Pedaling your Mobile Web Server Across the GlobeWe tinkerers often have ideas we know are crazy, and we make them up in the most bizarre places, too. For example, just imagine hosting a website while pedaling across the world—who would (not) want that? Meet [Jelle Reith], a tinkerer on an epic cycling adventure, whose bicycle doubles as a mobile web server. [Jelle]’s project, jelle.bike, will from the 6th of December on showcase what he’s seeing in real time, powered by ingenuity and his hub dynamo. If you read this far, you’ll probably guess: this hack is done by a Dutchman. You couldn’t be more right.
At the heart of [Jelle]’s setup is a Raspberry Pi 4 in a watertight enclosure. The tiny powerhouse runs off energy generated by a Forumslader V3, a clever AC-to-DC converter optimized for bike dynamos. The Pi gets internet access via [Jelle]’s phone hotspot, but hosting a site over cellular networks isn’t as simple as it sounds. With no static IP available, [Jelle] routes web traffic through a VPS using an SSH tunnel. This crafty solution—expanded upon by Jeff Geerling—ensures seamless access to the site, even overcoming IPv6 quirks.
The system’s efficiency and modularity exemplify maker spirit: harnessing everyday tools to achieve the extraordinary. For more details, including a parts list and schematics, check out [Jelle]’s Hackaday.io project page.

New Tullomer Filament Claims to Beat PEEKRecently a company called Z-Polymers introduced its new Tullomer FDM filament that comes with a lofty bullet list of purported properties that should give materials like steel, aluminium, and various polymers a run for their money. Even better is that it is compatible with far lower specification FDM printers than e.g. PEEK. Intrigued, the folks over at All3DP figured that they should get some hands-on information on this filament and what’s it like to print with in one of the officially sanctioned Bambu Lab printers: these being the X1C & X1CE with manufacturer-provided profiles.
The world of engineering-grade FDM filaments has existed for decades, with for example PEEK (polyether ether ketone) having been around since the early 1980s, but these require much higher temperatures for the extruder (360+℃) and chamber (~90℃) than Tullomer, which is much closer (300℃, 50℃) to a typical high-performance filament like ABS, while also omitting the typical post-process annealing of PEEK. This assumes that Tullomer can match those claimed specifications, of course.
One of the current users of Tullomer is Erdos Miller, an engineering firm with a focus on the gas and oil industry. They’re using it for printing parts (calibration tooling) that used to be printed in filaments like carbon fiber-reinforced nylon (CF-PA) or PEEK, but they’re now looking at using Tullomer for replacing CF-PA and machined PEEK parts elsewhere too.
It’s still early days for this new polymer, of course, and we don’t have a lot of information beyond the rather sparse datasheet, but if you already have a capable printer, a single 1 kg spool of Tullomer is a mere $500, which is often much less or about the same as PEEK spools, without the requirement for a rather beefy industrial-strength FDM printer.

Omnisphere Snowfall by The Very Loud Indeed Co. The Very Loud Indeed Co. have announced the launch of their latest sound set for Spectrasonics’ hugely popular Omnisphere software synthesizer.

Google says its new AI model outperforms the top weather forecast systemGoogle’s DeepMind team unveiled an AI model for weather prediction this week called GenCast. In a paper published in Nature, DeepMind researchers said they found that GenCast outperforms the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts’ ENS — apparently the world’s top operational forecasting system. And in a blog post, the DeepMind team offered a more […]
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The £25,000 Tom Evans Pre-Amp Repair and a Copyright StrikeWe were recently notified by a reader that [Tom Evans] had filed a copyright claim against [Mark]’s repair video on his Mend it Mark YouTube channel, taking down said repair video as well as [Mark]’s delightful commentary. In a new video, [Mark] comments on this takedown and the implications. The biggest question is what exactly was copyrighted in the original video, which was tough because YouTube refused to pass on [Mark]’s questions or provide further details.
In this new video the entire repair is summarized once again using props instead of the actual pre-amp, which you can still catch a glimpse of in our earlier coverage of the repair. To summarize, there was one bad tantalum capacitor that caused issues for one channel, and the insides of this twenty-five thousand quid pre-amp looks like an artistic interpretation of a Jenga tower using PCBs. We hope that this new video does stay safe from further copyright strikes from an oddly vengeful manufacturer after said manufacturer event sent the defective unit to [Mark] for a repair challenge.
Since this purportedly ‘audiophile-level’ pre-amplifier uses no special circuits or filtering – just carefully matched opamps – this is one of those copyright strike cases that leave you scratching your head.

Liquid Metal Ion Thrusters Aren’t EasyWhat do scanning electron microscopes and satellites have in common? On the face of things, not much, but after seeing [Zachary Tong]’s latest video on liquid metal ion thrusters, we see that they seem to have a lot more in common than we’d initially thought.
As you’d expect with such a project, there were a lot of false starts and dead ends. [Zach] started with a porous-emitter array design, which uses a sintered glass plate with an array of tiny cones machined into it. The cones are coated in a liquid metal — [Zach] used Galinstan, an alloy of gallium, indium, and tin — and an high voltage is applied between the liquid metal and an extraction electrode. Ideally, the intense electric field causes the metal to ionize at the ultra-sharp tips of the cones and fling off toward the extraction electrode and into the vacuum beyond, generating thrust.
Getting that working was very difficult, enough so that [Zach] gave up and switched to a slot thruster design. This was easier to machine, but alas, no easier to make work. The main problem was taming the high-voltage end of things, which seemed to find more ways to produce unwanted arcs than the desired thrust. This prompted a switch to a capillary emitter design, which uses a fine glass capillary tube to contain the liquid metal. This showed far more promise and allowed [Zach] to infer a thrust by measuring the tiny current created by the ejected ions. At 11.8 μN, it’s not much, but it’s something, and that’s the thing with ion thrusters — over time, they’re very efficient.
To be sure, [Zach]’s efforts here didn’t result in a practical ion thruster, but that wasn’t the point. We suspect the idea here was to explore the real-world applications for his interests in topics like electron beam lithography and microfabrication, and in that, we think he did a bang-up job with this project.

Last Week in DIY & Independent Musician NewsLast week in DIY and Independent Musician News including maximizing your Spotify Wrapped account as an artist even after its release, marketing music in during the holidays, a new credit card designed for musicians and more...
The post Last Week in DIY & Independent Musician News appeared first on Hypebot.

Last week’s top Music Business NewsIt was another busy week in music business news with a Federal Court upholding the TikTok ban law, a scary music AI study, a key industry white paper from Keith. Continue reading
The post Last week’s top Music Business News appeared first on Hypebot.

Pharrell Williams says its a misconception that people think he’s a “tech geek”In a new episode of Rick Rubin’s Tetragrammaton podcast, Pharrell Williams admits the biggest misconception people have about him is that he’s a “tech geek”.

READ MORE: Director of Pharrell Williams biopic calls musician’s Blurred Lines case “one of the worst judicial decisions about creativity in history”

In reality, he thinks he’s not that great when it comes to technology. “I’m the worst,” he confesses. “I use technology as much as I need to.”
When asked how he feels about “programmed music” versus ‘human-played music’, he explains that they’re two entirely different beasts. “Programmed music is amazing – but, man, when a human beings lock in, there’s a feeling that you get from it,” he insists.

In an age when AI is permeating many areas of music, Williams is fearful for the future of the industry. While he says AI can’t quite capture the human feel right now, he believes it may in the future. “What’ll be scary is when AI gets to that same place,” he says.
His stance is rather different to some of his musical peers – namely his cousin, Timbaland, who recently announced his partnership with Suno AI, calling it “the best tool of the future.” He also claims to use Suno’s AI tools 10 hours a day.

Elsewhere in the conversation, Williams recalls his contributions to Kendrick Lamar’s Alright.
Williams penned the iconic titular hook, and even sings it at certain points on the track. “The way I was saying ‘a’ight’… I was saying it on some Virginia shit,” he laughs. “They corrected me to say all right to put the ‘R’ in there… It was just the feeling of the song, and Kendrick really got it. He really understood it.”

 
The post Pharrell Williams says its a misconception that people think he’s a “tech geek” appeared first on MusicTech.

Studio Brass & Studio Special Brass from VSL VSL have announced the launch of two new brass sample libraries that have been captured in the controlled environment of the Silent Stage at Synchron Stage Vienna.

Chris McHugh Added to SONOR Drums’ Artist LineupChris McHugh, known for his exceptional talent and versatile career, is the latest drummer to join SONOR Drums’ roster of artists. With a career spanning over four decades, McHugh has established himself as a highly sought-after drummer in the music industry.Starting with Christian rock band White Heart from 1986 to 1989, McHugh transitioned into a prolific career as a session and touring drummer. Over the years, he has collaborated with a wide range of artists, including Aaron Neville, Peter Frampton, Jewel, Alabama, Kenny Rogers, and numerous others. McHugh is on the Nashville "A" list of session drummers with over 3200 credits, 93 platinum and 15 gold certifications, and contributions to projects with over 24 billion streams. His live performances have taken him on tours with Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, and Garth Brooks, as well as onto some of the world’s most prominent stages, including appearances on the Grammy Awards, SNL, the Super Bowl pregame, the Country Music Awards, and many more. McHugh has also toured as Music Director and drummer for Keith Urban and has been the session drummer for seven of Urban's studio albums.For more information about SONOR Drums and its artists, visit www.sonor.comFor more information about Chris McHugh, visit www.chrismchugh.com and www.sonor.com/drums/artists/artists-detail/chris-mchughThe post Chris McHugh Added to SONOR Drums’ Artist Lineup first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Ableton Move: A guide to its key features, workflows, and more
Here's everything you need to know about Ableton Move, from its layout and stock instruments to lesser-known features and tips.

If you can make this AI bot fall in love, you could win thousands of dollarsIf you can be the first person to get an AI bot named Freysa to say ‘I love you,’ you’ll win anywhere from $3,000 to tens of thousands of dollars.  
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Ethereum ‘impulse breakout’ will lead to $15K ETH price in 2025 — AnalystEthereum price finally took out the $4,000 resistance level, and one analyst says ETH could hit $15,000 by May 2025.

VNAs and CrystalsOscillators may use crystals as precise tuned circuits. If you have a vector network analyzer (VNA) — or even some basic test equipment — you can use it to learn the parameters of a crystal. [All Electronics Channel] has the details, and you can see how in the video below.
There was a time when a VNA was an exotic piece of gear, but these days they are relatively common. Crystal parameters are important because crystals have a series resonance and a parallel resonance and they are not at the same frequency. You also may need to know how much loading capacitance you have to supply to get the crystal at the right frequency.
Sometimes, you want to pull the crystal frequency, and the parameters will help you figure that out, too. It can also help if you have a crystal specified as series in a parallel-mode oscillator or vice versa.
If you don’t have a VNA, you can use a tracking signal generator, as [Grégory] shows towards the middle of the video. The quality of a tuned circuit depends on the Q factor, and crystals have a very high Q factor.
We did something similar in 2018. The other way to pull a crystal frequency is a bit extreme.