It was such an innocent purchase, a slightly grubby and scuffed grey plastic box with the word “P O L A R O I D” intriguingly printed along its top edge. For a little more than a tenner it was mine, and I’d just bought one of Edwin Land’s instant cameras. The film packs it takes are now a decade out of production, but my Polaroid 104 with its angular 1960s styling and vintage bellows mechanism has all the retro-camera-hacking appeal I need. Straight away I 3D printed an adapter and new back allowing me to use 120 roll film in it, convinced I’d discover in myself a medium format photographic genius.

But who wouldn’t become fascinated with the film it should have had when faced with such a camera? I have form on this front after all, because a similar chance purchase of a defunct-format movie camera a few years ago led me into re-creating its no-longer-manufactured cartridges. I had to know more, both about the instant photos it would have taken, and those film packs. How did they work?

A Print, Straight From The Camera

An instant photograph reveals itself. Akos Burg, courtesy of One Instant.
In conventional black-and-white photography the film is exposed to the image, and its chemistry is changed by the light where it hits the emulsion. This latent image is rolled up with all the others in the film, and later revealed in the developing process. The chemicals cause silver particles to precipitate, and the resulting image is called a negative because the silver particles make it darkest where the most light hit it. Positive prints are made by exposing a fresh piece of film or photo paper through this negative, and in turn developing it. My Polaroid camera performed this process all-in-one, and I was surprised to find that behind what must have been an immense R&D effort to perfect the recipe, just how simple the underlying process was.

My dad had a Polaroid pack film camera back in the 1970s, a big plastic affair that he used to take pictures of the things he was working on. Pack film cameras weren’t like the motorised Polaroid cameras of today with their all-in-one prints, instead they had a paper tab that you pulled to release the print, and a peel-apart system where after a time to develop, you separated the negative from the print. I remember as a youngster watching this process with fascination as the image slowly appeared on the paper, and being warned not to touch the still-wet print or negative when it was revealed. What I was looking at wasn’t a negative printing process as described in the previous paragraph but something else, one in which the unexposed silver halide compounds which make the final image are diffused onto the paper from the less-exposed areas of the negative, forming a positive image of their own when a reducing agent precipitates out their silver crystals. Understanding the subtleties of this process required a journey back to the US Patent Office in the middle of the 20th century.

It’s All In The Diffusion

The illustration from Edwin Land’s patent US2647056.
It’s in US2647056 that we find a comprehensive description of the process, and the first surprise is that the emulsion on the negative is the same as on a contemporary panchromatic black-and-white film. The developer and fixer for this emulsion are also conventional, and are contained in a gel placed in a pouch at the head of the photograph. When the exposed film is pulled out of the camera it passes through a set of rollers that rupture this pouch, and then spread the gel in a thin layer between the negative and the coated paper. This gel has two functions: it develops the negative, but over a longer period it provides a wet medium for those unexposed silver halides to diffuse through into the now-also-wet coating of the paper which will become the print. This coating contains a reducing agent, in this case a metalic sulphide, which over a further period precipitates out the silver that forms the final visible image. This is what gives Polaroid photographs their trademark slow reveal as the chemistry does its job.

I’ve just described the black and white process; the colour version uses the same diffusion mechanism but with colour emulsions and dye couplers in place of the black-and-white chemistry. Meanwhile modern one-piece instant processes from Polaroid and Fuji have addressed the problem of making the image visible from the other side of the paper, removing the need for a peel-apart negative step.

Given that the mechanism and chemistry are seemingly so simple, one might ask why we can no longer buy two-piece Polaroid pack or roll film except for limited quantities of hand-made packs from One Instant. The answer lies in the complexity of the composition, for while it’s easy to understand how it works, it remains difficult to replicate the results Polaroid managed through a huge amount of research and development over many decades. Even the Impossible Project, current holders of the Polaroid brand, faced a significant effort to completely replicate the original Polaroid versions of their products when they brought the last remaining Polaroid factory to production back in 2010 using the original Polaroid machinery. So despite it retaining a fascination among photographers, it’s unlikely that we’ll see peel-apart film for Polaroid cameras return to volume production given the small size of the potential market.

Hacking A Sixty Year Old Camera

Five minutes with a Vernier caliper and openSCAD, and this is probably the closest I’ll get to a pack film of my own.
So having understood how peel-apart pack film works and discovered what is available here in 2025, what remains for the camera hacker with a Land camera? Perhaps the simplest idea would be to buy one of those One Instant packs, and use it as intended. But we’re hackers, so of course you will want to print that 120 conversion kit I mentioned, or find an old pack film cartridge and stick a sheet of photographic paper or even a Fuji Instax sheet in it. You’ll have to retreat to the darkroom and develop the film or run the Instax sheet through an Instax camera to see your images, but it’s a way to enjoy some retro photographic fun.

Further than that, would it be possible to load Polaroid 600 or i-Type sheets into a pack film cartridge and somehow give them paper tabs to pull through those rollers and develop them? Possibly, but all your images would be back to front. Sadly, rear-exposing Instax Wide sheets wouldn’t work either because their developer pod lies along their long side. If you were to manage loading a modern instant film sheet into a cartridge, you’d then have to master the intricate paper folding arrangement required to ensure the paper tabs for each photograph followed each other in turn. I have to admit that I’ve become fascinated by this in considering my Polaroid camera. Finally, could you make your own film? I would of course say no, but incredibly there are people who have achieved results doing just that.

My Polaroid 104 remains an interesting photographic toy, one I’ll probably try a One Instant pack in, and otherwise continue with the 3D printed back and shoot the occasional 120 roll film. If you have one too, you might find my 3D printed AAA battery adapter useful. Meanwhile it’s the cheap model without the nice rangefinder so it’ll never be worth much, so I might as well just enjoy it for what it is. And now I know a little bit more about his invention, admire Edwin Land for making it happen.

Any of you out there hacking on Polaroids?

hackaday.com/2025/05/15/fallin…

Trends

Relative stability from quarter to quarter. The percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked remained unchanged from Q4 2024 at 21.9%. Over the last three quarters, the value has ranged from 22.0% to 21.9%.

The quarterly figures are decreasing from year to year. Since Q2 2023, the percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked has been lower than the indicator of the same quarter of the previous year. Compared to Q1 2024, the figure decreased by 2.5 pp.

Percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked, Q1 2022–Q1 2025

In January–March 2025, the figures were the lowest compared to the same months of the previous four years.

Percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked, Jan 2021–Mar 2025

The biometrics sector continues to lead the selected industries / OT infrastructure types. This is the only OT infrastructure type where the percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked increased during the quarter.

Threat levels in different regions still vary. In Q1 2025, the percentage of affected ICS computers ranged from 10.7% in Northern Europe to 29.6% in Africa. In eight out of 13 regions, the figures ranged from 19.0% to 25.0%.

The percentage of ICS computers on which denylisted internet resources were blocked continues to decrease. It reached its lowest level since the beginning of 2022. In the first three months of 2025, the corresponding figures were lower than those in January–March of the previous three years.

Percentage of ICS computers on which denylisted internet resources were blocked, Jan 2022–Mar 2025

Changes in the percentage of ICS computers on which initial-infection malware was blocked lead to changes in the percentage of next-stage malware. In Q1 2025, the percentage of ICS computers on which various types of malware spread via the internet and email were blocked increased for the first time since the beginning of 2023.

The internet is the primary source of threats to ICS computers. The main categories of threats from the internet are denylisted internet resources, malicious scripts and phishing pages.

The main categories of threats spreading via email are malicious documents, spyware, malicious scripts and phishing pages.

The percentage of ICS computers on which malicious scripts and phishing pages, and malicious documents were blocked increased in Q1 2025. In January–March, the monthly values in these two categories of threats were higher than in the same months of 2024.

Percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked, Jan 2022–Mar 2025

The leading category of malware used for initial infection of ICS computers (see below) is malicious scripts and phishing pages.

Most malicious scripts and phishing pages act as droppers or loaders of next-stage malware (spyware, crypto miners and ransomware). The strong correlation between the values for malicious scripts and phishing pages, and spyware is clearly visible in the graph below.

Percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked, Jan 2023–Mar 2025

Similar to malicious scripts and phishing pages, the percentage of ICS computers on which spyware was blocked was higher in the first three months of 2025 than in the same months of 2024.

Percentage of ICS computers on which spyware was blocked, Jan 2022–Mar 2025

The percentage of ICS computers on which miners (web miners and miners in the form of executable files for Windows) were blocked in Q1 2025 also increased.

Statistics across all threats

In Q1 2025, the percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked remained at the same level as in the previous quarter: 21.9%.

Percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked, Q1 2022–Q1 2025

Compared to Q1 2024, the percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked decreased by 2.5 pp. However, it increased from January to March of 2025 when it reached its highest value in the quarter.

Percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked, Jan 2023–Mar 2025

Regionally, the percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked ranged from 10.7% in Northern Europe to 29.6% in Africa.

Regions ranked by percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked, Q1 2025

In six of the 13 regions surveyed in this report, the figures increased from the previous quarter, with the largest change occurring in Russia.

Changes in percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked,
Q1 2025

Selected industries

The biometrics sector led the ranking of the industries and OT infrastructures surveyed in this report in terms of the percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked.

Ranking of industries and OT infrastructures by percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked, Q1 2025

The biometrics sector was also the only OT infrastructure type where the percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked increased slightly. Despite this, the long-term trend is clearly downward.

Percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked in selected industries

Diversity of detected malicious objects

In Q1 2025, Kaspersky security solutions blocked malware from 11,679 different malware families in various categories on industrial automation systems.

Percentage of ICS computers on which the activity of malicious objects from various categories was blocked

The largest proportional increase in Q1 2025 was in the percentage of ICS computers on which web miners (1.4 times more than in the previous quarter) and malicious documents (1.1 times more) were blocked.

Main threat sources

Depending on the threat detection and blocking scenario, it is not always possible to reliably identify the source. The circumstantial evidence for a specific source can be the blocked threat’s type (category).

The internet (visiting malicious or compromised internet resources; malicious content distributed via messengers; cloud data storage and processing services and CDNs), email clients (phishing emails), and removable storage devices remain the primary sources of threats to computers in an organization’s OT infrastructure.

In Q1 2025, the percentage of ICS computers on which threats from the internet and email clients were blocked increased for the first time since the end of 2023.

Percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects from various sources were blocked

The rates for all threat sources varied across the monitored regions.

• The percentage of ICS computers on which threats from the internet were blocked ranged from 5.2% in Northern Europe to 12.8% in Africa.
• The percentage of ICS computers on which threats from email clients were blocked ranged from 0.88% in Russia to 6.8% in Southern Europe.
• The percentage of ICS computers on which threats from removable media were blocked ranged from 0.06% in Australia and New Zealand to 2.4% in Africa.

Threat categories

Typical attacks blocked within an OT network are a multi-stage process, where each subsequent step by the attackers is aimed at increasing privileges and gaining access to other systems by exploiting security flaws in industrial enterprises, including OT infrastructures.

It is worth noting that during the attack, intruders often repeat the same steps (TTP), especially when they use malicious scripts and established communication channels with the management and control infrastructure (C2) to move laterally within the network and advance the attack.

Malicious objects used for initial infection

In Q1 2025, the percentage of ICS computers on which denylisted internet resources were blocked decreased to its lowest value since the beginning of 2022.

Percentage of ICS computers on which denylisted internet resources were blocked, Q1 2022–Q1 2025

The decline in the percentage of denylisted internet resources since November 2024 was likely influenced not only by proactive threat mitigation at various levels, but also by techniques used by attackers to circumvent the blocking mechanisms based on the resource’s reputation, thus redistributing the protection burden to other detection technologies.

A detected malicious web resource may not always be added to a denylist because attackers are increasingly using legitimate internet resources and services such as content delivery network (CDN) platforms, messengers, and cloud storage. These services allow malicious code to be distributed through unique links to unique content, making it difficult to use reputation-based blocking tactics. We strongly recommend that industrial organizations implement policy-based blocking of such services, at least for OT networks where the need for such services is extremely rare for objective reasons.

The percentage of ICS computers on which malicious documents as well as malicious scripts and phishing pages were blocked increased slightly, to 1.85% (by 0.14 pp) and 7.16% (by 0.05 pp) respectively.

Next-stage malware

Malicious objects used to initially infect computers deliver next-stage malware – spyware, ransomware, and miners – to victims’ computers. As a rule, the higher the percentage of ICS computers on which the initial infection malware is blocked, the higher the percentage for next-stage malware.

In Q1 2025, the percentage of ICS computers on which spyware and ransomware were blocked decreased, reaching 4.20% (by losing 0.1 pp) and 0.16% (by losing 0.05 pp) respectively. Conversely, the indicator for miners increased. The percentage of ICS computers on which miners in the form of executable files for Windows and web miners were blocked increased to 0.78% (by 0.08 pp) and 0.53% (by 0.14 pp), respectively. The latter indicator reached its highest value since Q3 2023.

Percentage of ICS computers on which web miners were blocked, Q1 2022–Q1 2025

Self-propagating malware

Self-propagating malware (worms and viruses) is a category unto itself. Worms and virus-infected files were originally used for initial infection, but as botnet functionality evolved, they took on next-stage characteristics.

To spread across ICS networks, viruses and worms rely on removable media, network folders, infected files including backups, and network attacks on outdated software, such as Radmin2.

In Q1 2025, the percentage of ICS computers on which worms and viruses were blocked decreased to 1.31% (by losing 0.06 pp) and 1.53% (by losing 0.08 pp), respectively.

AutoCAD malware

AutoCAD malware is typically a low-level threat, coming last in the malware category rankings in terms of the percentage of ICS computers on which it was blocked.

In Q1 2025, the percentage of ICS computers on which AutoCAD malware was blocked continued to decrease (by losing 0.04 pp) and reached 0.034%.

You can find more information on industrial threats in the full version of the report.

securelist.com/industrial-thre…

Vi segnalo questo podcast in cui se n'è parlato:

Lo trovate un po' su tutte le piattaforme, compreso su Antenna Pod.

In particolare, si spiega perché il testo legato alla raccolta firme che sta girando non è accurato.

open.spotify.com/episode/2QAdk…

#MatrimonioEgualitario #matrimonio #diritti #EQUITA #referendum #gaymarriage #samesexmarriage #Matrimoniogay #lgbtquia #lgbt #italia #repubblicadellebanane

Un nuovo referendum in vista

Closer · Episode

^{Un nuovo referendum in vista (Spotify)}

E' stata denominata “Petrolio dorato” l’operazione dei carabinieri che ha condotto ad arresti e perquisizioni - non solo in Italia - su mandato del gip di Bologna, consentendo di scoprire un sistema illegale di commercio di oli vegetali esausti utili per produrre biodiesel.

Nell’ambito delle attività, i Carabinieri del Gruppo per la tutela ambientale e la sicurezza energetica di Venezia, con il supporto di diversi reparti dell’Arma, sono stati coordinati dalla Procura della Repubblica – Direzione distrettuale antimafia e antiterrorismo – di Bologna.

L’inchiesta ha consentito di documentare l’operatività di un sodalizio che, attraverso società autorizzate alla raccolta di oli vegetali esausti, traeva ingiusti profitti dagli introiti derivanti dal trattamento e dalla rivendita di questo rifiuto pregiato, utilizzato per la produzione del biodiesel. Attualmente sono iscritte nel registro degli indagati 22 persone e 2 società, a vario titolo ritenute responsabili dei reati di associazione a delinquere, attività organizzate per il traffico illecito di rifiuti, favoreggiamento personale, falsità ideologica commessa dal privato in atto pubblico e abuso d’ufficio, in relazione ai fatti accertati in Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Trentino Alto-Adige e Campania nel periodo 2021 – 2022.

L’indagine ha visto il coinvolgimento nelle varie fasi di Europol per quanto riguarda la cooperazione internazionale di polizia, visto che gli indagati risultano gestire attività economiche anche in Grecia e Spagna, nonché commerciare con Austria, Belgio, Ungheria, Bulgaria, Repubblica Slovacca, Malta e Libia.

Accogliendo le richieste del Pm, il Gip ha disposto la misura cautelare nei confronti di 11 indagati (5 dei quali agli arresti domiciliari, 3 con obbligo di dimora e 3 con divieto di esercitare imprese o uffici direttivi in società del settore della gestione dei rifiuti) e il sequestro preventivo dei compendi societari e delle strutture aziendali delle due società al centro delle investigazioni. Nel corso dell’operazione verranno anche eseguite 17 perquisizioni personali e locali e svolte ispezioni ambientali a impianti di raccolta, gestione e trattamento di oli vegetali esausti.

#Armadeicarabinieri #carabinierinoe #carabinieritase #biodiesel #olivegetaliesausti #ambiente #europol

@Ambiente

Qualcuno esperto in #legge , magari un #avvocato, mi aiuti a capire, per favore.

Tutto felice e contento ho firmato il referendum di cui si parla, condiviso da alcuni amici, ma sembrerebbe che sia addirittura controproducente una raccolta firme. Che fare, in questo caso? Sarà corretto quello che dice la rete Lenford? (fonte in chiusura del post).

Sono davvero amareggiato e confuso.

"NON ESISTE UN REFERENDUM SUL MATRIMONIO TRA PERSONE DELLO STESSO SESSO
In questi giorni sta circolando online la richiesta di firme per un referendum, che viene descritto dal partito promotore con queste parole: ‘si firma per il referendum sul matrimonio delle coppie same sex’.
Non è così.
Anche se si raccogliessero almeno 500.000 firme entro il 3 agosto 2025 e anche se il referendum venisse giudicato ammissibile (e, quindi, effettivamente proponibile) dalla Corte costituzionale, un esito favorevole nelle urne NON introdurrebbe in Italia il matrimonio per coppie formate da persone dello stesso sesso.
Quel referendum, infatti, vuole mantenere le unioni civili introdotte nel 2016, eliminando le parti che le differenziano dal matrimonio anche rispetto alla filiazione.
La conseguenza di una vittoria dei ‘SÌ’ sarebbe, perciò, questa: le coppie same sex potrebbero continuare soltanto a unirsi civilmente, parificando gli effetti della loro unione a quelli matrimoniali, ma non potrebbero sposarsi.
Questo è un punto che deve essere molto chiaro e che Rete Lenford, nata nel 2007 proprio con la campagna ‘Affermazione civile’ volta a introdurre in Italia il matrimonio per persone dello stesso sesso, ha il dovere di chiarire pubblicamente, a seguito di decine di richieste che ci stanno giungendo nelle ultime ore.
Nei prossimi giorni, e con ampio margine di anticipo rispetto alla scelta che potrà essere fatta sulla firma della proposta referendaria, Rete Lenford lavorerà a una nota illustrativa con uno sguardo ‘bifocale’:
1) tecnico, per un approfondimento sui singoli quesiti e sulla loro dubbia ammissibilità, anche (e soprattutto) per le contraddittorie conseguenze in punto di filiazione, specialmente con riguardo alle coppie conviventi e alla legge sulla procreazione medicalmente assistita (la quale, anche dopo il referendum, continuerebbe a mantenere il requisito esplicito della ‘diversità di sesso’ della coppia richiedente);
2) politico, per le significative implicazioni che questo referendum potrebbe generare sia sul percorso di introduzione del ‘matrimonio same sex’, sia su quello di riconoscimento delle famiglie omogenitoriali.
Naturalmente, e anche al fine di elaborare una posizione condivisa in vista del termine del 3 agosto prossimo, non mancheremo di attivare un confronto con le altre realtà associative, tenute sorprendentemente escluse da questa iniziativa partitica.
Nel frattempo, ci è risultato doveroso prenderci del tempo, ma allo stesso tempo chiarire sin da subito quale sarebbe l’esito del referendum, così da favorire soltanto firme consapevoli da parte di chi, già in questi giorni, decidesse di non aspettare una elaborazione delle realtà LGBT+ e volesse esprimere online la propria posizione."

facebook.com/Rete.Lenford/post…

@Alberto

#lgbt
#LGBTQIA #samesexmarriage #MatrimonioEgualitario

Rete Lenford - Avvocatura per i diritti LGBTI+

NON ESISTE UN REFERENDUM SUL MATRIMONIO TRA PERSONE DELLO STESSO SESSO In questi giorni sta circolando online la richiesta di firme per un referendum, che viene descritto dal partito promotore con...

^{www.facebook.com}