The Linkielist

Linking ideas with the world

The Linkielist

Daily Archives: March 25, 2022

Finally, A Mapping Tool For Addressable LED Strings

Posted on by

Addressable LED strings have made it easier than ever to build fun glowable projects with all kinds of exciting animations. However, if you’re not going with a simple grid layout, it can be a little difficult to map your strings out in code. Fear not, for [Jason Coon] has provided a tool to help out with just that!

[Jason]’s web app, accessible here. is used for mapping out irregular layouts when working with addressable LED strings like the WS2812B and others that work with libraries like FastLED and Pixelblaze. If you’re making some kind of LED globe, crazy LED tree, or other non-gridular shape, this tool can help.

The first step is to create a layout of your LEDs in a Google Sheets table, which can then be pasted into the web app. Then, the app handles generating the necessary code to address the LEDs in an order corresponding to the physical layout.

[Jason] does a great job of explaining how the tool works, and demonstrates it working with a bowtie-like serpentine layout with rainbow animations. The tool can even provide visual previews of the layout so you can verify what you’ve typed in makes sense.

It’s a great tool that we recently saw put to use on [Geeky Faye’s] excellent necklace project. Video after the break.

 

 

 

P

Source: Finally, A Mapping Tool For Addressable LED Strings | Hackaday

NeRF Research Turns a few dozen 2D Photos Into 3D Scenes really quickly

Posted on by

[…] Known as inverse rendering, the process uses AI to approximate how light behaves in the real world, enabling researchers to reconstruct a 3D scene from a handful of 2D images taken at different angles. The NVIDIA Research team has developed an approach that accomplishes this task almost instantly — making it one of the first models of its kind to combine ultra-fast neural network training and rapid rendering.

NVIDIA applied this approach to a popular new technology called neural radiance fields, or NeRF.

[…]

“If traditional 3D representations like polygonal meshes are akin to vector images, NeRFs are like bitmap images: they densely capture the way light radiates from an object or within a scene,”

[…]

Showcased in a session at NVIDIA GTC this week, Instant NeRF could be used to create avatars or scenes for virtual worlds, to capture video conference participants and their environments in 3D, or to reconstruct scenes for 3D digital maps.

[…]

Collecting data to feed a NeRF is a bit like being a red carpet photographer trying to capture a celebrity’s outfit from every angle — the neural network requires a few dozen images taken from multiple positions around the scene, as well as the camera position of each of those shots.

[…]

Instant NeRF, however, cuts rendering time by several orders of magnitude. It relies on a technique developed by NVIDIA called multi-resolution hash grid encoding, which is optimized to run efficiently on NVIDIA GPUs. Using a new input encoding method, researchers can achieve high-quality results using a tiny neural network that runs rapidly.

The model was developed using the NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit and the Tiny CUDA Neural Networks library. Since it’s a lightweight neural network, it can be trained and run on a single NVIDIA GPU — running fastest on cards with NVIDIA Tensor Cores.

The technology could be used to train robots and self-driving cars to understand the size and shape of real-world objects by capturing 2D images or video footage of them. It could also be used in architecture and entertainment to rapidly generate digital representations of real environments that creators can modify and build on.

[…]

Source: NeRF Research Turns 2D Photos Into 3D Scenes | NVIDIA Blog

Justice Department indicts four Russian government workers in energy sector hacks

Posted on by

The US Justice Department today announced indictments against four Russian government employees, who it alleges attempted a hacking campaign of the global energy sector that spanned six years and devices in roughly 135 countries. The two indictments were filed under seal last summer, and are finally being disclosed to the public.

The DOJ’s decision to release the documents may be a way to raise public awareness of the increased threat these kinds of hacks pose to US critical infrastructure in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. State-sponsored hackers have targeted energy, nuclear, water and critical manufacturing companies for years, aiming to steal information on their control systems. Cybersecurity officials noticed a spike in Russian hacking activity in the US in recent weeks.

“Russian state-sponsored hackers pose a serious and persistent threat to critical infrastructure both in the United States and around the world,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco in a statement. “Although the criminal charges unsealed today reflect past activity, they make crystal clear the urgent ongoing need for American businesses to harden their defenses and remain vigilant.

The indictments allege that two separate campaigns occurred between 2012 and 2018. The first one, filed in June 2021, involves Evgeny Viktorovich Gladkikh, a computer programmer at the Russian Ministry of Defense. It alleges that Gladkik and a team of co-conspirators were members of the Triton malware hacking group, which launched a failed campaign to bomb a Saudi petrochemical plant in 2017. As TechCrunch noted, the Saudi plant would have been completely decimated if not for a bug in the code. In 2018, the same group attempted to hack US power plants but failed.

The second indictment charges three hackers who work for Russia’s intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), as being the members of the hacking group Dragonfly, which coordinated multiple attacks on nuclear power plants, energy companies, and other critical infrastructure. It alleges that the three men, Pavel Aleksandrovich Akulov, Mikhail Mikhailovich Gavrilov and Marat Valeryevich Tyukov engaged in multiple computer intrusions between 2012 and 2017. The DOJ estimates that the three hackers were able to install malware on more than 17,000 unique devices in the US and abroad.

A second phase known as Dragonfly 2.0, which occurred between 2014 and 2017, targeted more than 3,300 users across 500 different energy companies in the US and abroad. According to the DOJ, the conspirators were looking to access the software and hardware in power plants that would allow the Russian government to trigger a shutdown.

The US government is still looking for the three FSB hackers. The State Department today announced a $10 million award for any information on their whereabouts. However, as the Washington Post notes, the US and Russia do not have an extradition treaty, so the likeliness of any of the alleged hackers being brought to trial by these indictments is slim.

Source: Justice Department indicts four Russian government workers in energy sector hacks | Engadget

Scientists find microplastics in blood for first time

Posted on by

Scientists have discovered microplastics in human blood for the first time, warning that the ubiquitous particles could also be making their way into organs.

The tiny pieces of mostly invisible plastic have already been found almost everywhere else on Earth, from the deepest oceans to the highest mountains as well as in the air, soil and .

A Dutch study published in the Environment International journal on Thursday examined from 22 anonymous, healthy volunteers and found microplastics in nearly 80 percent of them.

Half of the blood samples showed traces of PET plastic, widely used to make drink bottles, while more than a third had polystyrene, used for disposable food containers and many other products.

[…]

“Where is it going in your body? Can it be eliminated? Excreted? Or is it retained in certain organs, accumulating maybe, or is it even able to pass the ?”

The study said the microplastics could have entered the body by many routes: via air, water or food, but also in products such as particular toothpastes, lip glosses and tattoo ink.

[…]

 

Source: Scientists find microplastics in blood for first time

HP staffer blew $5m on personal expenses with company card

Posted on by

A now-former HP finance planning manager pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and filing false tax returns that follow from the misappropriation of company funds.

According to the US Justice Department, Shelbee Szeto, 30, of Fremont, California, worked at HP Inc from August 2017 through June 2021, first as an executive assistant and then as a finance planning manager.

During that time, she was responsible for paying HP vendors

[…]

Szeto was issued multiple PCards and, according to prosecutors, she devised a scheme to make purported vendor payments to financial accounts that she controlled and then used HP’s funds to purchase goods for herself.

“Between approximately April 24, 2018 and April 23, 2021, Szeto knowingly charged approximately $4.8 million dollars in payments from her HP PCards to PayPal, Square, and Stripe merchant accounts under her control and for her personal benefit,” the indictment stated.

To make this spending appear legitimate, Szeto submitted false invoices to HP.

[…]

Szeto managed to make several transactions in the $30,000 to $40,000 range; Square declined to process a payment for $330,000. Asked for supporting paperwork by the payment processor, she is said to have provided false documentation and to have falsely told Square investigators the funds were for marketing work related to a real-estate transaction.

Her bank, First Republic, also questioned the source of her funds, according to the indictment, and the IRS noticed that her 2019 and 2020 tax forms were inaccurate. All told, Szeto is said to have cost HP $5.2m.

The Justice Department said Szeto spent the funds on: a 2020 Tesla sedan; a 2021 Porsche SUV; various bags and purses from Chanel, Dior, Gucci, and Hermes; and an assortment jewelry including necklaces, rings, pendants, and wristwatches from Audemars Piguet, Bulgari, Cartier, and Rolex.

[…]

Source: HP staffer blew $5m on personal expenses with company card • The Register

British cops arrest seven < 21 yr kids in Lapsus$ crime gang probe after they break into and dox the tech giants

Posted on by

British cops investigating a cyber-crime group have made a string of arrests.

Though City of London Police gave few details on Thursday, officers are said to be probing the notorious extortionware gang Lapsus$, and have detained and released seven people aged 16 to 21.

In a statement, the force said: “Seven people between the ages of 16 and 21 have been arrested in connection with an investigation into a hacking group. They have all been released under investigation. Our inquiries remain ongoing.”

Among them is a 16-year-old boy from Oxford who has been accused of being one of the crew’s leaders, the BBC reported. He cannot be identified for legal reasons.

[…]

Bloomberg first reported the boy’s alleged involvement with the extortion gang on Wednesday, and claims by security researchers that he was the crew’s mastermind. Lapsus$ is the devil-may-care team of miscreants that have broken into major firms including Microsoft, Samsung, Vodafone, and Okta.

It is said the boy netted about $14m in Bitcoin from his online life, and was lately doxxed – which means he had his personal info leaked online – after an apparent falling out with his business partners.

[…]

The cyber-crime ring rose to fame in recent months for its brash tactics and its propensity to brag about its exploits on Telegram. Its standard operating procedure is to infiltrate a big target’s network, steal sensitive internal data, make demands to prevent the public release of this material – and usually release some of it anyway.

[…]

In February, however, the criminals sneaked into Nvidia‘s networks and stole one terabyte of data including employee credentials and proprietary information, and dumped some of it online.

Days later Lapsus$ said it had raided Samsung and stole 190GB of internal files including some Galaxy device source code.

The criminal group followed that up by claiming it was responsible for a cybersecurity incident at gaming giant Ubisoft.

‘Motivated by theft and destruction’

Microsoft, in its days-late confirmation that Lapsus$, which the Windows giant calls DEV-0537, did indeed steal some of its source code, and said the crime group seems to be “motivated by theft and destruction.”

[…]

 

Source: British cops arrest seven in Lapsus$ crime gang probe • The Register

Owners Of ‘Gran Turismo 7’ Locked Out Of Single Player Game When Online DRM Servers Go Down – when you don’t own the game you bought

Posted on by

When someone asks me what DRM is, my answer is very simple: it’s anti-piracy software that generally doesn’t stop pirates at all, and, instead, mostly only annoys legitimate buyers. Well, then why do software and video game companies use it at all? Couldn’t tell you. Businesses really want to annoy their own customers? Apparently, yes. Timothy, when you say this doesn’t really stop pirates, you’re exaggerating, right? No, not at all.

The worst of the examples of legit customers getting screwed by video game DRM involve when a game or product is bricked simply because a publisher or its DRM partner simply shuts down the servers that make the DRM work, on purpose or otherwise.

Gran Turismo 7 was recently released on the PlayStation and is already facing major headwinds due to the public’s absolute hate for all the microtransactions included in the game. On top of that, the entire game, including the single player content, was rendered unplayable because the DRM servers that require an online check to play the game crumbled during a maintenance window.

The scheduled server maintenance, timed around the release of the version 1.07 patch for the game, was initially planned to last just two hours starting at 6 am GMT (2 am Eastern) on Thursday morning. Six hours later, though, the official Gran Turismo Twitter account announced that “due to an issue found in Update 1.07, we will be extending the Server Maintenance period. We will notify everyone as soon as possible when this is likely to be completed. We apologize for this inconvenience and ask for your patience while we work to resolve the issue.”

“Inconvenience” in this case means not being able to play the game the customer purchased. Like, basically at all. Why the single player content in a console game of all things should require an online check-in is completely beyond me.

[…]

Source: Owners Of ‘Gran Turismo 7’ Locked Out Of Single Player Game When Online DRM Servers Go Down | Techdirt

EU, US strike preliminary deal to unlock transatlantic data flows – yup, the EU will let the US spy on it’s citizens freely again

Posted on by

Negotiators have been working on an agreement — which allows Europeans’ personal data to flow to the United States — since the EU’s top court struck down the Privacy Shield agreement in July 2020 because of fears that the data was not safe from access by American agencies once transferred across the Atlantic.

The EU chief’s comments Friday show both sides have reached a political breakthrough, coinciding with U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Brussels this week.

“I am pleased that we found an agreement in principle on a new framework for transatlantic data flows. This will enable predictable and trustworthy data flows between the EU and U.S., safeguarding privacy and civil liberties,” she said.

Biden said the framework would allow the EU “to once again authorize transatlantic data flows that help facilitate $7.1 trillion in economic relationships.”

Friday’s announcement will come as a relief to the hundreds of companies that had faced mounting legal uncertainty over how to shuttle everything from payroll information to social media post data to the U.S.

Officials on both sides of the Atlantic had been struggling to bridge an impasse over what it means to give Europeans’ effective legal redress against surveillance by U.S. authorities. Not all of those issues have been resolved, though von der Leyen’s comments Friday suggest technical solutions are within reach.

Despite the ripples of relief Friday’s announcement will send through the business community, any deal is likely to be challenged in the courts by privacy campaigners.

Source: EU, US strike preliminary deal to unlock transatlantic data flows – POLITICO