It was Dan and Elliot behind the microphones today for a transatlantic look at the week in hacks. There was a bucket of news about AI, kicked off by Deepseek suddenly coming into the zeitgeist and scaring the pants off investors for… reasons? No matter, we’re more interested in the tech anyway, such as a deep dive into deep space communications from a backyard antenna farm that’s carefully calibrated to give the HOA fits. We got down and dirty with capacitors, twice even, and looked at a clever way to stuff two websites into one QR code. It’s all Taylor, all the time on every channel of the FM band, which we don’t recommend you do (for multiple reasons) but it’s nice to know you can. Plus, great kinetic art project, but that tooling deserves a chef’s kiss. Finally, we wrap up with our Can’t Miss articles where Jenny roots for the right to repair, and Al gives us the finger(1).

Download the zero-calorie MP3.

Episode 306 Show Notes:

News:

• New Open Source DeepSeek V3 Language Model Making Waves
• Prompt Injection Tricks AI Into Downloading And Executing Malware
• Preventing AI Plagiarism With .ASS Subtitling
• AI Mistakes Are Different, And That’s A Problem

What’s that Sound?

• Congrats to [StevePlusPlus] for guessing the Tamagotchi!

Interesting Hacks of the Week:

• Supercon 2024: Joshua Wise Hacks The Bambu X1 Carbon
  • New Bambu Lab Firmware Update Adds Mandatory Authorization Control System
  • Bambu Connect’s Authentication X.509 Certificate And Private Key Extracted
• Making The Longest-Distance Radio Contact Possible
  • Supercon 2023: Receiving Microwave Signals From Deep-Space Probes
  • Gamma-ray Scintillation Probe In A Paint Can
• Capacitor Decoupling Chaos, And Why You Should Abandon 100 NF
• Film Capacitors Can Go In The Wrong Way Round? Who Knew!
• This QR Code Leads To Two Websites, But How?
  • How To Put Your Logo In A QR Code
  • Barcodes Enter The Matrix In 2027
• Cool Kinetic Sculpture Has Tooling Secrets To Share

Quick Hacks:

• Elliot’s Picks
  • Taylorator Makes Mischief On The Airwaves
  • Inside Vacuum Fluorescent Displays
  • Paper Tape – With LASERs!
  • A Little Pigment Helps With Laser Glass Engraving
• Dan’s Picks:
  • 3D Print Stamps, And Ink Stuff To Your Heart’s Content With These Tips
  • Bouncing Signals Off Of Satellites Other Than The Moon
  • DIY Probe Clamps To Ease Your PCB Work

Can’t-Miss Articles:

• Forgotten Internet: Giving (or Getting) The Finger
  • GitHub – ESWAT/john-carmack-plan-archive: Collection of John Carmack’s .plan files
• The FTC Take Action, Is Time Finally Up For John Deere On Right To Repair?
  • Federal Register :: Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies