Designing to Remove Supports
If you want to 3D print arbitrary shapes with an FDM printer, you often find you need supports. If you have dissolvable support material, that might not be a big …read more Continue reading Designing to Remove Supports
Author Archives: Al Williams
Dirty TRS-80 Has a Surprise Hack
[Adrian] had a TRS-80 model IV that looks like it was stored in a mulch pile. However, it seemed to have some surprises. The first hint that something was up …read more Continue reading Dirty TRS-80 Has a Surprise Hack
Miracle of Science: Scotch Tape Improves Generator
We were always amused that one of the biggest scientific discoveries of the recent past — graphene — was started with pencil lead and Scotch tape. Now, researchers at the …read more Continue reading Miracle of Science: Scotch Tape Improves Generator
The PalmPilot Returns, This Time in Your Browser
The PalmPilot doesn’t seem to get much retrocomputing love, but maybe it should. After all, it might not have been the very first handheld, but it was probably the most …read more Continue reading The PalmPilot Returns, This Time in Your Browser
Better Coding Through Sketching
Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, engineering students would take a few semesters of drafting and there would usually be a week or two of “computer-aided drafting.” In …read more Continue reading Better Coding Through Sketching
Car Batteries: More than Just Wet Lead
Working on car electrical systems used to be easy. The battery simply provided power for the car’s starter motor when starting or to run the small number of accessories when …read more Continue reading Car Batteries: More than Just Wet Lead
DIY Self-Assembling 4D Printing
A 4D printed object is like a 3D printed object, but it changes shape or self-assembles when its environment changes. [Teaching Tech] has been reading about this technology and decided …read more Continue reading DIY Self-Assembling 4D Printing
Silicon Sleuthing: Finding a ancient bugfix on the 8086
Few CPUs have had the long-lasting influence that the 8086 did. It is hard to believe that when your modern desktop computer boots, it probably thinks it is an 8086 …read more Continue reading Silicon Sleuthing: Finding a ancient bugfix on the 8086
Create a Compiler Step-By-Step
While JavaScript might not be the ideal language to write a production compiler, you might enjoy the “Create Your Own Compiler” tutorial that does an annotated walkthrough of “The Super …read more Continue reading Create a Compiler Step-By-Step
Portable Commodore 64 Lives!
When you think of a luggable computer, you might think of the old Compaq or — if you are old enough — a Kaypro. But you don’t see as many …read more Continue reading Portable Commodore 64 Lives!