If you haven’t already heard, BMW’s R&D teams have been busy "innovating" a proprietary security screw specifically intended to prevent independent repairs. As with any cash-grab engineered to stifle repair, the DIY community isn’t taking it lying down: Our friends over at Adafruit have used BMW’s own spurious patent filings to map the dimensions and 3D-print a replica bit to defeat the lock.

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Your Car Is a Smartphone With Wheels, and the App Store Is Rigged

This week, U.S. PIRG released My Car, My Data, a new report arguing that control of vehicle data sent into the cloud is quietly setting up a two-tier repair economy. This is how manufacturers are using your vehicle’s data to gain an unfair edge in the repair market, and the fight for automotive Right to Repair is building to a fever pitch.

SOURCE: IFIXIT

The RAM Nightmare: How I Lost My Sanity (and Almost My Deadline)

Artist David Revoy nearly missed a comic production deadline when a faulty RAM module corrupted his system, leading him to down a painstaking scramble to diagnose and replace the bad stick. Good reminder that socketed RAM has more benefits than being upgradeable!

SOURCE: DAVID REVOY

New York Wants to Ctrl+Alt+Delete Your 3D Printer

In other 3D-printing news, New York’s proposed budget legislation would require all 3D printers sold or delivered in the state to include firmware that scans print files and blocks anything it suspects is a firearm or firearm part, a move intended to curb “ghost gun” production but criticized as technically infeasible and overly broad.

SOURCE: ADAFRUIT

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