PoroCYon

decapsulated and imaged the CPU-TWL, the main chip in the Nintendo DSi

image in near-IR, through-substrate, with a 50x objective

the decapsulation process was a bit haphazard as I don't have access to acids. instead, I heated up the chip to ~500 °C with a hot air station, which let me cut the chip carrier/interposer off from the epoxy mold using an xacto knife. I then had to remove another polymer coating (using the xacto knife, hwile heating it up to 250 °C), which unfortunately led to some scratch marks. the die is also weirdly curved, which led to some issues with keeping the entire thing in focus. but hey, it's something

academic spam really isn't trying anymore lately huh. I just got an email informing me there's a "scopus-indexed journal with a core focus on the Nintedo DSi" (while of course listing their main areas of interest as AI nonsense)

lb ( https://labyrinth.zone/objects/d3f9544c-f87b-4ba8-affc-cadec7da4961 ): it's kind of ridiculous, really

CA AB 1043 etc are valid in relatively small geographic areas, vague enforcement methods (at least when OFCOM in the UK isn't involved), and are so badly drafted I don't believe large parts of it will hold up to legal scrutiny in court

so why are people -- free software maintainers, no less -- complying in advance here?

imagine what the world would look like if Zimmerman never wrote PGP ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_Wars#Personal_computing_era ), people willingly adopted the Clipper chip ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip ), the VLC team never developed libdvdcss ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libdvdcss ), and so on

if you're going to make a PC compo filler, at least make a färjan instead of letting it be another AI-generated amiga-intro-style thing

@totetmatt@mastodon.social congrats on 1st place!