A USB Port by Any Other Color…
[Dr. Gough] bought a generic USB 3.0 hub on an Asian website. Surely, USB 3 is mature enough that even the cheapest hub will have some IC in it that …read more Continue reading A USB Port by Any Other Color…
Author Archives: Al Williams
Chromatography as Art
You may or may not remember in some ancient chemistry class studying or even performing chromatography. The short definition is using media like paper or powder to separate a mixture. …read more Continue reading Chromatography as Art
Putting Some Zig in a Linux-Based 3D Printer
Having Linux on so many devices is both a blessing and a curse. Sure, it is great that you can hack on things and modify them or even totally repurpose …read more Continue reading Putting Some Zig in a Linux-Based 3D Printer
Newton’s Cradle Isn’t Really Perpetual
If any astute Hackaday reader saw [dongvua90]’s Newton’s cradle go on without human intervention all day long, they’d probably suspect the truth: there’s a battery and a magnet involved. But …read more Continue reading Newton’s Cradle Isn’t Really Perpetual
Musing on AI from 1964
[Irving John Good] was at Trinity College, Oxford back in 1964. His paper, “Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine” could have been a topic for today, as we deal with …read more Continue reading Musing on AI from 1964
Robot Dog in Browser
You’ve doubtlessly seen the current crop of robot dogs and, if you are like us, thought about getting one to play with. The problem is that the cheap ones are …read more Continue reading Robot Dog in Browser
A Brief History of the Crazy Old 7-Segment Display
How old is the seven-segment display? Surely it is a product of the 1970s. After all, calculators started showing up, and the height of junior high humor was plugging 7734 …read more Continue reading A Brief History of the Crazy Old 7-Segment Display
Linux Fu: The Local Phonebook
I’ll admit it: I miss the simplicity of /etc/hosts. There was something elegant about it. You wanted laserprinter to mean 192.168.1.40, so you opened a text file and wrote: 192.168.1.40 …read more Continue reading Linux Fu: The Local Phonebook
He Comes to Bury Segmented Memory, Not to Praise It
[BillPg] has been designing a fantasy 1980s-era home computer. As part of the exercise, he’s reevaluating all the assumptions that have grown organically over time in the small computer landscape. …read more Continue reading He Comes to Bury Segmented Memory, Not to Praise It
Hackaday Podcast Episode 376: Modern Retro Projects, Retro Modern Projects, and the Teen Years for 3D Printing
Hackaday’s Elliot Williams and Al Williams were in a retro mood this week. There was a new ‘486 computer, a new mechanical TV, and a USB stick with a magnetic …read more Continue reading Hackaday Podcast Episode 376: Modern Retro Projects, Retro Modern Projects, and the Teen Years for 3D Printing