Hackaday Links: September 22, 2024Thanks a lot, Elon. Or maybe not, depending on how this report that China used Starlink signals to detect low-observable targets pans out. There aren’t a lot of details, and we couldn’t find anything approximating a primary source, but it seems like the idea is based on forward scatter, which is when waves striking an object are deflected only a little bit. The test setup for this experiment was a ground-based receiver listening to the downlink signal from a Starlink satellite while a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone was flown into the signal path. The drone was chosen because nobody had a spare F-22 or F-35 lying around, and its radar cross-section is about that of one of these stealth fighters. They claim that this passive detection method was able to make out details about the drone, but as with most reporting these days, this needs to be taken with an ample pinch of salt. Still, it’s an interesting development that may change things up in the stealth superiority field.

Another week, another example of how the fine print on the EULA is never your friend. This time around it’s the popular Wyze security cameras, where there’s an unconfirmed report that a recent firmware update nerfed the “Recording Cooldown” setting menu, making the option to have no cooldown period between recording a paid feature. As we understand it, Wyze cameras previously had a cooldown feature, intended to keep the camera from overheating or killing the battery if the motion sensor detects a lot of continual movement. But it looks like earlier firmware revs allowed users to bypass the default five-minute period between recordings, a reasonable choice for anyone using these as security cameras. Now, bypassing the cooldown seems to require a paid subscription. We have to stress that we don’t know anything beyond this one unconfirmed report, but this enshittification is certainly something we’ve seen before, so it at least rings true, and it seems like another solid example of the fact that with cheap IoT appliances, you never truly own your stuff.
We hate to be the bearers of bad news — well, that might be a stretch given the two articles above — but this is really the kind of news we hate to hear. The Eugene Makerspace in Eugene, Oregon, suffered a major fire in their community shop on September 15. Judging by the pictures, the place was pretty thoroughly destroyed, and the fact that it was an early morning fire probably contributed to the lack of injuries. Their GoFundMe campaign is doing pretty well, but they could certainly use some help getting back on their feet. If you’re in a position to contribute, we’re sure they’d appreciate it.
When it comes to OpenAI’s newest AI model, you’d better watch what you think — or rather, you’d better not think too much about how the model thinks. Trying to get inside the model’s “head” is apparently against the terms of service, with users getting nastygrams from OpenAI warning them to step off. The “Strawberry” AI model has a feature that lets users have a glimpse into the “chain of thought” used to answer a question or complete a task, which on the face of it seems to be exactly what they don’t want users to do. But the chain of thought is only a hand-waving summary of the raw thought process, filtered through a separate AI model. This is what OpenAI doesn’t want people probing, and any attempts at engineering tricky prompts to reveal the raw chain of thought will potentially get you banned.
And finally, although motorsports aren’t really our thing, we have to admit a certain sense of awe at this video that exposes some of the extreme engineering that goes into top fuel drag racing. Specifically, this video concentrates on drag racing, where nitromethane-fueled engines-on-wheels scream down a quarter-mile track in less than four seconds. Everything about this sport is extreme, especially the engines, which run themselves almost to death for the few seconds they are under full power. The video is packed full of tidbits that boggle the mind, such as these engines burning out their sparkplugs about halfway through the course, with the engine continuing to run in diesel mode thanks to the high compression and temperatures. Drivers experience a brain-squishing 8 g of acceleration during a run, which consumes over 30 gallons of fuel and exerts so much force on the engine that the connecting rods get compressed. The supercharger alone takes 800 horsepower to run, and yet the engine still produces enough power that the car is going 60 miles per hour before it covers its own length. Oh, and that ridiculous exhaust plume? That’s raw fuel that is purposely left unburned until it escapes the exhaust tips, which are angled to provide additional down-force to make sure as much torque as possible gets from the tires to the track. Enjoy!

Brass Propeller Gets Impressive Hand TrimmingWhether you’re a landlubber or an old salt, you’ve got to appreciate the effort that [The Aussie boat guy] puts into cutting an old brass propeller down into a far smaller and sleeker specimen. Especially since he does the entire thing with hand tools, a couple different calipers, and that most valuable of natural resources: experience.
The whole process was made somewhat easier by the fact that [The Aussie boat guy] had a model to work from — his friend had a small propeller that was already known to perform well, it was just a matter of cutting the larger prop down to match its dimensions. Using what appears to be pieces of leather (presumably for its flexibility), a template was made to accurately map out the front face of the blade.
As Bob Ross would say — “Here comes your bravery test”
By measuring out from the hub of the prop with his calipers, [The Aussie boat guy] was able to make sure the template was properly positioned before scribing its shape into the larger prop. An angle grinder was used to cut the shape out of each blade, followed by a smoothing off with a flap wheel.
But there was still a problem — the blades were the right shape, but they were far too thick. So he took the angle grinder to the back of each one to start removing material, using another set of calipers to occasionally spot-check them to make sure they were thinning out at roughly the same rate.
This thinning out process continued until the prop was brought into balance. How do you check that, you might be wondering? Well, if you’re a madman like [The Aussie boat guy], you chuck the thing into a power drill and spin er’ up to see how badly it shakes. But this only gives you a rough idea, so he has to move over to a somewhat more scientific apparatus that uses a set of parallel bars to help determine which blade is heavier than its peers.

Along the way, [The Aussie boat guy] also installs a bushing in the hub of the prop to adapt it to his engine, but he doesn’t spend much time talking about that given the far more audacious surgery he’s performing. He takes the end result out for a test run and achieves a notable speed boost when compared to the prop he was running previously — the final product doesn’t just look incredible, it brings the results as well.

This would appear to be the first time we’ve come across [The Aussie boat guy], which looking at some of his past videos, is a bit surprising. His channel is full of engine and boat modifications made in the pursuit of speed; check it out if you’ve ever dreamed of screaming across the surface of the water in a boat not much larger than a bathtub.

Thanks to [Bill] for the tip.

Release details
Release title:
Like a spacetronaut
Main artist name:
YeyoxIsaac
Release date:
6th Mar, 2023
https://publme.lnk.to/Likeaspacetronaut
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #hiphop #rap

SOMA Labs re-introduce LYRA-4 SOMA Laboratory have revived the LYRA-4, a smaller and more portable version of its LYRA-8 ‘organismic’ drone synthesizer.

Album Review of "The Deacon Speaks" by Steve Hunter (9/10)Deacon Records

Producer: Steve Hunter

Alice Cooper, Lou Reed and Mitch Ryder are just a few of the musical luminaries that have relied on his guitar prowess. Hunter’s been one of the hired guns that has provided the secret sauce for their star maker machinery.

Now he’s front and center, serving up, not only soul-stirring axe work, but scintillating and resonant vocals as well. His takes on traditional tunes like “Back Door Man” and his own “Tiresome Blues” are spot on. And Reed’s “Sweet Jane” gets a fresh and revelatory arrangement.The post Album Review of "The Deacon Speaks" by Steve Hunter (9/10) first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai announces $120M fund for global AI educationSpeaking Saturday at the UN Summit of the Future, Google CEO Sundar Pichai described AI as “the most transformative technology yet” and announced a new fund for AI education and training around the world. Pichai pointed to four broad opportunities he sees for AI and sustainable development, according to a transcript of his prepared remarks […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Linux, Now In Real TimeAlthough Linux runs almost every supercomputer, most of the web, the majority of smart phones, and a few writers’ ancient Macbooks, there’s one major weak point in the Linux world that will almost always have developers reaching for a different operating system. Linux is not a real-time operating system (RTOS), meaning that it can’t respond to requests in the real world within a set timeframe. This means that applications needing computer control in industry, medicine, robotics, and other real-world situations generally need a purpose-built RTOS. At least, that was true until recently when an update to the Linux kernel added real-time capabilities.
The feature, called PREEMPT_RT, forces the Linux kernel to respond to certain request within a set limit of time. This means that a system with this support built into the kernel can “preempt” any current task, stopping everything else a computer is doing in order to execute that task right away. There are some existing solutions to getting a functional equivalent system working with Linux now, but they can be clunky or inelegant, requiring the user to install patches or other software to get it to work. With the support built directly into the kernel this will become much less of a pain point for anyone who needs this functionality going forward.
This feature has been in the works for around two decades now, so with this entering general use now we would expect to start seeing it show up in various projects as well as in commercial offerings soon, especially since other RTOS solutions can be pricey. Don’t recompile the kernel in your desktop for this feature just yet, though; real-time function can cause some unintended consequences with normal use you’ll need to account for. There’s some more discussion on this in the /r/Linux subreddit and there are some other real-time operating systems available for computers not typically capable of running Linux to take a look at as well.

Coinbase's cbBTC wrapped Bitcoin coming to Solana — Breakpoint 2024Wrapped Bitcoin products allow users to retain asset control while using Bitcoin as collateral for decentralized finance applications.

Jumperless Breadboard V5 Readies For LaunchWhen are jumper wires on a breadboard entirely optional? When it’s the latest version of [Kevin Santo Cappuccio]’s Jumperless, which uses a bunch of analog crosspoint switches (typically used for handling things like video signals) to create connections instead of physical wires. There’s even an RGB LED under each hole capable of real-time visualization of signals between components.
If this looks a bit familiar, that’s because an earlier version took second place in the 2023 Hackaday Prize. But things have evolved considerably since then. There are multiple programmable power rails, ADC channels, a rotary encoder, and much more. The PCB design itself is fantastic, including the probe which acts like a multi-function tool for interacting with the whole thing. The newest version will make its debut on Crowd Supply in just a few days.
It’s open source and made to be hackable, so give the GitHub repository a look if you want a closer peek. You can watch it in action in a brief video posted to social media, embedded below.

We (and I cannot stress this enough) are so back.
Jumperless V5 lets you prototype like a nerdy wizard that can see electricity and conjure jumpers wherever you want. And the wait is nearly over for this particular superpower, it launches September 23rd on @crowd_supply. pic.twitter.com/VRr5H9sJD5
— Kevin Santo Cappuccio (@arabidsquid) September 20, 2024

How to make progressive house music (free project file included)
Acclaimed dance music producer John Grand sat down with us to showcase how to make progressive house music from scratch.

Getting It Done: Last Week in D.I.Y. and Indie Musician NewsLast week, our tips and advice for the independent and do-it-yourselfers out there covered the blurring line between distributor and record label, a Spotify marketing guide, how to make money realistically with music, working with sync reps, and more...
The post Getting It Done: Last Week in D.I.Y. and Indie Musician News appeared first on Hypebot.

REWIND: The new Music Industry’s last week in reviewIt was busy week by any definition, the music industry last week was no exception, with a flamout by ticketer Lyte, NITO taking on ticket scalpers, CD sales on the rise, and more...
The post REWIND: The new Music Industry’s last week in review appeared first on Hypebot.

Ujam UFX Reverb is FREE Until October 31st
Ujam is giving away its UFX Reverb and multi-effects plugin ($49) for free for a limited time only.  The UFX Reverb is a 64-bit exclusive release for macOS and Windows available in VST2, VST3, AAX, and AU2 formats.  The plugin is still a fairly recent release, having dropped in July 2023.  However, there seem to [...]
View post: Ujam UFX Reverb is FREE Until October 31st

P:VAD absorber/diffuser from The Narrowband Absorber Company P:VAD is a compact, modular system that can be used to tackle room-related acoustic issues in a wide range of different environments.

Signing Story with Cascade RiotDate Signed: July 2024

Label: PNWK Records

Type of Music: Alt-rock, punk

Booking: sam@pnwkmusic.com

Legal: robert@pnwkmusic.com

Publicity: Mike Cubillos - Earshot Media

Web: pnwkmusic.com/cascaderiot

Detroit’s Cascade Riot started playing music together as kids. Explains frontman Ryan Failla, “We're big on the chemistry that the three of us have… I don't think any one of us really have much of a desire to play with anyone else.” Those kids eventually grew up, with one member taking an out-of-state job, dissolving Cascade Riot into the harsh waters known as the nine-to-five grind.

Fast forward to 2022, six years later, when the departed member returned to Michigan, posing the question, “what’s stopping us now?” This time, however, the group decided they needed to be all-in. “We couldn't go away for another six years and then come back and expect it to happen,” laughs Failla. “So one of the things we were interested in [this time] was label support.” 

In attempt to take the band the next level, Cascade Riot began submitting demos. Rather than agreeing to the first pitch they heard, however, the dudes took their time. “[With the first label we met], we realized we didn’t need what they're offering… They were kind of wanting to market us as just a punk band that only does this kind of sound and looks like this and acts like this.” Hearing this leaves us projecting the harsh reality Cascade Riot will be disappointed seeing we pigeon-holed their genre to fit our bio box above.

After turning down their first offer, the trio found PNWK. Failla and company were familiar with the label’s track record as fellow Michigan natives, Potion Seller were already signed. “They weren't locking us into any sort of commitment,” expresses Failla. 

Along with no long-term commitment, PNWK didn’t push an agenda or narrative on the band’s vision or sound, and only offered to help in spaces where Cascade Riot seemed interested. Like merch ideation and printing. “[Having the right deal], you don't feel like you're entirely on your own anymore. If there's something we need, we know we can go to them and they're probably gonna take care of it for us.”

The band is now recording its PNWK debut for a release later this year.The post Signing Story with Cascade Riot first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.