Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ Easy For The Masses

  Last week, we were talking about how glad we are to be the type who by-and-large understands technology, and how it’s becoming more and more difficult to simply get along otherwise. We thought we had a good handle on the topic.

• Jim Nielsen ☛ Research Alt

  Jeremy imagines a scenario where you’re trying to understand how someone cut themselves with a blade. It’d be hard to know how they cut themselves just by looking at the wound.

  But if you talk to the person, not only will you find out the reason, you’ll also understand their pain.

  But what if, hear me out here, instead we manufactured tiny microchips with sensors and embedded them in all blades?

• Hackaday ☛ The Subtle Art Of Letterform Design

  Typeface (such as Times New Roman) refers to the design that gives a set of letters, numbers, and symbols their signature “look”. Font, on the other hand, is a specific implementation of a typeface, for example, Times New Roman Italic 12 pt.

• Hackaday ☛ Removing Infill To Make 3D Printed Parts Much Stronger

  When it comes to FDM 3D prints and making them stronger, most of the focus is on the outer walls and factors like their layer adhesion. However, paying some attention to the often-ignored insides of a model can make a lot of difference in its mechanical properties. Inspired by a string of [Tom Stanton] videos, [3DJake] had a poke at making TPU more resilient against breaking when stretched and PLA resistant to snapping when experiencing a lateral force.

• Ruben Schade ☛ The utility of digressions

  My post about that written by humans button continues to deliver the goods! I’ve had so many thoughtful comments from people from all over the shop that it’s hard to keep up. Thank you all for sharing; I apologise if I haven’t quoted you yet.

  In my original post I joked that my blog is often full of nonsensical or meandering digressions. This is because I have an odd sense of humour, but it’s also fun making connections between disparate things. Crossword fiends talk about a similar buzz when they finish a cryptic puzzle (I started writing crossword “friends”, but “fiends” is amazing).

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ This Week in Science: A Bizarre Bird, The End of The Universe, And More!

    Our weekly science news roundup.

  • Science Alert ☛ Radiation Therapy Reduces Pain From The Most Common Form of Arthritis

    Effective, safe, and needed.

  • Science Alert ☛ 'Toothpick Grooves' in Neanderthal Teeth Aren't What We Thought

    Time to rethink!

  • Science Alert ☛ There's an Evolutionary Reason Why Female Mammals Live Longer

    It's the opposite in birds.

  • Science Alert ☛ Alzheimer's May Not Actually Be a Brain Disease, Reveals Expert

    Are we looking at this the wrong way?

  • Science Alert ☛ Bandages Made From Living Fungi Could Be The Future of Wound Healing

    Mushroom medicine.

  • Science Alert ☛ Blazing Outflow Shrinks Mass of Universe's Brightest Quasar by 10x

    Why such a huge discrepancy?

• Career/Education

  • Neil Selwyn ☛ Smartphone bans in schools – how much has changed?

    It is two years on from many Australian states announcing school smartphone bans. I was contacted for comment on ‘whether or not the phone bans were the gamechanger we think they were’. The final piece in the Guardian is here.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ A Deep Dive Into The Coolness That Was CRT Projectors

    CRT monitors: there’s nothing quite like ’em. But did you know that video projectors used to use CRTs? A trio of monochrome CRTs, in fact: one for each color; red, green, and blue. By their powers combined, these monsters were capable of fantastic resolution and image quality. Despite being nowhere near as bright as modern projectors, after being properly set up, [Technology Connections] says it’s still one of the best projected images he has seen outside of a movie theatre.

  • Hackaday ☛ Save Your USB-C Plugs From Oblivion

    USB-C as the “One Cable To Rule Them All” has certainly been a success. While USB-A is still around for now, most of us have breathed a hefty sigh of relief with the passing of micro-USB and the several display and power standards it replaces. It’s not without its minor issues though. One of them is that it’s as susceptible as any other cable to a bit of strain. For that, we think [NordcaForm]’s 3D-printed USB-C cable strain relief is definitely a cut above the rest.

  • Hackaday ☛ A Casio Toy Synth Is Ready To ROCK!

    There is likely to be more than one of you who has eyed up a child’s toy synthesizer in a second hand store, and considered making something more impressive with it. In many cases these instruments are underwhelming, having a very small subset of functions based into their black-epoxy-blob microcontrollers.

  • Hackaday ☛ Toasty Subwoofer Limps Back To Life

    [JohnAudioTech] noticed there was no bass on the TV at his parents’ house. That led to the discovery of a blown fuse and a corresponding repair. When he opened it up, he could smell that something had gone on in the amplifier. You can follow the repair in the video below.

  • Hackaday ☛ Bose SoundTouch Smart WiFi Speakers Are About To Go Dumb

    Bose SoundTouch speakers were introduced in 2013, offering the ability to connect to online streaming services and play back audio on multiple speakers simultaneously using the accompanying mobile app. Now these features are about to be removed, including the mobile app, as Bose is set to discontinue support on February 18, 2026. From that point onwards, you can only use them via Bluetooth or physical connectors that may be present, like an audio jack or HDMI port. This includes fancy home theater system hardware like the above SoundTouch 520.

  • Hackaday ☛ Tubeless X-Ray Runs On Patience

    Every time we check in on [Project326], he’s doing something different with X-rays. This week, he has a passive X-ray imager. On paper, it looks great. No special tube is required and no high voltage needed. Actually, no voltage is needed at all. Of course, there’s no free lunch. What it does take is a long time to produce an image.

  • Hackaday ☛ PVC Pipe Structure Design That Skips Additional Hardware

    [Baptiste Marx] shares his take on designing emergency structures using PVC pipe in a way that requires an absolute minimum of added parts. CINTRE (French, English coverage article here) is his collection of joint designs, with examples of how they can be worked into a variety of structures.

  • Hackaday ☛ The Singing Dentures Of Manchester And Other Places

    Any radio amateur will tell you about the spectre of TVI, of their transmissions being inadvertently demodulated by the smallest of non-linearity in the neighbouring antenna systems, and spewing forth from the speakers of all and sundry. It’s very much a thing that the most unlikely of circuits can function as radio receivers, but… teeth? [Ringway Manchester] investigates tales of musical dental work.

  • CNX Software ☛ 4-inch square HDMI displays with USB touchscreen sell for $33 and up

    We’ve already seen some small HDMI displays, mostly useful for SBCs like Raspberry Pi boards, including a 7-inch monitor with a stand, a 7-inch HDMI touchscreen display, and a 7.9-inch ultrawide HDMI display. Today, I’ve come across another form factor with two 4-inch square HDMI touchscreen displays with 720×720 resolution: the VIEWE model appears to be new and is the cheaper of the two at about $33, while the Waveshare “4inch HDMI LCD (C)” has been around for a couple of years and offers extra features such as a 3.5 mm audio jack and speakers support, and mounting for Raspberry Pi 3/4/5 single board computers with adapters.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Straits Times ☛ Covid virus changes sperm in mice, may raise anxiety in offspring: Study

    But further research was needed, including on whether the same changes occur in people.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Bangladesh launches typhoid vaccination drive to combat drug-resistant threat

    The deadly and increasingly drug-resistant disease poses a growing public health threat.

  • Futurism ☛ Strange New Health Issues Put Jordan Peterson in ICU

    "To be perfectly honest, I think a lot of this is spiritual."

  • Science Alert ☛ Study Reveals 'Alarming' Rise of Superbugs in Newborn Babies

    More region-specific data needed, researchers say.

  • Troy Hunt ☛ Weekly Update 473

    Presently sponsored by: 1Password Extended Access Management: Secure every sign-in for every app on every device.

    This week's video was recorded on Friday morning Aussie time, and as promised, hackers dumped data the following day.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Signal of Future Dementia May Be Hidden in The Shape of Your Brain

    "Answers may be hiding in plain sight."

  • Science Alert ☛ There's a Scientific Reason Why Some Songs Get Stuck in Your Head

    I just can't get you out of my head.

  • Science Alert ☛ After 40,000 Years, Microbes Are Awakening From Thawing Permafrost

    With newfound appetites.

• Proprietary

  • JURIST ☛ Human rights groups tell Abusive Monopolist Microsoft to suspend business with Israel government

    Multiple human rights groups published a letter to Abusive Monopolist Microsoft on Friday in which they demanded a suspension of business with the Israeli military and government, alleging that Abusive Monopolist Microsoft technology abets human rights abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The letter was sent to Abusive Monopolist Microsoft in September but was only released to the public on Friday.

  • It's FOSS ☛ 5 Signs Your Proprietary Workflow Is Stifling Your Creativity (And What You Can Do About It)

    If these signs feel familiar, your creativity may be stifled by proprietary constraints.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • France24 ☛ Meta and Fortnite push Hey Hi (AI) video game characters into the mainstream

      We're used to video game characters repeating the same lines of scripted dialogue. But artificial intelligence is now allowing players to have unique, unscripted conversations with the characters they meet. In Tech 24, we look at this experimental tech and its path to the mainstream.

    • Futurism ☛ Little Girl Sobs While Saying Goodbye to Her Broken Hey Hi (AI) Toy

      "I'll always remember the happy times with you."

    • Futurism ☛ An Astonishing Proportion of High Schoolers Have Had a “Romantic Relationship” With an AI, Research Finds

      This should worry you.

    • Futurism ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Supporters Are Using OpenAI’s Sora to Generate Hey Hi (AI) Videos of Soldiers Assaulting Protesters

      "Lmfao, that was beautiful and before you ask I voted for this!"

    • Futurism ☛ Ohio Seeks to Ban Human-AI Marriage

      Thou shalt not tie the not with a bot.

    • Futurism ☛ Scam Altman Says If Jobs Gets Wiped Out, Maybe They Weren’t Even “Real Work” to Start With

      So that's where we're at.

    • Futurism ☛ OpenAI’s Marketing Efforts Are Embarrassingly Ineffective, New Consumer Research Finds

      ChatGPT rated an ad 5/10.

• Security

  • Confidentiality

    • The Straits Times ☛ Australian airline Qantas says millions of customers’ data leaked online following July cyber breach

      Disney, Surveillance Giant Google and fellow airlines Air France and KLM are also reported to have had data stolen.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Straits Times ☛ China and Philippines trade blame over boat collision in disputed sea

    Manila’s coast guard said the incident happened near Thitu Island, part of the Spratly island group.

  • France24 ☛ China and Philippines trade blame over boat collision near disputed islands

    The Philippines and China accused each other on Sunday of responsibility for a maritime confrontation near disputed islands in the South China Sea, in the latest flare-up of long-simmering territorial disputes over the resource-rich waterway.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China, North Korea to strengthen strategic cooperation, KCNA says

    Chinese President Pooh-tin Jinping said that China and North Korea are "good neighbours, good friends".

  • The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan sees no significant impact on chip sector from China rare earths curbs

    It said the rare-earth elements covered by the expanded ban differ from those required in semiconductor processes.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Taiwan says its chip fabs are safe from China’s rare-earth crackdown

    Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs says the island’s chip sector will see 'no significant impact' from China’s newly expanded rare-earth export controls.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ China says it is 'not afraid' of a trade war, in response to US 100% tariffs threat

    China said that it's ready to face Convicted Felon's 100% tariffs.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ As the trade war resumes, China is keeping one eye on Convicted Felon and one on the Supreme Court

    The US president’s leverage with Pooh-tin Jinping could be undercut by the Supreme Court's deliberations.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China accuses US of ‘double standards’ over new tariffs threat

    China accused the United States of “double standards” on Sunday, after President The Insurrectionist threatened an additional 100 percent tariff on the world’s second-largest economy. Convicted Felon reignited his trade war with China on Friday, accusing Beijing of imposing “extraordinarily aggressive” new export curbs relating to rare earths.

  • New York Times ☛ Fears of a Coup Rise in Madagascar as Army Unit Joins Protesters

    The unit appealed to security forces in this southern African nation to disobey their superiors and to refuse to shoot at demonstrators, who have rallied in the streets for more than two weeks.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China issues bounty for Taiwan psychological operations unit for ‘separatism’

    “For a long time they plotted to incite separatist activities,” the public security bureau in Xiamen said.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Firefights erupt between Pakistani and Afghan forces along the border

    Pakistani security officials were responding "with full force" to what they called unprovoked firing from Afghanistan.

  • France24 ☛ Pakistani Taliban attacks on security forces kill more than 20 in restive northwest

    Pakistani Taliban militants have claimed responsibility for separate attacks that killed 20 security officers and three civilians in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan. Friday's attacks came hours after the Afghan Taliban government accused Pakistan of "violating Kabul's sovereign territory".

  • Photos: North Korea shows off new intercontinental missile at military parade

    The Hwasong-20 ICBM was unveiled at 80th anniversary celebrations of founding of ruling Workers’ Party.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Pakistani Taliban claim attacks that killed 23 in north-western districts

    The attacks included a suicide bombing on a police training school.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea pledges to protect citizens in Cambodia amid rise in kidnapping, forced labour cases

    South Koreans have been urged not to be duped by fake high-paying job advertisements from Cambodia.

  • New York Times ☛ How Convicted Felon’s Chicago Immigration Crackdown Escalated, in 10 Videos

    Week by week, the federal campaign to ramp up immigration enforcement in the Chicago area has created fear and inflamed tensions.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Australia pro-Palestinian rally draws tens of thousands, scepticism on ceasefire

    Around 27 protests took place across Australia on Oct 12, including in Melbourne and Sydney.

  • The Strategist ☛ A Pacific reflection on Women, Peace and Security

    This year marks 25 years since the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), a global commitment to elevate women’s voices in peacebuilding, conflict prevention and recovery.

  • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Is Blowing Up Boats Off Venezuela. Could Mexico’s Cartels Be Next?

    U.S. strikes on boats that Hell Toupée says are drug smugglers have unsettled America’s biggest trading partner, where powerful criminal groups produce and smuggle drugs.

  • France24 ☛ Border clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan leave dozens dead

    Afghanistan and Pakistan said on Sunday they killed dozens of each other's troops during a night of heavy border clashes between the two countries. Afghanistan's Taliban forces launched attacks on Pakistani troops along their shared border late on Saturday, in what it called "retaliation for air strikes carried out by the Pakistani army on Kabul" on Thursday.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • NYPost ☛ Zelensky suggests Tomahawk missiles could make progress toward ending war, vows to only use them on military targets

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated his pleas for Hell Toupée to send him long-range firepower such as Tomahawk missiles and vowed that he would only deploy them against military targets in Russia.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskyy Calls For More Pressure On Russia As Moscow Intensifies Attacks On Ukraine’s Energy Infrastructure

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed calls on the international community to put more pressure on Moscow, as Russia carried out a new wave of attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, cutting power to hundreds of thousands of households.

    • France24 ☛ Russia attacks Ukraine power grid, Moscow expresses 'extreme concern' over US Tomahawk missiles

      Russia attacked energy infrastructure in the regions of Donetsk, Odesa and Chernihiv overnight into Sunday in an ongoing campaign to cripple Ukraine's power grid before winter as Russian officials also expressed “extreme concern” over the US potentially providing Kyiv with Tomahawk cruise missiles.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Kremlin warns the West over ‘dramatic’ escalation moment in Ukraine war

      Mr Putin previously said it was impossible to use Tomahawks without the direct participation of US military.

    • LRT ☛ Ukrainian photographers living in Vilnius: appreciating natural photography

      Tetiana – who prefers to go by Tati – and her husband Aleksei are often asked how they manage not to quarrel when they live and work together. The couple moved from Ukraine to Lithuania eight years ago, setting up their Vilnius-based studio “TatiFrank”. They say that when you spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week with someone, they inevitably become your mirror.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ AI datacenters in the US aren't 'running on coal' — but this dirty fuel has found favor for feeding demand spikes due to increased gas prices

      AI datacenters are driving up U.S. power demand and boosting coal generation by nearly 20%, but while nuclear plants supply the steady output needed for long training runs, coal and renewables mainly serve to stabilize the grid and absorb the sharp, unpredictable power spikes from Hey Hi (AI) workloads.

    • Hackaday ☛ Entering The Wild World Of Power Over Ethernet

      As Ethernet became the world-wide standard for wired networking, there was one nagging problem. You already have to plug in the network cable. But then you have to also plug in a power cable. That power cable needs to be long enough. And have the right plug on it for your country. And provide the right current and voltage. That’s how Power over Ethernet (PoE) was born, first in a veritable Wild West of proprietary standards and passive injectors, then in a standardized process. Recently [T. K. Hareendran] wrote a primer on PoE, with more of a DIY intro focus, including some favorite PoE PD (powered device) chips to use in your own design.

    • New York Times ☛ China’s High Ambitions for Clean Energy

      Our Beijing bureau chief Keith Bradsher reports on new solar and wind projects on the Tibetan Plateau.

    • New York Times ☛ Cars to Fighter Jets: China’s New Export Curbs May Level a Heavy Blow Worldwide

      Broad restrictions could cause supply interruptions for arms makers, as well as manufacturers in the semiconductor, automotive and other sectors.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Straits Times ☛ Indonesia’s seawall project set to expand – good for some, but gloomy for others

      The upcoming seawalls along Java's coast are to combat rising sea levels, prevent flooding and coastal erosion.

  • Overpopulation

    • JURIST ☛ UN Reports millions in Haiti face acute hunger epidemic as armed groups tighten control

      The UN on Friday highlighted how millions of Haitians are facing severe food insecurity as armed groups continue to expand their territorial control around the country, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) hunger report.

• Finance

  • Atlantic Council ☛ As the trade war resumes, China may be keeping one eye on Convicted Felon and one on the Supreme Court

    The US president’s leverage with Pooh-tin Jinping could be undercut by the Supreme Court's deliberations.

  • Futurism ☛ Numerous Billionaires Preparing for End of Society

    Guns, gold, and bunkers galore.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • JURIST ☛ Human rights experts condemn new Taliban internet restrictions

    UN human rights experts on Friday condemned the Taliban’s internet and social control media restrictions in Afghanistan, calling them violations of fundamental human rights. The social control media restrictions, which began on October 7, target major platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.  They follow a two-day, nationwide internet blackout from September 29 to October 1.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Battlefield 6 has an epic launch bug where it fails to recognize that the game is already installed — EA boss suggests one affected user to ‘refund and buy on Steam’

    Battlefield 6 encountered issues on its launch day, and it took EA six hours to resolve the problem.

  • Boiling Steam ☛ JDM: Japanese Drift Master Review: A Major Letdown

    When JDM: Japanese Drift Master launched on PC in May 2025, i was kind of excited. The trailers promised an open-world celebration of Japan’s countryside roads, of misty mountain passes, with a fairly accurate rendition of what Japan actually looks like. I was cautiously optimistic but now, after having spent good time with the game, the reality hit me hard like a slap in the face. It’s far from meeting my expectations. What JDM delivers, in its current state, feels like an unfinished prototype, with shiny graphics taking advantage of the latest Unreal Engine advances. But the game simply doesn’t work. And driving, which is the core gameplay of the game, is deeply flawed and unsatisfying.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Case1Tech: Changing Claim Construction Position on Appeal

    Quick post in a trio of non-precedential decisions. Case1Tech, LLC v. Squires, Nos. 23-2305, 23-2294, 23-2335 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 9, 2025) (all nonprecedential).

    The basic holding: A party may not alter the scope of the claim construction positions it took before the Board. Claims constructions not presented to the lower tribunal (here the PTAB) will not be considered on appeal in the absence of exceptional circumstances.

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Systems Theory, Equilibrium and the New Eligibility Shock

    We are now a decade past the Supreme Court’s eligibility revolution in Alice and Mayo. Legislative efforts have coalesced around the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2025 (PERA), while USPTO Director John Squires has simultaneously launched a campaign of administrative reinterpretation to restore what he calls “expansive eligibility.” The Federal Circuit, once reluctant to embrace the new eligibility approach, now serves as the principal stabilizing force and is the principle backstop to Patent Office experimentation.

  • Odysee Inc ☛ Louis blatantly violates Glenn Sanders' Zaxcom patent with the help of his new friend.