Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ Cast21 Brings Healing Into 2024

  It takes but an ill-fated second to break a bone, and several long weeks for it to heal in a cast. And even if you have one of those newfangled fiberglass casts, you still can’t get the thing wet, and it’s gonna be itchy under there because your skin can’t breathe. Isn’t it high time for something better?

• Ruben Schade ☛ The good life ☕️

  So many things are up in the air right now, but I’m sitting out on the balcony on a cool morning with a fresh brewed coffee, my Ansible scripts updated my personal servers without issue, a sulphur-crested cockatoo came to say hello, and the letter J on my keyboard has stopped acting up.

• Hackaday ☛ Create Custom Gridfinity Boxes Using Images Of Tools

  We love it when a community grabs hold of an idea and runs wild with it despite obvious practicality issues. Gridfinity by YouTuber [Zach Freedman] is one of those concepts. For the unaware, this is a simple storage system standard, defining boxes to hold your things. These boxes can be stacked and held in place in anything from a desk drawer to hanging off the side of a 3D printer. [Georgs Lazdāns] is one such Gridfinity user who wanted to create tool-specific holders without leaving the sofa. To do so, they made a web application using node.js and OpenCV to extract outlines for tools (or anything else) when photographed on a blank sheet of paper.

• Hackaday ☛ Pong In A Petri Dish: Teasing Out How Brains Work

  Of the many big, unanswered questions in this Universe, the ones pertaining to the functioning of biological neural networks are probably among the most intriguing. From the lowliest neurally gifted creatures to us brainy mammals, neural networks allow us to learn, to predict and adapt to our environments, and sometimes even stand still and wonder puzzlingly how all of this even works. Such puzzling has led to a number of theories, with a team of researchers recently investigating one such theory, as published in Cell. The focus here was that of Bayesian approaches to brain function, specifically the free energy principle, which postulates that neural networks as inference engines seek to minimize the difference between inputs (i.e. the model of the world as perceived) and its internal model.

• Hackaday ☛ An Earth-Bound Homage To A Martian Biochemistry Experiment

  With all the recent attention on Mars and the search for evidence of ancient life there, it’s easy to forget that not only has the Red Planet been under the figurative microscope since the early days of the Space Race, but we went to tremendous effort to send a pair of miniaturized biochemical laboratories there back in 1976. While the results were equivocal, it was still an amazing piece of engineering and spacefaring, one that [Marb] has recreated with this Earth-based version of the famed Viking “Labeled Release” experiment.

• Hackaday ☛ Non-planar Ironing Makes Smooth Prints

  If you want to smooth out the top surface of your FDM 3D prints, you can try ironing. Many slicers allow you to set this option, which drags the hot printhead through the top surface with a tiny bit of plastic to smooth out the extrusion lines. However, a recent paper explains how non-planar ironing can provide a better result.

• Licensing / Legal

  • Techdirt ☛ Thanks Complicated Music Licensing Schemes: ‘Alan Wake’ Updated To Remove Bowie Song From Credits

    Because the remastered version was released a decade later, and presumably had a separate licensing arrangement for the licensed works, that version will retain the Bowie song. So, we have two versions of what is essentially the same game, but which will have completely different songs playing during the credits.

  • [Old] Outside The Beltway ☛ WKRP and Stupid Copyright Laws – Outside the Beltway

    The iconic WKRP in Cincinnati is not being syndicated or available on DVD in its original format because it's classic rock soundtrack is hamstrung by copyright laws and music licensing fees.

  • [Old] Duke University ☛ WKRP in copyright limbo - Scholarly Communications @ Duke

    How do the struggles to release a DVD of a 1970s era sit-com inform our difficulties with copyright in higher education? At the very least, the problems encountered in preparing a DVD of “WKRP in Cincinnati” illustrate the complex layers of rights with which academics who study or create multimedia must deal.

    Those of us old enough to remember WKRP will recall that, in a sit-com set in a radio station, pop music was a central part of the story. Often the humor of a particular situation was created or enhanced by the music being aired on WKRP. The sound track of the show was a collection of contemporary pop, but the producers only licensed those tunes for a limited time. It was difficult, in 1982 when the show ended, to anticipate the need to release the shows in a format that had not yet been invented. But once the licenses expired, the music could not be used in subsequent releases, so a DVD of the show has been long delayed.

  • [Old] Wired ☛ "WKRP In Cincinnati" Situation Demonstrates Negative Consequences of Copyright

    The series will finally be released on DVD on April 24th, but fans are already irate. The music originally included in the show has been replaced by generic muzak in order to placate the almighty copyright gods, who would otherwise have prevented the series from being released by (apparently) demanding so much licensing money as to render the whole project unfeasible.

  • [Old] Vox ☛ The weird legal reason many of your favorite shows aren’t on DVD

    Wonder Years and WKRP are among the best TV comedies ever made, but it was long believed to be impossible for either to come out on DVD intact. The reason is simple: both shows made ample use of pop music, occasionally just playing in the background of scenes and often to underscore hugely important moments.

  • [Old] Linux Foundation ☛ Linus Torvalds Reflects on 25 Years of Linux

    This is where the GPLv2 (Gnu General Public License) license — which governs how the software can be copied, distributed, and modified — has been critical to the success of the project. The license requirement that changes to the code be made available, has been key to avoiding fragmentation that plagued other open source projects, Torvalds said. Under the GPL, developers can rest assured that their code will remain open and won’t be co-opted by corporate ownership.

    “I love the GPL2,” Torvalds said. “It has been one of the defining factors of Linux.”

    Today, the newest operating systems such as Zephyr and Fuchsia are being developed for tiny systems designed for the Internet of Things. Torvalds admitted that he does not look at the source code for these projects anymore. He contends that it isn’t helpful for him to look at source code for a project unless he wants to fix it. However, he stated that in order for a project to become big and attract contributors, the license is important.

    “Under the GPL… nobody will take advantage of your code, it will remain free,” he said.

• Science

  • Hackaday ☛ Watch NASA’s Solar Sail Reflect Brightly In The Night Sky

    NASA’s ACS3 (Advanced Composite Solar Sail System) is currently fully deployed in low Earth orbit, and stargazers can spot it if they know what to look for. It’s actually one of the brightest things in the night sky. When the conditions are right, anyway.

  • Science Alert ☛ Gigantic Wave in Pacific Ocean Was The Most Extreme 'Rogue Wave' on Record

    Terrifying stuff.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Discover a Brain Network Twice The Size in Depression Patients

    What's going on?

  • Science Alert ☛ Black Holes Unleash Powerful Jets of Plasma, And Now We Can Replicate Them

    "We discovered we had something big."

  • Science Alert ☛ There's a Reason Why The Ozone Hole Will Keep Opening Up For Decades

    This problem hasn't gone away.

• Hardware

  • CNX Software ☛ AAEON PICO-ASL4 industrial Pico-ITX SBC ships with defective chip maker Intel Atom x7000RE, up to 16GB DDR5, 2.5GbE LAN

    AAEON PICO-ASL4 is a fanless, latency-sensitive Pico-ITX single board computer (SBC) built around the defective chip maker Intel Atom x7000RE-series “Amston Lake” SoCs and configurable with up to 16GB of DDR5 memory.

  • [Repeat] Evgeni Golov: Fixing the volume control in an Alesis M1Active 330 USB Speaker System

    I've a set of Alesis M1Active 330 USB on my desk to listen to music. They were relatively inexpensive (~100€), have USB and sound pretty good for their size/price.

    They were also sitting on my desk unused for a while, because the left speaker didn't produce any sound. Well, almost any. If you'd move the volume knob long enough you might have found a position where the left speaker would work a bit, but it'd be quieter than the right one and stop working again after some time. Pretty unacceptable when you want to listen to music.

    Given the right speaker was working just fine and the left would work a bit when the volume knob is moved, I was quite certain which part was to blame: the potentiometer.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ AMD’s laptop OEMs decry poor support, chip supply, and communication — OEM complains the company has "left billions of US dollars lying around" due to poor execution: Reports

    Analysts and media contend that AMD is losing the confidence of laptop OEMs because of its focus on Hey Hi (AI) and data center GPUs.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ AMD hides Taiwan branding on Ryzen CPU packaging as it preps new chips for China market release — company uses black sticker to erase origin information

    AMD hid the information on the back of its packaging for the Ryzen 5 7600X3D that says that AMD processors are diffused and made in Taiwan.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Science Alert ☛ The Dangers of Sleep Deprivation Are Very Real, Expert Warns

    You don't want to go there.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Profound Mystery Gave Earthworms The Most Chaotic Genomes Ever Seen

    But how?

  • Science Alert ☛ This Drug Shows Potential to Stop Migraines Before They Begin

    Pain relief for billions.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Evening Star has laid off some of its employees

    The developer of Penny's Big Breakaway, Evening Star, has laid off some its staff.

    A small studio, they have laid off half a dozen employees, citing "volatile market conditions". This comes as Microsoft's total layoffs for the year exceed 2500 employees.

  • Nicolas Magand ☛ Is Safari now a bad web browser?

    I’m not savvy enough to talk about web standards, web engines, and HTML rendering and such. I’m just a user, for whom the web browsing experience isn’t getting better, while the browser features mirror a lack of ideas and will to make Safari truly better, competitive, and attractive to new users.

• Defence/Aggression

  • JURIST ☛ Sweden government announces increased repatriation incentive for migrants

    The government of Sweden announced Thursday that they will be exponentially increasing their repatriation incentive for migrants to leave Sweden from 10,000 Krona to 350,000 Krona per person, according to local media.

  • France24 ☛ China accuses Germany of raising 'security risks' by sending military ships through Taiwan strait

    China criticised Germany on Saturday for increasing security risks after two German naval vessels passed through the Taiwan Strait, a key waterway that Beijing claims as its territory. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius defended the move, stating that the ships were navigating international waters on the safest route, while Beijing responded by deploying forces to monitor the vessels.

  • JURIST ☛ South Sudan presidency postpones elections and extends transitional period

    The presidency of South Sudan, led by President Salva Kiir Mayardit, announced a two-year extension to the country’s transitional period on Friday. The national elections, which were originally scheduled for December 2024, have now been postponed to December 22, 2026.

  • JURIST ☛ UN special envoy warns continuous fighting in Yemen risks return to full-scale conflict

    The UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg warned the UN Security Council on Thursday that continuous fighting between warring sides in Yemen risks the country of returning to full-scale conflict.

  • Zimbabwe ☛ Global Social Control Media Platforms Threaten Our Sovereignty – Zimbabwe Government Minister

    Local innovators need to develop social control media platforms to curb the threat of global companies such as Meta and ByteDance on Zimbabwe’s sovereignty, a government minister said this week.

  • New York Times ☛ Shoes Off. Laptops Out. Airport Tray Photo Shoot?

    A new social control media trend involves creatively arranging your TSA bins, and showing them off.

  • New Yorker ☛ The Mormon Fentanylware (TikTok) Moms Are All of Us

    The women of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” seem desperate to achieve a perfect blend of contemporary womanhood: strong and soft, a loving mother and a boss bitch, a hot influencer who always puts God first.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • France24 ☛ Battle of Tinzawaten: The final hours of Wagner mercenaries in the Sahara

      The Battle of Tinzawaten, in the Sahara Desert, was the Wagner Group's worst defeat in Africa. Between July 25 and 27, separatist Tuareg rebels along with Islamist fighters killed between 50 and 67 of the Russian group's mercenaries near Tinzawaten in northern Mali. The FRANCE 24 Observers compiled a special report using images recovered from the bodies of the slain Wagner fighters.

    • NYPost ☛ Smiles and relief as Russia and Ukraine exchange more than 100 prisoners of war in 1 day

      Ukraine and Russia each exchanged a staggering 103 prisoners of war on Saturday, their second swap in two days.

    • France24 ☛ Russia, Ukraine swap 206 prisoners in exchange deal, Zelensky says

      Russia and Ukraine successfully exchanged 103 prisoners of war each on Saturday in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates. Despite ongoing hostilities, the two nations have managed several POW swaps throughout the conflict, with this latest exchange following a similar deal made just three weeks ago.

    • France24 ☛ Biden, Starmer delay decision to approve long-range strikes inside Russia

      US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer postponed a decision on allowing Ukraine to use long-range Western-supplied missiles to strike inside Russia following a meeting at the White House on Friday. The two leaders plan to revisit the issue at the upcoming UN General Assembly amid growing concerns about the conflict's escalation and Moscow's warnings that such moves could provoke a war with NATO.

    • RFERL ☛ Biden To Use Rest Of Term Putting Ukraine In 'Best Position,' Adviser Says

      U.S. President Joe Biden will use his remaining months in office to strengthen Ukraine, national-security adviser Jake Sullivan said on September 14.

    • RFERL ☛ North Korean Aid To Russia Poses Biggest Threat To Ukraine, Intelligence Chief Says

      Military aid provided to Russia by North Korea is the most damaging for Ukraine, intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said on September 14 at a conference in Kyiv.

    • RFERL ☛ NATO Committee Chairman Says Ukraine Has Sound Military Reason To Strike Deeper Into Russia

      The chairman of NATO Military Committee said the question of whether to allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with Western-made long-range missiles is a "political discussion," but from a military standpoint, would be within Ukraine's legal right.

    • RFERL ☛ G7 Foreign Ministers Condemn Iran's Export Of Ballistic Missiles To Russia

      The foreign ministers of the Group of the Seven countries on September 14  condemned "in the strongest terms" Iran's export and Russia's procurement of Iranian ballistic missiles.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia's Medvedev Threatens Nuke Strike Would Turn Kyiv Into 'Gray Spot' On The Map

      Russian officials have threatened that a possible decision by the West to allow Kyiv to use donated weapons to strike deeper into Russian territory would result in a major escalation of its war against  Ukraine that could include the use of nuclear weapons.

    • RFERL ☛ More POWs Exchanged As Heavy Fighting Continues In Eastern, Southern Ukraine

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on September 14 confirmed that an exchange of prisoners of war had taken place between Ukraine and Russia involving 103 prisoners on each side.

    • RFERL ☛ Stoltenberg Says NATO Could Have Done More To Prevent Ukraine War

      NATO could have done more to arm Ukraine to try to prevent Russia's invasion in 2022, the outgoing head of the Western military alliance said in an interview released on September 14.

    • RFERL ☛ U.S. Approves $7.2 Billion Sale Of F-35 Jets To NATO Ally Romania

      The US State Department on Friday said it had approved the sale of dozens of F-35 fighter jets to its NATO ally Romania, a deal worth $7.2 billion.

    • New York Times ☛ As Ukraine Presses Its Attack in Kursk, Russia Stiffens Its Defenses

      Soldiers and military analysts say that Ukraine is largely holding onto land it seized in the Kursk region, even as Moscow has begun a counterattack.

    • New York Times ☛ The Long-Range Weapons Ukraine Wants to Use on Russia, Explained

      The United States and its allies are once again considering expanding the capabilities they provide to Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion.

    • Defence Web ☛ AAD air show will have something old and something new in the form of a Chinese airlifter

      The air show component of AAD (Africa Aerospace and Defence) 2024 will see the SA Air Force (SAAF) in action with current and museum aircraft alongside a generous helping of other flying machines.

    • RFERL ☛ North Korea Pledges Deeper Ties With Russia As Security Chief Visits

      North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to deepen ties with Russia as he held talks with visiting security chief Sergei Shoigu, state media reported on September 14.

    • Marcy Wheeler ☛ The Laura Loomer Problem Is the Same as the Vladimir Putin Problem

      Trump's anonymous aides, complaining about Laura Loomer's access to the former President, are making the very same argument that Tim Walz warned about. Trump's narcissism and his ego make him vulnerable to any person willing to use flattery to win their objectives. 

• Finance

  • JURIST ☛ China approves retirement age increase amid demographic challenges

    China’s top legislative body made a landmark decision Friday to gradually raise the statutory retirement age, a move aimed at addressing the economic strain from a shrinking workforce and an aging population.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • RFA ☛ EXCLUSIVE: Dissident Chinese journalist works on her next book from exile in Thailand

    'I was trying to bring about peace,’ says Dai Qing, a one-time critic of the Three Gorges Dam project.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Pope calls China ‘promise’ for Catholic Church as Asia-Pacific tour concludes

    The pope praised China on Friday, ahead of a possible renewal of a deal between Beijing and the Holy See on the appointment of bishops.

  • New York Times ☛ A Georgia Work Program Previews How Trump Could Reshape Medicaid

    The nation’s only Medicaid work program is part of a broad Republican push to change how poor people qualify for health care. In a second Trump term, Medicaid could be a target for huge spending cuts.

  • New York Times ☛ Elizabeth Warren: Don’t Be Fooled. Donald Trump Has a Plan.

    It’s to kick millions of Americans off their health insurance.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • JURIST ☛ Brazil justice unblocks X and Starlink bank accounts following R$18.35 M transfer to national treasury

    Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) mandated the transfer of R$18,350,000 to the national treasury from funds previously frozen in the bank accounts of X (formerly Twitter) and Starlink. This decision was signed on September 11, 2024, and subsequently made public on Friday.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • BIA Net ☛ Narin Güran’s mother, brother remanded in custody, father released

    Eight suspects have been arrested and 13 have been released, including three under judicial supervision measures.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Hackaday ☛ Taking Back The Internet With The Tildeverse

    For many of us of a particular vintage, the internet blossomed in the ’90s with the invention of the Web and just a few years of development. Back then, we had the convenience of expression on the WWW and the backup of mature services such as IRC for all that other stuff we used to get up to. Some of us still hang out there. Then something happened. Something terrible. Big-commerce took over, and it ballooned into this enormously complex mess with people tracking you every few seconds and constantly trying to bombard you with marketing messages. Enough now. Many people have had enough and have come together to create the Tildeverse, a minimalist community-driven internet experience.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Software Patents

    • Standards/Consortia

      • Howard Oakley ☛ A brief history of QuickTime – The Eclectic Light Company

        QuickTime isn’t a single piece of software, or even an API in Classic Mac OS, but a whole architecture to support almost any media format you could conceive of. It defines container and file formats for multiple media types, forming the basis for the MPEG-4 standard, extensible encoding and decoding of a wide variety of media using Codecs, and more.