I’ve this Utility which is Coded in C# utilizing the MAUI .NET8 framework. The intention of the app is to trace step, and ship stepdata to a MQTT server (Hive). At present I’m able to observe steps, and ship messages on startup and each 1 min to the MQTT.
However I can solely do that whereas the applying is open and on the primary display screen, the intention is to do that, even when the app just isn’t at present in focus.
When China begins scaling a know-how at large ranges, the remainder of the world ought to take discover. That’s not a geopolitical assertion, it’s a thermodynamic and logistical one. China doesn’t fiddle relating to warmth, energy, and infrastructure. And within the case of ground-source warmth pumps used for district heating, China has been quietly laying down tens of 1000’s of programs, with over 77 GW of put in capability by 2019.
As a word, that is one in a collection of articles on geothermal. The scope of the collection is printed within the introductory piece. In case your curiosity space or concern isn’t mirrored within the introductory piece, please go away a remark.
By comparability, the worldwide geothermal electrical era capability is underneath 17 GW. Whereas electrical energy is beneficial and might drive warmth pumps with excessive coefficients of efficiency, and is important for the operation of ground-source geothermal, a single nation having 5 instances the GW of world geothermal electrical capability ought to make coverage makers get up and take discover. That is distinctly a spot the place geothermal shines versus getting pecked to dying by black swans.
That’s not some speculative greenwashing pilot — it’s lots of of tens of millions of sq. meters of precise heated house, spanning campuses, residential developments, industrial buildings, and municipal networks. The Western discourse should be caught debating gasoline vs warmth pumps at a single-home stage, however China has moved on to “how will we dig 400 boreholes underneath a highschool soccer area and join them to each constructing in a ten-block radius?”
The core thought is straightforward. As a substitute of burning gasoline or biomass or shuttling steam throughout cities, you flow into water or glycol by pipes underground and faucet the fixed temperature of the Earth. It’s a dumb thought if you’d like fast wins or low upfront prices. However it’s a superb thought in the event you’re enjoying the lengthy sport — eliminating combustion, slashing emissions, and constructing infrastructure that lasts for generations. The Chinese language deployments, together with parallel efforts in locations like Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and even U.S. universities like Ball State, show that ground-source warmth pumps at district scale work. They’re not “rising” applied sciences. They’re right here, they’re massive, they usually’re getting higher yearly.
Take Ball State College in Indiana as an emblematic instance. Over just a few years, they drilled 3,600 boreholes about 120 meters deep throughout their campus and changed an growing old coal-powered steam system with water-to-water warmth pumps. The consequence: 47 buildings heated and cooled with a system that delivers a seasonal coefficient of efficiency of three.7. That’s a 270% effectivity acquire over resistive electrical warmth, and it’s all electrical, which means it will get cleaner because the grid will get cleaner. If that’s not spectacular sufficient, the warmth pumps additionally do cooling, in order that they scrapped their previous chillers too. It’s a one-two punch — carbon cuts and long-term value financial savings in a single go. The upfront value was excessive, round $83 million, however if you’re changing not simply warmth however chillers and laying in warmth for half a century, the payback math begins to make fossil fuels look fairly dumb.
The economics aren’t essentially easy. Floor-source warmth pumps, particularly when used at a district stage, front-load the ache. Drilling isn’t low-cost. Whether or not you’re going 100 meters or 400, you’re spending actual cash per gap. However in contrast to pure gasoline programs, the place each BTU comes with a invoice eternally, a borehole area is a one-time funding that simply retains working. Consider it as drilling into an enormous thermal checking account—you deposit as soon as and withdraw for many years.
In Colorado Mesa College’s case, they put in practically 500 boreholes and run a low-temperature ambient loop by a bunch of campus buildings. The college is positioned in Grand Junction, on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains in a excessive desert local weather. Summer season temperatures incessantly rise above 100°F (38°C), whereas winter lows can drop beneath 10°F (-12°C), with occasional extremes close to -20°F (-29°C). It’s not nearly warmth; it’s about effectivity. Their warmth pumps hit COPs as excessive as 6 when buildings share waste warmth by the loop. They’ve reported years the place backup boilers by no means even fired up. This isn’t simply sustainability — it’s operational robustness.
What makes ground-source significantly compelling on the district stage is the scale-based effectivity. If you hyperlink buildings along with a shared borehole area, you get range of load. Meaning the system doesn’t have to be sized for the worst-case peak of each constructing — it solely wants to satisfy the blended demand throughout the community. The consequence? Fewer boreholes per constructing, much less gear, and smoother operation. That’s not a concept — it’s been validated in locations like Whisper Valley exterior Austin, Texas, the place each dwelling will get its personal borehole tied right into a group loop. The system works as a result of not all houses want peak warmth or cooling on the identical time, and the shared infrastructure can flex with the neighborhood’s rhythms. Householders pay a flat month-to-month price, and the system operator maintains the geothermal infrastructure like a utility. It’s warmth as a service, backed by dust and physics as a substitute of gasoline molecules and hope.
In fact, not each geography is a geothermal slam dunk. You want drilling entry, respectable subsurface conductivity, and sufficient house to make the borefield work. However the engineering isn’t unique. We’ve recognized learn how to drill vertical boreholes for many years. And for locations with out lots of land, improvements like power piles — the place the constructing’s basis doubles as the warmth exchanger — are bridging the hole. In dense cities, directional drilling or deep boreholes are opening up beforehand inaccessible initiatives. It’s not simple, nevertheless it’s getting simpler. And the payoff is not any combustion, low upkeep, and a system that simply retains buzzing.
Evaluate that to the alternate options. Fuel boilers are low-cost to put in, however are a ticket to a future crammed with volatility, carbon prices, and infrastructure lock-in. Biomass sounds nice till you notice you’re hauling wooden pellets throughout the nation and putting in particulate scrubbers to keep away from choking your neighbors. Waste warmth programs are wonderful once they work, however they’re hostage to no matter industrial course of or information heart they’re connected to. If that plant shuts down or scales again, the warmth’s gone. CHP programs are higher than dumb boilers, however they’re nonetheless fossil-based and solely make sense when the electrical grid is extra carbon-intensive than your gasoline turbine — not precisely the long-term image. And huge air-source warmth pumps, whereas promising, are much less environment friendly, noisy, and get grumpy when the mercury drops.
In the meantime, a ground-source district heating system simply sits there, quietly biking water by the Earth and again, day in and day trip. The thermal mass of the bottom doesn’t care if it’s January or July. It doesn’t want a worth on carbon to be environment friendly. It doesn’t require tankers stuffed with gasoline. It simply works. And the programs are getting smarter — variable-speed pumps, distributed controls, predictive algorithms that match hundreds with floor capability. They’re integrating with photo voltaic, managing thermal stability, and even pulling waste warmth from grocery retailer refrigeration items. This isn’t a distinct segment. This can be a spine.
The chance to displace pure gasoline distribution utilities with geothermal warmth utilities isn’t only a technical one, it’s an infrastructural reset. Fuel grids had been designed in an period the place the aim was to pipe flamable gasoline to each constructing and burn it domestically. Geothermal floor loops flip that utterly: pipe low-temperature water as a substitute of gasoline, and switch warmth quite than combust it. The thermodynamic effectivity is way increased, the emissions are virtually zero, and the security dangers drop to close nothing. You’re not piping a flammable gasoline underneath strain, you’re shifting water or glycol.
Fuel utilities don’t have a future in shifting extra flamable gases. The one they transfer by their pipes now could be a fossil gasoline and a potent greenhouse gasoline, so it has to go. After a long time of attempting, gasoline corporations have managed to get to a spread of 0.1% to 1% of gasoline being biogas, and that’s nonetheless placing a potent greenhouse gasoline in a leaky system. As for hydrogen, its vastly leakier, nonetheless a potent, if oblique greenhouse gasoline, and radically costlier besides. That’s why regardless of a decade of frantic lobbying by gasoline utilities, the EU has put an enormous crimson X by the concept. However they might have a future as warmth utilities.
Proper now gasoline utilities, exterior of forward-thinking locations like Utrecht within the Netherlands, are going through the utility dying spiral as customers pivot to warmth pumps however the gasoline distribution system stays in place and prices simply as a lot to function. Decrease income, persistent prices, dangerous enterprise case. But when they received into the enterprise of warmth, they might strategically construct geothermal loops in a area, shift everybody over, and shut down the gasoline connections.
Not like hydrogen fantasies, this doesn’t require inventing new infrastructure supplies or reengineering 1000’s of home equipment. We have already got the pumps, the controls, the warmth pumps, and the boreholes. The regulatory frameworks are catching up, particularly in locations just like the UK the place corporations like Kensa are proposing shared ambient loops as direct replacements for gasoline distribution in neighborhoods. In North America, utilities like Eversource and Nationwide Grid are piloting shared loop geothermal programs as thermal utilities. As a substitute of delivering molecules, they’ll ship thermal potential. As soon as that enterprise mannequin catches on, and as soon as regulators acknowledge a loop is infrastructure on par with a gasoline principal, complete neighborhoods can decarbonize in a single mission.
It’s not all easy crusing. The challenges aren’t about physics — they’re about planning, allowing, and economics. For starters, drilling lots of of boreholes isn’t one thing you do in a single day. You want house, time, and the proper subsurface circumstances. In dense city areas, house is tight, and each borehole may want bespoke design to keep away from underground utilities or navigate tough soil. Coordination throughout property traces may be painful. That is really a spot the place the directional drilling so vital for fracking has financial benefit exterior of fossil fuels, in contrast to the black-swan riddled concepts of deep and enhanced geothermal electrical era.
Then there’s the upfront value. Even when the lifetime value is decrease than gasoline, somebody has to finance the capital, and utilities, municipalities, and builders don’t at all times play properly collectively. Allowing is one other mess. In lots of jurisdictions, there’s no established allowing course of for shared thermal loops, or it’s lumped in with water properly regulation, which is an ungainly match. And whereas personal builders can act quick, public sector initiatives typically transfer on the pace of frozen molasses in January. Add in considerations about efficiency dangers (Will the borefield overheat? Will thermal imbalance degrade output over time?) and also you get the same old institutional warning.
Then there’s the human facet. Individuals are used to gasoline. They perceive gasoline payments, gasoline meters, gasoline furnaces. Asking them to undertake a subscription mannequin for geothermal warmth delivered by a shared loop requires rethinking how heating is bought, delivered, and maintained. Who owns the loop? Who maintains it? What occurs when somebody sells their dwelling? Till just lately I used to be the strata council president of my little vertical village of 233 households over 19 flooring in a nook of the block right here in downtown Vancouver. The one piece of climate-adaptation and mitigation I didn’t obtain on my watch was getting the constructing hooked as much as the native district heating utility to exchange our gas-boiler for warm water. Sooner or later… however no less than we have now warmth pumps and EV charging (which have considerably elevated my condominium’s valuation, so name me self-interested).
These are solvable issues, however they require new enterprise fashions, new utility pondering, and public training. Nonetheless, the payoff is immense: a neighborhood, zero-combustion power supply that may serve complete blocks with out the danger of explosion, worth volatility, or political publicity to imported fuels. And the bottom doesn’t care in case your loop serves 5 houses or 500, the thermal mass scales fantastically.
What’s clear is that the battle over the way forward for heating is shifting. Fuel networks are growing old, costly to take care of, and more and more misaligned with local weather targets. Electrification is the best way ahead, however electrifying heating with resistive components and even air-source warmth pumps places a pressure on grids, particularly in chilly climate. Geothermal loops provide a steady, load-flattening various. They distribute heating capability with out including megawatts of peak demand. And in the event that they’re constructed out utilizing utility cost-of-service fashions, they are often financed and maintained similar to gasoline mains as soon as had been, besides this time, with out the explosions, carbon, or stranded asset threat. The following decade will decide whether or not we retrofit cities the dumb means — piecemeal and reactive — or the sensible means, with shared infrastructure that faucets into the Earth itself. The window is open. The bottom is ready.
The geothermal initiatives that seize headlines — deep wells tapping magma-adjacent rock or enhanced geothermal programs requiring hydraulic stimulation — include massive guarantees and even greater dangers. These are the moonshots: billion-dollar drill jobs that financial institution on hitting the geological jackpot. They give the impression of being nice in press releases and shiny investor decks, however they’re traditional Bent Flyvbjerg long-tailed megaprojects, the place a handful of winners disguise a protracted path of value overruns, dry wells, seismic surprises, and flat-out failures. Each additional kilometer drilled multiplies uncertainty, and the second you begin fracturing deep granite, you’re not simply managing power, you’re managing public concern and regulatory scrutiny. The chances of blowing out your timeline or your price range are baked into the rock itself.
In the meantime, boring previous shallow geothermal for district heating barely will get a point out, regardless of being the quiet workhorse with a average and extremely manageable threat profile. We’re speaking about low-variance initiatives: modest depth boreholes, confirmed warmth pump tech, and warmth supply programs that piggyback on present infrastructure. No unique geology. No induced seismicity. No billion-dollar wells. These initiatives don’t purpose to alter the world in a single day; they purpose to decarbonize buildings immediately. And so they really work, over and over, in nation after nation. It’s not glamorous, nevertheless it’s reliable, replicable, and scalable — precisely the sort of answer that survives contact with the actual world. Whereas the deep drillers roll the cube, district-scale geothermal quietly replaces gasoline with warmth pulled gently from the earth, no fireworks required.
So sure, the upfront prices are increased. However the long-term trajectory is unbeatable. We’ve constructed infrastructure that’s been out of date in a decade. Floor-source district heating isn’t a type of. It’s a everlasting improve. For those who’re constructing a brand new neighborhood, a campus, a hospital district, or a cluster of business buildings and also you’re not contemplating ground-source, you’re ignoring the quiet revolution that’s already midway all over the world and heating tens of tens of millions of sq. meters with out burning a single factor.
For those who’re a gasoline utility that’s not working towards being a warmth utility however betting on hydrogen, you’re throwing away your future and your shareholders’ income stream. For those who’re an city planner contemplate the way forward for present neighborhoods and never in severe talks with district heating organizations like Artistic Power or your native gasoline utilities about create geothermal loops, you aren’t severe about your job.
The query isn’t whether or not district heating based mostly on geothermal is viable. The query is why everybody’s not already doing it. And with China within the lead, we would not have lengthy to ask. They’ll be reaping the advantages of low-cost, low carbon warmth whereas the west continues to waste power and climate-solution time.
The menace actors behind the Medusa ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation have been noticed utilizing a malicious driver dubbed ABYSSWORKER as a part of a convey your individual susceptible driver (BYOVD) assault designed to disable anti-malware instruments.
Elastic Safety Labs mentioned it noticed a Medusa ransomware assault that delivered the encryptor by the use of a loader packed utilizing a packer-as-a-service (PaaS) known as HeartCrypt.
“This loader was deployed alongside a revoked certificate-signed driver from a Chinese language vendor we named ABYSSWORKER, which it installs on the sufferer machine after which makes use of to focus on and silence totally different EDR distributors,” the corporate mentioned in a report.
The motive force in query, “smuol.sys,” mimics a respectable CrowdStrike Falcon driver (“CSAgent.sys”). Dozens of ABYSSWORKER artifacts have been detected on the VirusTotal platform courting from August 8, 2024, to February 25, 2025. All of the recognized samples are signed utilizing probably stolen, revoked certificates from Chinese language firms.
The truth that the malware can also be signed offers it a veneer of belief and permits it to bypass safety programs with out attracting any consideration. It is value noting that the endpoint detection and response (EDR)-killing driver was beforehand documented by ConnectWise in January 2025 beneath the identify “nbwdv.sys.”
As soon as initialized and launched, ABYSSWORKER is designed so as to add the method ID to a listing of world protected processes and hear for incoming gadget I/O management requests, that are then dispatched to acceptable handlers primarily based on I/O management code.
“These handlers cowl a variety of operations, from file manipulation to course of and driver termination, offering a complete toolset that can be utilized to terminate or completely disable EDR programs,” Elastic mentioned.
The record of a few of the I/O management codes is beneath –
0x222080 – Allow the driving force by sending a password “7N6bCAoECbItsUR5-h4Rp2nkQxybfKb0F-wgbJGHGh20pWUuN1-ZxfXdiOYps6HTp0X”
0x2220c0 – Load mandatory kernel APIs
0x222184 – Copy file
0x222180 – Delete file
0x222408 – Kill system threads by module identify
0x222400 – Take away notification callbacks by module identify
0x2220c0 – Load API
0x222144 – Terminate course of by their course of ID
0x222140 – Terminate thread by their thread ID
0x222084 – Disable malware
0x222664 – Reboot the machine
Of explicit curiosity is 0x222400, which can be utilized to blind safety merchandise by looking and eradicating all registered notification callbacks, an strategy additionally adopted by different EDR-killing instruments like EDRSandBlast and RealBlindingEDR.
The findings observe a report from Venak Safety about how menace actors are exploiting a legitimate-but-vulnerable kernel driver related to Test Level’s ZoneAlarm antivirus software program as a part of a BYOVD assault designed to achieve elevated privileges and disable Home windows security measures like Reminiscence Integrity.
The privileged entry was then abused by the menace actors to ascertain a Distant Desktop Protocol (RDP) connection to the contaminated programs, facilitating persistent entry. The loophole has since been plugged by Test Level.
“As vsdatant.sys operates with high-level kernel privileges, attackers have been capable of exploit its vulnerabilities, bypassing safety protections and antivirus software program, and gaining full management of the contaminated machines,” the corporate mentioned.
“As soon as these defenses have been bypassed, attackers had full entry to the underlying system, the attackers have been capable of entry delicate info corresponding to consumer passwords and different saved credentials. This information was then exfiltrated, opening the door for additional exploitation.”
The event comes because the RansomHub (aka Greenbottle and Cyclops) ransomware operation has been attributed to using a beforehand undocumented multi-function backdoor codenamed Betruger by at the very least one among its associates.
The implant comes with options usually related to malware deployed as a precursor to ransomware, corresponding to screenshotting, keylogging, community scanning, privilege escalation, credential dumping, and information exfiltration to a distant server.
“The performance of Betruger signifies that it might have been developed as a way to reduce the variety of new instruments dropped on a focused community whereas a ransomware assault is being ready,” Broadcom-owned Symantec mentioned, describing it as one thing of a departure from different customized instruments developed by ransomware teams for information exfiltration.
“Using customized malware apart from encrypting payloads is comparatively uncommon in ransomware assaults. Most attackers depend on respectable instruments, dwelling off the land, and publicly obtainable malware corresponding to Mimikatz and Cobalt Strike.”
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IntuiCell mentioned it makes use of by a decentralized studying algorithm primarily based on the training patterns of the mind. | Supply: IntuiCell
IntuiCell, a deep-tech startup that goals to mix neuroscience and synthetic intelligence, this week mentioned it has developed a system able to real-time studying in real-world settings. The Stockholm-based firm launched a video of an off-the-shelf quadruped robotic — with no pre-programmed intelligence or directions — that it has augmented with a “digital nervous system.”
In different phrases, IntuiCell created a bodily AI agent able to autonomously studying in a way that mimics a organic nervous system. The firm, a spin-out of Sweden’s Lund College, claimed that its know-how strikes past static machine-learning fashions, the mainstay of conventional AI, to a totally purposeful system able to scaling to human-level intelligence.
“For many years, AI has excelled at processing huge quantities of information however has essentially been incapable of actual intelligence,” said Viktor Luthman, co-founder and CEO of IntuiCell. “Our system adjustments that. We’ve translated the ideas of organic studying into software program, enabling AI to evolve, adapt, and work together with the world in methods by no means beforehand envisaged.”
“Via licensing our digital nervous system, we goal to turn into the infrastructure for all non-biological intelligence — empowering others to unravel real-world issues we can not foresee right now, with no reliance on large coaching datasets,” he mentioned.
IntuiCell mentioned this innovation will allow it to create machines that be taught from individuals, simply as an individual would train a brand new ability to an animal. To additional display this idea in motion, IntuiCell plans to rent a canine coach — reasonably than combine a big language mannequin (LLM) and huge datasets — to show a bodily agent new expertise.
IntuiCell handle present AI mannequin limits
In contrast to conventional AI fashions which are certain by static coaching information, IntuiCell mentioned its robotic canine, named Luna, perceives, processes, and improves itself by direct interplay with its world. The corporate asserted that Luna demonstrates a purposeful digital nervous system in motion. The robotic has discovered to manage its physique and train itself to face by trial, error, and cumulative expertise.
IntuiCell additionally mentioned it has the functioning foundation for know-how that can function because the Thalamocortex, the a part of the mind that processes and predicts the world. It mentioned it expects to finish the complete digital nervous system inside the subsequent two years.
In the end, the corporate’s aim is to allow the software program platform to equip any agent, bodily or digital, with lifelong studying and adaptation to the unknown capabilities.
At present, virtually all AI fashions depend on backpropagation, the coaching strategy of feeding error charges again by a neural community. In addition they use predefined datasets, limiting their means to be taught dynamically, in line with IntuiCell.
From LLMs to deep reinforcement studying, in addition to some outliers that declare brain-inspired approaches, a lot of AI is dominated by basis fashions educated on huge datasets, it mentioned.
These approaches have achieved leads to static, low-stakes functions similar to producing textual content and pictures, famous IntuiCell. Nonetheless, they aren’t but in a position to replicate organic intelligence’s means to unravel unseen issues or interact in high-stakes functions similar to robotics or industrial automation, it mentioned.
IntuiCell mentioned its digital nervous system allows AI brokers to be taught from their very own experiences with no need preloaded information or backpropagation. It could additionally adapt in actual time to new environments and challenges, in addition to scale naturally towards human-level intelligence, defined the corporate.
The 2025 Robotics Summit & Expo, which might be on April 30 and Might 1 on the Boston Conference and Exhibition Middle, will characteristic a observe of classes round AI and robotics:
“Danger Is Totally different With AI: Methods for Resilient Robots,” with SK Gupta, co-founder and chief scientist at GrayMatter Robotics
“Advancing Robotic Studying With Power Sensing and Bodily Intelligence,” with Klajd Lika, founder and CEO of Bota Techniques
“From Chaos to Readability: Utilizing AI to Discover Necessary Occasions in Robotic Logs,” with Benji Barash, co-founder and CEO of Roboto AI
Researchers have not too long ago found a classy Python-based backdoor, referred to as the Anubis Backdoor, deployed by the infamous cybercrime group FIN7.
This superior risk actor, lively since a minimum of 2015, has been chargeable for billions of {dollars} in damages globally, primarily focusing on the monetary and hospitality sectors.
The Anubis Backdoor represents a major evolution in FIN7’s techniques, leveraging Python to create a stealthy software that blends seamlessly with respectable system operations.
Obfuscated Anubis Backdoor
An infection Vector and Obfuscation Strategies
The preliminary an infection vector entails a seemingly innocuous ZIP archive containing a number of Python information, together with a script named “conf.py.”
In keeping with G Knowledge Report, this archive is unfold by way of phishing campaigns, highlighting FIN7’s continued reliance on social engineering techniques.
The conf.py script employs a multi-stage assault, using AES encryption in CBC mode with padding, SHA-256 hashing, and Base64 encoding to obfuscate its malicious payload.
Implementation of the load operate in conf.py
The script processes an obfuscated code string by splitting and decoding it, decrypting the content material, writing it to a short lived file, executing it, after which deleting the file to attenuate its footprint on disk.
Core Performance and Persistence
The Anubis Backdoor’s core performance consists of community communication over HTTP ports (80/443), customizable server lists saved within the Home windows Registry for persistence, and command execution capabilities via Python’s subprocess module.
It incorporates a streamlined file add mechanism, permitting attackers to ship extra instruments and malware to compromised techniques.
The backdoor maintains persistence by storing its C2 configuration within the Home windows Registry, encrypted utilizing AES-CBC with a key derived from the agent ID and the sufferer’s laptop identify.
This makes every an infection distinctive and troublesome to decrypt with out particular environmental information.
Safety Impression and Evolution
The Anubis Backdoor offers FIN7 with a versatile distant entry software able to working throughout Home windows environments.
Its design demonstrates FIN7’s continued evolution in growing covert communication channels that mix with respectable community visitors.
The mix of multi-layered obfuscation, encryption, and modular command construction offers risk actors important capabilities, together with full shell entry, file exfiltration, and dynamic management of C2 infrastructure.
These options, together with operational safety measures to hinder evaluation and detection, underscore the sophistication and adaptableness of FIN7’s newest software.
Examine Actual-World Malicious Hyperlinks & Phishing Assaults With Menace Intelligence Lookup – Attempt for Free
