A Stylish Moon And Tide Clock For The Mantlepiece

Assuming you’re not stuck in a prison cell without windows, you could feasibly keep track of the moon and tides by walking outside and jotting things down in your notebook. Alternatively, you could save a lot of hassle by just building this moon and tide clock from [pjdines1994] instead.

The build is based on a Raspberry Pi Pico W, which is hooked up to a real-time clock module and a Waveshare 3.7-inch e-paper display. Upon this display, the clock draws an image relevant to the current phase of the moon. As the write-up notes, it was a tad fussy to store 24 images for all the different lunar phases within the Pi Pico, but it was achieved nonetheless with a touch of compression. As for tides, it covers those too by pulling in tide information from an online resource.

It’s specifically set up to report the local tides for [pjdines1994], reporting the high tide and low tide times for Whitstable in the United Kingdom. If you’re not in Whitstable, you’d probably want to reconfigure the clock before using it yourself. Unless you really want to know what’s up in Whitstable, of course. If you so wish, you can set the clock up to make its own tide predictions by running local calculations, but [pjdines1994] notes that this is rather more complicated to do. The finished result look quite good, because [pjdines1994] decided to build it inside an old carriage clock that only reveals parts of the display showing the moon and the relevant tide numbers.

We’ve featured some other great tide clocks before, like this grand 3D printed design. If you’ve built your own arcane machine to plot the dances of celestial objects, do be sure to let us know on the tipsline!

hackaday.com/2025/12/02/a-styl…

Give Us One Manual For Normies, Another For Hackers

We’ve all been there. You’ve found a beautiful piece of older hardware at the thrift store, and bought it for a song. You rush it home, eager to tinker, but you soon find it’s just not working. You open it up to attempt a repair, but you could really use some information on what you’re looking at and how to enter service mode. Only… a Google search turns up nothing but dodgy websites offering blurry PDFs for entirely the wrong model, and you’re out of luck.

These days, when you buy an appliance, the best documentation you can expect is a Quick Start guide and a warranty card you’ll never use. Manufacturers simply don’t want to give you real information, because they think the average consumer will get scared and confused. I think they can do better. I’m demanding a new two-tier documentation system—the basics for the normies, and real manuals for the tech heads out there.

Give Us The Goods

Once upon a time, appliances came with real manuals and real documentation. You could buy a radio that came with a full list of valves that were used inside, while telephones used to come with printed circuit diagrams right inside the case. But then the world changed, and a new phrase became a common sight on consumer goods—”NO USER SERVICABLE PARTS INSIDE.” No more was the end user considered qualified or able to peek within the case of the hardware they’d bought. They were fools who could barely be trusted to turn the thing on and work it properly, let alone intervene in the event something needed attention.

This attitude has only grown over the years. As our devices have become ever more complex, the documentation delivered with them has shrunk to almost non-existent proportions. Where a Sony television manual from the 1980s contained a complete schematic of the whole set, a modern smartphone might only include a QR code linking to basic setup instructions on a website online. It’s all part of an effort by companies to protect the consumer from themselves, because they surely can’t be trusted with the arcane knowledge of what goes on inside a modern device.

This Sony tv manual from 1985 contained the complete electrical schematics for the set.
byu/a_seventh_knot inmildlyinteresting

This sort of intensely technical documentation was the norm just a few decades ago.
Some vintage appliances used to actually have the schematic printed inside the case for easy servicing. Credit: British Post Office
It’s understandable, to a degree. When a non-technical person buys a television, they really just need to know how to plug it in and hook it up to an aerial. With the ongoing decline in literacy rates, it’s perhaps a smart move by companies to not include any further information than that. Long words and technical information would just make it harder for these customers to figure out how to use the TV in the first place, and they might instead choose a brand that offers simpler documentation.

This doesn’t feel fair for the power user set. There are many of us who want to know how to change our television’s color mode, how to tinker with the motion smoothing settings, and how to enter deeper service modes when something seems awry. And yet, that information is kept from us quite intentionally. Often, it’s only accessible in service manuals that are only made available through obscure channels to selected people authorised by OEMs.

Two Tiers, Please

Finding old service manuals can be a crapshoot, but sometimes you get lucky with popular models. Credit: Google via screenshot
I don’t think it has to be this way. I think it’s perfectly fine for manufacturers to include simple, easy-to-follow instructions with consumer goods. However, I don’t think that should preclude them from also offering detailed technical manuals for those users that want and need them. I think, in fact, that these should be readily available as a matter of course.

Call it a “superuser manual,” and have it only available via a QR code in the back of the basic, regular documentation. Call it an “Advanced Technical Supplement” or a “Calibration And Maintenance Appendix.” Whatever jargon scares off the normies so they don’t accidentally come across it and then complain to tech support that they don’t know why their user interface is now only displaying garbled arcane runes. It can be a little hard to find, but at the end of the day, it should be a simple PDF that can be downloaded without a lot of hurdles or paywalls.

I’m not expecting manufacturers to go back to giving us full schematics for everything. It would be nice, but realistically it’s probably overkill. You can just imagine what that would like for a modern smartphone or even just a garden variety automobile in 2025. However, I think it’s pretty reasonable to expect something better than the bare basics of how to interact with the software and such. The techier manuals should, at a minimum, indicate how to do things like execute a full reset, enter any service modes, and indicate how the device is to be safely assembled and disassembled should one wish to execute repairs.

Of course, this won’t help those of us repairing older gear from the 90s and beyond. If you want to fix that old S-VHS camcorder from 1995, you’re still going to have to go to some weird website and risk your credit card details over a $30 charge for a service manual that might cover your problem. But it would be a great help for any new gear moving forward. Forums died years ago, so we can no longer Google for a post from some old retired tech who remembers the secret key combination to enter the service menu. We need that stuff hosted on manufacturer websites so we can get it in five minutes instead of five hours of strenuous research.

Will any manufacturers actually listen to this demand? Probably, no. This sort of change needs to happen at a higher level. Perhaps the right to repair movement and some boisterous EU legislation could make it happen. After all, there is an increasing clamour for users to have more rights over the hardware and appliances they pay for. If and when it happens, I will be cheering when the first manuals for techies become available. Heaven knows we deserve them!

hackaday.com/2025/12/02/give-u…

Build Your Own Glasshole Detector

Connected devices are ubiquitous in our era of wireless chips heavily relying on streaming data to someone else’s servers. This sentence might already start to sound dodgy, and it doesn’t get better when you think about today’s smart glasses, like the ones built by Meta (aka Facebook).

[sh4d0wm45k] doesn’t shy away from fighting fire with fire, and shows you how to build a wireless device detecting Meta’s smart glasses – or any other company’s Bluetooth devices, really, as long as you can match them by the beginning of the Bluetooth MAC address.

[sh4d0wm45k]’s device is a mini light-up sign saying “GLASSHOLE”, that turns bright white as soon as a pair of Meta glasses is detected in the vicinity. Under the hood, a commonly found ESP32 devboard suffices for the task, coupled to two lines of white LEDs on a custom PCB. The code is super simple, sifting through packets flying through the air, and lets you easily contribute with your own OUIs (Organizationally Unique Identifier, first three bytes of a MAC address). It wouldn’t be hard to add such a feature to any device of your own with Arduino code under its hood, or to rewrite it to fit a platform of your choice.

We’ve been talking about smart glasses ever since Google Glass, but recently, with Meta’s offerings, the smart glasses debate has reignited. Due to inherent anti-social aspects of the technology, we can see what’d motivate one to build such a hack. Perhaps, the next thing we’ll see is some sort of spoofed packets shutting off the glasses, making them temporarily inoperable in your presence in a similar way we’ve seen with spamming proximity pairing packets onto iPhones.

hackaday.com/2025/12/02/build-…

La maggior parte degli adolescenti abbandona la criminalità digitale entro i 20 anni

Le autorità olandesi hanno pubblicato i dati che dimostrano come il coinvolgimento degli adolescenti nella criminalità digitale sia solitamente temporaneo. Un’analisi preparata dalla Camera dei Rappresentanti indica che l’interesse precoce per l’hacking spesso svanisce entro i 20 anni, e solo pochi mantengono un interesse duraturo.

Il rapporto sottolinea che gli adolescenti iniziano a commettere vari tipi di reati più o meno alla stessa età. I reati informatici non sono più comuni dei reati legati alle armi o alla droga, e significativamente meno comuni dei reati contro la proprietà. Inoltre, il percorso verso i primi tentativi passa in genere attraverso simulazioni di gioco che consentono loro di sviluppare competenze tecniche.

Secondo i dati raccolti nel corso degli anni, il picco di attività criminale tra i giovani criminali si è verificato tra i diciassette e i vent’anni. Questa tendenza è coerente con altre tipologie di reato. In uno studio condotto nel 2013 su un campione di diverse centinaia di giovani delinquenti, la maggior parte dei partecipanti ha cessato tale attività poco dopo aver raggiunto il picco.

I ricercatori stimano che la percentuale di coloro che continuano a commettere crimini digitali dopo i vent’anni sia pari a circa il quattro percento. La ricercatrice Alice Hutchings ha osservato già nel 2016 che il coinvolgimento a lungo termine deriva da un interesse costante per la tecnologia e dal desiderio di sviluppare competenze, piuttosto che da incentivi esterni.

Gli autori dell’analisi governativa sottolineano che la maggior parte degli studi sta diventando obsoleta a causa dei rapidi cambiamenti nell’ambiente digitale. A titolo di confronto, citano i dati sui costi sociali totali della criminalità minorile, pari a circa 10,3 miliardi di euro all’anno. La maggior parte dell’onere ricade sulle vittime, mentre la parte restante ricade sui servizi pubblici, tra cui la polizia e il sistema giudiziario.

I costi annuali precisi della criminalità digitale sono difficili da stimare a causa della mancanza di dati a lungo termine. Tuttavia, i dati indiretti ci permettono di stimare l’entità del problema. Ad esempio, uno studio commissionato dal governo del Regno Unito ha rilevato che i danni annuali causati da tre attacchi a un importante ospedale potrebbero superare gli 11 milioni di sterline. Questi importi sono paragonabili o superiori ai costi di molte categorie di criminalità nei Paesi Bassi.

In precedenza, le agenzie governative del Paese hanno ripetutamente sottolineato la difficoltà di quantificare l’impatto degli attacchi digitali. Ad esempio, un rapporto preparato da Deloitte per il governo olandese nel 2016 stimava le perdite annuali per le organizzazioni derivanti da incidenti informatici in circa 10 miliardi di euro, una cifra paragonabile al costo totale della delinquenza minorile.

L'articolo La maggior parte degli adolescenti abbandona la criminalità digitale entro i 20 anni proviene da Red Hot Cyber.

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UA: Динаміка втрат рашистів у війні проти України з 24 лютого 2022 року
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Who would expect that? 🤔

#France intelligence services now have evidence that the #Russia presidential administration has approved a plan aimed at simultaneously targeting the Jewish and Muslim communities, with the goal of further fracturing French society.[^1]

Please note the level of this initiative - presidential administration in most countries is, well, presidential administration. Such intelligence operations may be developed by various foreign intelligence bodies, but in Russia presidential administration is the top ‘active measures’ agency, in addition to FSB, SVR, GRU and others. No wonder it budget, already incredibly high, was in 2024 increased by further 25% to $332 million per year.[^2] Putin’s administration had been for years running foreign disintegration projects such as operations of the massive social media bot farms - the administration writes the plans and tasks, and then hires specialised companies that execute them using hired personnel. This budget, unlike in other countries, is largely opaque and secret, not subject to any parliamentary reviews.

[^1]: mediapart.fr/journal/france/02… (in French)

[^2]: kyivindependent.com/russia-pla…

Le Porsche in Russia non si avviano più! Un presunto bug non fa partire il motore

I proprietari di Porsche in Russia riscontrano sempre più problemi con gli allarmi da parte della fabbrica, rendendo impossibile l’utilizzo delle loro auto. Le loro auto non si avviano, si bloccano subito dopo l’avviamento o visualizzano errori relativi al motore. I responsabili della concessionaria Rolf hanno dichiarato a RBC di aver notato un aumento delle chiamate di assistenza dal 28 novembre a causa del blocco degli allarmi via satellite.

Secondo la responsabile del servizio clienti dell’azienda, Yulia Trushkova, attualmente non esiste alcuna correlazione tra i modelli e i tipi di motori e, in teoria, qualsiasi veicolo può essere immobilizzato.

Attualmente, l’immobilizzazione può essere aggirata resettando l’unità di allarme di fabbrica e smontandola. La causa del malfunzionamento non è ancora stata determinata, ma l’azienda osserva che è possibile che sia stata eseguita intenzionalmente. Situazioni simili, secondo Rolf, si sono verificate anche tra i proprietari di Mercedes-Benz, ma tali incidenti sono molto più rari.

In precedenza, il canale Telegram SHOT aveva riferito che centinaia di Porsche in tutta la Russia erano state dichiarate “illegali” a causa di un malfunzionamento del sistema di allarme di fabbrica, attribuito a problemi di comunicazione. I conducenti di Mosca, Krasnodar e altre città hanno segnalato problemi. Alcuni proprietari hanno riferito di aver temporaneamente bypassato il sistema scollegando la batteria per circa dieci ore per consentire al sistema di allarme di scaricarsi e riavviarsi.

Secondo la rivista Avto.ru, i proprietari di modelli Cayenne, Macan e Panamera si sono rivolti principalmente ai centri di assistenza per reclami simili. I reclami relativi a motori che si spengono e blocchi del motore si verificano da anni, ma sono diventati diffusi quest’autunno. Secondo i dati preliminari, il problema è prevalente nei veicoli prodotti prima del 2020 e dotati del vecchio sistema di localizzazione GSM/GPS VTS (Vehicle Tracking System). Il canale Telegram “Porsche Club Russia” cita come causa principale un malfunzionamento del modulo satellitare, con limitazioni e blocchi della comunicazione. I conducenti sottolineano che scollegare la batteria è visto come una soluzione temporanea, che consente loro di raggiungere un centro di assistenza.

Gli allarmi satellitari di questi veicoli si basano su sistemi di navigazione e sono progettati per migliorare la sicurezza e monitorare le condizioni del veicolo, anche in caso di tentativi di furto o fattori esterni. Se il veicolo è bloccato, il sistema antifurto può impedire l’avviamento del motore, del motorino di avviamento o dell’accensione, nonché interrompere l’alimentazione del carburante e attivare le spie luminose del veicolo in modalità anomala.

La casa automobilistica tedesca Porsche AG ha cessato le consegne ufficiali di auto in Russia nel 2022, citando “la grande incertezza e gli attuali sconvolgimenti”. Tuttavia, l’azienda gestisce ancora tre filiali russe: Porsche Russia, Porsche Center Moscow e PFS Russia.