Casio Sessions 2024: Winners announced This year’s Casio Sessions event saw two incredibly talented singer-songwriters named as the winners following an evening of performances at Ninety One Living Room in London, UK.

Telegram reportedly ‘inundated’ with illegal and extremist activityA New York Times analysis of more than 3.2 million Telegram messages from 16,000 channels found that the messaging platform has been “inundated” with illegal and extremist activity. Specifically, The Times found 1,500 channels operated by white supremacists, two dozen channels selling weapons, and at least 22 channels where MDMA, cocaine, heroin and other drugs were […]
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Roblox will allow devs to skip Robux and charge players in fiat moneyThe company has also partnered with Shopify to enable physical merchandise sales from directly within Roblox experiences.

Get Thee to GitWhile version control used to be reserved for big corporate projects, it is very mainstream these days. You can attribute much of that to Git, the software that has nearly displaced other version control. Git works well, it is versatile, and it scales well. It is easy to use as an individual developer or as part of a worldwide team. But Git is also one of those things that people don’t always study, they just sort of “pick it up” as they go. That motivated [Glasskube] to create “The Guide to Git I Never Had.”
If you are ready to click away because you are not a software person, hang on. Git is actually useful for many different kinds of data, and there are a number of hardware projects that use Git in some form. That’s especially true if the project has some code associated with it, but there are projects that consist of PCBs, reverse engineering documentation, or schematics.

Simplistically, Git tracks a bunch of files and lets you rewind in time to answer the question: what did this look like a month ago? Or a year ago? However, the real power lies in producing and merging branches.
For example, you might be working on a product and decided to add feature “A.” Meanwhile, your partner decides to work on feature “B.” No problem. You can each work in your own separate branch and get everything working. You don’t even have to be connected to a server until the very end.
When either of you are ready, you can merge your branch with the main branch. Often, this can be done automatically, but Git knows when it is in over its head and will ask for help. When you are both done merging, both of your changes are “live.” If you do it right, Git can also help answer the question: why did we make that change two years ago? It is surprising how often that’s important.
If you think Git is just for code, we can show you some strange examples. If you don’t fancy reading a blog post to learn Git, would you like to play a game?

Should You Run Servo Horns Or Direct Couplings In Your RC Planes?Whenever you buy a servo, it usually comes with a little baggie full of various plastic horns. Most of us pick our favorite and use it in our projects. Some of us hack them up, glue them back together, and do all kinds of weird things with them. And others skip them entirely, going for direct drive instead. In a new video, [Dynamix Systems] explores when going direct drive is the right solution.
The video primarily concerns servos as they’re used in the context of aero modeling. In this regard, the video points out that while stock servo horns are easy to use, they can be cumbersome and clumsy. For example, you often end up with horns and control linkages protruding out into the airstream, adding drag and generally making things a bit inelegant. They can also snag on things and easily damage your servos or controls.
Using direct shaft couplers can be a much tidier solution in some respects. The servo can be coupled directly to the axis of motion, allowing it to be hidden inside a wing or tail surface. It can require a little more finesse in installation and design, but they’re much less likely to snag on things or be damaged. There’s also a drag benefit if you do it right. [Dynamix Systems] notes that you’ll want to source some shaft couplers to do this properly, which you can make yourself or buy online fairly easily.
It’s great to see how tidy direct drive really is. We’ve seen some other nifty servo tricks of late, too. Video after the break.

Getting It Done: Last Week in D.I.Y. and Independent Musician NewsLast week, we shared expert tips and insights for indie musicians on how to split songwriting shares, musician time-management, and more… Last Week in D.I.Y. and Independent Music
The post Getting It Done: Last Week in D.I.Y. and Independent Musician News appeared first on Hypebot.

REWIND: New Music Industry’s Last Week in ReviewThe music industry had a packed week of headlines, featuring updates like the return of Bandcamp Fridays, Charli XCX changing Pop, and more…
The post REWIND: New Music Industry’s Last Week in Review appeared first on Hypebot.

IK Multimedia offers four FREE Stompbox Effects for AmpliTube 5 CS in September
IK Multimedia is giving away four free guitar pedal effects to AmpliTube 5 CS users throughout September.  AmpliTube 5 CS is a free guitar and bass workstation, 64-bit only, for macOS and PC.  The free effects for the September giveaway are the Fuzz Age, D-Comp, X-Time, and X-Space. The Fuzz Age is based on the [...]
View post: IK Multimedia offers four FREE Stompbox Effects for AmpliTube 5 CS in September

KVR Audio Giving Away FREE AmpliTube SVX Bass Amp Until September 22
KVR Audio and IK Multimedia have teamed up to give away a free copy of the latter’s AmpliTube SVX (usually €100) bass amp collection.  The competition is open now and will close on September 22, 2024.  The bass amp requires either AmpliTube 5 or the free AmpliTube 5 CS suite, available on macOS and PC.   [...]
View post: KVR Audio Giving Away FREE AmpliTube SVX Bass Amp Until September 22

Cherry Audio release Blue3 tonewheel organ The latest addition to the Cherry Audio line-up offers a new and improved version of GG Audio’s popular tonewheel organ emulation.

Tazman Audio releases SoundMaker, a FREE interactive audio platform
Tazman Audio has announced the official release of SoundMaker, a new platform for creating and distributing interactive audio experiences. SoundMaker is free for personal and non-commercial use, but there are paid tiers for commercial use. SoundMaker is for media composers creating soundscapes for video games or any other interactive media. While we’re on media composition, [...]
View post: Tazman Audio releases SoundMaker, a FREE interactive audio platform

The maiden voyage of Blue Origin’s massive new rocket won’t be for NASAThe world will have to wait a little longer to see Blue Origin’s massive New Glenn rocket fly for the first time. That rocket had been scheduled to launch two spacecraft to Mars for NASA during an eight-day window that opens on October 13. But NASA announced on Friday that it was pushing the mission, […]
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Crypto Biz: US regulators crack down on UniswapThis week’s Crypto Biz explores several regulatory developments targeting crypto firms, including charges against Uniswap, a delay in a decision on an eco Bitcoin ETF, and a potential challenge to FTX’s repayment plan.

Splice empowers the young music producers at FamFrequency Productions
Early adopters from global institutions are helping to shape the future of Splice Education in 2025 and beyond.

An Automatic Cat Feeder Built With A 4060 Binary CounterWe’ve seen a great many cat feeders over the years. Some rely on the Internet of Things, and some rely on fancy microcontrollers. [Larry Cook], on the other hand, built his using a simple 4060 binary counter chip.
The feeder is built out of old plywood, and the whole thing runs off an old 12-volt DC wall wart and a lead-acid battery to keep it going in a power outage. The dry cat food is stored in hopper above a drum, with the drum  rotated by a 12-volt DC gearmotor. The gearmotor is activated on a schedule—either every 4 hours, or every 5.5 hours, depending on setting. There’s then a four-digit 7-segment display for counting the total number of feedings.
The manner of operation is simple. The 4060 binary counter slowly counts up to 8,196 on a 1.11 Hz or 0.83 Hz clock, for four hour or 5.5 hour operation respectively. When it hits that threshold, it fires the gear motor. The gear motor then rotates the drum for one revolution, dumping a preset amount of food. At the end of a revolution, it triggers a hall sensor which resets the circuit.
The best thing about this design? It’s been in service for ten years. [Larry’s] original video is a big contrast to his latest one, but it shows the same feeder doing the same job, all this time.
We love a good cat feeder, and it’s great to see one built with simple old-school parts, too. Video after the break.

[Thanks to Cprossu for the tip!]