Feed aggregator

Though native Linux game servers have been scarce over the last two decades, "I've seen people using the Box64 emulator to play x86_64 games on ARM devices," writes Slashdot reader VennStone. "It got me thinking: why not apply this to game servers...? "I thought it would be fun to see if I could build a super low-power Trackmania 2 server using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W." They dubbed the experiment "Trackberry", and shared all the technical details in a blog post at Interfacing Linux (includinga video). For example, they installed PyEnv so it could create a virtual environment for the PyPlanet server controller. ("That's right, your little Pi Zero 2 W is about to compile some software, slowly....") But ultimately "it turns out that the A53 can run not only the server but also the server controller, with minimal effort. Five players push one core to around 50% load, while the others handle the database and controller." WHY STOP THERE? There are a gang of x86 Linux servers that could potentially run with Box64. Imagine playing Pirraria, 7 Days to Pi, Counter-Pi 2, Pitorio, and countless others! Granted, you may need a more powerful device than a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. I'll leave that research up to you. My main takeaway from this experiment? Box64 is straight-up Scandinavian witchcraft and is not to be trifled with. Not even a little bit. That said, it introduces a compelling option for those of us looking to run dedicated game servers that don't require much in the way of system resources. Under load, TrackBerry averages 2.8 watts and, according to the scientific number digits below, ends up running just under $3.00 a year or $0.25 a month. I find the concept of having a stack of microSD cards, each holding a different game server, neat.... You can see TrackBerry in action every Tuesday and Friday on Twitch...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

After being sold out for months, the upcoming sponsorship schedule at DF is unusually open at the moment — including this upcoming week.

Weekly sponsorships have been the top source of revenue for Daring Fireball ever since I started selling them back in 2007. They’ve succeeded, I think, because they make everyone happy. They generate good money. There’s only one sponsor per week and the sponsors are always relevant to at least some sizable portion of the DF audience, so you, the reader, are never annoyed and hopefully often intrigued by them. And, from the sponsors’ perspective, they work. My favorite thing about them is how many sponsors return for subsequent weeks after seeing the results.

If you’ve got a product or service you think would be of interest to DF’s audience of people obsessed with high quality and good design, get in touch. And again, this coming week remains open.

 ★ 

My thanks to 1Password — which, earlier this year, acquired longtime DF sponsor Kolide — for sponsoring last week at DF. In a 2023 survey of IT and security professionals, 50 percent of respondents said that their organization’s vulnerability management program had support from leadership to “a large/great extent”. That’s good for them. But it also leaves a full half of respondents without enough support from leadership.

If you’re trying to get buy-in at your own organization, come equipped with the facts about the risks you’re facing, and come with a clear plan to remediate them. To learn more about how vulnerability management is changing, read 1Password’s blog post, and come prepared.

 ★ 

The less you know about this talk, the more you’ll enjoy watching it unfold. Just remarkably good. Trust me, watch it now, before anything about it is spoiled for you.

 ★ 

Jamie Zawinski:

For those of you who are unaware of these finer details, 0.9 was the first release of the Netscape browser (which begat Firefox) available to the general public. This beta release was an unannounced surprise. Prior to this, everyone assumed that what we were doing was going to be a standard for-sale product where you sent off your $35 and then some time later got a disc in the mail with a license key. That we just said, “Here’s our FTP site, come get it, go crazy” was, at the time, shocking to people.

The thing that confuses people sometimes about new platforms is that while the platform and its clients are different things, you usually need both to be great for the whole thing to succeed. The World Wide Web, as conceived by Tim Berners-Lee, was and remains a remarkable, world-changing platform. But it really didn’t take off until Netscape hit. It was just such a great app, including on the Mac. It was the browser the web needed.

 ★ 

Consistently brewing that crowning cup of coffee involves attention to the precise addition of ingredients and control of the brew ratio, tempered with practiced technique. Perhaps it’s time to apply a little more science to the art.

The Clue Coffee Scale can accurately measure the weight of the ground beans or the extraction output, getting closer to an exact and repeatable approach for creating your preferred brew. To measure the contents of a container, the scale can be zeroed with a push of a button to subtract the container’s tare weight.

The scale uses a load cell sensor device that consists of a very sensitive resistance array (a strain gauge) attached to a metal bending beam. When connected to an exciter voltage, the resistance array provides a differential voltage output signal proportional to the torque of the mass placed on the load cell. The signal voltage is very low so a sensitive amplifier and high-resolution analog to digital converter (ADC) are used to provide a microcontroller-compatible measurement.

The Adafruit NAU7802 24-Bit ADC – STEMMA QT board has everything needed to connect a load cell and provide measurements for the Clue. Add a CircuitPython program, and the Clue Coffee Scale is born.

John Park built a version of the coffee scale for use with his primo espresso station. Check out the Build the Coffee Scale section of this guide for the step-by-step approach he used for his custom scale. A trenta-sized thank you goes to John for creating a practical and beautiful working scale.

This guide will show how to build, calibrate, and code the scale. Your perfect cup of Java awaits.

Check out the full guide!

Early this morning SpaceX successfully launched its Starship rocket on its fifth test flight. But more importantly, CNBC points out, SpaceX "made a dramatic first catch of the rocket's more than 20-story tall booster." Watch the footage here. It's pretty exciting... The achievement marks a major milestone toward SpaceX's goal of making Starship a fully reusable rocket system... The rocket's "Super Heavy" booster returned to land on the arms of the company's launch tower nearly seven minutes after launch. "Are you kidding me?" SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said on the company's webcast. "What we just saw, that looked like magic," Huot added... Starship separated and continued on to space, traveling halfway around the Earth before reentering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Indian Ocean as intended to complete the test. There were no people on board the fifth Starship flight. The company's leadership has said SpaceX expects to fly hundreds of Starship missions before the rocket launches with any crew... With the booster catch, SpaceX has surpassed the fourth test flight's milestones... The company sees the ambitious catch approach as critical to its goal of making the rocket fully reusable. "SpaceX engineers have spent years preparing and months testing for the booster catch attempt, with technicians pouring tens of thousands of hours into building the infrastructure to maximize our chances for success," the company wrote on its website.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Last month C dropped from 3rd to 4th in TIOBE's ranking of programming language popularity (which tries to calculate each language's share of search engine results). Java moved up into the #3 position in September, reports TechRepublic, which notes that by comparison October "saw relatively little change" — though percentages of search results increased slightly. "At number one, Python jumped from 20.17% in September to 21.9% in October. In second place, C++ rose from 10.75% in September to 11.6%. In third, Java ascended from 9.45% to 10.51%..." Is there a larger trend? TIOBE CEO Paul Jansen writes that the need to harvest more data increases demand for fast data manipulation languages. But they also need to be easy to learn ("because the resource pool of skilled software engineers is drying up") and secure ("because of continuous cyber threats.") King of all, Python, is easy to learn and secure, but not fast. Hence, engineers are frantically looking for fast alternatives for Python. C++ is an obvious candidate, but it is considered "not secure" because of its explicit memory management. Rust is another candidate, although not easy to learn. Rust is, thanks to its emphasis on security and speed, making its way to the TIOBE index top 10 now. [It's #13 — up from #20 a year ago] The cry for fast, data crunching languages is also visible elsewhere in the TIOBE index. The language Mojo [a faster superset of Python designed for accelerated hardware like GPUs]... enters the top 50 for the first time. The fact that this language is only 1 year old and already showing up, makes it a very promising language. In the last 12 months three languages also fell from the top ten: PHP (dropping from #8 to #15) SQL (dropping from #9 to #11) Assembly language (dropping from #10 to #16)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

spatwei shared an article from SC World: Attacks on large language models (LLMs) take less than a minute to complete on average, and leak sensitive data 90% of the time when successful, according to Pillar Security. Pillar's State of Attacks on GenAI report, published Wednesday, revealed new insights on LLM attacks and jailbreaks, based on telemetry data and real-life attack examples from more than 2,000 AI applications. LLM jailbreaks successfully bypass model guardrails in one out of every five attempts, the Pillar researchers also found, with the speed and ease of LLM exploits demonstrating the risks posed by the growing generative AI (GenAI) attack surface... The more than 2,000 LLM apps studied for the State of Attacks on GenAI report spanned multiple industries and use cases, with virtual customer support chatbots being the most prevalent use case, making up 57.6% of all apps. Common jailbreak techniques included "ignore previous instructions" and "ADMIN override", or just using base64 encoding. "The Pillar researchers found that attacks on LLMs took an average of 42 seconds to complete, with the shortest attack taking just 4 seconds and the longest taking 14 minutes to complete. "Attacks also only involved five total interactions with the LLM on average, further demonstrating the brevity and simplicity of attacks."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

33 angel number meaning symbolizes spiritual growth, compassion, and divine guidance. Learn how this master number leads to love, inner wisdom, and healing.

Black crystal meaning centers on protection, grounding, and transformation. Learn how these powerful stones shield energy and foster emotional healing and strength.

Meta's Oversight Board "is spinning off a new appeals center," reports the Washington Post, "to handle content disputes from European social media users on multiple platforms". It will operate under Europe's Digital Services Act, "which requires tech companies to allow users to appeal restrictions on their accounts before an independent group of experts." "I think this is really a game changer," Appeals Centre Europe CEO Thomas Hughes said in an interview. "It could really drive platform accountability and transparency." The expansion arrives as the Oversight Board, an independent collection of academics, experts and lawyers funded by Meta, has been seeking to expand its influence beyond the social media giant... [The Board] has tried for years to court other major internet companies, offering to help them referee debates about content, The Post has reported... Oversight Board members and Oversight Board Trust Chairman Stephen Neal said in statements that both the Appeals Centre Europe and the Oversight Board will play critical but complimentary roles in holding tech companies accountable for their decisions on content. "Both entities are committed to improving user redress, transparency and upholding users' rights online," Neal said... Hughes, who used to be the Oversight Board's administration director, said that he was "proud" of what the Oversight Board is accomplishing but that it is different from what the Appeals Centre Europe will offer. When Facebook, YouTube or TikTok removes a post, European social media users will be able to appeal the decision to the center. Users also will also be able to flag the center with posts they think violate the rules but were not removed. While the Appeals Centre Europe's decisions will be nonbinding, the group will generate data that could power decisions by regulators, civil society groups and the general public, Hughes said. By contrast, the Oversight Board's decisions on Meta content are binding. Last year the original Oversight Board completed more than 50 cases, "and is on track to exceed that number in 2024," according to the article. But this board is different, CEO Hughes told the Post. They'll have about two dozen staffers, with expertise in human rights and tech policy — or fluency in various languages. And he added that though the center is funded by an initial grant, future operating costs will be covered by the fees social media companies pay the appeal center — roughly 90 euros ($100) per case.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Wall Street Journal delves into the origin story of that teenaged Grand Theft Auto VI leaker. Arion Kurtaj, now 19 years old, is the most notorious name that has emerged from a sprawling set of online communities called the Com... Their youthful inventiveness and tenacity, as well as their status as minors that make prosecution more complicated, have made the Com especially dangerous, according to law-enforcement officials and cybersecurity investigators. Some kids, they say, are recruited from popular online spaces like Minecraft or Roblox.... [William McKeen, a supervisory special agent with the FBI's Cyber Division] said the average age of anyone arrested for a crime in the U.S. is 37, while the average age of someone arrested for cybercrime is 19. Cybersecurity investigators have found posts they say suggest Kurtaj has been involved in online attacks since he was 11. "He had limited social skills and trouble developing relationships, records say — and ultimately looked for approval in the booming world of cybercrime..." [When Kurtaj was 14] he landed in a residential school serving children with severe emotional and behavioral needs. Kurtaj was physically assaulted by a staff member at his school who was later convicted as a result, according to a person familiar with the case. In early 2021, his mother brought him home and removed him from government care, court records say. He never returned to school. He was 16. A month after his mother pulled him out of school, investigators say that Kurtaj was part of a hacking group called Recursion Team that broke into the videogame firm Electronic Arts and stole 780 gigabytes of data. When Electronic Arts refused to engage, they dumped the stolen data online. Within a week of that hack, investigators had identified Kurtaj and provided his name to the FBI. Later in that summer of 2021, according to court records, Kurtaj partnered with another teenager, known as ASyntax, and several Brazilian hackers, and started calling themselves Lapsus$. The group hacked into the British telecommunications giant BT in an effort to steal money using a technique called SIM swapping... The hacks weren't always for money. In late 2021, Lapsus$ hacked into a website operated by Brazil's Ministry of Health and deleted the country's database of Covid vaccinations, according to law enforcement... If the Com has a social center, it's a website called Doxbin, where users publish personal details, such as home addresses and phone numbers, of their online rivals in an attempt to intimidate each other. Kurtaj bought Doxbin in November 2021 for $75,000, according to Chainalysis. But after a few months, the previous owners accused Kurtaj of mismanaging the site and pressured him to sell it back. He relented. Then in January 2022, cybersecurity investigators say, he doxxed the entire site, publishing a database that included usernames, passwords and email addresses that he'd downloaded when he was the owner. For cybersecurity experts, it was a gold mine. "It helped investigators piece together which crimes were done by who," said Allison Nixon, chief research officer at Unit 221B, an online investigations firm. Doxbin's owners responded with a dox of Kurtaj and his family, including his home address and photos of him, investigators say — setting up the chain of events that would put Kurtaj in the Travelodge. After two weeks of "protective custody" there — during which time he was supposed to be computer-free — Kurtaj "was arrested a third time and charged with hacking, fraud and blackmail. Authorities said that while at the Travelodge, he broke into Uber and taunted the company by posting a link to a photo of an erect penis on the company's internal Slack messaging system, then stole software and videos from Rockstar Games. Stolen clips had popped up in a Grand Theft Auto discussion forum from a user named teapotuberhacker and stirred a frenzy. "As officers collected evidence, the teen stood by, emotionless, police say...." "Kurtaj's lawyers and some experts on autism have said a potential lifetime of incarceration isn't appropriate for a teenager like Kurtaj..." Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader SpzToid for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thursday the Associated Press reported: One of the two companies that manufacture high-purity quartz used for making semiconductors and other high-tech products from mines in a western North Carolina community severely damaged by Hurricane Helene is operating again. Sibelco announced on Thursday that production has restarted at its mining and processing operations in Spruce Pine, located 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Asheville. [Per Wikipedia, its pre-hurricane population was 2,175.] Production and shipments are progressively ramping up to full capacity, the company said in a news release. "While the road to full recovery for our communities will be long, restarting our operations and resuming shipments to customers are important contributors to rebuilding the local economy," Sibelco CEO Hilmar Rode said... A Spruce Pine council member said recently that an estimated three-quarters of the town has a direct connection to the mines, whether through a job, a job that relies on the mines or a family member who works at the facilities. An announcement last week from Sibelco attributed its resilience to their long-standing commitment to sustainability, "which includes measures to mitigate the impact of extreme weather events such as Hurricane Helene." Initial assessments indicated their operating facilities sustained only minor damage. And "the company previously announced that all its employees are safe," Sibelco reaffirmed in its announcement Thursday: Sibelco, with support from its contractors, has been contributing to the local recovery efforts by clearing debris, repairing roads, providing road building materials to the North Carolina Department of Transportation, installing temporary power generators for emergency shelters and local businesses, and working with the town of Spruce Pine to restart water supply to residents. Additionally, Sibelco has incorporated the Sibelco Spruce Pine Foundation to further support the community's recovery. The company previously announced that it is making an immediate $1 million donation as seed money for the foundation. Anyone interested in learning more or contributing to this initiative should contact the foundation by email or by visiting our website for additional information and donation opportunities.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The New York Public Library will be celebrating 40 years of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Wednesday, October 16th with a panel comprised of TMNT veterans, a drawing workshop, and a writing workshop.

Join us for a shell-tastic celebration as we mark the 40th anniversary of one of pop culture’s most iconic franchises: the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! This dynamic panel will dive deep into the history, evolution, and cultural impact of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael, the heroes in a half-shell who have captured hearts and imaginations for four decades.

Whether you’re a lifelong fan or new to the TMNT universe, this panel promises to be a celebration of heroism, humor, and the enduring appeal of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Grab your pizza, don your best turtle gear, and come celebrate 40 years of radical adventures and turtle power!

El Tiny is back on NPR Music for Latin Music Month. Check out these great performances features Juanes, Sheila E, Eladio Carrion, The Marias and more.

As part of this year’s Latino Heritage Month festivities, NPR Music is excited to spotlight the diverse world of Latin music with the return of El Tiny and new episodes from the Alt.Latino podcast. For the fourth consecutive year, NPR Music’s Alt.Latino co-hosts Anamaria Sayre and Felix Contreras will curate a stellar lineup of Latin American and spanish artists and genres, beginning September 16.

I guess porting DOOM has become rote. Makers are moving on to Quake, id software’s followup franchise. Released ~5 years after Doom in the late 90’s, Quake was a leap forward in graphics (unlike current gaming iterations).

Nicola Wrachien Silicon Labs created this fun handheld porting Quake using the Arduino Nano Matter. For easy playing a custom controller shaped board was designed with joysticks a screen and few Adafruit goodies.

Last year we showed a Doom port to the SparkFun Thing Plus MGM240P Matter board, this year we’ve been amazed to see one of our engineers has ported Quake to the Silicon Labs EFR32MG24 microcontroller on the Arduino Nano Matter board (this version of Quake can also be run on the original SparkFun board for Doom). The game runs at an average frame rate of 27 fps at the original game resolution of 320×200 pixels with the 3D and sound engines implemented in full.

A new board in a joypad format, has been created adding two thumb sticks and stereo speakers over the original Doom hardware, along with a two-inch screen and other components from Adafruit.

You can see the full build detials: Quake ported to Arduino Nano Matter and Sparkfun Thing Plus Matter Boards and Quake Port to the Sparkfun Thing Plus and Arduino Nano Matter Boards, with only 276 kB RAM!

Made with:

• 2.0″ 320×240 Color IPS TFT Display with microSD Card Breakout – ST7789 EYESPI
• Adafruit Mono 2.5W Class D Audio Amplifier – PAM8302
• Adafruit Micro-Lipo Charger for LiPoly Batt with USB Type C Jack

We’ve got the New nEw NEW for you right here

New Products 10/9/24 Feat. Adafruit RP2040 Snap-on Enclosure for Adafruit Feather RP2040 USB Host

This week we debut 6 New Products.

See the sidebar on the right for what’s new this week or visit www.adafruit.com/new for more info.

What is the reality of the near-future of space travel? The rocket dreams of the twentieth century needed budgets only available to superpowers. Times change. Smaller countries, private companies, and even some individuals see the stars as within their reach. What does that portend about the future of space travel? Here’s more from the UK Science Museum:

The next step will be the deployment in space of robotic fabricators, which can build large structures – for instance, giant successors to the James Web Space Telescope, with huge gossamer-thin mirrors assembled under zero gravity. These will further enhance our imaging of exoplanets and the wider cosmos.

The practical case for human spaceflight gets ever weaker with each advance in robots and miniaturization. Astronauts need far more ‘maintenance’ than robots, simply because their activities require air, water, food, living space, and protection against harmful radiation.

Learn more!

toyota_supra shared this project on Thingiverse!

hello again!

this is a “custom” wolverine arm armor set made with a bunch of models that is inspired by the deadpool 3 wolverine’s suit

if you have any questions or requests you can comment on this THING.

enjoy:)

Halloween is fast approaching, learn more and check out our COSPLAY HACKS guide in the adafruit learn system!