Unhacked Mattress Phones Home
[Dylan] has a fancy bed that can be set to any temperature. Apparently this set him back about $2,000, it only works if it has Internet, and the bed wants …read more Continue reading Unhacked Mattress Phones Home
Author Archives: Al Williams
Learn Assembly the FFmpeg Way
You want to learn assembly language. After all, understanding assembly unlocks the ability to understand what compilers are doing and it is especially important for time-critical code. But most tutorials …read more Continue reading Learn Assembly the FFmpeg Way
Over the Counter Glucose Monitor Dissected
If you deal with diabetes, you probably know how to prick your finger and use a little meter to read your glucose levels. The meters get better and better which …read more Continue reading Over the Counter Glucose Monitor Dissected
Retrotectacular: Ham Radio As It Was
We hear a lot about how ham radio isn’t what it used to be. But what was it like? Well, the ARRL’s film “The Ham’s Wide World” shows a snapshot …read more Continue reading Retrotectacular: Ham Radio As It Was
A New 8-bit CPU for C
It is easy to port C compilers to architectures that look like old minicomputers or bigger CPUs. However, as the authors of the Small Device C Compiler (SDCC) found, pushing …read more Continue reading A New 8-bit CPU for C
Pico Gets a Speed Bump
The release notes for the 2.1.1 Raspberry Pi Pico SDK have a late holiday present: The RP2040 chip is now certified to run at 200 MHz if you use at …read more Continue reading Pico Gets a Speed Bump
Be Careful What You Ask For: Voice Control
We get it. We also watched Star Trek and thought how cool it would be to talk to our computer. From Kirk setting a self-destruct sequence, to Scotty talking into …read more Continue reading Be Careful What You Ask For: Voice Control
In a World Without USB…
It is easy to forget that many technology juggernauts weren’t always the only game in town. Ethernet seems ubiquitous today, but it had to fight past several competing standards. VHS …read more Continue reading In a World Without USB…
DaVinci’s New Threads
Last year, we saw [How To Make Everything’s] take on [DaVinci’s] machine for cutting threads. However, they stopped short of the goal, which was making accurate metal screw threads. After …read more Continue reading DaVinci’s New Threads
How Hard is it to Write a Calculator App?
How hard can it be to write a simple four-function calculator program? After all, computers are good at math, and making a calculator isn’t exactly blazing a new trail, right? …read more Continue reading How Hard is it to Write a Calculator App?