Centinaia di robot in marcia: la Cina presenta la nuova generazione umanoide
UBTECH Robotics, società con base a Shenzhen, ha mostrato pubblicamente la sua nuova ondata di robot umanoidi, consegnandone alcune centinaia in un’unica operazione.
L’annuncio è stato accompagnato da un video che ha rapidamente attirato l’attenzione dei social. Le riprese, realizzate all’interno di un grande magazzino completamente bianco, immortalano lunghi schieramenti di robot impegnati in movimenti sincronizzati: estraggono e reinseriscono la batteria posta sulla schiena, si siedono insieme e poi avanzano in fila verso i camion incaricati del trasporto.
Secondo l’azienda, si tratta della prima consegna su larga scala della seconda generazione dei propri modelli umanoidi, un passaggio considerato strategico per la produzione industriale. La clip si chiude con la parola “Forward”, quasi un motto che accompagna il debutto operativo dei nuovi robot.
La diffusione del filmato ha generato reazioni di segno opposto: c’è chi lo ha accolto con meraviglia e chi, invece, ha espresso una certa inquietudine. Alcuni utenti hanno persino messo in dubbio l’autenticità dell’opera, ipotizzando che potesse trattarsi di una sequenza creata digitalmente, complice l’atmosfera che ricorda le scenografie dei film di fantascienza.
I robot umanoidi sono pensati per imitare postura, movimento e operatività degli esseri umani, così da poter lavorare in ambienti condivisi. Il loro percorso parte da lontano: nel 1973 l’Università di Waseda, in Giappone, presentò Wabot-1, considerato il primo umanoide completo mai costruito. Da allora, la ricerca non si è fermata e oggi la Cina è fra i Paesi che spingono maggiormente sulla robotica avanzata.
Accanto all’interesse tecnologico, riaffiorano però timori legati al futuro del lavoro. La possibilità che macchine di questo tipo possano sostituire ruoli ripetitivi o faticosi alimenta dubbi sulle ricadute economiche per chi occupa mansioni meno qualificate, che rischiano di essere le più esposte alla competizione con robot sempre attivi e privi di costi salariali.
L’iniziativa di UBTECH si inserisce inoltre nel già teso confronto tecnologico tra Cina e Stati Uniti. La rapida crescita del settore robotico cinese viene seguita con attenzione da Washington, che da anni contende a Pechino la leadership in campi come semiconduttori, intelligenza artificiale e automazione. Resta ora da capire quale sarà la risposta statunitense di fronte a un passo avanti considerato rilevante in un settore strategico per entrambe le potenze.
L'articolo Centinaia di robot in marcia: la Cina presenta la nuova generazione umanoide proviene da Red Hot Cyber.
Hacking multi-thread: gli USA pionieri sulle operazioni automatizzate con gli Agent AI
Negli ultimi mesi, negli Stati Uniti si è sviluppata una nuova infrastruttura per le operazioni informatiche , in cui gli agenti automatizzati stanno diventando non solo uno strumento di supporto, ma un vero e proprio partecipante alle operazioni offensive.
In un contesto di competizione con la Cina delle capacità dei sistemi autonomi, Washington sta investendo molto nella ricerca che amplia la portata degli attacchi e riduce i tempi di preparazione, orientandosi verso il concetto di hacking multi-thread basato sull’intelligenza artificiale. Uno dei centri di questa iniziativa è la poco conosciuta azienda Twenty, con sede ad Arlington, che ha ricevuto diversi contratti dalle agenzie militari statunitensi.
L’azienda, che non è ancora uscita formalmente dalla modalità stealth, ha firmato un contratto con il Cyber Command statunitense del valore massimo di 12,6 milioni di dollari. Ha inoltre ricevuto un contratto di ricerca separato con la Marina Militare per 240.000 dollari. Il fatto che una startup finanziata da venture capital riceva investimenti in tecnologie offensive la distingue dai tradizionali appaltatori che tipicamente operano in questo segmento. Inoltre, Twenty è finanziata da entità legate all’intelligence: tra gli investitori figurano In-Q-Tel, una società di venture capital fondata con il supporto della CIA, nonché fondi privati operanti nel mercato tecnologico ad alto rischio.
Il sito web di Twenty afferma che l’azienda crea strumenti di automazione che trasformano le procedure offensive ad alta intensità di lavoro da operazioni manuali a operazioni semplificate, eseguite simultaneamente contro un gran numero di obiettivi. A giudicare dal linguaggio, si tratta di sistemi che ricercano automaticamente i punti vulnerabili degli avversari, preparano scenari di penetrazione e lanciano catene di attacco con un intervento umano minimo. Questo approccio trasforma di fatto le operazioni offensive in una pipeline continua, elaborando centinaia di indirizzi e servizi simultaneamente.
Gli annunci di lavoro dell’azienda rivelano ulteriori dettagli. I requisiti per il responsabile della ricerca offensiva includono lo sviluppo di nuovi metodi per penetrare le reti nemiche, lo sviluppo di framework che descrivono le rotte di attacco e sistemi di automazione dell’hacking basati su modelli. Gli ingegneri ricercati da Twenty devono lavorare con strumenti per la gestione di più agenti di intelligenza artificiale, incluse soluzioni open source per il coordinamento di gruppi di assistenti autonomi. Altre posizioni si concentrano sullo sviluppo di personaggi digitali realistici che si impegneranno in operazioni di ingegneria sociale e nell’infiltrazione di comunità online e canali di comunicazione privati. Questo tipo di attività è tradizionalmente utilizzato dalle agenzie statali per ottenere l’accesso alle reti nemiche senza ricorrere direttamente all’hacking tecnico.
Il team di Twenty è composto da persone con una vasta esperienza nel settore militare e dell’intelligence statunitense. Il CEO dell’azienda ha prestato servizio nella Riserva della Marina e ha lavorato su prodotti di sicurezza presso un’importante azienda statunitense, entrando a far parte dell’azienda dopo aver acquisito una startup focalizzata sulla mappatura delle reti per la sicurezza nazionale. Il CTO si è concentrato sull’analisi dell’esposizione di rete e in precedenza ha prestato servizio nelle unità di intelligence dei segnali dell’esercito statunitense. Il responsabile dell’ingegneria ha trascorso oltre un decennio presso il Cyber Command e altre unità dell’esercito, mentre il responsabile degli affari governativi ha prestato servizio a Capitol Hill e nel team di transizione del Consiglio di sicurezza nazionale.
Gli Stati Uniti non sono l’unico Paese a utilizzare modelli per l’intelligence e le operazioni informatiche. Una recente ricerca di Anthropic ha scoperto che i gruppi cinesi utilizzano modelli per preparare attacchi, consentendo ad agenti autonomi di svolgere gran parte del lavoro di routine, dalla ricognizione delle infrastrutture ai piani di sfruttamento. Questi strumenti possono ridurre i tempi di preparazione di operazioni complesse e accelerare l’identificazione delle debolezze nelle reti avversarie.
Il Pentagono ha anche firmato accordi con OpenAI, Anthropic e xAI per un valore fino a 200 milioni di dollari ciascuno, ma i dettagli dei progetti non sono stati resi noti. Non ci sono informazioni sull’eventuale utilizzo degli sviluppi di queste aziende per missioni offensive. Dato il loro accesso a infrastrutture e modelli, questo rimane uno scenario probabile, soprattutto alla luce della crescente pressione esercitata dalla Cina.
Alla luce della startup in questione, vale la pena menzionare Two Six Technologies, che lavora da diversi anni a un sistema automatizzato per operazioni offensive chiamato IKE. Questo sistema consente a un modulo autonomo di decidere se lanciare un attacco quando la probabilità di successo è elevata. Questo progetto ha raccolto 190 milioni di dollari di finanziamenti, ma non vi è alcuna indicazione che sia in grado di eseguire operazioni parallele su centinaia di risorse con la stessa ampiezza dichiarata da Twenty.
L’uso di modelli in ambito difensivo è molto più diffuso. Ad esempio, l’azienda israeliana Tenzai adatta modelli di intelligenza artificiale per individuare vulnerabilità nei software aziendali. Le sue soluzioni simulano attacchi, ma non sono progettate per l’hacking vero e proprio, bensì per testare la resilienza dei sistemi dei clienti.
Lo sviluppo di sistemi offensivi automatizzati sta cambiando la struttura dei conflitti informatici. Con l’emergere di soluzioni progettate per un impatto massiccio e parallelo sulle infrastrutture avversarie, le azioni offensive stanno diventando più rapide e diffuse.
A giudicare dai contratti in corso, gli Stati Uniti stanno cercando di ottenere un vantaggio significativo in questo settore. A tal fine, stanno utilizzando una combinazione di grandi aziende, società di venture capital, risorse di intelligence e giovani aziende per creare architetture progettate per l’automazione multi-thread.
L'articolo Hacking multi-thread: gli USA pionieri sulle operazioni automatizzate con gli Agent AI proviene da Red Hot Cyber.
Prosegue la sistematica violazione del Media Freedom Act
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/11/prosegu…
Come avevamo previsto le forze del centro destra all’Europarlamento hanno bloccato l’ispezione in Italia per verificare lo stato della libertà di informazione. Nulla accade per caso, di fronte alla
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The government also said "we don't have resources" to retain all footage and that plaintiffs could supply "endless hard drives that we could save things to."
The government also said "we donx27;t have resources" to retain all footage and that plaintiffs could supply "endless hard drives that we could save things to."#ICE
ICE Says Critical Evidence In Abuse Case Was Lost In 'System Crash' a Day After It Was Sued
The federal government claims that the day after it was sued for allegedly abusing detainees at an ICE detention center, a “system crash” deleted nearly two weeks of surveillance footage from inside the facility.People detained at ICE’s Broadview Detention Center in suburban Chicago sued the government on October 30; according to their lawyers and the government, nearly two weeks of footage that could show how they were treated was lost in a “system crash” that happened on October 31.
“The government has said that the data for that period was lost in a system crash apparently on the day after the lawsuit was filed,” Alec Solotorovsky, one of the lawyers representing people detained at the facility, said in a hearing about the footage on Thursday that 404 Media attended via phone. “That period we think is going to be critical […] because that’s the period right before the lawsuit was filed.”
Earlier this week, we reported on the fact that the footage, from October 20 to October 30, had been “irretrievably destroyed.” At a hearing Thursday, we learned more about what was lost and the apparent circumstances of the deletion. According to lawyers representing people detained at the facility, it is unclear whether the government is even trying to recover the footage; government lawyers, meanwhile, said “we don’t have the resources” to continue preserving surveillance footage from the facility and suggested that immigrants detained at the facility (or their lawyers) could provide “endless hard drives where we could save the information, that might be one solution.”
It should be noted that ICE and Border Patrol agents continued to be paid during the government shutdown, that Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” provided $170 billion in funding for immigration enforcement and border protection, which included tens of billions of dollars in funding for detention centers.
People detained at the facility are suing the government over alleged horrific treatment and living conditions at the detention center, which has become a site of mass protest against the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
Solotorovsky said that the footage the government has offered is from between September 28 and October 19, and from between October 31 and November 7. Government lawyers have said they are prepared to provide footage from five cameras from those time periods; Solotorovsky said the plaintiffs’ attorneys believe there are 63 surveillance cameras total at the facility. He added that over the last few weeks the plaintiffs’ legal team has been trying to work with the government to figure out if the footage can be recovered but that it is unclear who is doing this work on the government’s side. He said they were referred to a company called Five by Five Management, “that appears to be based out of a house,” has supposedly been retained by the government.
“We tried to engage with the government through our IT specialist, and we hired a video forensic specialist,” Solotorovsky said. He added that the government specialist they spoke to “didn’t really know anything beyond the basic specifications of the system. He wasn’t able to answer any questions about preservation or attempts to recover the data.” He said that the government eventually put him in touch with “a person who ostensibly was involved in those events [attempting to recover the data], and it was kind of a no-name LLC called Five by Five Management that appears to be based out of a house in Carol Stream. We were told they were on site and involved with the system when the October 20 to 30 data was lost, but nobody has told us that Five By Five Management or anyone else has been trying to recover the data, and also very importantly things like system logs, administrator logs, event logs, data in the system that may show changes to settings or configurations or deletion events or people accessing the system at important times.”
Five by Five Management could not be reached for comment.
Solotorovsky said those logs are going to be critical for “determining whether the loss was intentional. We’re deeply concerned that nobody is trying to recover the data, and nobody is trying to preserve the data that we’re going to need for this case going forward.”
Jana Brady, an assistant US attorney representing the Department of Homeland Security in the case, did not have much information about what had happened to the footage, and said she was trying to get in touch with contractors the government had hired. She also said the government should not be forced to retain surveillance footage from every camera at the facility and that the “we [the federal government] don’t have the resources to save all of the video footage.”
“We need to keep in mind proportionality. It took a huge effort to download and save and produce the video footage that we are producing and to say that we have to produce and preserve video footage indefinitely for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, indefinitely, which is what they’re asking, we don’t have the resources to do that,” Brady said. “we don't have the resources to save all of the video footage 24/7 for 65 cameras for basically the end of time.”
She added that the government would be amenable to saving all footage if the plaintiffs “have endless hard drives that we could save things to, because again we don’t have the resources to do what the court is ordering us to do. But if they have endless hard drives where we could save the information, that might be one solution.”
Magistrate Judge Laura McNally said they aren’t being “preserved from now until the end of time, they’re being preserved for now,” and said “I’m guessing the federal government has more resources than the plaintiffs here and, I’ll just leave it at that.”
When McNally asked if the footage was gone and not recoverable, Brady said “that’s what I’ve been told.”
“I’ve asked for the name and phone number for the person that is most knowledgeable from the vendor [attempting to recover] the footage, and if I need to depose them to confirm this, I can do this,” she said. “But I have been told that it’s not recoverable, that the system crashed.”
Plaintiffs in the case say they are being held in “inhumane” conditions. The complaint describes a facility where detainees are “confined at Broadview inside overcrowded holding cells containing dozens of people at a time. People are forced to attempt to sleep for days or sometimes weeks on plastic chairs or on the filthy concrete floor. They are denied sufficient food and water […] the temperatures are extreme and uncomfortable […] the physical conditions are filthy, with poor sanitation, clogged toilets, and blood, human fluids, and insects in the sinks and the floor […] federal officers who patrol Broadview under Defendants’ authority are abusive and cruel. Putative class members are routinely degraded, mistreated, and humiliated by these officers.”
Fixing a Milltronics ML15 CNC Lathe Despite the Manufacturer’s Best Efforts
When you’re like [Wes] from Watch Wes Work fame, you don’t have a CNC machine hoarding issue, you just have a healthy interest in going down CNC machine repair rabbit holes. Such too was the case with a recently acquired 2001 Milltronics ML15 lathe, that at first glance appeared to be in pristine condition. Yet despite – or because of – living a cushy life at a college’s workshop, it had a number of serious issues, with a busted Z-axis drive board being the first to be tackled.
The identical servo control board next to it worked fine, so it had to be an issue on the board itself. A quick test showed that the H-bridge IGBTs had suffered the typical fate that IGBTs suffer, violently taking out another IC along with them. Enjoyably, this board by one Glentek Inc. did the rebranding thing of components like said IGBTs, which made tracking down suitable replacements an utter pain that was eased only by the desperate communications on forums which provided some clues. Of course, desoldering and testing one of the good IGBTs on the second board showed the exact type of IGBT to get.
After replacing said IGBTs, as well as an optocoupler and other bits and pieces, the servo board was good as new. Next, the CNC lathe also had a busted optical encoder, an unusable tool post and a number of other smaller and larger issues that required addressing. Along the way the term ‘pin-to-pin compatible’ for a replacement driver IC was also found to mean that you still have to read the full datasheet.
Of the whole ordeal, the Glentek servo board definitely caused the most trouble, with the manufacturer providing incomplete schematics, rebranding parts to make generic replacements very hard to find and overall just going for a design that’s interesting but hard to diagnose and fix. To help out anyone else who got cursed with a Glentek servo board like this, [Wes] has made the board files and related info available in a GitHub repository.
youtube.com/embed/BuQZeiAugp4?…
#Zelensky e l'incubo della pace
Zelensky e l’incubo della pace
Uno stato di panico autentico è calato sui governi europei e sul regime di Zelensky nelle scorse ore a seguito della circolazione sulla stampa occidentale di un possibile “piano di pace” in 28 punti, concordato tra Washington e Mosca, per mettere fin…www.altrenotizie.org
In una sentenza emessa martedì 18 novembre, il giudice statunitense James Boasberg ha stabilito che la Ftc non è riuscita a dimostrare che Meta detiene un monopolio nel mercato dei “social network personali” (personal social networking). L'ente sosteneva che la società di Mark Zuckerberg avrebbe solo due rivali nel settore, Snapchat e MeWe, che peraltro faticherebbero a competere proprio a causa del predominio di Meta.
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Il nuovo video di Pasta Grannies: youtube.com/shorts/2_v1gfevI-E
@Cucina e ricette
(HASHTAG)
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So Long, Firefox, Part One
It’s likely that Hackaday readers have among them a greater than average number of people who can name one special thing they did on September 23rd, 2002. On that day a new web browser was released, Phoenix version 0.1, and it was a lightweight browser-only derivative of the hugely bloated Mozilla suite. Renamed a few times to become Firefox, it rose to challenge the once-mighty Microsoft Internet Explorer, only to in turn be overtaken by Google’s Chrome.
Now in 2025 it’s a minority browser with an estimated market share just over 2%, and it’s safe to say that Mozilla’s take on AI and the use of advertising data has put them at odds with many of us who’ve kept the faith since that September day 23 years ago. Over the last few months I’ve been actively chasing alternatives, and it’s with sadness that in November 2025, I can finally say I’m Firefox-free.
Just What Went Wrong?
It was perhaps inevitable that Firefox would lose market share when faced with a challenger from a player with the economic muscle of Google. Chrome is everywhere, it’s the default browser in Android and ChromeOS, and when stacked up against the Internet Explorer of fifteen years or so ago it’s not difficult to see why it made for an easy switch. Chrome is good, it’s fast and responsive, it’s friendly, and the majority of end users either don’t care or don’t know enough to care that it’s Google’s way in to your data. When it first appeared, they still had the “Don’t be evil” aura to them, even if perhaps behind the warm and fuzzy feeling it had already worn away in the company itself.
If Firefox were destined to become a minority player then it could still be a successful one; after all, 2% of the global browser market still represents a huge number of users whose referrals to search engines return a decent income. But the key to being a success in any business is to know your customers, and sitting in front of this particular screen it’s difficult to escape the conclusion that Mozilla have lost touch with theirs. To understand this it’s necessary for all of us to look in the mirror and think for a moment about who uses Firefox.
Somewhere, A Group Of Users Are Being Ignored
A quick straw poll in my hackerspace revealed a majority of Firefox users, while the same straw poll among another group of my non-hackerspace friends revealed none. The former used Firefox because of open-source vibes, while the latter used Edge or Safari because it came with their computer, or Chrome on their phone and on their desktop because of Google services. Hackaday is not a global polling organisation, but we think it’s likely that the same trend would reveal itself more widely. If you’re in the technology space you might use Firefox, but if you aren’t you may not even have heard of it in 2025. It’s difficult to see that changing any time soon, to imagine some killer feature that would make those Chrome, Safari, and Edge users care enough to switch to Firefox.
To service and retain this loyal userbase then, you might imagine that Mozilla would address their needs and concerns with what made Phoenix a great first version back in 2002. A lightweight and versatile standards-compliant and open-source web browser with acceptable privacy standards, and without any other non-browser features attached to it. Just a browser, only a browser, and above all, a fast browser.
Instead, Mozilla appear to be following a course calculated to alarm rather than retain these users. Making themselves an AI-focused organisation, neglecting their once-unbeatable developer network, and trying to sneak data gathering into their products. They appear now to think of themselves as a fad-driven Valley startup rather than the custodians of a valuable open-source package, and unsurprisingly this is concerning to those of us who know something about what a browser does behind the scenes.
Why Is This Important?
It is likely that I am preaching to the choir here, but it’s important that there be a plurality of browsers in the world. And by that I mean not just a plurality of front-ends, but a plurality of browser engines. One of the reasons Phoenix appeared all those years ago was to challenge the dominance of Microsoft Internet Explorer, the tool by which the Redmond software company were trying to shape the online world to their tune. If you remember the browser wars of that era, you’ll have tales of incompatibilities seemingly baked in on purpose to break the chances of an open Web, and we were all poorer for it. Writing Javascript with a range of sections to deal with the quirks of different browser families is now largely a thing of the past, and for that you have the people who stuck with Firefox in the 2000s to thank.
The fear is that here in 2025 we are in an analogous situation to the early 2000s, with Google replacing Microsoft. Such is the dominance of Google Chrome and the WebKit-derived Blink engine which powers it, that in effect, Google have immense power to shape the Web just as Microsoft did back in the day. Do you trust them to live up to their now-retired mission statement and not be evil? We can’t say we do. Thus Firefox’s Gecko browser engine is of crucial importance, representing as it does the only any-way serious challenger to Blink and WebKit’s near-monopoly. That it is now tied to a Mozilla leadership treating it in so cavalier a manner does not bode well for the future of the Web.
So I’ve set out my stand here, that after twenty-three years, I’m ready to abandon Firefox. It’s not a decision that has been easy, because it’s important for all of us that there be a plurality of browsers, but such is the direction being taken by Mozilla that I am not anxious to sit idly by and constantly keep an eye out for new hidden privacy and AI features to turn off with obscure checkboxes. In the following piece I’ll take a look at my hunt for alternatives, and you may be surprised by the one I eventually picked.
freezonemagazine.com/news/in-a…
“Il CBGB era un posto per gente sporca.” – Jimmy Destri dei Blondie “Dopo, sono partita e ho attraversato la città per andare al CBGB, la roccaforte dell’ignoto, per stare con la mia gente.” – Patti Smith Nel dicembre 1973 Hilly Kristal cambiò il nome del suo bar di musica roots da Hilly’s on the […]
Incontro "Violenza di genere", 26 novembre Sesto Fiorentino (FI)
Con l'RSU FIOM-CGIL della mia azienda abbiamo organizzato un evento che esce un po' dalle tematiche "classiche" di cui si occupa una RSU.
L'incontro in questione si terrà mercoledì 26 novembre, alle 9:00 (mattina), alla Casa del Popolo di Querceto (Sesto Fiorentino, FI) e si intitola "Violenza di genere - Ragioni culturali e psicologiche, effetti sulle vittime, il supporto offerto dai servizi territoriali".
E' stato organizzato in collaborazione con il Centro Antiviolenza Artemisia di Firenze e vedrà la partecipazione di una delle loro psicologhe, la dott.ssa Eleonora Bartoli.
L’associazione Artemisia illustrerà le ragioni socio-culturali della violenza di genere, gli effetti sulle vittime, cercherà di fornire degli strumenti per riconoscere questo tipo di violenza e i servizi presenti sul territorio per il sostegno delle donne in quanto vittime e per gli uomini in quanto attori di tale violenza.
Se condividete magari riusciamo a raggiungere qualche persona in più.
#ViolenzaDiGenere
#GiornataInternazionaleControlaViolenzasulleDonne
#25novembre #25novembre2025
#FIOM
#CGIL
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Digitaler Omnibus: Wie Medien aus Angst vor Komplexität eine Debatte verzerren
netzpolitik.org/2025/digitaler…
Strage di Ustica, no all’archiviazione dell’inchiesta. Il 24 novembre conferenza stampa alla Camera
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/11/strage-…
Il Paese merita Verità e Giustizia! Per questo Daria Bonfietti dell’Associazione
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Come vanno i conti di Tim, Fastweb-Vodafone, WindTre e non solo. Report Mediobanca
L'articolo proviene da #StartMag e viene ricondiviso sulla comunità Lemmy @Informatica (Italy e non Italy 😁)
Che cosa emerge dal rapporto annuale di Mediobanca sul settore tlc. Ecco numeri, tendenze, confronti e startmag.it/innovazione/rappor…
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Rare Filament Makes Weird Benchies
[Zack], in addition to being a snappy dresser, has a thing for strange 3D printing filament. How strange? Well, in a recent video, he looks at filaments that require 445 C. Even the build plate has to be super hot. He also looks at filament that seems like iron, one that makes you think it is rubber, and a bunch of others.
As you might expect, he’s not using a conventional 3D printer. Although you might be able to get your more conventional printer to handle some of these, especially with some hacking. There is filament with carbon fiber, glass fiber, and more exotic add-ons.
Most of the filaments need special code to get everything working. While you might think you can’t print these engineering filaments, it stands to reason that hobby-grade printers are going to get better over time (as they already have). If the day is coming when folks will be able to print any of these on their out-of-the-box printer, we might as well start researching them now.
If you fancy a drinking game, have a shot every time he changes shots and a double when the Hackaday Prize T-shirt shows up.
youtube.com/embed/J8PZWkjt65Q?…
FAQ zum „Digitalen Omnibus“: Was plant die EU-Kommission bei KI und Datenschutz?
netzpolitik.org/2025/faq-zum-d…
C’era una volta la scuola di partito, ora la politica diventa casting
Lontana dalle sezioni e dai congressi di un tempo, una rivoluzione silenziosa attraversa la politica italiana del futuro. A decidere il destino dei giovani militanti non sono più le classiche…
L'articolo C’era una volta la scuola di partito, ora la politica diventa casting su Lumsanews.
Per due giorni Gualdo Tadino diventa “capitale” della libertà di informazione
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/11/per-due…
Domani e sabato la grande comunità di Articolo 21 si ritrova a Gualdo Tadino che si trasforma in una delle grandi capitali europee della libertà
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Leoni (FI): “Altro che apatia: i giovani ci mettono il portafoglio per fare politica”
[quote]Negli ultimi mesi i partiti hanno rilanciato eventi e scuole di formazione politica rivolti ai più giovani. I dati che emergono dall’indagine Ipsos di maggio – secondo cui il 76,4%…
L'articolo Leoni (FI): “Altro che apatia: i giovani ci mettono il portafoglio per fare
Attacco ransomware a Poltronesofà: il rischio è l’esposizione di dati personali
@Informatica (Italy e non Italy 😁)
Al momento non c'è alcuna rivendicazione, ma l'attacco ransomware subito da Poltronesofà rappresenta un caso emblematico della minaccia persistente che colpisce il tessuto imprenditoriale italiano. Ecco cosa rischiano le persone coinvolte
L'articolo Attacco
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È uscito il nuovo numero di The Post Internazionale. Da oggi potete acquistare la copia digitale
@Politica interna, europea e internazionale
È uscito il nuovo numero di The Post Internazionale. Il magazine, disponibile già da ora nella versione digitale sulla nostra App, e da domani, venerdì 21 novembre, in tutte le edicole, propone ogni due settimane inchieste e approfondimenti sugli affari e il potere in
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Il Consiglio Supremo di Difesa Italiano discute sulla minacce ibride e digitali in Italia e Europa
Il Consiglio Supremo di Difesa, si è riunito recentemente al Quirinale sotto la guida del Presidente Sergio Mattarella, ha posto al centro della discussione l’evoluzione delle minacce ibride e digitali che investono l’Italia e l’Europa.
La guerra in Ucraina resta lo scenario da cui originano molte delle tensioni che ricadono anche sul dominio cyber, con Mosca che continua a utilizzare strumenti tecnologici e informativi come leve strategiche per destabilizzare i Paesi occidentali.
Una parte rilevante della riunione è stata dedicata all’impiego sempre più aggressivo dei droni da parte della Russia, non solo in Ucraina ma anche con violazioni dello spazio aereo di Paesi NATO. Sebbene si tratti di operazioni prettamente militari, il Consiglio ha sottolineato come tali tecniche riflettano un salto di qualità nell’integrazione tra mezzi fisici e digitali, confermando la necessità di potenziare le capacità europee di innovazione e difesa tecnologica, in linea con quanto previsto dal Libro Bianco per la Difesa 2030.
Il tema centrale sul fronte cyber è stato però l’aumento della minaccia ibrida. Il Consiglio ha riconosciuto che la Russia – insieme ad altri attori ostili – sta intensificando attività che spaziano dalla disinformazione alle interferenze nei processi democratici, sfruttando la velocità e l’ubiquità delle tecnologie digitali, oltre alle potenzialità dell’intelligenza artificiale per manipolare lo spazio cognitivo e costruire narrazioni polarizzanti.
Sempre più frequenti sono anche le operazioni cyber dirette contro infrastrutture critiche italiane ed europee. Ospedali, reti energetiche, sistemi finanziari e piattaforme logistiche rientrano tra gli obiettivi più vulnerabili.
L’obiettivo di questi attacchi è creare interruzioni, generare sfiducia nelle istituzioni e colpire la stabilità economica e sociale. Per questo, il Consiglio ha ribadito l’urgenza di rafforzare i meccanismi di difesa e coordinamento nazionale, in continuità con le iniziative già intraprese a livello UE e NATO.
Accanto alle minacce digitali, il Consiglio ha evidenziato come nuovi domini – lo spazio e il sottosuolo marino – stiano rapidamente diventando aree chiave di competizione strategica. La protezione dei cavi sottomarini, dei satelliti e delle infrastrutture spaziali è ormai parte integrante della sicurezza cyber nazionale, poiché un attacco in questi ambiti avrebbe ricadute dirette sulle comunicazioni digitali e sui servizi essenziali.
In chiusura, oltre ai rischi cyber e ibridi, il Consiglio ha espresso forte preoccupazione per le tensioni nei principali scenari di crisi globali – Ucraina, Medio Oriente, Libano, Sahel e Balcani – ricordando che ogni instabilità regionale si ripercuote anche sulla sicurezza informatica europea.
Il messaggio finale è stato chiaro: l’Italia deve continuare a investire nella resilienza digitale e nella cooperazione internazionale, mantenendo alta la vigilanza su tutte le dimensioni della sicurezza contemporanea.
L'articolo Il Consiglio Supremo di Difesa Italiano discute sulla minacce ibride e digitali in Italia e Europa proviene da Red Hot Cyber.
Today, 6pm: The Criminalization of Self-Defense Talk
The Black Response and Impact Boston will present The Criminalization of Self-Defense, a community education event on Thursday, November 20, from 6:00 to 8:30 PM at The Community Art Center in Cambridge, MA. We are proud to be one of the sponsors of it. Please register in advance.
It is a free and public gathering that will explore how self-defense is criminalized, particularly for Black, Brown, and marginalized survivors, and how communities can reclaim safety through resistance, advocacy, and care.
Featured Speakers will be:
- Prof. Alisa Bierria – Survived and Punished / UCLA
- Meg Stone – Impact Boston
- Kishana Smith-Osei – Massachusetts Women of Color Network
- Lea Kayali – Palestinian Youth Movement Boston
The Community Art Center is at 119 Windsor Street, Cambridge. It is a nine minute walk from Central Square and the MBTA Red Line stop there.
FREE food and childcare will be provided. TBR will collect food donations for the network of free CommunityFridges. Please bring nonperishable food items to contribute. More details are available.
OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair announced on LinkedIn that the platform partnered with Checkr to "prevent people who have a criminal conviction which may impact on our community's safety from signing up as a Creator on OnlyFans."
OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair announced on LinkedIn that the platform partnered with Checkr to "prevent people who have a criminal conviction which may impact on our communityx27;s safety from signing up as a Creator on OnlyFans."#onlyfans #porn #backgroundchecks
OnlyFans Will Start Checking Criminal Records. Creators Say That's a Terrible Idea
OnlyFans will start running background checks on people signing up as content creators, the platform’s CEO recently announced.As reported by adult industry news outlet XBIZ, OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair announced the partnership in a LinkedIn post. Blair doesn’t say in the post when the checks will be implemented, whether all types of criminal convictions will bar creators from signing up, if existing creators will be checked as well, or what countries’ criminal records will be checked.
OnlyFans did not respond to 404 Media's request for comment.
“I am very proud to add our partnership with Checkr Trust to our onboarding process in the US,” Blair wrote. “Checkr, Inc. helps OnlyFans to prevent people who have a criminal conviction which may impact on our community's safety from signing up as a Creator on OnlyFans. It’s collaborations like this that make the real difference behind the scenes and keep OnlyFans a space where creators and fans feel secure and empowered.”
Many OnlyFans creators turned to the platform, and to online sex work more generally, when they’re not able to obtain employment at traditional workplaces. Some sex workers doing in-person work turned to online sex work as a way to make ends meet—especially after the passage of the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act in 2018 made it much more difficult to screen clients for escorting. And in-person sex work is still criminalized in the U.S. and many other countries.
“Criminal background checks will not stop potential predators from using the platform (OF), it will only harm individuals who are already at higher risk. Sex work has always had a low barrier to entry, making it the most accessible career for people from all walks of life,” performer GoAskAlex, who’s on OnlyFans and other platforms, told me in an email. “Removing creators with criminal/arrest records will only push more vulnerable people (overwhelmingly, women) to street based/survival sex work. Adding more barriers to what is arguably the safest form of sex work (online sex work) will push sex industry workers to less and less safe options.”
Jessica Starling, who also creates adult content on OnlyFans, told me in a call that their first thought was that if someone using OnlyFans has a prostitution charge, they might not be able to use the platform. “If they're trying to transition to online work, they won’t be able to do that anymore,” they said. “And the second thing I thought was that it's just invasive and overreaching... And then I looked up the company, and I'm like, ‘Oh, wow, this is really bad.’”
Checkr is reportedly used by Uber, Instacart, Shipt, Postmates, and Lyft, and lists many more companies like Dominos and Doordash on its site as clients. The company has been sued hundreds of times for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act or other consumer credit complaints. The Fair Credit Reporting Act says that companies providing information to consumer reporting agencies are legally obligated to investigate disputed information. And a lot of people dispute the information Checkr and Inflection provide on them, claiming mixed-up names, acquittals, and decades-old misdemeanors or traffic tickets prevented them from accessing platforms that use background checking services.
Checkr regularly acquires other background checking and age verification companies, and acquired a background check company called Inflection in 2022. At the time, I found more than a dozen lawsuits against Inflection alone in a three year span, many of them from people who found out about the allegedly inaccurate reports Inflection kept about them after being banned from Airbnb after the company claimed they failed checks.
How OnlyFans Piracy Is Ruining the Internet for Everyone
Innocent sites are being delisted from Google because of copyright takedown requests against rampant OnlyFans piracy.404 MediaEmanuel Maiberg
“Sex workers face discrimination when leaving the sex trade, especially those who have been face-out and are identifiable in the online world. Facial recognition technology has advanced to a point where just about anyone can ascertain your identity from a single picture,” Alex said. “Leaving the online sex trade is not as easy as it once was, and anything you've done online will follow you for a lifetime. Creators who are forced to leave the platform will find that safe and stable alternatives are far and few between.”Last month, Pornhub announced that it would start performing background checks on existing content partners—which primarily include studios—next year. "To further protect our creators and users, all new applicants must now complete a criminal background check during onboarding," the platform announced in a newsletter to partners, as reported by AVN.
Alex said she believes background checks in the porn industry could be beneficial, under very specific circumstances. “I do not think that someone with egregious history of sexual violence should be allowed to work in the sex trade in any capacity—similarly, a person convicted of hurting children should be not able to work with children—so if the criminal record checks were searching specifically for sex based offences I could see the benefit, but that doesn't appear to be the case (to my knowledge). What's to stop OnlyFans from deactivating someone's account due to a shoplifting offense?” she said. “I'd like to know more about what they're searching for with these background checks.”
Even with third-party companies like Checkr doing the work, as is the case with third-party age verification that’s swept the U.S. and targeted the porn industry, increased data means increased risk of it being leaked or hacked. Last year, a background check company called National Public Data claimed it was breached by hackers who got the confidential data of 2.9 billion people. The unencrypted data was then sold on the dark web.
Pornhub Is Now Blocked In Almost All of the U.S. South
As of today, three more states join the list of 17 that can’t access Pornhub because of age verification laws.404 MediaSamantha Cole
“It’s dangerous for anyone, but it's especially dangerous for us [adult creators] because we're more vulnerable anyway. Especially when you're online, you're hypervisible,” Starling said. “It doesn't protect anyone except OnlyFans themselves, the company.”OnlyFans became the household name in independent porn because of the work of its adult content creators. Starling mentioned that because the platform has dominated the market, it’s difficult to just go to another platform if creators don’t want to be subjected to background checks. “We're put in a position where we have very limited power," they said. "So when a platform decides to do something like this, we’re kind of screwed, right?”
Earlier this year, OnlyFans owner Fenix International Ltd reportedly entered talks to sell the company to an investor group at a valuation of around $8 billion.
Pornhub Is Now Blocked In Almost All of the U.S. South
As of today, three more states join the list of 17 that can't access Pornhub because of age verification laws.Samantha Cole (404 Media)
🗓️ Fino al 1° dicembre è possibile partecipare alla consultazione pubblica sull’impatto delle norme sugli #ITSAcademy.
Compila il questionario online su ➡️ partecipa.gov.it/processes/ITS…
Ministero dell'Istruzione
🗓️ Fino al 1° dicembre è possibile partecipare alla consultazione pubblica sull’impatto delle norme sugli #ITSAcademy. Compila il questionario online su ➡️ https://partecipa.gov.it/processes/ITS-AcademyTelegram
Cinema e missione: mons. Viganò (Mac), “apostolic cinema” è una nuova categoria interpretativa “che forma, educa, trasmette, persuade” - AgenSIR
“Il volume è frutto di un lavoro di ricerca e di raccordo culturale che mi permetto di definire come pionieristico.Redazione (AgenSIR)
A few years ago, Putin hyped the Kinzhal hypersonic missile. Now electronic warfare is knocking it out of the sky with music and some bad directions.#News #war
Ukraine Is Jamming Russia’s ‘Superweapon’ With a Song
The Ukrainian Army is knocking a once-hyped Russian superweapon out of the sky by jamming it with a song and tricking it into thinking it’s in Lima, Peru. The Kremlin once called its Kh-47M2 Kinzhal ballistic missiles “invincible.” Joe Biden said the missile was “almost impossible to stop.” Now Ukrainian electronic warfare experts say they can counter the Kinzhal with some music and a re-direction order.As winter begins in Ukraine, Russia has ramped up attacks on power and water infrastructure using the hypersonic Kinzhal missile. Russia has come to rely on massive long-range barrages that include drones and missiles. An overnight attack in early October included 496 drones and 53 missiles, including the Kinzhal. Another attack at the end of October involved more than 700 mixed missiles and drones, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2…
“Only one type of system in Ukraine was able to intercept those kinds of missiles. It was the Patriot system, which the United States provided to Ukraine. But, because of the limits of those systems and the shortage of ammunition, Ukraine defense are unable to intercept most of those Kijnhals,” a member of Night Watch—a Ukrainian electronic warfare team—told 404 Media. The representative from Night Watch spoke to me on the condition of anonymity to discuss war tactics.Kinzhals and other guided munitions navigate by communicating with Russian satellites that are part of the GLONASS system, a GPS-style navigation network. Night Watch uses a jamming system called Lima EW to generate a disruption field that prevents anything in the area from communicating with a satellite. Many traditional jamming systems work by blasting receivers on munitions and aircraft with radio noise. Lima does that, but also sends along a digital signal and spoofs navigation signals. It “hacks” the receiver it's communicating with to throw it off course.
Night Watch shared pictures of the downed Kinzhals with 404 Media that showed a missile with a controlled reception pattern antenna (CRPA), an active antenna that’s meant to resist jamming and spoofing. “We discovered that this missile had pretty old type of technology,” Night Watch said. “They had the same type of receivers as old Soviet missiles used to have. So there is nothing special, there is nothing new in those types of missiles.”
Night Watch told 404 Media that it used this Lima to take down 19 Kinzhals in the past two weeks. First, it replaces the missile’s satellite navigation signals with the Ukrainian song “Our Father Is Bandera.”
A downed Kinzhal. Night Watch photo.
Any digital noise or random signal would work to jam the navigation system, but Night Watch wanted to use the song because they think it’s funny. “We just send a song…we just make it into binary code, you know, like 010101, and just send it to the Russian navigation system,” Night Watch said. “It’s just kind of a joke. [Bandera] is a Ukrainian nationalist and Russia tries to use this person in their propaganda to say all Ukrainians are Nazis. They always try to scare the Russian people that Ukrainians are, culturally, all the same as Bandera.”💡
Do you know anything else about this story? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at +1 347 762-9212 or send me an email at matthew@404media.co.Once the song hits, Night Watch uses Lima to spoof a navigation signal to the missiles and make them think they’re in Lima, Peru. Once the missile’s confused about its location, it attempts to change direction. These missiles are fast—launched from a MiG-31 they can hit speeds of up to Mach 5.7 or more than 4,000 miles per hour—and an object moving that fast doesn’t fare well with sudden changes of direction.
“The airframe cannot withstand the excessive stress and the missile naturally fails,” Night Watch said. “When the Kinzhal missile tried to quickly change navigation, the fuselage of this missile was unable to handle the speed…and, yeah., it was just cut into two parts…the biggest advantage of those missiles, speed, was used against them. So that’s why we have intercepted 19 missiles for the last two weeks.”
Electronics in a downed Kinzhal. Night Watch photo.
Night Watch told 404 Media that Russia is attempting to defeat the Lima system by loading the missiles with more of the old tech. The goal seems to be to use the different receivers to hop frequencies and avoid Lima’s signal.“What is Russia trying to do? Increase the amount of receivers on those missiles. They used to have eight receivers and right now they increase it up to 12, but it will not help,” Night Watch said. “The last one we intercepted, they already used 16 receivers. It’s pretty useless, that type of modification.”
According to Night Watch, countering Lima by increasing the number of receivers on the missile is a profound misunderstanding of its tech. “They think we make the attack on each receiver and as soon as one receiver attacks, they try to swap in another receiver and get a signal from another satellite. But when the missile enters the range of our system, we cover all types of receivers,” they said. “It’s physically impossible to connect with another satellite, but they think that it’s possible. That’s why they started with four receivers and right now it’s 16. I guess in the future we’ll see 24, but it’s pretty useless.”
Russia fires 500 drones at Ukraine in deadly overnight attack, Zelenskyy says
At least five people were killed across the country, Zelenskyy said.David Brennan (ABC News)
Mating Cycles: Engineering Connectors to Last
If you take a look around you, chances are pretty good that within a few seconds, your eyes will fall on some kind of electrical connector. In this day and age, it’s as likely as not to be a USB connector, given their ubiquity as the charger of choice for everything from phones to flashlights. But there are plenty of other connectors, from mains outlets in the wall to Ethernet connectors, and if you’re anything like us, you’ve got a bench full of DuPonts, banana plugs, BNCs, SMAs, and all the rest of the alphabet soup of connectors.
Given their propensity for failure and their general reputation as a necessary evil in electrical designs, it may seem controversial to say that all connectors are engineered to last. But it’s true; they’re engineered to last, but only for as long as necessary. Some are built for only a few cycles of mating, while others are built for the long haul. Either way, connectors are a great case study in engineering compromise, one that loops physics, chemistry, and materials science into the process.
A Tale of Two Connectors
While there’s a bewildering number of connectors available today, most have at least a few things in common. Generally, connectors consist of one or more electrically conductive elements held in position by an insulating body of some sort, one that can mechanically attach to another body containing more conductive elements. When the two connectors are attached, the conductive elements come into physical contact with each other, completing the circuit and providing a low-resistance path for current to flow. The bodies also have to be able to separate from each other when the connections need to be broken.
For as simple as that sounds, a lot of engineering goes into making connectors that are suitable for the job at hand. The intended use of a connector dictates a lot about how it’s designed, and in terms of connector durability, looking at the extremes can be instructive. On one end of the scale, we might have something like a Molex connector on a wiring harness in a dishwasher. Under ideal circumstances, a connector like that only needs to be used once, in the factory during assembly. If the future owner of the appliance is unlucky, that connector might go through one or two more mating cycles if the machine needs to be serviced at some point. Either way, the connector is only going to be subjected to low single-digit mating cycles, and should be designed accordingly
On the other end of the mating-cycle spectrum would be something like the USB-C connector on a cell phone. Assuming the user will charge the phone once a day, the connector might have to endure many thousands of mating cycles over the useful life of the phone. Such a connector has a completely different use case from a connector like that Molex, and very different design constraints. But the basic job — bringing two conductors into close contact to complete a low-resistance circuit, and allow the circuits to be broken only under the right circumstances — is the same for both.
But what exactly do we mean by “close contact”? It might seem obvious — conductors in each half of the connector have to touch each other. But keeping those conductors in contact is the real trick, especially in challenging environments such as under the hood of a car or inside a CNC machine, where vibration, dust, and liquid intrusion can all come together to force those contacts apart and break the circuit while it’s still in use.
esseeWhy Be Normal?
To keep contacts together, engineers rely on one of the simplest mechanisms of all: springs. In most connectors, the contacts themselves are the sprung elements, although there are connectors where force is applied to the contacts with separate springs. In either case, the force generated by the spring pushes the contacts together firmly enough to ensure that they stay connected. This is the normal force, called so because the force is exerted perpendicular to the plane of contact when the connector is mated.
Traditionally, normal force in connector engineering is expressed in grams, which seems like an affront to the SI system, where force is expressed in Newtons. But fear not — “grams” does not refer to the mass of a contact, but rather is shorthand for “gram-force,” the force applied by one gram of mass in a one g gravitational field. So, an “80 gram” contact is really exerting 0.784 N of normal force. But that’s a bit clunky, especially when most connectors have normal forces that are a fraction of a Newton. So it ends up being easier to refer to the grams part of the equation and just assume the acceleration component.
The amount of normal force exerted by the contacts is a critical factor in connector design, and has to be properly scaled for the job. If the force is too low, it may increase the resistance of the circuit or even result in intermittent open circuits. If the force is too high, the connector could be difficult to mate and unmate, or the contacts could wear out from excess friction.
Since the contacts themselves are usually the springs as well as the conductors, getting the normal force right, as well as ensuring the contacts are highly conductive, is largely an exercise in materials science. While pure copper is an excellent conductor, it is not elastic enough to provide the proper normal force. So, most connectors use one of two related copper alloys for their contacts: phosphor bronze, or beryllium copper. Both are excellent electrical and thermal conductors, and both are strong and springy, but there are significant differences between the two that make them suitable for different types of connectors.
As the name implies, phosphor bronze is an alloy of phosphorus and bronze, which itself is an alloy of copper and tin. To make phosphor bronze, about 0.03% phosphorus is added to pure molten copper. Any oxygen dissolved in the copper reacts with the phosphorus, making phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5), which can be easily removed during refining. About 2% tin is added along with about 10% zinc and 2% iron to make the final alloy, which is easily cast into sheets or coil stock.
While far superior to pure copper or non-phosphor bronze for use in contacts, phosphor bronze is, at best, a compromise material. It’s good enough in almost all categories — strength, elasticity, conductivity, wear resistance — but not really great in any of them. It’s the “Jack of all trades, master of none” of the electrical contact world, which, coupled with its easy workability and low cost, makes it the metal of choice for the contacts in commodity connectors. If a manufacturer is making a million copies of a connector, especially ones that are cheap enough that nobody will cry too much if they have to be replaced, chances are good that they’ll choose phosphor bronze. It’s also the alloy most likely to be used for connectors intended for low mating-cycle applications, like the aforementioned dishwasher Molex.
For more mission-critical contacts, a different alloy is generally called for: beryllium copper. Also known as spring copper, beryllium copper contains up to about 3% beryllium, but for electrical uses, it’s usually around 0.7% with a little cobalt and nickel added in. Beryllium copper is everything that phosphor bronze is, and more. It’s stronger and springier, it’s a far better electrical conductor, and it also has a better ability to withstand creep under load. Also known as stress relaxation, creep under load is the tendency for a spring to lose its strength over time, which reduces its normal force. Phosphor bronze has pretty good stress relaxation resistance, but when it heats up past around 125°C, it starts to lose spring force — not ideal for high-power applications. Beryllium copper is easily able to withstand 150°C or more, making it a better choice for power connectors.
Beryllium copper also has a higher elastic modulus than phosphor bronze, which makes it easier to create small contacts that still have enough normal force to maintain good contact. Smaller is better when it comes to modern high-density connectors, so you’ll often see beryllium copper used in fine-pitch connectors. It also has better fatigue life and tends to maintain normal force over repeated mating cycles, making it desirable for connectors that specify cycle lives in the thousands. But just because it’s desirable doesn’t make it a shoo-in — beryllium copper is at least three times more expensive than phosphor bronze. That means it’s usually reserved for connectors that can justify the added expense.
Noble Is Only Skin Deep
No matter what the base metal is for connector contacts, chances are good that the finished contact will have some sort of plated finish. Plating is important because it protects the base metal from oxidation, as well as increasing the wear resistance of contacts and improving their electrical conductivity. Plating metals fall into two broad categories: noble (principally gold, with silver used sometimes for high-power connectors, as well as palladium, but only very rarely) and non-noble platings.
Noble metal finishes are quite common in high-density connectors, RF applications, and high-speed digital circuits, as well as high-reliability applications and connectors that are expected to have high mating cycles. But at the risk of stating the obvious, gold is expensive, so it’s used only on connectors that really need it. And even then, it’s very rare that the entire contact is plated. While that would be incredibly expensive — gold is currently pushing $4,000 an ounce — the real reason is that gold isn’t particularly solderable. So generally, selective plating is used to deposit gold only on the mating surfaces of contacts, with the tail of the contact plated in a non-noble metal to improve solderability.
youtube.com/embed/AtwVm_3YrwI?…
Among the non-noble finishes, tin and tin alloys are the first choice. Aside from its excellent solderability, tin alloys do a great job at protecting the base metal from corrosion. However, the tin plating itself begins to oxidize almost immediately after it’s applied. This would seem to be a problem, but it’s easily addressed by using more spring force in the contacts to break through the oxide layer to fresh tin. Tin-plated contacts typically specify normal forces of 100 grams or more, while noble metal contacts can get by with 30 grams or less. Also, tin contacts require much thicker plating than noble metal finishes. Tin is generally specified for commodity connectors and anywhere the number of mating cycles is likely to be low.
Don’t You Fret
Although corrosion is obviously something to be avoided, the real enemy when it comes to connector durability is metal-on-metal contact. The spring pressure between contacts unavoidably digs into the plating, and while that’s actually desirable in tin-plated contacts, too much of a good thing is bad. Digging past the plating into the base metal marks the end of the road for many connectors, as the base metal’s relatively lower conductivity increases the resistance of the connection, potentially leading to intermittent connections and even overheating. Again, noble metals perform better in this regard, at least in the long run, as their lower normal force reduces friction and results in a longer-lived contact.
There’s another metallurgical phenomenon that can wreak havoc on connectors: fretting. Fretting is caused by tiny movements of the contacts against each other, on the order of 10-7 meters, generally in response to low-g vibrations but also as a result of thermal expansion and contraction. Fretting damage occurs when the force of micromotions between contacts exceeds the normal force exerted between them. This leads to one contact sliding over the other by a tiny amount, digging a trench through the plating metal. In tin-plated contacts, this exposes fresh tin, which oxidizes instantly, forming an insulating surface. Further micromotions expose more fresh tin, which leads to more oxides. Eventually the connection fails due to high resistance. Fretting is insidious because it happens even without a lot of mating cycles; all it takes is a little vibration and some time. And those are the enemies of all connectors.
Tanti auguri Windows! 40 anni di storia dei sistemi operativi e non sentirli
Esattamente 40 anni fa, il 20 novembre 1985, Microsoft rilasciò Windows 1.0, la prima versione di Windows, che tentò di trasformare l’allora personal computer da una macchina con una monotona riga di comando in un sistema con finestre, icone e controllo tramite mouse.
Si tratta della messa a terra di alcune delle più grandi innovazioni del nostro tempo, ideata dal genio di Duglas Engelbart e dell’“oN-Line System”, il sistema progettato negli anni sessanta che introduceva un sistema operativo a finestre connesso ad un mouse, presentati nella storica “mother of all demos” del 9 dicembre del 1968.
Per il pubblico di oggi, questo sembra scontato (o sconosciuto) ma a metà degli anni ’80, l’idea stessa di un’interfaccia grafica sul PC IBM di massa era praticamente rivoluzionaria.
Tecnicamente, Windows 1.0 non era un sistema operativo completo. Era una sovrapposizione grafica su MS-DOS , una shell a 16 bit chiamata MS-DOS Executive che si sovrapponeva al sistema esistente e consentiva l’esecuzione di programmi in modalità finestra.
La prima versione fu rilasciata solo negli Stati Uniti; aggiornamenti ed edizioni internazionali seguirono in seguito, e il pacchetto costava circa 99 dollari, una cifra considerevole all’epoca.
L’interfaccia appariva insolita persino per gli standard degli anni ’80. In Windows 1.0, le finestre non potevano essere sovrapposte liberamente: erano rigorosamente affiancate sullo schermo. L’utente controllava il sistema principalmente con il mouse, selezionando le voci di menu e trascinando gli elementi, sebbene i menu stessi funzionassero in modo strano e richiedessero di tenere premuto il pulsante del mouse.
Ma anche allora, Microsoft stava già definendo i principi che in seguito si sarebbero evoluti nel modello desktop che conosciamo.
Windows 1.0 includeva una suite di applicazioni sorprendentemente riconoscibili ancora oggi. Agli utenti venivano offerti Paintbrush, l’antenato dell’odierno Paint, Blocco note, l’editor di testo Write, Calcolatrice, un orologio, un terminale, il database di schede Cardfile, gli appunti e un gestore di stampa. Queste applicazioni consentivano agli utenti di prendere semplici appunti, disegnare semplici grafici, stampare documenti ed eseguire più programmi contemporaneamente, sebbene con un multitasking molto limitato.
I requisiti hardware al momento del rilascio erano considerati piuttosto elevati. Per eseguire Windows 1.0 era necessario un processore Intel 8086 o 8088, almeno 256 kilobyte di RAM, una scheda grafica e due unità floppy disk a doppia faccia o un disco rigido. Molti recensori si sono lamentati del notevole rallentamento del sistema durante l’esecuzione di più applicazioni, soprattutto se il computer disponeva di una memoria inferiore ai 512 kilobyte consigliati. In confronto, l’attuale minimo di 4 gigabyte per Windows 11 sembra quasi un balzo in avanti.
Windows 1.0 ricevette un’accoglienza tiepida dal mercato. I critici ne notarono l’interfaccia lenta, la scarsa compatibilità con i programmi DOS esistenti e il numero limitato di applicazioni scritte specificamente per Windows. Rispetto ai sistemi grafici Apple già disponibili, il prodotto Microsoft appariva rudimentale e alcuni recensori paragonarono le sue prestazioni su un PC con 512 kilobyte di RAM a “melassa versata nell’Artico”, alludendo alla sua incredibile lentezza.
Tuttavia, Microsoft non abbandonò l’idea. Nel giro di un paio d’anni, l’azienda rilasciò diversi aggiornamenti di Windows 1.x con supporto per nuovo hardware e layout di tastiera europei, per poi introdurre Windows 2.0 e il particolarmente riuscito Windows 3.0.
Queste versioni, da sole, resero l’interfaccia grafica dei PC IBM uno standard di fatto del settore e gettarono le basi per il vasto ecosistema software a cui ci siamo abituati negli anni ’90.
Oggi, Windows 1.0 è ormai da tempo diventato un reperto da museo: emulatori del sistema vengono lanciati per nostalgia e curiosità, e la stessa Microsoft occasionalmente ricorda la sua prima interfaccia grafica attraverso Easter egg e progetti a tema, come la divertente app per Windows 1.11 basata sulla serie TV Stranger Things.
Ma molte idee e persino alcuni programmi di quell’epoca sono sopravvissuti fino a oggi, e il 40° anniversario ci ricorda quanto rapidamente siano cambiati sia i computer che la nostra comprensione di cosa dovrebbe essere un’interfaccia intuitiva in una sola generazione .
L'articolo Tanti auguri Windows! 40 anni di storia dei sistemi operativi e non sentirli proviene da Red Hot Cyber.
Papa Leone XIV ad Assisi: “Da San Francesco un segno di speranza per un mondo smarrito”
[quote]ASSISI – Papa Leone XIV ha visitato il Sacro Convento per una preghiera sulla tomba di San Francesco. Accompagnato dal presidente della Cei Matteo Zuppi e accolto tra gli applausi…
L'articolo Papa Leone XIV ad Assisi: “Da San Francesco un segno di speranza per un
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