Once upon a time, it was deemed mostly silly to try and schlep power from a computer’s ports. Then it was kind of amusing to do so with USB, and …read more
Bash is great for automating little tasks, but sometimes a little script you think will take a minute to write turns into a half hour or more. This is the …read more
Often, the only liquid level indicator you need is your eyes, such as when looking at your cold beverage on a summer’s day. Other times, though, it’s useful to have …read more
The 1990s saw a revolution occur, launched by the CD burner. As prices of writeable media and drives dropped, consumers rushed to duplicate games, create their own mix CDs, and …read more
It’s difficult to nail down exactly what counts as a “real” cyberdeck in this brave new era of bespoke computing. But at the minimum, most in the community would agree …read more
Shell scripting is one of those skills that are absolutely invaluable on especially UNIX and BSD-based systems like the BSDs, the two zillion Linux distributions as well as MacOS. Yet …read more
Hacking — at least the kind where you’re breaking into stuff — is very much a learn-by-doing skill. There’s simply no substitute for getting your hands dirty and just trying …read more
We’ve all heard about the perils of counterfeit chips, and more than a few of us have probably been bitten by those scruple-free types who run random chips through a …read more
It would seem fair to say that the second half of last century up till the present day has been firmly shaped by our relation with technology and that of …read more
For a long time, a Morse code proficiency was required to obtain an amateur radio license in many jurisdictions around the world, which was a much higher bar of entry …read more
For retrocomputing enthusiasts, getting old computers to work with newer peripherals can be an exciting challenge or horrible headache. If you need to print out receipts from an old Mac, …read more
If you’re both a LEGO and a Dune fan, unless you’ve been living in a cave on Mars with your eyes shut and fingers in your ears, you’re probably aware …read more
If you’ve ever watched Predator, you’ve noted the tactical advantage granted to the alien warrior by its heat vision. Indeed, even with otherwise solid camoflauge, Dutch and his squad ended up …read more
[M Caldeira] had a project in mind: replacing a common vacuum tube with a solid-state equivalent. The tube in question was an EABC80 or 6AK8 triple diode triode. The key …read more
[Mikrowave1] had a Unelco shortwave receiver as a kid. This was a typical simple radio for the 1960s using germanium and silicon transistors. It also had plug-in coils you had …read more
The processing power of modern game consoles is absolutely staggering when compared to the coin-op arcade machines of the early 1980s. Packed with terabytes of internal storage and gigabytes of …read more
If you don’t count the high center of gravity, the weight limit, the weak chassis, or the small size, a standard shopping cart is an almost ideal platform for building …read more
Designing combinatorial digital circuits seems like it should be easy. After all, you can do everything you want with just AND, OR, and NOT gates. Bonus points if you have …read more
As it turns out, a great deal of plastics are thrown away every year, a waste which feels ever growing. Still, as reported by Sci-Tech Daily, there may be help on …read more
If amateur radio has a problem, it’s that shaking off an image of being the exclusive preserve of old men with shiny radios talking about old times remains a challenge. …read more