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Showing posts from August, 2021

Building A Hundred-Year-Old Radio Transmitter

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Our Hackaday team is spread across the world, but remains in easy contact through the magic of the Internet. A number of us hold amateur radio callsigns, so could with a bit of effort and expenditure do the same over the airwaves. A hundred years ago this would have seemed barely conceivable as amateurs were restricted to the then-considered-unusable HF frequencies. Thus it was that in December 1921 a group of American radio amateurs gathered in a field in Greenwich Connecticut in an attempt to span the Atlantic. Their 1.3 MHz transmitter using the callsign 1BCG seems quaintly low-frequency a hundred years later, but their achievement of securing reception in Ardrossan, Scotland, proved that intercontinental communication on higher frequencies was a practical proposition. A century later a group from the Antique Wireless Association are bringing a replica transmitter to life to recreate the event. A free-running oscillator is today rarely seen in a radio transmitter, but at the tim

One Wood Ring To Rule Them All

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[Olivier Gomis] did not have access to the fires of Mount Doom to forge a large replica of the One Ring , so he had to settle for patience, maple, and a wood lathe. It does have the added convenience of not needing to fire to expose its true nature, just angry pixies from a wall socket. [Olivier] made the ring in separate inner and outer sections from 72 blocks of maple. The blocks were glued together in 12-sided rings, and stacked in layers to achieve the desired width. The surfaces were cut smooth and thinned out on a wood lathe, and an internal channel was created for LED strips. The Black Speech was cut through the walls of both the inner and outer surfaces using a manual router. Using the ring itself as a former, he made a wooden base for the router to allow it to slide across the surface without wobbling. The inside wall was cut into sections and glued into a recess in the external portion. The inscriptions were covered with a maple veneer, which still allows it to be visible

3D Printing Your Own Sturdy Lens Caps

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Lens caps are important for protecting expensive camera lenses from damage. Dust, grit, and other nasty things will all quickly spoil the quality of a shot, and can even permanently damage a lens if you’re unlucky. However, lens caps are also lost quite easily. Thus, it’s useful to be able to make your own, and [DSLR CNC DIY] has the low down on how to do it.  The benefit of printing your own lens caps is customization. No matter the oddball size and shape of your lens, when you’re 3D printing your own cap, you can design it to fit. The video also shows off the benefits of being able to embed text right into the body of the cap, so you’re never confused as to which cap goes with which lens. The caps use the metal lever from a binder clip in order to provide the clamping force necessary to hang on to the lens. It’s an improvement over some living-hinge designs that grow weaker over time. Overall, if you’ve got a bunch of lenses that need a new cap, this could be the project for you.

Simple Tactile Drawing Pad is Quite Impressive

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Everyone needs to be able to communicate and express themselves, even people with blindness or low vision. Embossing paper with some kind of stylus is a popular, low-tech option, but there’s one big problem: pressing paper from the top leaves a dent, and so letters have to either be written backwards or else felt-read backwards. For this year’s Hackaday Prize, [Subir Bhaduri] is working on a fantastic tool that embosses positively, and from the top side of the paper . Here’s how it works: a pointed stylus pushes upward from the underside and meets up with a concave receiver on the top side through the paper. The two stylii move in concert thanks to the pantograph-inspired parallelogram setup, which we imagine would make it easier for someone with low vision to keep their bearings as they move around the page. The video below shows prototype #2, which is the first one that worked. Well, it works, but [Subir] says it needs improvement, so prototype #3 is in the sketching stage now. [S

Calculate Like It’s 1989 With This HP15C Emulator

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Back in the day, your choice of calculator said a lot about your chops, and nothing made a stronger statement than the legendary Hewlett-Packard Voyager series of programmable calculators. From the landscape layout to the cryptic keycaps to the Reverse Polish Notation, everything about these calculators spoke to a seriousness of purpose. Sadly, these calculators are hard to come by at any price these days. So if you covet their unique look and feel, your best bet might be to do like [alxgarza] and build your own Voyager-series emulator . This particular build emulates the HP15C and runs on an ATMega328. Purists may object to the 192×64 LCD matrix display rather than the ten-digit seven-segment display of the original, but we don’t mind the update at all. The PCB that the emulator is built on is just about the right size, and the keyboard is built up from discrete switches that are as satisfyingly clicky as the originals. We also appreciate the use of nothing but through-hole componen

Red Hat Security Advisory 2021-3225-01

Red Hat Security Advisory 2021-3225-01 - Red Hat AMQ Streams, based on the Apache Kafka project, offers a distributed backbone that allows microservices and other applications to share data with extremely high throughput and extremely low latency. This release of Red Hat AMQ Streams 1.8.0 serves as a replacement for Red Hat AMQ Streams 1.7.0, and includes security and bug fixes, and enhancements. Issues addressed include information leakage, resource exhaustion, and traversal vulnerabilities. from Packet Storm https://ift.tt/3kJwdLt

Backdoor.Win32.Hupigon.abe Unauthenticated Open Proxy

Backdoor.Win32.Hupigon.abe malware suffers from an unauthenticated open proxy vulnerability. from Packet Storm https://ift.tt/3yAlLuu

Backdoor.Win32.Antilam.11 Code Execution

Backdoor.Win32.Antilam.11 malware suffers from a code execution vulnerability. from Packet Storm https://ift.tt/3DxGiUj

Strapi CMS 3.0.0-beta.17.4 Remote Code Execution

Strapi CMS version 3.0.0-beta.17.4 authenticated remote code execution exploit. from Packet Storm https://ift.tt/2WGg8y3

Red Hat Security Advisory 2021-3293-01

Red Hat Security Advisory 2021-3293-01 - IBM Java SE version 7 Release 1 includes the IBM Java Runtime Environment and the IBM Java Software Development Kit. This update upgrades IBM Java SE 7 to version 7R1 SR4-FP90. from Packet Storm https://ift.tt/3yD8K3C

Red Hat Security Advisory 2021-3231-01

Red Hat Security Advisory 2021-3231-01 - Exiv2 is a C++ library to access image metadata, supporting read and write access to the Exif, IPTC and XMP metadata, Exif MakerNote support, extract and delete methods for Exif thumbnails, classes to access Ifd, and support for various image formats. Issues addressed include a buffer overflow vulnerability. from Packet Storm https://ift.tt/38ppLUd

Red Hat Security Advisory 2021-3297-01

Red Hat Security Advisory 2021-3297-01 - libsndfile is a C library for reading and writing files containing sampled sound, such as AIFF, AU, or WAV. Issues addressed include buffer overflow and code execution vulnerabilities. from Packet Storm https://ift.tt/3junEEH

Red Hat Security Advisory 2021-3292-01

Red Hat Security Advisory 2021-3292-01 - IBM Java SE version 8 includes the IBM Java Runtime Environment and the IBM Java Software Development Kit. This update upgrades IBM Java SE 8 to version 8 SR6-FP35. from Packet Storm https://ift.tt/3BH4p1h

Trojan-Proxy.Win32.Raznew.gen Unauthenticated Open Proxy

Trojan-Proxy.Win32.Raznew.gen malware suffers from an unauthenticated open proxy vulnerability. from Packet Storm https://ift.tt/3gOox9n

Red Hat Security Advisory 2021-3281-01

Red Hat Security Advisory 2021-3281-01 - Node.js is a software development platform for building fast and scalable network applications in the JavaScript programming language. Issues addressed include denial of service, path sanitization, and use-after-free vulnerabilities. from Packet Storm https://ift.tt/38pgr2C

Linux Fu: User Space File Systems — Now for Windows, Too!

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One of the nice things about the Unix philosophy that Linux inherited is that the filesystem is very modular. That’s good, too, because a typical system might want a choice of filesystems like ext4 , riserfs , btrfs , and even network systems like nfs . Besides that, there are fake file systems like /sys and /dev that help Linux make everything look like a file. The downside is that building a filesystem required changing the kernel or, at least, writing a loadable module. That’s not as hard as it sounds, but it is a little more difficult than writing a normal program. Then came FUSE — file system in user space. This is a single file system module that allows you to create new file systems by writing ordinary code. My Favorite Fuses There are several FUSE filesystems that are really useful. Here are some of my favorites: sshfs – Mount a remote filesystem using nothing more than ssh access rclone – Rclone can access and mount many remote file systems tagassistant – Store f

Coinbase Erroneously Reported 2FA Changes To 125,000 Customers

from Packet Storm https://ift.tt/3mII5zY

Singapore Government Expands Bug Hunt With Hacker Rewards

from Packet Storm https://ift.tt/2WE0W40

HPE Warns Sudo Bug Gives Attackers Root Privileges To Aruba Platform

from Packet Storm https://ift.tt/3yxe4oT

LockBit Gang To Publish 103GB Of Bangkok Air Customer Data

from Packet Storm https://ift.tt/3mNKs4p

LockFile Ransomware Uses Never Before Seen Encryption To Avoid Detection

from Packet Storm https://ift.tt/3gK2a52

Motorola 68000 SBC Runs Again with a Raspberry Pi on top

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Single-board computers have been around a long time: today you might be using a Raspberry Pi, an Arduino, or an ESP32, but three decades ago you might find yourself programming a KIM-1, an Intel SDK-85, or a Motorola 68000 Educational Computer Board. These kind of boards were usually made by processor manufacturers to show off their latest chips and to train engineers who might use these chips in their designs. [podstawek] found himself trying to operate one of these Motorola ECBs from 1981. This board contains a 68000 CPU (as used in several Macintoshes and Amigas), 32 kB of RAM, and a ROM program called TUTOR. Lacking any keyboard or monitor connections, the only way to communicate with this system is a pair of serial ports. [podstawek] decided to make the board more accessible by adding a Raspberry Pi extended with an RS232 Hat. This add-on board comes with two serial ports supporting the +/- 12 V signal levels used in older equipment. It took several hours of experimenting, deb

Small Footprint Scara Laser Engraver has Massive Build Area

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One of the limitations of the conventional Cartesian CNC platforms is that the working area will usually be smaller than its footprint. SCARA arms are one of the options to get around this, as demonstrated by [How To Mechatronics], with his SCARA laser engraver . This robot arm is modified from the original build we featured a while back, which had a gripper mounted. It uses mainly standard 3D printer components with 3D printed frame parts. The arms lengths are sized to fold over the base and take up little table horizontal space when not in use. It can work in a large semi-circular area around itself, and if a proper locating and homing method is implemented, it can be moved around and engrave a large area section by section. One of the challenges of SCARA arms is rigidity. As the cantilevered arm extends, it tends to lean over under its weight. In [How To Mechatronics]’s case, it showed up as skewed engravings, which he managed to mitigate to some degree in the Marlin firmware. A

CRISS CP/M Provides Modern Hardware for a Classic OS

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Today you might choose run Windows, Linux, MacOS or some other OS on your computer. Back in the 1980s however, you generally had little choice: a certain home computer came with a certain OS, and that was it. If yours was based on a Z80 processor, chances are it ran CP/M. While differences in hardware often made direct data exchange difficult, CP/M provided at least a basic level of software compatibility between various Z80-based computers. Although eventually supplanted by MS-DOS (which initially aimed to be compatible with CP/M), enthusiasts kept the classic OS running on old hardware throughout the 90s and even beyond. [Igor] decided to make a 21st-century CP/M machine by designing the CRISS , a single-board computer based mainly on AVR microcontrollers. The CPU is a 20 MHz ATMEGA1284P, which imitates a 4 MHz Z80 through machine-code emulation. A pair of ATMEGA328s run the peripheral controller and a VGA output, so the CRISS can be used with modern monitors. True to its heritage

Printing Ceramics Made Easier

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Creating things with ceramics is nothing new — people have done it for centuries. There are ways to 3D print ceramics, too. Well, you typically 3D print the wet ceramic and then fire it in a kiln. However, recent research is proposing a new way to produce 3D printed ceramics . The idea is to print using TPU which is infused with polysilazane, a preceramic polymer. Then the resulting print is fired to create the final ceramic product. The process relies on a specific type of infill to create small channels inside the print to assist in the update of the polysilazane. The printer was a garden-variety Lulzbot TAZ 6 with ordinary 0.15mm and 0.25mm nozzles. The process doesn’t sound quick. After printing, the part stayed in an acetone bath along with a tiny bit of a platinum-based catalyst for 15 minutes. Then they added the polymer and waited four hours followed by a 24 hour air dry. The firing was probably not easy to do in a normal kiln, either. The final stage was 1200C for an hour

Chordie Chording Keyboard Speaks No Qwerty

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What is the fastest way to get thoughts out of your brain and into relative permanence? Well, yeah, probably a voice recorder. But after voice recorders comes typing in a distant second. Typing, especially QWERTY-style, has its limitations. The holy grail method it comes to typing quickly has got to be a chording keyboard, hands down. How can court reporters possibly keep up with everything that’s uttered during a trial? When you can press a few keys at the same time and type entire words, it’s not that difficult. It just takes a whole lot of memorization and muscle memory to get to that point. So if you’re going to go for the glory, check out Chordie, a snazzy little chording keyboard that does it all with just 14 keys. [kbjunky] based Chordie on the Ginny, a cute little bare-bones bat-wing chording keyboard that uses the ASETNIOP chording engine originally built for soft keyboards .[kbjunky] added open-face trackball support via printed cradle, but it’s not necessary to use a trac

Impromptu Metal Detector Built From the Junk Bin

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Have you ever found yourself suddenly in need of finding a small metal object hidden in the woods? No? Well, neither have we. But we can’t say the same thing for [zaphod], who’s family was hoping to settle a dispute by finding the surveyor stakes that marked the corners of their property. It was a perfect job for a metal detector, but since they didn’t own one, a serviceable unit had to be assembled from literal garbage . To start with, [zaphod] had to research how a metal detector actually works. After reviewing the pros and cons of various approaches, the decision was made to go with a beat frequency oscillator (BFO) circuit. It’s not the greatest design, it might even be the worst, but it could be built with the parts on hand and sometimes that’s all that matters. After packing a 2N3904 transistor, an LM386 amplifier, and every Hackaday reader’s favorite chip the 555 timer into an enclosure along with some of their closest friends, it was time to build the rest of the metal detect

Capacitive Mouse Built for a Friend Makes for a Touching Tale

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Those tiny switches inside your mouse may be rated for 50 million clicks or more, but your fingers will likely wear out much sooner than that. Trust us — mouse arm and/or hand fatigue is no fun at all. If you’ve never had the displeasure, just try to imagine not being able to click or move the mouse around without extreme discomfort. For this year’s Hackaday Prize, [BinSun] hacked together a capacitive mouse for a friend who has ALS . Instead of micro switches, it uses touch sensors to detect left and right clicks and LEDs to indicate when a click has taken place. That makes us think that haptic feedback could be cool, but it might get old quickly, or even worse, you might get used to it after a while and not feel it anymore. This mouse would be a good alternative for anyone with limited mobility from any condition — ALS, arthritis, trigger finger, or carpal/cubital tunnel syndrome. It would also benefit anyone who wants to mouse much more stealthily, like in a library, a small shar

Fusion Ignition: What Does The NIF’s 1.3 MJ Yield Mean For Fusion Research?

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Earlier this month, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) announced to the world that they had achieved a record 1.3 MJ yield from a fusion experiment at their National Ignition Facility (NIF). Yet what does this mean, exactly? As their press release notes, the main advancement of these results will go towards the US’s nuclear weapons arsenal. This pertains specifically to the US’s nuclear fusion weapons, which LLNL along with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and other facilities are involved in the research and maintenance of. This traces back to the NIF’s roots in the 1990s, when the stockpile stewardship program was set up as an alternative to nuclear weapons testing. Much of this research involves examining how today’s nuclear weapons degrade over time, and ways to modernize the existing arsenal. In light of this, one may wonder what the impact of these experimental findings from the NIF are beyond merely ensuring that the principle of MAD remains intact. To answ

Regen Receiver with Few Parts

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We like regenerative receivers. They perform well and they are dead simple to create. Example? [Radio abUse] modified a few existing designs and built a one-transistor receiver . Well, one transistor if you don’t count the dozens that are probably on the audio amplifier IC, but we won’t quibble. You can watch a video about the simple receiver — which looks good on a neatly done universal board — below. The coil of #22 wire dominates the visual layout, and we imagine winding it might have been the most time-consuming part of the project. The layout would work with a single-sided PCB and would be a great board to produce by hand if you were inclined to develop that skill. Regenerative receivers work by holding an amplifier just shy of oscillating at a certain frequency. This provides extremely high gain at a particular frequency which allows just a single stage to really pull in signals. We were a little sad to find out there was a plan to tear the radio down to build something else.

3D Printering: Is Hassle-Free Bed Leveling Finally Here?

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3D printers have come a long way over the past several years, but the process of bed leveling remains a pain point. Let’s take a look at the different ways the problem has been tackled, and whether recent developments have succeeded in automating away the hassle. Anycubic Vyper, with an auto-leveling feature we decided to take a closer look at. Bed leveling and first layer calibration tends to trip up novices because getting it right requires experience and judgment calls, and getting it wrong means failed prints. These are things 3D printer operators learn to handle with time and experience, but they are still largely manual processes that are often discussed in ways that sound more like an art than anything else. Little wonder that there have been plenty of attempts to simplify the whole process. Some consumer 3D printers are taking a new approach to bed leveling and first layer calibration, and one of those printers is the Anycubic Vyper , which offers a one-touch solution for