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Trump administration reportedly negotiating an Oracle takeover of TikTokThe Trump administration is negotiating a deal that would see Oracle take over TikTok alongside new U.S. investors, according to a report in NPR. Lawmakers passed a bill last year forcing Chinese parent company ByteDance to either sell TikTok or see it banned in the U.S. The app briefly went dark before the law took […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.Here’s what happened in crypto todayNeed to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.
Soviet Wired Radio, How It WorkedAt the height of the Cold War, those of us on the western side of the wall had plenty of choice over our radio listening, even if we stuck with our country’s monolithic broadcaster. On the other side in the Soviet Union, radio for many came without a choice of source, in the form of wired radio systems built into all apartments. [Railways | Retro Tech | DIY] grew up familiar with these wired radios, and treats us to a fascinating examination of their technology, programming, and ultimate decline.
In a Soviet apartment, usually in the kitchen, there would be a “Radio” socket on the wall. Confusingly the same physical dimension as a mains socket, it carried an audio signal. The box which plugged into it was referred to as a radio, but instead contained only a transformer, loudspeaker, and volume control. These carried the centralised radio station, piped from Moscow to the regions by a higher voltage line, then successively stepped down at regional, local, and apartment block level. A later refinement brought a couple more stations on separate sub-carriers, but it was the single channel speakers which provided the soundtrack for daily life.
The decline of the system came over the decades following the end of communism, and he describes its effect on the mostly older listenership. Now the speaker boxes survive as affectionate curios for those like him who grew up with them.
You probably won’t be surprised to find twisted-wire broadcasting in use in the West, too.Thanks [Stephen Walters] for the tip.
Preventing AI Plagiarism With .ASS SubtitlingAround two years ago, the world was inundated with news about how generative AI or large language models would revolutionize the world. At the time it was easy to get caught up in the hype, but in the intervening months these tools have done little in the way of productive work outside of a few edge cases, and mostly serve to burn tons of cash while turning the Internet into even more of a desolate wasteland than it was before. They do this largely by regurgitating human creations like text, audio, and video into inferior simulacrums and, if you still want to exist on the Internet, there’s basically nothing you can do to prevent this sort of plagiarism. Except feed the AI models garbage data like this YouTuber has started doing.
At least as far as YouTube is concerned, the worst offenders of AI plagiarism work by downloading the video’s subtitles, passing them through some sort of AI model, and then generating another YouTube video based off of the original creator’s work. Most subtitle files are the fairly straightfoward .srt filetype which only allows for timing and text information. But a more obscure subtitle filetype known as Advanced SubStation Alpha, or .ass, allows for all kinds of subtitle customization like orientation, formatting, font types, colors, shadowing, and many others. YouTuber [f4mi] realized that using this subtitle system, extra garbage text could be placed in the subtitle filetype but set out of view of the video itself, either by placing the text outside the viewable area or increasing its transparency. So now when an AI crawler downloads the subtitle file it can’t distinguish real subtitles from the garbage placed into it.
[f4mi] created a few scripts to do this automatically so that it doesn’t have to be done by hand for each one. It also doesn’t impact the actual subtitles on the screen for people who need them for accessibility reasons. It’s a great way to “poison” AI models and make it at least harder for them to rip off the creations of original artists, and [f4mi]’s tests show that it does work. We’ve actually seen a similar method for poisoning data sets used for emails long ago, back when we were all collectively much more concerned about groups like the NSA using automated snooping tools in our emails than we were that machines were going to steal our creative endeavors.
Thanks to [www2] for the tip!Electro-Harmonix POG3The POG3 is the most powerful pedal in Electro-Harmonix's revered line of polyphonic octave generators that continues to inspire and captivate musicians of all styles. At its core, the POG3 delivers... Read More
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DIY and Independent Musician News Last WeekThis week, our tips and advice for the independent, do-it-yourselfers out there covered how to make more money from merch at shows, new music bills introduced, and more...
The post DIY and Independent Musician News Last Week appeared first on Hypebot.Last week’s Top Music Business NewsA busy week by any definition and music business news was no exception, with new updates on LA Fire Relief, Chartmetric reports an overcrowded industry, and more...
The post Last week’s Top Music Business News appeared first on Hypebot.Roland release V-STAGE professional keyboards The line-up comprises two models in the form of the V‑STAGE 88 and V‑STAGE 76.
Shure unveil Nexadyne instrument mics The Nexadyne 2 kick drum microphone, Nexadyne 5 guitar amp microphone and Nexadyne 6 tom/snare microphone all debut at NAMM 2025.
Signing Story with Nina NesbittDate Signed: January 2024Label: Apple Tree RecordsType of Music: FolkManagement: Vicky Dowdall, VDM MusicBooking: Marty Diamond - WassermanLegal: Kieran Jay - Harbottle & LewisPublicity: High Rise PR - ninanesbittmusic.comScottish singer-songwriter Nina Nesbitt is taking the reins of her career by launching her own record label, Apple Tree Records. The name of the label is a nod to her first independent EP release 12 years ago, The Apple Tree, and it was also the first project of Nesbitt’s that her manager Vicky Dowdall worked with her on. Nesbitt and Dowdall are equal partners and owners of the new venture. “I feel like Vicky has partly raised me in the music industry. I was 17 when I started working with her. Vicky got me through my first heartbreak, she introduced me to some of my favorite albums.” Nesbitt revealed. “She's really protected me from the music industry, and stood by my side when I'd been dropped. We bring out the best in each other. And I think now that I'm older, it feels more like a partnership, which is really nice.”The first project under Apple Tree Records was Nesbitt ‘s fourth studio album, Mountain Music, which was released on September 27. “I wrote the album before we signed anything, so it didn't really change the creative part or the making of the album, but definitely in terms of how we promoted it,” Nesbitt says. “We had to hire the team and choose what we wanted to spend the funding on. It's been a lot more organic than other albums. We didn't take the first few songs to radio. We didn't do a lot of ads. It was just to let it grow naturally and just put the music out.”Nesbitt was previously signed to Universal Music Group and the indie label Cooking Vinyl. Those experiences have shaped her views on how the industry works. “I didn't know what a label could offer me in 2024, apart from funding. I feel like so much of it is on the artist and manager.” Nesbitt continues. “A lot of it's the artist doing the social media and the TikToks and everything. I'm at a point where I've established a fan base, and I just want to nurture that fan base and grow that. It really is a guessing game in the music industry, like nobody knows what's going to happen. No one knows what's going to be successful. You just really have to believe in yourself.”The post Signing Story with Nina Nesbitt first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.
DePIN needs a more cohesive narrative for mass adoption — Web3 execAccording to data from CoinMarketCap, the decentralized physical infrastructure network sector has a market capitalization of over $27 billion.
AI companies upped their federal lobbying spend in 2024 amid regulatory uncertaintyCompanies spent significantly more lobbying AI issues at the U.S. federal level last year compared to 2023 amid regulatory uncertainty. According to data compiled by OpenSecrets, 648 companies spent on AI lobbying in 2024 versus 458 in 2023, representing a 141% year-over-year increase. Companies like Microsoft supported legislation such as the CREATE AI Act, which […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.Small Print Bed? No Problem!One of the major limitations of 3D printers is the size of the printable area. The robotic arm holding the printer head can only print where it can reach, after all. Some methods of reducing this constraint have been tried before, largely focusing on either larger printers or printer heads that are mobile in some way. Another approach to increasing the size of prints beyond the confined space typical of most consumer-grade 3D printers is to create some sort of joinery into the prints themselves so that larger things can be created. [Cal Bryant] is developing this jigsaw-based method which has allowed him to produce some truly massive prints.
Rather than making the joints by hand, [Cal]’s software will cut up a model into a certain number of parts when given the volume constraints of a specific 3D printer so it can not only easily print the parts, but also automatically add the jigsaw-like dovetail joints to each of the sections of the print. There were a few things that needed prototyping to get exactly right like the tolerance between each of the “teeth” of the joint, which [Cal] settled on 0.2 mm which allows for a strong glued joint, and there are were some software artifacts to take care of as well like overhanging sections of teeth around the edges of prints. But with those edge cases taken care of he has some working automation software that can print arbitrarily large objects.
[Cal] has used this to build a few speaker enclosures, replacing older MDF designs with 3D printed ones. He’s also built a full-size arcade cabinet which he points out was an excellent way to use up leftover filament. Another clever way we’ve seen of producing prints larger than the 3D printer is to remove the print bed entirely. This robotic 3D printer can move itself to a location and then print directly on its environment.From Suno being sued by GEMA to Weverse’s 150m lifetime downloads… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe biggest stories from the past week – all in one place…
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