'Bitcoin' search volume drops to a yearly low, while 'memecoin' surgesMemecoins experienced double-digit gains during September 2024, primarily driven by new token creation on the Solana and Tron networks.

Director Morgan Neville is steering clear of generative AI after ‘Roadrunner’ backlashOne of the most attention-grabbing aspects of “Roadrunner,” the Morgan Neville-directed documentary about Anthony Bourdain, was Neville’s use of generative AI to replicate Bourdain’s voice. Looking back now, Neville told Wired that he saw this as a “fun” way to “keep [Bourdain’s] voice going in the film.” But his approach drew intense criticism — while […]
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A Homebrew Gas Chromatograph That Won’t Bust Your BudgetChances are good that most of us will go through life without ever having to perform gas chromatography, and if we do have the occasion to do so, it’ll likely be on a professional basis using a somewhat expensive commercial instrument. That doesn’t mean you can’t roll your own gas chromatograph, though, and if you make a few compromises, it’s not even all that expensive.
At its heart, gas chromatography is pretty simple; it’s just selectively retarding the movement of a gas phase using a solid matrix and measuring the physical or chemical properties of the separated components of the gas as they pass through the system. That’s exactly what [Markus Bindhammer] has accomplished here, in about the simplest way possible. Gas chromatographs generally use a carrier gas such as helium to move the sample through the system. However, since that’s expensive stuff, [Markus] decided to use room air as the carrier.
The column itself is just a meter or so of silicone tubing packed with chromatography-grade silica gel, which is probably the most expensive thing on the BOM. It also includes an injection port homebrewed from brass compression fittings and some machined acrylic blocks. Those hold the detectors, an MQ-2 gas sensor module, and a thermal conductivity sensor fashioned from the filament of a grain-of-wheat incandescent lamp. To read the sensors and control the air pump, [Markus] employs an Arduino Uno, which unfortunately doesn’t have great resolution on its analog-to-digital converter. To fix that, he used the ubiquitous HX7111 load cell amplifier to read the output from the thermal conductivity sensor.
After purging the column and warming up the sensors, [Markus] injected a sample of lighter fuel and exported the data to Excel. The MQ-2 clearly shows two fractions coming off the column, which makes sense for the mix of propane and butane in the lighter fuel. You can also see two peaks in the thermal conductivity data from a different fuel containing only butane, corresponding to the two different isomers of the four-carbon alkane.
[Markus] has been on a bit of a tear lately; just last week, we featured his photochromic memristor and, before that, his all-in-one electrochemistry lab.

Retro Wi-Fi on a Dime: Amiga’s Slow Lane ConnectionIn a recent video, [Chris Edwards] delves into the past, showing how he turned a Commodore Amiga 3000T into a wireless-capable machine. But forget modern Wi-Fi dongles—this hack involves an old-school D-Link DWL-G810 wireless Ethernet bridge. You can see the Amiga in action in the video below.
[Chris] has a quirky approach to retrofitting. He connects an Ethernet adapter to his Amiga, bridges it to the D-Link, and sets up an open Wi-Fi network—complete with a retro 11 Mbps speed. Then again, the old wired connection was usually 10 Mbps in the old days.
To make it work, he even revived an old Apple AirPort Extreme as a supporting router since the old bridge didn’t support modern security protocols. Ultimately, the Amiga gets online wirelessly, albeit at a leisurely pace compared to today’s standards. He later demonstrates an upgraded bridge that lets him connect to his normal network.
We’ve used these wireless bridges to put oscilloscopes and similar things on wireless, but newer equipment usually requires less work even if it doesn’t already have wireless. We’ve also seen our share of strange wireless setups like this one. If you are going to put your Amgia on old-school networking, you might as well get Java running, too.

Meta’s Yann LeCun says worries about A.I.’s existential threat are ‘complete B.S.’AI pioneer Yann LeCun doesn’t think artificial intelligence is actually on the verge of becoming intelligent. LeCun — a professor at New York University, senior researcher at Meta, and winner of the prestigious A.M. Turning Award — has been open about his skepticism before, for example tweeting that before we worry about controlling super-intelligent AI, […]
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Former President Trump leads Harris by 10 points — PolymarketAccording to Polymarket users, Vice President Kamala Harris is currently favored to win the popular vote by a staggering 72% margin.

Cockroaches in Space: Waste Processing and a Healthy Protein Source CombinedAs the current frontier of humanity in space, the International Space Station is heavily reliant on Earth not only for fresh supplies but also as a garbage disposal service for the various types of waste produced on the ISS by its human occupants. As future manned missions take humans further away from Earth, finding ways to reprocess this waste rather than chucking it out of the nearest airlock becomes a priority. One suggested solution comes from a Polish company, Astronika, with their insect bioreactor that can process organic material into useful biomass.
Interestingly, the cockroach species picked was the Madagascar hissing cockroach, one of the largest (5 – 7.5 cm) species. This is also a cockroach species which is often kept as a pet. In this closed-loop bioreactor that Astronika has developed, these cockroaches would chew their way through up to 3.6 kg of waste per week in the large version, with the adult cockroaches presumably getting turned into fresh chow and various materials at some point. Beyond the irrational ‘yuck’ factor that comes with eating insect protein, one of the biggest issues we can see with this system is that the long-duration mission crew may get attached to the cockroaches, as they are rather cute.

Joking aside, even if a final version of such a bioreactor ends up using far less cute bacteria and kin, the idea to recycle as much human biowaste as possible is a crucial step towards making remote space stations and long-duration space travel possible. A small version of this bioreactor will be sent up to the ISS, where the principle would get its first shot at showing off its space legs.
For some reason, cockroaches and NASA seem inextricably linked. We remembered that the Madagascar cockroaches apparently make pretty good robotics platforms if you are a deft hand at roach surgery.

Approximating an ADC with Successive Approximation[Igor] made a VU meter with LEDs using 8 LEDs and 8 comparators. This is a fast way to get one of 8 bits to indicate an input voltage, but that’s only the equivalent of a 3-bit analog to digital converter (ADC). To get more bits, you have to use a smarter technique, such as successive approximation. He shows a chip that uses that technique internally and then shows how you can make one without using the chip.
The idea is simple. You essentially build a specialized counter and use it to generate a voltage that will perform a binary search on an unknown input signal. For example, assuming a 5 V reference, you will guess 2.5 V first. If the voltage is lower, your next guess will be 1.25 V. If 2.5 was the low voltage, your next guess will be 3.75 V.
The process repeats until you get all the bits. You can do this with a microcontroller or, as [Igor] shows, with a shift register quite simply. Of course, you can also buy the whole function on a chip like the one he shows at the start of the video. The downside, of course, is the converter is relatively slow, requiring some amount of time for each bit. The input voltage also needs to stay stable over the conversion period. That’s not always a problem, of course.
If that explanation didn’t make sense, watch the video. An oscilloscope trace is often worth at least 1,000 words.
There are, of course, many ways to do such a conversion. Of course, when you start trying to really figure out how many bits of resolution you have or need, it gets tricky pretty fast.

Getting It Done: Last Week in D.I.Y. and Independent Music NewsLast week, our tips and advice for the independent, do-it-yourselfers out there covered how to increase streams, future your fanbase, and more…
The post Getting It Done: Last Week in D.I.Y. and Independent Music News appeared first on Hypebot.

REWIND: New music industry’s last week in reviewIt was a busy week by any definition and the music industry was no exception, with TikTok’s standoff with indie labels and changing media monetization, Taylor Swift empowering artists in. Continue reading
The post REWIND: New music industry’s last week in review appeared first on Hypebot.

Subcraft from UJAM UJAM’s latest plug-in has been created with the aim of solving one of the most common challenges that music producers face: delivering powerful sub-bass tones that translate consistently across all playback systems.

Black Lion Audio launches LS-4 as mini-format multi-purpose 4 Channel Line SelectorBlack Lion Audio has introduced its 4 Channel Line Selector-labelled LS-4 — launched as a mini-format multi-purpose device designed to allow anyone to connect a stereo source and send it to up to four different devices (with the same source signal even being able to be sent to all four destinations simultaneously, or any combination thereof), readily representing an impressive, inexpensive option for passive monitor switching, headphone distribution, parallel effects routing, and more — as of October 10…

Though the LS-4 is small and simple in its execution as a 4 Channel Line Selector, it has, however, limitless practical and creative potential, including — but not limited to — passive monitor switching with subwoofer toggle (by connecting three pairs of studio monitors to outputs A, B, and C, and connecting a subwoofer to output D); headphone distribution (by connecting the headphone output of an audio interface to an LS-4 input and connecting all LS-4 outputs to headphone amps); effects chain auditioning (by running a dry signal into the LS-4’s inputs, connecting different effects processors to outputs A through to D, and connecting the effects processor outputs to the inputs of an audio interface, then pressing buttons A through to D to audition applying different effects processors to the signal); and parallel effects routing (by connecting different effects processors in the same configuration as the aforementioned effects chain auditioning, also allowing for simultaneous recording of all four parallel processed signals into a DAW). It is worth pointing out here that LS-4’s 100%-passive design does not add any tone colouration to the signal, while a flexible ground lift is available internally per channel.

Clearly the Chicago-based boutique audio company did not let LS-4’s small size affect its build quality; like all Black Lion Audio products, it is built road-tough — think steel enclosure with an anodised black aluminium faceplate, paired with high-quality 1⁄4-inch connections to ensure maximum conductivity and secure connections. All add up to make for an impressive, inexpensive option for passive monitor switching, headphone distribution, parallel effects routing, and more. 

LS-4 should start shipping through Black Lion Audio’s growing global network of dealers/distributors (https://www.blacklionaudio.com/dealers) with a MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) of $149.00 USD and an SSP (Suggested Selling Price) of €199.00 EUR (including 19% VAT) in late October 2024.

For more in-depth information, visit the dedicated LS-4 webpage here: https://www.blacklionaudio.com/store/essentials/ls-4/ The post Black Lion Audio launches LS-4 as mini-format multi-purpose 4 Channel Line Selector first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Crypto-stealing malware discovered in Python Package Index — CheckmarxAccording to cybersecurity firm Hacken, financial losses from crypto hacks topped $440 million in the third quarter of 2024.

Researchers question AI’s ‘reasoning’ ability as models stumble on math problems with trivial changesHow do machine learning models do what they do? And are they really “thinking” or “reasoning” the way we understand those things? This is a philosophical question as much as a practical one, but a new paper making the rounds Friday suggests that the answer is, at least for now, a pretty clear “no.” A […]
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Join us on a studio tour at the legendary Sound Factory
Join us on an intimate tour of Sound Factory, the legendary music studio where Linda Ronstadt, Marvin Gaye, and many others created some of their most iconic records.