A PCB Can Be A Hydrofoil, If it Really Wants To

You know those old cliche that the younger generations have begun to cynically despise: “follow your dreams!” “You can be anything you put your mind to!” — well, perhaps they are true on occasion. For instance when [rctestflight] had PCBs that dreamed of becoming a hydrofoil, he found a way to make that dream come true.

It’s kind of obvious in retrospect: printed circuit boards are made of FR4, which is a form of fiberglass, and you know what else is commonly made of fiberglass? Boats. So yes, the material is suited for this task. The fact that solder joints hold up to use in a little remote-control hydrofoil is less obvious, but good to know. It certainly makes for easier assembly for those of us who have developed an allergy to epoxy.

Ease of assembly wasn’t really the point here: the point was that by making the “mast” of the hydrofoil out of PCB– that’s the part that holds the underwater wing– [rctestflight] figured he could (shock!) print a circuit onto it. Specifically, a liquid-level sensor, and because microcontrollers are so cheap these days he went the “total overkill” route of embedding an ESP32 on each mast. He started with a resistive sensor, but since those self-corrode too quickly, the team switched to a capacitive sensor that doesn’t need to form a galvanic cell in salt water. Come to think of it, that might still be a problem with the solder joint between the PCBs. Good thing nobody will be riding this one.

Having such a sensor and brain close-coupled allows for a faster control loop than the sonar [rctestflight] had previously been using to control his hydrofoil’s altitude.. Pivoting each mast with its own servo made for a smooth flight over the water— well, once they got the PID tuning set, anyway. Check it out in the video embedded below.

We’ve seen PCB used for enclosures before, and even the chassis of a rover, but using it for a hydrofoil is a new hack.

youtube.com/embed/VJENemGGHHQ?…

hackaday.com/2025/11/23/a-pcb-…

Deep Fission Wants to put Nuclear Reactors Deep Underground

Today’s pressurized water reactors (PWRs) are marvels of nuclear fission technology that enable gigawatt-scale power stations in a very compact space. Though they are extremely safe, with only the TMI-2 accident releasing a negligible amount of radioactive isotopes into the environment per the NRC, the company Deep Fission reckons that they can make PWRs even safer by stuffing them into a 1 mile (1.6 km) deep borehole.

Their proposed DB-PWR design is currently in pre-application review at the NRC where their whitepaper and 2025-era regulatory engagement plan can be found as well. It appears that this year they renamed the reactor to Deep Fission Borehole Reactor 1 (DFBR-1). In each 30″ (76.2 cm) borehole a single 45 MWt DFBR-1 microreactor will be installed, with most of the primary loop contained within the reactor module.

As for the rationale for all of this, at the suggested depth the pressure would be equivalent to that inside the PWR, with in addition a column of water between it and the surface, which is claimed to provide a lot of safety and also negates the need for a concrete containment structure and similar PWR safety features. Of course, with the steam generator located at the bottom of the borehole, said steam has to be brought up all the way to the surface to generate a projected 15 MWe via the steam turbine, and there are also sampling tubes travelling all the way down to the primary loop in addition to ropes to haul the thing back up for replacing the standard LEU PWR fuel rods.

Whether this level of outside-the-box-thinking is a genius or absolutely daft idea remains to be seen, with it so far making inroads in the DoE’s advanced reactor program. The company targets having its first reactor online by 2026. Among its competition are projects like TerraPower’s Natrium which are already under construction and offer much more power per reactor, along with Natrium in particular also providing built-in grid-level storage.

One thing is definitely for certain, and that is that the commercial power sector in the US has stopped being mind-numbingly boring.

hackaday.com/2025/11/23/deep-f…

Microsoft Blocca il Metodo di Attivazione KMS38 per Windows 10 e 11

Gli utenti hanno notato che la scorsa settimana gli sviluppatori Microsoft hanno disattivato il metodo di attivazione offline per Windows 11 e 10 tramite KMS38, utilizzato da anni dai pirati informatici in tutto il mondo. Tuttavia, le note di rilascio ufficiali non menzionano queste modifiche.

KMS38 è stato sviluppato dagli appassionati del progetto Massgrave (MAS, Microsoft Activation Scripts), noto per il suo archivio di strumenti non ufficiali per l’attivazione di Windows e Office.

L’essenza di questo metodo di attivazione era quella di ingannare il file di sistema GatherOSstate.exe (un’utilità che determina se il sistema corrente è adatto a un aggiornamento), estendendo il periodo di attivazione del KMS (Key Management Service) dai soliti 180 giorni al 19 gennaio 2038.

L’impostazione di una data più lontana era impedita dal problema dell’anno 2038 (Y2K38).

La lotta contro KMS38 è iniziata quasi due anni fa.

I primi segnali sono comparsi da gennaio 2024, quando gatherosstate.exe è scomparso dall’immagine di installazione di Windows 26040. Questo significava che durante gli aggiornamenti e le reinstallazioni più importanti, il sistema azzerava il periodo di grazia di attivazione, costringendo l’utente a riconnettersi al server KMS.

Tuttavia, il colpo finale a KMS38 è arrivato con l’aggiornamento facoltativo di Windows 11 KB5067036, rilasciato nell’ottobre 2025. In questo aggiornamento, Microsoft ha rimosso completamente la funzionalità GatherOSstate e, dopo il Patch Tuesday di novembre (KB5068861 e KB5067112), KMS38 ha finalmente smesso di funzionare.

Gli sviluppatori di Massgrave hanno confermato che questo metodo non funziona più. Nell’ultima versione di MAS 3.8, il supporto KMS38 è stato completamente rimosso.

Massgrave consiglia agli utenti di utilizzare metodi alternativi: HWID (ID hardware) e TSforge, che funzionano comunque.

Vale la pena notare che nel 2023 è emerso che gli stessi tecnici del supporto Microsoft a volte ricorrono alle soluzioni di attivazione Windows di Massgrave.

Inoltre, è stato ripetutamente sottolineato che gli strumenti di Massgrave sono open source e che i file di progetto sono da tempo disponibili su GitHub, di proprietà di Microsoft. Tuttavia, l’azienda non intraprende alcuna azione contro i cracker.

L'articolo Microsoft Blocca il Metodo di Attivazione KMS38 per Windows 10 e 11 proviene da Red Hot Cyber.