Springtime Sounds to Brighten Your PlaylistAs the weather warms up and the sun begins to come out, you may be finishing your spring cleaning and enjoying the move towards summer. Having the right music to accompany the seasonal transition is key, so check out this list of springtime tunes if you need some upbeat melodies to brighten up your days before summer fully arrives.

Lost Foam Casting In ActionEven though not all of us will do it, many of us are interested in the art of casting metal. It remains a process that’s not out of reach, though, especially for metals such as aluminium whose melting points are reachable with a gas flame. The video below the break takes us through the aluminium casting process by showing us the lost-foam casting of a cylinder head for a BSA Bantam motorcycle.
The foam pattern is CNC milled to shape, and the leftover foam swarf is removed with a hot wire. The pattern is coated with a refractory coating of gypsum slurry, and the whole is set up in a tub packed with sand. We get the impression that the escaping gasses make this a tricky pour without an extra sprue, and indeed, they rate it as not perfect. The cooling fins on the final head are a little ragged, so it won’t be the part that goes on a bike, but we can see with a bit of refining, this process could deliver very good results.
For this pour, they use a gas furnace, but we’ve seen it done with a microwave oven. Usually, you are losing wax, not foam, but the idea is the same.

Ripple publishes math prof’s warning: ‘public-key cryptosystems should be replaced’Mathematician Massimiliano Sala says current encryption methods won’t protect blockchain systems from quantum computers.

Why companies are turning to internal hackathonsCompanies are always looking for an edge, and searching for ways to encourage their employees to innovate. One way to do that is by running an internal hackathon around a theme and having employees attack a problem together. It not only brings in new ideas and new ways to solve problems for the company and […]
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[Scott Manley] Explains GPS JammingWe always think of [Scott Manley] as someone who knows a lot about rockets. So, if you think about it, it isn’t surprising he’s talking about GPS — after all, the system uses satellites. GPS is used in everything these days, and other forms of navigation are starting to fall by the wayside. However, the problem is that the system is vulnerable to jamming and spoofing. This is especially important if you fear GPS allowing missiles or drones to strike precise targets. But there are also plenty of opportunities for malicious acts. For example, drone light shows may be subject to GPS attacks from rival companies, and you can easily imagine worse. [Scott] talks about the issues around GPS spoofing in the video, which you can see below.
Since GPS satellites are distant, blocking the signal is almost too easy, sometimes happening inadvertently. GPS has technology to operate in the face of noise and interference, but there’s no way to prevent it entirely. Spoofing — where you produce false GPS coordinates — is much more difficult.

Of course, jamming or spoofing GPS is highly illegal, and it is easy to locate jammers, so most people doing this will be state actors and military units. Don’t try this at home. But it does happen, and [Scott] mentions how warnings appear to alert pilots of areas where GPS may be unreliable due to jamming and spoofing.
There are anti-jamming countermeasures you can employ. But things like this tend to be leapfrog situations, where jammers will overcome the countermeasures only to face better countermeasures they’ll have to overcome again later.
As you might expect, this isn’t a how-to video, but just talks about the ideas behind jamming and spoofing along with the potential countermeasures. While you usually buy a module to do GPS, you can roll your own. If you want a detailed explainer, we got you.

SUPERBOOTH24: The new Arturia PolyBrute 12 Synth is a Masterpiece
On Wednesday, Arturia launched the new PolyBrute 12 (€3999/$4449), a polyphonic analog hardware synth the French boffins call “the most expressive synthesizer ever.” Bedroom Producers Blog hit the floor of Superbooth Berlin today and got the scoop on the new synth from Arturia’s sound designer, Lily, as seen in the YouTube video above. Thanks again [...]
View post: SUPERBOOTH24: The new Arturia PolyBrute 12 Synth is a Masterpiece

Trader turns $3K into $46M in PEPE, Ethereum gas overhaul, Tornado dev guilty: Hodler’s Digest, May 12-18Trader makes millions after PEPE price soars, a new gas model for Ethereum, and Tornado Cash developer convicted.

OpenAI and Google lay out their competing AI visionsWelcome back to TechCrunch’s Week in Review. This week had two major events from OpenAI and Google. OpenAI’s spring update event saw the reveal of its new model, GPT-4o, which has voice and vision capabilities that can turn ChatGPT into a virtual assistant seemingly aspiring to be “Her.” Hot off OpenAI’s tail, Google’s I/O conference […]
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How Italians Got Their PowerWe take for granted that electrical power standards are generally unified across countries and territories. Europe for instance has a standard at 230 volts AC, with a wide enough voltage acceptance band to accommodate places still running at 220 or 240 volts. Even the sockets maintain a level of compatibility across territories, with a few notable exceptions.
It was not always this way though, and to illustrate this we have [Sam], who’s provided us with a potted history of mains power in Italy. The complex twists and turns of power delivery in that country reflect the diversity of the power industry in the late 19th and early 20th century as the technology spread across the continent.
Starting with a table showing the impressive range of voltages found across the country from differing power countries, it delves into the taxation of power in Italy which led to two entirely different plug standards, and their 110/220 volt system. Nationalization may have ironed out some of the kinks and unified 220 volts across the country, but the two plugs remain.
Altogether it’s a fascinating read, and one which brings to mind that where this is being written you could still find a few years ago some houses with three sizes of the archaic British round-pin socket. Interested in the diversity of plugs? We have a link for that.

Students’ Leaf Blower Suppressor To Hit RetailElectric leaf blowers are already far quieter than their gas-powered peers, but they still aren’t the kind of thing you’d like to hear first-thing on a Saturday morning. Looking to improve on the situation, a group of students from Johns Hopkins University have successfully designed a 3D printed add-on that manages to significantly reduce the noise generated by a modern electric leaf blower without compromising the amount of air it’s able to move. The device has proven to be so successful in tests that Stanley Black & Decker is looking to put a commercial version of the device on store shelves within the next two years.
The team says the first part of the problem was identifying where the noise was actually coming from. After taking an example leaf blower apart and studying all of its moving components, they determined that most of the noise produced wasn’t mechanical at all — what you’re actually hearing is the complex cacophony of high-speed air rushing out of the nozzle. With this knowledge in hand, they isolated the frequencies which were the harshest to the human ear and focused on canceling them out.

Let’s try spinning the air, that’s a good trick.
We’re assuming the pending commercial venture with Stanley has prevented them from releasing too much technical information about the gadget. But from what was published on the university’s news site Hub and the video below, it’s explained that a portion of the air is redirected into channels printed into the device, which slows it down before dumping it back into the stream.
To be clear, this doesn’t eliminate the noise completely. In a side-by-side comparison, the suppressed blower is still fairly loud. But with the shriller tones removed from the mix, it’s at least a less annoying noise.
As designed, the printed suppressor is meant to attach to an otherwise unmodified blower. But we’re willing to bet that Stanley instead plans on implementing the technology directly into the nozzles of their future blowers. That way, rather than selling you a simple plastic add-on, they can get you on the hook for a whole new blower.
That is, unless somebody out there decides to come up with their own DIY version. We’ll keep an eye on the tip line should anyone want to share with the class.

SUPERBOOTH24: UDO Audio Reveals Super 8 Polyphonic Synthesizer
UDO Audio revealed the Super 8, a 16-voice polyphonic, bitimbral analog-hybrid performance synthesizer. We had the chance to hear it in action and film it at Superbooth24. A big THANK YOU to Minimal Audio for sponsoring our Superbooth24 coverage. Superbooth is in full swing, so you’re bound to see some stuff that inspires a little [...]
View post: SUPERBOOTH24: UDO Audio Reveals Super 8 Polyphonic Synthesizer

Getting It Done: The Week in D.I.Y. & Indie MusicThis week, our tips and advice for independent, do-it-yourselfers covered how to release albums like top artists, how to get more streams (without bots), and more.
The post Getting It Done: The Week in D.I.Y. & Indie Music appeared first on Hypebot.

REWIND: The new music industry’s week in reviewIt was a busy week by any definition, and the music industry was no exception, from the Kendrick and Drake feud to musicians missing millions in unpaid royalties and more…
The post REWIND: The new music industry’s week in review appeared first on Hypebot.

Korg announce the ST1K Synth Tuner Korg announce a new tuner designed specifically for the unique needs of synthesizer players.

SUPERBOOTH24: Bitwig Studio 5.2 Bitwig talked us through the new compressor and EQ plug-ins in BITWIG Studio 5.2 as well as detailing some of its new editing capabilities.