Author Archives: Mike Szczys

Hackaday London Meet-up this Friday

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Hackaday takes over London at the end of this week. Join us on Friday night as we host a meetup at the Marquis Cornwallis, a pub in Bloomsbury.

This is a Bring-a-Hack style meetup, so grab something you’ve been working on to get the conversation flowing as you enjoy food and drink with members of the Hackaday community from the area. Also on hand from the Hackaday Crew will be [Mike Szczys], [Elliot Williams], [Jenny List], [Pedro Umbelino], and [Adil Malik]. We’re consistently delighted by the many and varied projects that show up — we want to meet you and …read more

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Visual Futurist Syd Mead will Keynote at Hackaday Superconference

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What does the future actually look like? Chances are what you see in your mind when presented with that question is heavily influence by Syd Mead. He is an industrial designer, but his body of work — which includes some of the most iconic Sci-Fi movies ever filmed — built a much more interesting job title for him: Visual Futurist.

Meet Syd Mead as he presents a keynote talk at the 2017 Hackaday Superconference this November 11 and 12 in Pasadena, California.

Philip K. Dick wondered Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, but when it came time to build those …read more

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Lu Ban’s Axe and Working with Your Chinese Suppliers

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It is nearly impossible to build any kind of hardware these days without at some point in the process dealing with China — Chinese suppliers, and so by extension Chinese culture. Difficulties can be as simple as the usual inconvenience of everything stopping for weeks up to and after Chinese New Year, or engineers that you know to be otherwise reasonably competent simply choosing not to bring up glaring and obvious problems. Having encountered my share of Western hardware entrepreneurs on the verge of a breakdown, and just as many flummoxed Chinese bosses completely unable to see exactly why they’re …read more

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We’re Hiring

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Hackaday has been expanding into all kinds of new areas. We find ourselves stretched a bit thin and it’s time to ask for help. Want to lend a hand while making some extra dough to plow back into your projects? These are work-from-home (or wherever you like) positions and we’re looking for awesome, motivated people to help guide Hackaday forward!

Contributors are hired as private contractors and paid for each post. You should have the technical expertise to understand the projects you write about, and a passion for the wide range of topics we feature. If you’re interested, please email …read more

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Yes, Of Couse Someone Shot the Eclipse on a Game Boy Camera

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This one shouldn’t surprise us, but there is something particularly enjoyable about seeing the total eclipse of the Sun through a Game Boy camera.

The Game Boy got its camera accessory back in 1998 when CCD-based cameras with poor resolution were just becoming widely available to the public. This camera can capture 128×112 pixel images in the four value grey scale for which the handheld is so loved.

Having taken part in eclipse mania ourselves we can tell you that unless you did some serious research and prep for photographing the thing, this makes as much sense as pulling out …read more

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Superconference Talk Deadline Extended One Week

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Our Call for Proposals for the Hackaday Superconference was scheduled to close yesterday. We are extending that deadline by one week so get your proposal for a talk or a workshop in now.

We want to leave no stone unturned and are intimately familiar with the procrastination habits of busy hackers like you. Now there is no excuse. Put together your pitch now and send it our way. This is the ultimate hardware conference and we’re topics covering Engineering Heroics (how you managed to pull it together to get across the finish line), Prototyping, Research (building custom rigs for University/private …read more

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Get Your Eclipse Glasses Emblazoned with Hackaday

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We’re getting ready to stare at the Sun for a few hours when a total solar eclipse is visible across the United States on August 21st. You could protect your eyes with some welding goggles, but why not wear a pair of Hackaday eclipse glasses instead?

Let us know where you’ll be watching the eclipse and we’ll mail you some custom-printed Hackaday eclipse glasses. Head over to the Eclipse Meetups page, click the “Host a Meetup” button and tell us where you’ll be. We’ll add you to the map and contact you for the shipping address and the number of …read more

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Superconference Interview: Akiba

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Akiba sits at a very interesting intersection of technology and culture. He is well known for his experience with manufacturing in Shenzhen — but he has a few other unique dimension I’ll get to in a minute. His experience manufacturing in China goes far beyond the electronics you might expect and covers, well, everything that could possibly be made. His talk, Shenzhen in 30 Minutes, at last year’s Hackaday Superconference is a crash course in the area, the culture, and the business side of things.

After his talk Sophi Kravtiz caught up with Akiba for an interview and it …read more

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Hackaday UK Unconference Needs You

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Hackaday’s first ever conference in the United Kingdom will take place on September 16th. Get your free ticket right now for the Hackaday UK Unconference!

An Unconference is the best way to put your finger on the pulse of what is happening in the hardware world right now. Everyone who attends should be ready to stand and deliver a seven-minute talk on something that excites them right now — this mean you. The easiest thing to do is grab your latest hack off the shelf and talk about that.

Talks may be about a prototype, project, or product currently in …read more

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All the Hardware Badges of DEF CON 25

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Hardware is the future. There is no better proof of this than the hardware clans that have grown up around DEF CON, which in recent years has become known as Badgelife. I was first drawn to the custom hardware badges of the Whiskey Pirates at DC22 back in 2014. Hardware badges were being made by several groups at that time but that was mainly happening in isolation while this year the badge makers are in constant contact with each other.

A slack channel just for those working on their own DEF CON badges sprung up. This served as tech support, …read more

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