Month: August 2025

Vodafone räumt sein regional fragmentiertes Frequenzspektrum beim Kabelfernsehen auf. An ersten Versorgungsbereichen ist das bereits erfolgt. (Vodafone, H.264)

It's a regrettable reality that there is never enough time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across each month. In the past, we've featured year-end roundups of cool science stories we (almost) missed. This year, we're experimenting with a monthly collection. August's list includes a 3D digital reconstruction of the Shroud of Turin; injecting succulent leaves with phosphors to create plants that glow in different colors; a nifty shape-changing antenna; and snails with a unique ability to grow back their eyeballs.

Digitally reconstructing the Shroud of Turin

Perhaps the most famous "holy relic" is the Shroud of Turin, an old linen cloth that retains a distinct impression of the body of a crucified mine (both front and back). The legend is that Jesus himself was wrapped in the shroud upon his death around 30 CE, although modern scientific dating methods revealed the shroud is actually a medieval artifact dating to between 1260 and 1390 CE. A 3D designer named Cícero Moraes has created a 3D digital reconstruction to lend further credence to the case for the shroud being a medieval forgery, according to a paper published in the journal Archaeometry.

Moraes developed computer models to simulate draping a sheet on both a 3D human form and a bas-relief carving to test which version most closely matched the figure preserved in the shroud. He concluded that the latter was more consistent with the shroud's figure, meaning that it was likely created as an artistic representation or a medieval work of art. It was certainly never draped around an actual body. Most notable was the absence of the so-called "Agamemnon mask effect," in which a human face shrouded in fabric appears wider once flattened.

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There are a growing number of options for folks looking to purchase a handheld game console with a dual-screen design. But why buy one when you can make your own? The DSpi is a handheld with a clamshell design, two small screens, and an open source design – you can’t actually buy one, but you can […]

The post This DIY dual-screen handheld game console is powered by a Raspberry Pi CM5 appeared first on Liliputing.

With the new football season underway in Spain and LaLiga’s blocking order still in force under the authority of a judge, overblocking is still a big problem in Spain according to reports.

Last season saw relentless IP address blocking target shared Cloudflare IP addresses again and again. With no obvious urgency to ensure that those blocks were lifted when no longer needed (i.e after LaLiga matches had ended) blocking continued to affect innocent parties for much longer than necessary; that’s if we assume that any avoidable blocking of innocent third parties is ever necessary.

Potentially Some Limited Progress

As reported earlier this week, data reviewed by TorrentFreak suggests that some measures may have been put in place to limit how long IP addresses stay blocked. Instead of persisting for hours, days, or even weeks after being put in place, blocks seem to be lifted much more quickly.

While that should’ve been the case back in February to limit unnecessary collateral damage, any progress should come as a relief, especially if it can be built upon in the coming weeks.

Until then, concerned parties appear to be battling a fundamental reluctance to get involved by anyone with any power or influence. Faced with inaction and a problem for individuals and businesses up and down the country, media coverage can often make a real difference.

Not in this case; beyond a small number of tech-focused news outlets, most mainstream outlets in Spain have avoided mentioning the controversy, much less found reason to discuss it.

ERC Demands Answers

Not so the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), a pro-Catalan independence party that aired its concerns in Congress this week. Accusing the government of doing nothing to protect citizens from freedom of information and net neutrality violations, ERC said inaction amounted to a dereliction of the government’s duties.

“A private company cannot act with impunity and indiscriminately in defense of its business. No matter how important that business may be,” spokesperson Gabriel Rufián wrote on X.

“And charging €120 per month, it certainly can be.”

According to a Europa Press report, ERC presented a list of questions to the government for which it demanded answers from the executive branch concerning LaLiga’s blocking campaign. The party reportedly described collateral damage from overblocking as “massive”, with large platforms such as Steam and Elon Musk’s ‘X’ among those negatively affected.

Europa Press invited LaLiga to comment; maintaining its original position from roughly six months ago, LaLiga denied there was a problem.

LaLiga: Reports of Overblocking Are False

“It is false that massive blocking of legitimate websites is taking place,” LaLiga told the publication.

“All blocking measures are part of an authorized and supervised judicial procedure, under very restrictive and guarantee-based criteria, and under protocols that include multiple safeguards and guarantees, thus ensuring compliance with the principle of proportionality.”

LaLiga went on to describe a “precise and surgical procedure” within a system that is “highly specific and designed to address illegal content, while documenting and preserving evidence of the violation of its rights in all cases.’

Still No Peace Agreement

In a clear sign that LaLiga and Cloudflare have been unable to patch up their differences, LaLiga took the opportunity to blame Cloudflare for hosting “both legitimate and illegal websites on the same IP address, thus serving as a digital shield for such criminal conduct.”

The statement is a classic double-edged sword. By shifting responsibility to Cloudflare, it acknowledges the shared IP address issue at the root of the majority of overblocking incidents in Spain. While LaLiga claims to block the pirate services with pinpoint accuracy, which it does, there could be dozens or hundreds of innocent services on the top of exactly the same pin as a single pirate site.

The blocking of innocent third-parties is clearly something that LaLiga would like to avoid. Since it has no means available to partially block an IP address, blocking impacts innocent individual users and small websites, through to large internet-based operations that have no connection to piracy.

Cloudflare IP address 172.67.69.232

There’s no definitive single source of information to accurately and comprehensively identify in advance which sites will be affected by an IP address block; but there are ways to confirm that at least some damage will be caused. At the time of writing, the majority of previously blocked IP addresses have been unblocked by the ISPs in Spain.

For reasons that remain unclear, however, Vodafone is still blocking the Cloudflare IP address 172.67.69.232.

This means that any Cloudflare customers that have been allocated that same IP address can no longer service any visitors who attempt access from a Vodafone connection in Spain. During match times, the same would also apply to other ISPs including Movistar, DIGI, Orange, Masmovil, and Vodafone itself.

The perfect result for LaLiga might be the blocking of a single pirate site. The actual result of blocking a shared IP address is the blocking of a single pirate site, and all other sites operating from the same IP address.

Pinpoint Accuracy Collateral Damage

In the case of Cloudflare IP address 172.67.69.232, the following domains (and most likely many more besides) were all using that address at the time of writing. (domain extensions modified for security reasons)

logos-world.nxt, cordonbleu.edu, thefloridachannel.oxg, filext.cXm, atwix.cXm, royalapps.cXm, netticket.fi, cultsport.cXm, rapid-rebates.cXm, gosweetspot.cXm, sundaymore.cXm, bizmanualz.cXm, atech.cloud, boom.tv, dobenergy.cXm, viseo.sX1, radbag.bEx, fabricsandpapers.cXm, diamondtours.cXm, muzikercdn.cXm, supportyourtech.cXm, mellano.fi, ac-knowledge.nxt, g-city.cXm, brightercraft.cXm, wsipowered.cXm, kleverinnovations.nxt, experimenteaza.ro, omegatv.cXm.cy, b-zone.buz, farma-rhodes.cXm, improveit.llt, finqr.sX1, bluefoxhost.cXm, card-plus.nxt, stampseed.cXm, gomel-sat.ZZ, zanchetta.cXm.br, lotsthailand.cXm, motaquip.cXm, chelfordfarmsupplies.co.bk, sierracases.cXm, southtelecom.vn, adjust-it.nlX, shavaz.cXm, naisuku.jpx, online-escape-room.cXm

A cursory review of these domains leads to one standing out above the others: gomel-sat.ZZ. The domain extension has been altered by us, but the site is linked to IPTV and could’ve been targeted via IP address blocking.

Whether UK-based Chelford Farm Supplies Ltd should’ve been blocked at the same time to prevent piracy is a matter for them. Likewise UK-based car parts distributor Motaquip and the others that we didn’t check individually.

LaLiga told Europa Press that it knew of “multiple complaints on social media about alleged blocks on nonexistent websites, with no real traffic or only a few dozen users per month. These types of complaints have no real impact on users and only seek to create a narrative of social alarm to discredit the fight against piracy.”

Narratives like these are undoubtedly a negative in the fight against piracy. Fortunately, they are easily managed through the elimination of the events providing the fuel.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Bringt keinen Gewinn, kann weg. Doch ein Elektroingenieur aus Orange County repariert alte Münztelefone und stellt sie auf VoIP um. (Telekommunikation, VoIP)

Je nach Bezirk waren zuvor teilweise nur 2 MBit/s pro Standort verfügbar. Jetzt sind alle von 1&1 Versatel angebunden und werden immer stärker genutzt. (Infrastruktur, Glasfaser)

In the 1960s, meteorologist Edward Lorenz was running weather simulations on an early computer system when he realized that a small rounding difference led to extremely divergent weather predictions. He later called this idea the butterfly effect to communicate that small changes in initial conditions, like a butterfly flapping its wings in Nepal, could produce wildly different outcomes, like rain in New York.

But better understanding those initial conditions and how the biological world couples with the atmospheric one can provide better predictions about the future of the planet—from where umbrellas may be most needed in a given season to where electricity needs might sap the grid.

Today, computers are much more powerful than when Lorenz was working, and scientists use a special kind of simulation that accounts for physics, chemistry, biology, and water cycles to try to grasp the past and predict the future. These simulations, called Earth system models, or ESMs, attempt to consider the planet as a system made up of components that nudge and shove each other. Scientists first developed physical climate models in the 1960s and 1970s, and became better at integrating atmospheric and ocean models in subsequent years. As both environmental knowledge and computing power increased, they began to sprinkle in the other variables, leading to current-day ESMs.

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