A Free Cloud AI
If you would like an AI “personal agent” but don’t want your data on some opaque cloud computer, there’s a new option that appears to be somewhat nicer: [rociiu] has …read more Continue reading A Free Cloud AI
Author Archives: Al Williams
Thorium Clocks Start Ticking with Lasers
Atomic clocks are super accurate. But, unsurprisingly, some atomic clocks are better than others, depending on your definition of better. Researchers at Vienna University claim to have a superior thorium-based …read more Continue reading Thorium Clocks Start Ticking with Lasers
Mars Pathfinder: What Really Happened?
You’ve probably heard of Mars Pathfinder, the NASA lander and its Sojourner rover that took up residence on Mars in 1997. At first, all was well, but after a few …read more Continue reading Mars Pathfinder: What Really Happened?
Getting to Know the TP223 Capacitive Touch Sensor
Mechanical and prone to failure, switches can seem quaint these days. Plus, everyone is used to having touch screens on their phones and other devices. So why not use touch …read more Continue reading Getting to Know the TP223 Capacitive Touch Sensor
Low Current Density Nickel Plating
We imagine that electroplating is like making PC boards or soldering surface-mount chips. Before you’ve done it, it seems like a lot. Afterward, you can’t remember why it was such …read more Continue reading Low Current Density Nickel Plating
The FPGA Chronicles: Open Source It
Last time, we looked at getting started with the GOWIN tools and a Tang Nano 20K FPGA. The software from GOWIN isn’t bad, but it isn’t open source, and there …read more Continue reading The FPGA Chronicles: Open Source It
Tearing Down a Heavy Oscilloscope
When [Thomas] showed his 1960s-era Tektronix 545A oscilloscope in a recent video, it made us both nostalgic and happy. Nostalgic because we miss the days when our oscilloscopes were “mainframes” …read more Continue reading Tearing Down a Heavy Oscilloscope
Motion Control via Belt
[Tolko] wanted to encourage kids to have some physical activity, but noted that they only wanted to play games. That led to BlobJump, a Raspberry Pi-based game sort of like …read more Continue reading Motion Control via Belt
AI on Your Gaming PC
If you want to experiment with LLMs, you typically have a choice of sending your requests to someone else’s computer or fielding a very large GPU and CPU setup to …read more Continue reading AI on Your Gaming PC
That’s No Moon… That’s an Exoplanet!
It wasn’t that long ago that a science teacher would have told students that there was no evidence of planets around other star systems. Even more recently, they might have …read more Continue reading That’s No Moon… That’s an Exoplanet!