Linux’s Marketing Problem
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/linuxs-marketing-problem/
The cult classic movie Office Space is a scathing critique of life for software engineers in a cubicle farm, and it did get a lot of things right even if it didn’t always mean to. One of those is the character of Tom Smykowski whose job is to “deal with …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/linuxs-marketing-problem/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/linuxs-marketing-problem/
The cult classic movie Office Space is a scathing critique of life for software engineers in a cubicle farm, and it did get a lot of things right even if it didn’t always mean to. One of those is the character of Tom Smykowski whose job is to “deal with …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/linuxs-marketing-problem/)
High-Precision Air Bearing CNC Lathe and Grinder
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/high-precision-air-bearing-cnc-lathe-and-grinder/
You know you’re in for a treat when you are told that a lathe which can reach a resolution of one micrometer (1×10−6, a millionth of a meter, or 0.00004″ for people who love zeros) is ‘not hard to build’. This is one of the opening statements …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/high-precision-air-bearing-cnc-lathe-and-grinder/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/high-precision-air-bearing-cnc-lathe-and-grinder/
You know you’re in for a treat when you are told that a lathe which can reach a resolution of one micrometer (1×10−6, a millionth of a meter, or 0.00004″ for people who love zeros) is ‘not hard to build’. This is one of the opening statements …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/high-precision-air-bearing-cnc-lathe-and-grinder/)
Saintcon Badge is an Enigma No More
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/saintcon-badge-is-an-enigma-no-more/
Through the weekend Twitter has been a-titter with news coming out of Saintcon, the annual security conference in Provo, Utah. Now that the weekend is over we can finally get our hands on full hardware and software sources for the curvy, LED-covered badge we’ve been salivating over and a write …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/saintcon-badge-is-an-enigma-no-more/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/saintcon-badge-is-an-enigma-no-more/
Through the weekend Twitter has been a-titter with news coming out of Saintcon, the annual security conference in Provo, Utah. Now that the weekend is over we can finally get our hands on full hardware and software sources for the curvy, LED-covered badge we’ve been salivating over and a write …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/saintcon-badge-is-an-enigma-no-more/)
Superconference Interview: Ted Yapo
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/superconference-interview-ted-yapo/
We’re just two weeks away from the fifth annual Hackaday Superconference, the single biggest gathering of hardware enthusiasts on at least one continent. It’s gearing up to be great, and we’re super excited for the opportunity to bring you such a diverse array of talks, workshops, and more.
What makes …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/superconference-interview-ted-yapo/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/superconference-interview-ted-yapo/
We’re just two weeks away from the fifth annual Hackaday Superconference, the single biggest gathering of hardware enthusiasts on at least one continent. It’s gearing up to be great, and we’re super excited for the opportunity to bring you such a diverse array of talks, workshops, and more.
What makes …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/superconference-interview-ted-yapo/)
Bee Minder Proves Not Even Bees are Safe From Surveillance States
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/bee-minder-proves-not-even-bees-are-safe-from-surveillance-states/
We all know how important bees are to our ecosystems and [Kris Winer]’s bee monitor provides a great way to monitor these amazing but delicate creature’s habitats, hopefully alerting us before a disaster strikes a vital hive.
The board is based around LoRa sensor tile called Cicada but redesigned to …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/bee-minder-proves-not-even-bees-are-safe-from-surveillance-states/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/bee-minder-proves-not-even-bees-are-safe-from-surveillance-states/
We all know how important bees are to our ecosystems and [Kris Winer]’s bee monitor provides a great way to monitor these amazing but delicate creature’s habitats, hopefully alerting us before a disaster strikes a vital hive.
The board is based around LoRa sensor tile called Cicada but redesigned to …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/bee-minder-proves-not-even-bees-are-safe-from-surveillance-states/)
Five Channel Monitor Keeps Boat Batteries Shipshape
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/five-channel-monitor-keeps-boat-batteries-shipshape/
While those of us stuck sailing desks might not be able to truly appreciate the problem, [Timo Birnschein] was tired of finding that some of the batteries aboard his boat had gone flat. He wanted some way to check the voltage on all of the the batteries in the system …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/five-channel-monitor-keeps-boat-batteries-shipshape/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/five-channel-monitor-keeps-boat-batteries-shipshape/
While those of us stuck sailing desks might not be able to truly appreciate the problem, [Timo Birnschein] was tired of finding that some of the batteries aboard his boat had gone flat. He wanted some way to check the voltage on all of the the batteries in the system …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/five-channel-monitor-keeps-boat-batteries-shipshape/)
Fresh-Squeezed OJ Served In Orange Peel-Ay
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/fresh-squeezed-oj-served-in-orange-peel-ay/
Though it’s really more apple cider weather here at Hackaday HQ, freshly-squeezed OJ is a treat that knows no season. Sure generates a lot of peel, though. Not something you think about when you’re used to buying it in jugs at the grocery store. What a waste, huh?
Italian design …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/fresh-squeezed-oj-served-in-orange-peel-ay/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/fresh-squeezed-oj-served-in-orange-peel-ay/
Though it’s really more apple cider weather here at Hackaday HQ, freshly-squeezed OJ is a treat that knows no season. Sure generates a lot of peel, though. Not something you think about when you’re used to buying it in jugs at the grocery store. What a waste, huh?
Italian design …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/fresh-squeezed-oj-served-in-orange-peel-ay/)
Stereolithography Goes Big
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/stereolithography-goes-big/
When it comes to hobby-level 3D printing, most of us use plastic filament deposited by a hot end. Nearly all the rest are using stereolithography — projecting light into a photosensitive resin. Filament printers have typical build volumes ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 cubic centimeters and even larger isn’t unusual. …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/stereolithography-goes-big/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/stereolithography-goes-big/
When it comes to hobby-level 3D printing, most of us use plastic filament deposited by a hot end. Nearly all the rest are using stereolithography — projecting light into a photosensitive resin. Filament printers have typical build volumes ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 cubic centimeters and even larger isn’t unusual. …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/stereolithography-goes-big/)
BEAM Dragonfly Causes A Flap
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/beam-dragonfly-causes-a-flap/
Normal people throw away stuff when it breaks. But not people like us. Or, apparently, [NanoRobotGeek]. A cheap robotic dragonfly died, and he cannibalized it for robot parts. But he kept the gearbox hoping to build a new dragonfly and, using some brass rod, he did just that.
The dragonfly’s …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/beam-dragonfly-causes-a-flap/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/beam-dragonfly-causes-a-flap/
Normal people throw away stuff when it breaks. But not people like us. Or, apparently, [NanoRobotGeek]. A cheap robotic dragonfly died, and he cannibalized it for robot parts. But he kept the gearbox hoping to build a new dragonfly and, using some brass rod, he did just that.
The dragonfly’s …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/beam-dragonfly-causes-a-flap/)
Symbiflow Open Source FPGA toolchain
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/symbiflow-open-source-fpga-toolchain/
Anyone who’s ever had the pleasure of programming FPGAs knows that it’s a land of proprietary tools that almost require marriage level commitment to a specific platform to be effective. Symbiflow hopes to solve this by becoming the GCC of FPGAs.
Rather than a tool built around a specific chip …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/symbiflow-open-source-fpga-toolchain/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/symbiflow-open-source-fpga-toolchain/
Anyone who’s ever had the pleasure of programming FPGAs knows that it’s a land of proprietary tools that almost require marriage level commitment to a specific platform to be effective. Symbiflow hopes to solve this by becoming the GCC of FPGAs.
Rather than a tool built around a specific chip …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/symbiflow-open-source-fpga-toolchain/)
Raspberry Pi NAS Makes Itself at Home In Donor PC
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/raspberry-pi-nas-makes-itself-at-home-in-donor-pc/
It’s safe to say that most of us have at least one Raspberry Pi hanging from a USB cable someplace, silently hammering away at some unglamorous task that you’d rather not do on a “real” computer. With as cheap as they are, it’s not like there’s a big concern about …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/raspberry-pi-nas-makes-itself-at-home-in-donor-pc/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/raspberry-pi-nas-makes-itself-at-home-in-donor-pc/
It’s safe to say that most of us have at least one Raspberry Pi hanging from a USB cable someplace, silently hammering away at some unglamorous task that you’d rather not do on a “real” computer. With as cheap as they are, it’s not like there’s a big concern about …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/raspberry-pi-nas-makes-itself-at-home-in-donor-pc/)
This Week in Security: Project Zero’s iPhone, BBC The Onion, Rooting Androids, and More
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/this-week-in-security-project-zeros-iphone-bbc-the-onion-rooting-androids-and-more/
The always interesting Project Zero has a pair of stories revolving around security research itself. The first, from this week, is all about one man’s quest to build a debug iPhone for research. [Brandon Azad] wanted iOS debugging features like single-stepping, turning off certain mitigations, and using the LLDB debugger. …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/this-week-in-security-project-zeros-iphone-bbc-the-onion-rooting-androids-and-more/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/this-week-in-security-project-zeros-iphone-bbc-the-onion-rooting-androids-and-more/
The always interesting Project Zero has a pair of stories revolving around security research itself. The first, from this week, is all about one man’s quest to build a debug iPhone for research. [Brandon Azad] wanted iOS debugging features like single-stepping, turning off certain mitigations, and using the LLDB debugger. …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/this-week-in-security-project-zeros-iphone-bbc-the-onion-rooting-androids-and-more/)
Ploopy Open Source Trackball Keeps Rolling Along
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/ploopy-open-source-trackball-keeps-rolling-along/
We’ll be honest. When we first heard about a mouse, we weren’t convinced. The argument was that business people weren’t familiar with computers. That didn’t ring true since every business person in the last century had at least seen a typewriter keyboard, but most of them had never seen a …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/ploopy-open-source-trackball-keeps-rolling-along/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/ploopy-open-source-trackball-keeps-rolling-along/
We’ll be honest. When we first heard about a mouse, we weren’t convinced. The argument was that business people weren’t familiar with computers. That didn’t ring true since every business person in the last century had at least seen a typewriter keyboard, but most of them had never seen a …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/ploopy-open-source-trackball-keeps-rolling-along/)
Hackaday Podcast 042: Capacitive Earthquakes, GRBL on ESP32, Solenoid Engines, and the TI-99 Space Program
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/hackaday-podcast-042-capacitive-earthquakes-grbl-on-esp32-solenoid-engines-and-the-ti-99-space-program/
Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Mike Szczys talk turkey on the latest hacks. Random numbers, art, and electronic geekery combine into an entropic masterpiece. We saw Bart Dring bring new life to a cool little multi-pen plotter from the Atari age. Researchers at UCSD built a very very very slow …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/hackaday-podcast-042-capacitive-earthquakes-grbl-on-esp32-solenoid-engines-and-the-ti-99-space-program/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/hackaday-podcast-042-capacitive-earthquakes-grbl-on-esp32-solenoid-engines-and-the-ti-99-space-program/
Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Mike Szczys talk turkey on the latest hacks. Random numbers, art, and electronic geekery combine into an entropic masterpiece. We saw Bart Dring bring new life to a cool little multi-pen plotter from the Atari age. Researchers at UCSD built a very very very slow …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/hackaday-podcast-042-capacitive-earthquakes-grbl-on-esp32-solenoid-engines-and-the-ti-99-space-program/)
DSP Spreadsheet: Frequency Mixing
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/dsp-spreadsheet-frequency-mixing/
Circuit simulation and software workbooks like Matlab and Jupyter are great for being able to build things without a lot of overhead. But these all have some learning curve and often use clever tricks, abstractions, or library calls to obscure what’s really happening. Sometimes it is clearer to build math …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/dsp-spreadsheet-frequency-mixing/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/dsp-spreadsheet-frequency-mixing/
Circuit simulation and software workbooks like Matlab and Jupyter are great for being able to build things without a lot of overhead. But these all have some learning curve and often use clever tricks, abstractions, or library calls to obscure what’s really happening. Sometimes it is clearer to build math …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/dsp-spreadsheet-frequency-mixing/)
FBus: An Extensible and Easily Configurable FPGA Based DAQ
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/fbus-an-extensible-and-easily-configurable-fpga-based-daq/
[flow] is a little disillusioned with commercial Data Acquisition Systems (DAQs) and channeled his frustration into his own, very cool, FPGA based solution.
The project takes form as a back plane into which various cards can be slotted. The the interface is just a PCI-e connector. If you need analog …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/fbus-an-extensible-and-easily-configurable-fpga-based-daq/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/fbus-an-extensible-and-easily-configurable-fpga-based-daq/
[flow] is a little disillusioned with commercial Data Acquisition Systems (DAQs) and channeled his frustration into his own, very cool, FPGA based solution.
The project takes form as a back plane into which various cards can be slotted. The the interface is just a PCI-e connector. If you need analog …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/fbus-an-extensible-and-easily-configurable-fpga-based-daq/)
Announcing the “Take Flight with Feather” Contest
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/announcing-the-take-flight-with-feather-contest/
The Adafruit Feather is the latest platform for microcontroller development, and companies like Particle, Sparkfun, Seeed Studios, and of course Adafruit are producing Feather-compatible devices for development and prototyping. Now it’s your turn! The Take Flight With Feather contest challenges you to design a board to fit in the Feather …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/announcing-the-take-flight-with-feather-contest/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/announcing-the-take-flight-with-feather-contest/
The Adafruit Feather is the latest platform for microcontroller development, and companies like Particle, Sparkfun, Seeed Studios, and of course Adafruit are producing Feather-compatible devices for development and prototyping. Now it’s your turn! The Take Flight With Feather contest challenges you to design a board to fit in the Feather …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/announcing-the-take-flight-with-feather-contest/)
Adding USB-C To The TS100
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/adding-usb-c-to-the-ts100/
The TS100 is a popular entry into the new breed of small temperature-controlled soldering irons that, at least for some of us, have started to replace the bulky soldering stations of old. Unfortunately, one downside of this particular model is the need to plug it into a fairly ungainly laptop-style …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/adding-usb-c-to-the-ts100/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/adding-usb-c-to-the-ts100/
The TS100 is a popular entry into the new breed of small temperature-controlled soldering irons that, at least for some of us, have started to replace the bulky soldering stations of old. Unfortunately, one downside of this particular model is the need to plug it into a fairly ungainly laptop-style …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/adding-usb-c-to-the-ts100/)
Josef Prusa Wants You to Change File Formats
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/josef-prusa-wants-you-to-change-file-formats/
We’ve all been there. You find that cool cat model on Thingiverse — we won’t judge. You download the STL, all ready to watch the magic of having it materialize on your print bed. But the slicer complains it isn’t manifold or watertight or something like that. What a let …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/josef-prusa-wants-you-to-change-file-formats/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/josef-prusa-wants-you-to-change-file-formats/
We’ve all been there. You find that cool cat model on Thingiverse — we won’t judge. You download the STL, all ready to watch the magic of having it materialize on your print bed. But the slicer complains it isn’t manifold or watertight or something like that. What a let …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/josef-prusa-wants-you-to-change-file-formats/)
SPARC CPU In A Cheap FPGA
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/sparc-cpu-in-a-cheap-fpga/
There was a time when SPARC CPUs were the sole realm of pricey Sun workstations, but now you can put one on an FPGA with just a little trouble. The problem is you need a fairly big CPU which isn’t always cheap unless someone goes out of business and you …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/sparc-cpu-in-a-cheap-fpga/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/sparc-cpu-in-a-cheap-fpga/
There was a time when SPARC CPUs were the sole realm of pricey Sun workstations, but now you can put one on an FPGA with just a little trouble. The problem is you need a fairly big CPU which isn’t always cheap unless someone goes out of business and you …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/sparc-cpu-in-a-cheap-fpga/)
Atari Tape Drive Turned Security DVR
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/atari-tape-drive-turned-security-dvr/
We know that a lot of our beloved readers don’t take kindly to abuse of vintage hardware, so the Atari fans in the audience may want to avert their eyes for this one. Especially if they’re particularly keen on spinning up their Jawbreaker cassette on authentic hardware, as [iot4c] has …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/atari-tape-drive-turned-security-dvr/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/atari-tape-drive-turned-security-dvr/
We know that a lot of our beloved readers don’t take kindly to abuse of vintage hardware, so the Atari fans in the audience may want to avert their eyes for this one. Especially if they’re particularly keen on spinning up their Jawbreaker cassette on authentic hardware, as [iot4c] has …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/01/atari-tape-drive-turned-security-dvr/)