Hackaday – a Hair-Raising Twist on Infinity Mirrors

Feb 112021
 

Just when we thought we’d seen it all in the infinity mirror department, [FieldCrafting] blazed a tiny, shiny new trail with their electroplated infinity mirror hair pin. We’d sure like to stick this in our French twist. Fortunately, [FieldCrafting] provided step-by-step instructions for everything from the 3D printing to the copper electroplating to the mirror film and circuitry application.
And what tiny circuitry it is! This pin is powered by a coin cell and even has a micro slider switch to conserve it. The stick parts are a pair of knitting needles, which is a great idea — they’re pointy enough to get through hair, but not so pointy that they hurt.
[FieldCrafting] was planning to solder 1206…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://hackaday.com/2021/02/10/a-hair-raising-twist-on-infinity-mirrors/

 2021-02-11  Comments Off on Hackaday – a Hair-Raising Twist on Infinity Mirrors

Boing Boing – Larry Flynt, Hustler publisher and First Amendment activist, has died

Feb 112021
 

Larry Flynt, the pornographer who launched Hustler magazine in 1974 and became a fierce First Amendment activist, has died of heart failure. He was 78. Hustler was far more explicit than the likes of Playboy and one infamous issue featured an illustration of a woman going through a meat grinder. — Read the rest

External feed Read More at the Source: https://boingboing.net/2021/02/10/larry-flynt-hustler-publisher-and-first-amendment-activist-rip.html

 2021-02-11  Comments Off on Boing Boing – Larry Flynt, Hustler publisher and First Amendment activist, has died

Ballot Access News – Massive Ballot Access Defeat in New York

Feb 112021
 

On February 10, the Second Circuit refused to enjoin the new New York definition of a qualified political party. SAM Party of New York v Kosinski, 20-3047. Here is the twenty-page opinion, which was written by Judge Michael H. Park, a Trump appointee. It is also signed by Judge Robert D. Sack, a Clinton appointee, and Steven J. Menashi, a Trump appointee.
The new definition requires a party to poll 2% of the presidential vote to retain its qualified status. The decision says there are two state interests in the new, more difficult requirement: (1) to improve the chances that the winner will get a majority of the popular vote; (2) to save money, because the state…

External feed Read More at the Source: http://ballot-access.org/2021/02/10/massive-ballot-access-defeat-in-new-york/

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The Register – Apple, Microsoft, PayPal among 35 organizations compromised by evil twin dependencies attack

Feb 102021
 

Security researcher finds it’s easy to confuse build systems with malicious versions of private software libraries

Bug hunter Alex Birsan last year managed to compromise the software supply chain of 35 companies by exploiting packaging mechanisms used by JavaScript, Python, and Ruby developers.…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/02/10/library_dependencies_attack/

 2021-02-10  Comments Off on The Register – Apple, Microsoft, PayPal among 35 organizations compromised by evil twin dependencies attack

Hackaday – The Modding, Restoration, and Demise of a $3M Analog Computer

Feb 102021
 

How do you rapidly record the output from your three million dollar analog computer in the 1940s when the results are only available on analog meters? The team responsible for the Westinghouse 1947 AC Network Calculator at Georgia Tech was faced with just this problem and came up with a nifty solution — hack the control panel and wire in a special-purpose drafting table.
What Is It?
What is this beast of a computer? Machines of this type were developed during and after World War 2, and strictly speaking, belong in the category of scale models rather than true computers. Although these machines were very flexible, they were primarily designed to simulate power distribution grids. There is a…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://hackaday.com/2021/02/09/the-modding-restoration-and-demise-of-a-3m-analog-computer/

 2021-02-10  Comments Off on Hackaday – The Modding, Restoration, and Demise of a $3M Analog Computer

World Socialist Web Site (en) – Facebook’s “depoliticization” aimed at censorship of left-wing and socialist organizations

Feb 102021
 

The recent announcement by Facebook that it would “reduce the amount of political content” on its platform is part of the drive by the US ruling establishment to block the spread of progressive, left-wing and socialist ideas on social media.

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/02/10/poli-f10.html

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Richard Stallman’s Political Notes – Voting machines in 2020

Feb 102021
 

Although we have no evidence that voting machines were used for election
fraud in 2020, we know some are vulnerable to such use.

People should vote on paper, marking ballots with a pen. Then a
computerized machine can be used to count them. That machine should
not be able to alter them.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://stallman.org/archives/2020-nov-feb.html#9_February_2021_%28Voting_machines_in_2020%29

 2021-02-10  Comments Off on Richard Stallman’s Political Notes – Voting machines in 2020

Techdirt. – Amazon Transparency Report Indicates Its Multiple IoT Devices Are Juicy Targets For Law Enforcement

Feb 102021
 

Never forget the IoT device you invite into your home may become the state’s witness. That’s one of the unfortunate conclusions that can be drawn from Amazon’s latest transparency report.

Amazon has its own digital assistant, Alexa. On top of that, it has its acquisitions. One of its more notable gets is Ring. Ring is most famous for its doorbells — something that seems innocuous until you examine the attached camera and the company’s 2,000 partnerships with law enforcement agencies.

Ring is in the business of selling cameras. That the doorbell may alert you to people on your doorstep is incidental. Cameras on the inside. Cameras on the outside. All in the name of “security.” And it’s only…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210204/09284546183/amazon-transparency-report-indicates-multiple-iot-devices-are-juicy-targets-law-enforcement.shtml

 2021-02-10  Comments Off on Techdirt. – Amazon Transparency Report Indicates Its Multiple IoT Devices Are Juicy Targets For Law Enforcement

Deeplinks – EFF, Freedom of the Press Foundation and 22 Other Press Freedom Organizations Call on Attorney General to Drop Assange Prosecution

Feb 092021
 

The prosecution of Julian Assange for charges related to his publications of government documents on the whistleblower website Wikileaks poses a grave threat to press freedom, EFF, Freedom of the Press Foundation and other human rights organizations argue. In an open letter published today, we call on President Biden’s acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson to halt the prosecution and the threat of extradition.
The majority of the charges against Assange relate to the Espionage Act, a federal law passed in 1917 designed to punish espionage. The law’s broad language criminalized those who obtain and/or transmit materials related to the national defense (read the text of the law). While the authors of the law may have intended to…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/02/eff-freedom-press-foundation-and-xx-other-press-freedom-organizations-call

 2021-02-09  Comments Off on Deeplinks – EFF, Freedom of the Press Foundation and 22 Other Press Freedom Organizations Call on Attorney General to Drop Assange Prosecution

The Onion – City’s Outdoor Dining Solutions Slowly Advancing Beyond Rest Of Civilization

Feb 092021
 

NEW YORK—Noting that the structures along the city’s sidewalks had adopted technology that appeared to come from at least 200 years in the future, local restaurant patrons observed Monday that outdoor dining solutions were now the most technologically advanced aspect of human civilization. “Since autumn, patio service…

Read more…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.theonion.com/city-s-outdoor-dining-solutions-slowly-advancing-beyond-1846199404

 2021-02-09  Comments Off on The Onion – City’s Outdoor Dining Solutions Slowly Advancing Beyond Rest Of Civilization

Fedora People – Marcin ‘hrw’ Juszkiewicz: FOSDEM 2021 was the best online event ever

Feb 092021
 

My family got used to the fact that I am not available at beginning of February.
Because of my FOSDEM trip. This year was not both not so different and different
at same time.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic FOSDEM 2021 was online. So there was no reason for any
trip other than to local shops to buy some Belgian beers. And I was not
available to anyone during weekend.
Online? It will be terrible!
During 2020 I attended several online events. For some of them I prefer to not
remember that I did it. Terrible recordings of talk, some had bandwidth issues.
On some organizers did not managed to get presenters agree on online presence so
some meetings had to be dropped when they were supposed to start.
Matrix to the rescue
FOSDEM…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl/2021/02/08/fosdem-2021-was-the-best-online-event-ever/

 2021-02-09  Comments Off on Fedora People – Marcin ‘hrw’ Juszkiewicz: FOSDEM 2021 was the best online event ever

Planet PostgreSQL – Hamid Akhtar: Troubleshooting Performance Issues Due to Disk and RAM

Feb 092021
 

Quite a few managers or clients expect DBAs to type away a few commands to fix a sluggish PostgreSQL instance. If only things were that simple. Unfortunately, debugging a sluggish instance that was previously running optimally requires analysis at many levels. In this blog, I will attempt to help that debugging process on Linux by identifying tools, tips and tricks that one can use when digging away a performance issue. I thought I could cover all the relevant topics in a single blog, but there is just far too much to write, so expect a series instead and this blog to be the first in the series of blogs. Remember, a lot of things can go…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://postgr.es/p/4_Z

 2021-02-09  Comments Off on Planet PostgreSQL – Hamid Akhtar: Troubleshooting Performance Issues Due to Disk and RAM

CounterPunch.org – Appalachian Trail Conservancy Refuses to Make Public $19.5 Million Pipeline Agreement

Feb 092021
 

Photograph Source: daveynin – CC BY 2.0
For six years, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) fought the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s proposal to dig under the Appalachian Trail for its 303-mile natural gas pipeline.
Then last year, the ATC announced that it was taking up to $19.5 million from Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Predictably, the ATC’s active opposition to the pipeline ceased.
This did not sit well with the Appalachian Trail community, including many active ATC members who quit the group in protest.
Now, those members and others are calling on the ATC to release the secret agreement with Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Many ATC members like Dr. Dana Olson, who lives right next to the trail in Peterstown, West Virginia, was not happy with…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/02/08/appalachian-trail-conservancy-refuses-to-make-public-19-5-million-pipeline-agreement/

 2021-02-09  Comments Off on CounterPunch.org – Appalachian Trail Conservancy Refuses to Make Public $19.5 Million Pipeline Agreement

Richard Stallman’s Political Notes – Section 230

Feb 082021
 
Article note: As someone on the board of a hosting cooperative, this is pretty concerning: limiting Section 230 protections for companies where the user is the product might make some sense (I’m still iffy on that too, as it could be similar to the speech bans on folks Alex Jones that have since snowballed into regular censorship for anyone outside of the mainstream), but revoking protections for services the user pays for is extremely dangerous and would have disastrous effects on political dissent.

A proposal to reform section 230 of the CDA would have sweeping disastrous
consequences.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://stallman.org/archives/2020-nov-feb.html#8_February_2021_%28Section_230%29

 2021-02-08  Comments Off on Richard Stallman’s Political Notes – Section 230

– The Conversation – Home – Latest jobs report shows why the unemployment rate needs fixing

Feb 072021
 

The number of people seeking jobless benefits has soared during the pandemic. AP Photo/John Locher CC BY-NC-ND Many economists would agree that the official U.S. unemployment rate is an inadequate measure of actual labor market conditions. Although this is one of the most cited pieces of data on the economy as a whole, not many people understand how this indicator is calculated and who is and – more importantly – who isn’t included in it. The latest data, which found that joblessness fell from 6.7% in December to 6.3% in January, shows why. As a labor economist, I believe it’s important for more Americans to take a closer look under…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://theconversation.com/latest-jobs-report-shows-why-the-unemployment-rate-needs-fixing-154695

 2021-02-07  Comments Off on – The Conversation – Home – Latest jobs report shows why the unemployment rate needs fixing

Planet Scheme – Akku.scm 1.1.0 released

Feb 072021
 

Akku.scm version 1.1.0, a language package manager for R6RS
and R7RS Scheme, is now generally available. It can be downloaded
from GitLab. This version adds support for Guile 3.0,
Digamma, and includes some bug fixes and new features.

Akku is a language package manager designed for Scheme. In Scheme,
libraries can be analyzed to find their names, exports and imports.
Akku uses this information, plus knowledge of how the various Scheme
implementations work, to automatically install libraries where they
will be found. Libraries can come from the current project or from
packages downloaded from the Internet.

Akku installs libraries to a per-project library directory that works
across all supported Scheme implementations. On top of this there is a
traditional package index and a dependency solver. Packages are
manually reviewed…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://weinholt.se/articles/akku-scm-1-1-0/

 2021-02-07  Comments Off on Planet Scheme – Akku.scm 1.1.0 released

Hackaday – Ice40 Runs DOOM

Feb 072021
 

Spec sheets are an important tool in determining the performance of a given part or system, but they’re not the be all and end all when it comes to engineering. However, specs alone don’t prove whether a given system can complete a given task. Sometimes, you need to actually do the work to prove it instead – as [Sylvain] has done, running DOOM on the iCE40 FPGA.
DOOM’s minimum specifications demand a 386 with 4MB RAM minimum, but it’s commonly agreed that a 486 DX2 running at 66MHz with 8MB of RAM is required to play the game smoothly. With an iCEBreaker v1.0b running a RISC V softcore at 25MHz, it may seem like a difficult task,…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://hackaday.com/2021/02/07/ice40-runs-doom/

 2021-02-07  Comments Off on Hackaday – Ice40 Runs DOOM

Hackaday – Feeling the KiCad 6 Electricity

Feb 072021
 

In 2018, when KiCad Version 5 modernized the venerable 4.X series, it helped push KiCad to become the stable and productive member of the open source EDA landscape that we know today. It has supported users through board designs both simple and complex, and like a tool whose handle is worn into a perfect grip, it has become familiar and comfortable. For those KiCad users that don’t live on the bleeding edge with nightly builds it may not be obvious that the time of version 6 is nearly upon us, but as we start 2021 it rapidly approaches. Earlier this month [Peter Dalmaris] published a preview of the changes coming version 6 and we have to…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://hackaday.com/2021/02/04/feeling-the-kicad-6-electricity/

 2021-02-07  Comments Off on Hackaday – Feeling the KiCad 6 Electricity
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