Linux Fu: Atomic Power
People are well aware of the power of virtual machines. If you want to do something dangerous — say, hack on the kernel — you can create a virtual machine, …read more Continue reading Linux Fu: Atomic Power
Author Archives: Al Williams
A Spreadsheet for the Python Hacker
You can write a Python program or use a Jupyter Notebook to do almost anything. But you can also get a lot of things done quickly using a spreadsheet. Grist …read more Continue reading A Spreadsheet for the Python Hacker
For the ESP’s Next ESP Trick…
It is a pretty stale dad joke to tell someone you have ESP when you mean you have an ESP8266 or ESP32 in your hand. However, [Naufil Metkar] uses an …read more Continue reading For the ESP’s Next ESP Trick…
Nazi Weapons of the Future
We know. The title sounds like a bad newsreel from 1942. Turns out, though, that the Nazis were really good at pouring money into military research and developing — or …read more Continue reading Nazi Weapons of the Future
Exploring Texas Instrument’s Forgotten CPU
Texas Instruments isn’t the name you usually hear associated with the first microprocessor. But the TI TMX 1795 was an 8008 chip produced months before the 8008. It was never …read more Continue reading Exploring Texas Instrument’s Forgotten CPU
OpenAI Hears You Whisper
Should you wish to try high-quality voice recognition without buying something, good luck. Sure, you can borrow the speech recognition on your phone or coerce some virtual assistants on a …read more Continue reading OpenAI Hears You Whisper
Better Scope Measurements
There was a time when few hobbyists had an oscilloscope and the ones you did see were old military or industrial surplus that were past their prime. Today you can …read more Continue reading Better Scope Measurements
A Love Letter to Small Design Teams, and the B-52
The true measure of engineering success — or, at least, one of them — is how long something remains in use. A TV set someone designed in 1980 is probably, …read more Continue reading A Love Letter to Small Design Teams, and the B-52
Wow! You Could Have a (Tiny) V8!
If you grew up before high gas prices and strict emission control regulations, you probably had — or wanted — a car with a V8 engine. An engineering masterpiece created …read more Continue reading Wow! You Could Have a (Tiny) V8!
Raspberry Pi Grants Remote Access via PCIe (Sort Of)
[Jeff] found a Raspberry Pi — well, the compute module version, anyway — in an odd place: on a PCI Express card. Why would you plug a Raspberry Pi into …read more Continue reading Raspberry Pi Grants Remote Access via PCIe (Sort Of)