometry) which mills bits of material away using an ion beam. and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, which also uses an ion beam.

We keep waiting for someone to share plans to make a cheap, repeatable SEM. There are a few attempts out there, but we don’t see many in the wild. While the device is conceptually simple, you do need precise high voltages and high vacuums,. Also, you frequently need ancillary devices to do things like sputter gold in argon gas to coat nonconductive samples, so the barrier to entry is high.

youtube.com/embed/tAhovMMRcEM?…

I ricercatori hanno scoperto sei vulnerabilità nel router economico Netgear WNR614 N300, popolare sia tra gli utenti privati e delle piccole imprese. Purtroppo il supporto per questi dispositivi è già stato interrotto e non sono previste patch.

I ricercatori di RedFox Security riferiscono che i bug riscontrati vanno dal bypass dell’autenticazione e politiche di password deboli all’archiviazione di password in chiaro e alla divulgazione del PIN Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS).

• CVE-2024-36787 : consente a un utente malintenzionato di ignorare l’autenticazione e ottenere l’accesso all’interfaccia amministrativa. In effetti, questo problema consente l’accesso non autorizzato alle impostazioni del router.
• CVE-2024-36788 : il flag HTTPOnly per i cookie non è impostato correttamente sui dispositivi. Un utente malintenzionato può utilizzare questo bug per intercettare e ottenere l’accesso ai messaggi riservati scambiati tra il router e i dispositivi ad esso collegati.
• CVE-2024-36789 : consente agli aggressori di creare password che non soddisfano gli standard di sicurezza e persino di utilizzare un solo carattere come password per l’account amministratore.
• CVE-2024-36790 : il router memorizza le credenziali in testo non crittografato, che consente l’accesso non autorizzato, il controllo del dispositivo ed espone anche dati sensibili.
• CVE-2024-36792 : L’implementazione WPS consente l’accesso al codice PIN del router. Ciò rende i dispositivi potenzialmente vulnerabili agli accessi non autorizzati.
• CVE-2024-36795 : i privilegi non sicuri consentiranno agli aggressori di accedere a URL e directory codificati nel firmware del router, aumentando il rischio di accesso alla rete non autorizzato.

Dati dell’amministratore in testo non crittografato
Poiché il supporto per i router Netgear WNR614 N300 è già terminato, è improbabile che Netgear rilasci patch per questi problemi.

I ricercatori consigliano vivamente ai proprietari dei dispositivi interessati di sostituirli con nuovi modelli supportati il ​​prima possibile. Se per qualche motivo ciò non è possibile, si consiglia di adottare le seguenti misure protettive:

• disabilitare le funzionalità di gestione remota per ridurre il rischio di accesso non autorizzato;
• utilizzare password complesse e lunghe e cambiarle regolarmente;
• Separare il router dai sistemi critici della rete per limitare l’impatto di un potenziale attacco;
• Assicurati che il tuo router utilizzi HTTPS e utilizza le impostazioni del browser che forzano tutte le connessioni a utilizzare HTTPS.
• disabilitare il WPS in modo che gli aggressori non possano utilizzare questa funzione e ottenere un accesso non autorizzato al router;
• passare a WPA3, che migliora la sicurezza rispetto ai protocolli precedenti;
• limitare l’accesso all’interfaccia amministrativa del router.

L'articolo Scoperte 6 Vulnerabilità Critiche nei Router Netgear WNR614 N300: Cosa Fare Subito proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

Aerial drone image of a litter windrow in Bay of Biscay, Spain. Windrow width: 1-2 meters. (Credit: ESA)
Recently ESA published the results of a proof-of-concept study into monitoring marine litter using existing satellites, with promising results for the Mediterranean study area. For the study, six years of historical data from the Sentinel-2 satellite multispectral imaging cameras were used, involving 300,000 images with a resolution of 10 meters. The focus was on litter windrows as common collections of litter like plastic, wood and other types of marine debris that float on the surface, forming clearly visible lines that can be meters wide and many times as long.

These were processed as explained in the open access paper in Nature Communications by [Andrés Cózar] and colleagues. As marine litter (ML) tends to be overwhelmingly composed of plastic, this eases the detection, as any ML that’s visible from space can generally be assumed to be primarily plastic litter. This was combined with the spectral profile of common plastics, so that other types of floating materials (algae, driftwood, seafoam, etc.) could be filtered out, leaving just the litter.

This revealed many of these short-lived litter windrows, with spot confirmation from ships in the area. Some of the windrows were many kilometers in length, with an average of around 1 km.

Although just a PoC, it nevertheless shows that monitoring such plastic debris from space is quite doable, even without dedicated satellites. As every day tons more plastics make their way into the oceans, this provides us with the means to at least keep track of the scope of the problem. Even if resolving it and the associated microplastics problem is still a far-off dream.

This week Jonathan Bennett and Simon Phipps chat with Matthew Hodgson and Josh Simmons about Matrix, the open source decentralized communications platform. How is Matrix a Git for Communications? Are the new EU and UK laws going to be a problem? And how is the Matrix project connected with the Element company?

youtube.com/embed/BpIIgTP-7tA?…

– matrix.org/blog
– element.io/

Did you know you can watch the live recording of the show right in the Hackaday Discord? Have someone you’d like use 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:

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Uno scritto davvero interessante, prepotente e sincero senza freni e rivelatore, per uno scrittore fra i più interessanti dello spaghetti weird. @L’angolo del lettore

iyezine.com/michele-borgogni-t…

Michele Borgogni - Terror Supermarket

Michele Borgogni - Terror Supermarket - Terror Supermarket: Michele Borgogni iper realista e descrive cosa potrebbe succedere in un supermercato se cadessero le flebili barriere ipocrite - Terror Supermarket

^{Massimo Argo (In Your Eyes ezine)}

Craig Lindley is a technical author and a prolific maker of things. This simple project was his first attempt to create a laser harp MIDI device. While on vacation, Craig saw a laser harp with only three strings and decided to improve upon it by expanding it to ten strings. The principle of operation is straightforward: ten cheap diode laser modules aim a beam towards an LDR, which changes resistance if the light level changes when the beam is interrupted.

The controller is a simple piece of perf board, with a Wemos D1 mini ESP32 module flanked by some passives, a barrel socket for power, and the usual DIN connector for connecting the MIDI instrument. Using the ESP32 is a smart choice, removing all the need for configuration and user indication from the physical domain and pushing it onto a rarely-needed webpage. After a false start, attempting to use a triangular frame arrangement, [Craig] settled upon a simple linear arrangement of beams held within a laser-cut wooden box frame. Since these laser modules are quite small, some aluminium rod was machined to make some simple housings to push them into, making them easier to mount in the frame and keeping them nicely aligned with their corresponding LDR.

Sadly, the magnetic attachment method [Craig] used to keep the LDRs in place and aligned with the laser didn’t work as expected, so it was necessary to reach for the hot glue. We’ve all done that!

An interesting addition was using an M5 stack Unit-Synth module for those times when a proper MIDI synthesiser was unavailable. Making this luggable was smart, as people are always fascinated with laser harps. That simple internal synth makes travelling to shows and events a little easier.

Laser harps are nothing new here; we have covered plenty over the years. Like this nice build, which is more a piece of art than an instrument, one which looks just like a real harp and sounds like one, too, due to the use of the Karplus-Strong algorithm to mimic string vibrations.

Tomorrow (Thursday) EU governments are to vote on a bill (officially called “child sexual abuse regulation” but known as “chat control”) that would require automated searches in and disclosure of private chats, including end-to-end encrypted chats, that might contain illegal photos or videos.[1] If a user refuses this “upload moderation” of their chats, they would be blocked from receiving or sending images, videos and URLs. 48 politicians from Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands have published a letter to their governments calling for rejection of the latest version of the chatcontrol proposal, arguing that mass surveillance violates fundamental rights and would fail in court.[2] Signal and Threema have announced they would end their services in the EU if forced to implement the proposed automated monitoring (so-called “client-side scanning”). Whatsapp head Will Cathcart warned “scanning peoples messages like the EU is proposing breaks encryption”.[3] Last night NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was the latest to weigh in on X, calling the proposal “a terrifying mass surveillance measure”.

[4]It is not yet clear whether the proponents among EU governments will be able to convince enough EU governments to make a qualified majority, which is why tomorrow’s agenda item is marked as “possible”.[1] Against this backdrop Pirate Party Member of the European Parliament Patrick Breyer, who co-negotiated the European Parliament’s position on the proposal[5], has published a call on citizens to reach out to EU governments, listing several governments that may yet be undecided.

[6]“Europeans need to understand that they will be cut off from using commonplace secure messengers if chat control is adopted – that means losing touch with your friends and colleagues around the world”, warns Breyer. “Do you really want Europe to become the world leader in bugging our smartphones and requiring blanket surveillance of the chats of millions of law-abiding Europeans? The European Parliament is convinced that this Orwellian approach will betray children and victims by inevitably failing in court. We call for truly effective child protection by mandating security by design, proactive crawling to clean the web and removal of illegal content – none of which is contained in the Belgium proposal governments will vote on tomorrow. We have one day left to make our governments take a different approach of effective and rights-respecting protection while saving our privacy and security online!”

[1] Agenda for tomorrow’s meeting: data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/d…
[2] Open letter by EU lawmakers: patrick-breyer.de/en/lawmakers…
[3] Statement by head of Whatsapp: x.com/wcathcart/status/1803178…
[4] Statement by Edward Snowden: x.com/Snowden/status/180312759…
[5] Summary of the European Parliament’s position: patrick-breyer.de/en/posts/cha…
[6] Breyer’s call for action: patrick-breyer.de/en/council-t…

Breyer’s website on the chat control proposal: chatcontrol.eu/en/feed

patrick-breyer.de/en/chat-cont…

Questo Memories Have Faces esce a quasi dieci anni di distanza da Inside Out Your Mind, ultimo vagito su trentatré della band, dimostrandosi, a mio modesto avviso, ancora superiore al suo già di per sé brillantissimo predecessore;  a riprova, se mai ce ne fosse bisogno, di come passione, competenza e sacro fuoco non abbandonino chi di certe sonorità si è reso uno dei più credibili e quotati alfieri.

@Musica Agorà

iyezine.com/the-loons-memories…

The Loons - Memories Have Faces

The Loons - Memories Have Faces - The Loons - Dream In Jade Green - The Loons

^{Il Santo (In Your Eyes ezine)}

Ad ulteriore dimostrazione di quanto ho scritto in occasione delle sue precedenti uscite, i nove pezzi di questo nuovo album si aprono con suggestioni tra il deserto e lo spazio infinito di Dirty Ground passando poi all'andamento doloroso di Light the Incense.
@Musica Agorà

iyezine.com/black-snake-moan-l…

Black Snake Moan - Lost In Time 

Black Snake Moan - Lost In Time  - Black Snake Moan - Lost In Time: - Black Snake Moan

^{Il Santo (In Your Eyes ezine)}

“The healer” su Thrill Jockey Records è il quinto disco sulla lunga distanza per i Sumac, gruppo di punta del rumorismo e della totale libertà musicale. Il gruppo formato da Nick Yacyshyn, Brian Cook e Aaron Turner torna a disegnare ardite parabole nei consumati cieli della musica moderna. @Musica Agorà

iyezine.com/sumac-the-healer

Sumac - The healer

Sumac - The healer - Sumac: una delle più particolari e meravigliose esperienze sonore che possiate compiere in questi tempi aridi. - Sumac

^{Massimo Argo (In Your Eyes ezine)}

This is the Central Scrutinizer...
It is my responsibility to enforce all the laws
That haven't been passed yet
It is also my responsibility to alert each
And every one of you to the potential consequences
Of various ordinary everyday activities
You might be performing which could eventually lead to
The Death Penalty (or affect your parents' credit rating)
Our criminal institutions are full of little creeps
Like you who do wrong things...
And many of them were driven to these crimes
By a horrible force called music!

Our studies have shown that this horrible force
Is so dangerous to society at large that laws
Are being drawn up at this very moment to stop it forever!
Cruel and inhuman punishments are being carefully described
In tiny paragraphs so they won't conflict with the Constitution
(Which, itself, is being modified in order to accommodate the future)

I bring you now a special presentation
To show what can happen to you if you choose a career in music...
The white zone is for loading and unloading only...
If you have to load or unload, go to the white zone...
You'll love it... it's a way of life... Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...
Hi, it's me, I'm back
This is the Central Scrutinizer...
The white zone is for loading and unloading only...
If yah gotta load, or if yah gotta unload, go to the white zone
You'll love it... it's a way of life
That's right, you'll love it, it's a way of life
That's right, you'll love it, it's a way of life
You'll love it
This, is, the Central Scrutinizer!
- Frank Zappa

iv.datura.network/watch?v=IgG8…