While most of us don’t design aircraft or racing cars, it’s likely that we’re still fascinated by some of the aerodynamic studies behind them. But a full-sized wind tunnel is …read more
There is a drawing of a bicycle in one of Leonarda DaVinci‘s sketchbooks– except it wasn’t drawn by DaVinci, and dates long after his death, so we can’t say the …read more
In some parts of the world it’s common for cell service providers to sell new phones at a price significantly below market value, with the caveat that these phones are …read more
We’ve covered etch-a-sketch robots before, but usually they’re not quite as fast as [Every Flavor of Robot]’s “video” etch-a-sketch, capable of drawing a full portrait in as little as a …read more
The Honeywell X2S Smart Thermostat is a Wi-Fi-enabled thermostat that is meant to integrate with your typical ‘smart home’ setup, with mobile app control available as well. Of course, just …read more
The Commodore 64 has, by modern standards, the interesting power requirement of needing both 5 VDC and 9 VAC. Traditionally, one would use an iron-core transformer to step-down the wall …read more
There’s a line in a [Weird Al] (no relation) song that says, “I upgrade my system at least twice a day…” I know how that is. I primarily use a …read more
Zinc air batteries have been a familiar sight for decades in the world of photography, where they provided an environmentally less dangerous alternative to mercury cells. They operate by the …read more
The 2000s was a decade of great change in the computer industry. The world had grown accustomed to corruptible floppy disks, blue screens of death, and achingly slow load times. …read more
After the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) began operations in 2022, it soon made a tantalizing discovery in the form of mysterious red dots: small, red-tinted astronomical objects of unknown …read more
Gravity batteries aren’t exactly a new idea. You can store energy by lifting something heavy, converting kinetic energy into potential energy. To get it back, you let the mass fall …read more
Computing goes hand-in-hand with how to structure and access data, and this internal training film from IBM regarding file organization and data processing with System/360 is from a time when …read more
Glass-based substrates are slowly beginning to push out organic substrates – as also commonly used in PCBs – due to often superior material properties for packaging. One area where glass …read more
There are many ways you can implement an Intel i386 CPU on an FPGA, with the use of original microcode probably being one of the most interesting approaches. This is …read more
Some of you may know there’s a version of UNIX for the Commodore Amiga, aptly called Amiga Unix or AMIX. There is an almost complete record of versions from 1.0 …read more
Unless you’ve managed to avoid touching a Windows computer until after the Windows XP era, it’s pretty good odds you’ve played Space Cadet Pinball. Some of you may have even …read more
There are a surprising number of experiments an amateur nuclear physicist can perform, from making a Geiger counter to fusing hydrogen atoms in a fusor. One project which we haven’t …read more
Processor design over the last few decades has moved toward RISC processors that aim to implement a few simple operations very efficiently. For a while, though, the trend was toward …read more
A twenty-sided die (d20) is a common thing in tabletop gaming, and [kati]’s slightly sentient d20 is a PCB that not only delivers random results on demand, but responds to …read more
Recently cheapo video walkie-talkies popped up on everyone’s favorite online retailers, which naturally lured in the usual gaggle of reverse-engineering enthusiasts of cheap tat to see what’s inside these devices, …read more