Navarre Bartz – Page 6 – WindowsTechs.com

Making Products for Fun and (Probably No) Profit

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Navarre Bartz

A picture of a stainless steel ring with a phillips screwdriver bit protruding from it sitting slightly askance atop a matching ring with a phillips head cut out like that of a screw. They are the same size so they can mesh when placed together.

If you’re like most makers, you have a few product ideas kicking about, but you may not have made it all the way to production of those things. If you’re …read more Continue reading Making Products for Fun and (Probably No) Profit→

Steam Brick Makes Your Steam Deck Headless

Posted on January 26, 2025 by Navarre Bartz

A black box with the words "Steam BRICK" emblazoned in white and orange text. It sits on a grey surface with various electronic parts surrounding it.

Handhelds are designed to be portable, but what if you need something smaller than OEM? The Steam Brick pulls basically everything off of a Steam Deck to make it as …read more Continue reading Steam Brick Makes Your Steam Deck Headless→

The Nokia Design Archive Is Open For Viewing

Posted on January 22, 2025 by Navarre Bartz

A design sketch of a partially disassembled candybar mobile phone. The enclosure is a clamshell of plastic that envelops the functional internals of the device and is illustrated to the right upper corner of the image, slightly overlapping the internals evoking the idea of the internals being inserted into the cover. The words "buttons part of the cover" are written toward the top with an arrow toward the numpad and "plastic shell with various design" is written toward the bottom with an arrow toward the translucent blue shell.

During the Cambrian Explosion of cellphone form factors at the turn of the millenium, Nokia reigned supreme. If you’d like to see what they were doing behind the scenes to …read more Continue reading The Nokia Design Archive Is Open For Viewing→

Uncanny Valley of Clean Conquered by Clever Chair

Posted on December 27, 2024 by Navarre Bartz

A woman in a dark green shirt and grey jeans holds a set of cinnamon pants. She is standing next to a burnt orange cushioned and backed-chair. The arm rests, legs, and outer circular rack are a blonde wood. It looks somewhat mid-century modern. A number of differently-colored clothes line the wall in the background.

Do you ever have clothes that you only wore for a few hours, so you don’t want to wash them, but it still seems icky to put them back in …read more Continue reading Uncanny Valley of Clean Conquered by Clever Chair→

Creating a Signature Wood Joint

Posted on December 1, 2024 by Navarre Bartz

A pair of hands hold two dark brown boards perpendicular two each other on a light brown benchtop. There are two light brown oval dowels in the end of one board that then project toward holes in the opposite board. Circular holes in the oval dowels are visible perpendicular to the second board, and will match up with holes in the board once pressed in. A cylindrical dowel is laying next to the joint and will be placed into the circular holes once assembled.

We really love when makers make their construction techniques evident in an aesthetically-pleasing way, and [Laura Kampf] has created a clever joint that reveals how a piece is made. [Kampf] …read more Continue reading Creating a Signature Wood Joint→

Upgrading the M4 Mac Mini with More Storage

Posted on December 1, 2024 by Navarre Bartz

Apple’s in-house chips have some impressive specs, but user serviceability is something Apple left behind for consumer machines around a decade ago. Repair legend [dosdude1] shows us how the new …read more Continue reading Upgrading the M4 Mac Mini with More Storage→

Making a Stool from Clay

Posted on December 1, 2024 by Navarre Bartz

A brown sphere with a flat top, a nose and circular eyes sits on the ground surrounded by low vegetation. A wooden fence is behind it.

We’ve seen furniture made out of all sorts of interesting materials here, but clay certainly isn’t the first one that comes to mind. [Mia Mueller] is expanding our horizons with …read more Continue reading Making a Stool from Clay→

Uncle Sam Wants You to Recover Energy Materials from Wastewater

Posted on December 1, 2024 by Navarre Bartz

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) was founded to support moonshot projects in the realm of energy, with a portfolio that ranges from the edge …read more Continue reading Uncle Sam Wants You to Recover Energy Materials from Wastewater→

Hacking Trees to Bring Back the American Chestnut

Posted on November 30, 2024 by Navarre Bartz

A researcher in a safety harness pollinates an American chestnut tree from a lift. Another researcher is on the other side of the lift and appears to be taking notes. The tree has bags over some of its branches, presumably to control the pollen that gets in. The lift has a grey platform and orange arm.

“Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” is playing on the radio now in the Northern Hemisphere which begs the question, “What happened to the American chestnut?” Would you be surprised …read more Continue reading Hacking Trees to Bring Back the American Chestnut→

US Is Getting Its First Onshore Wave Power Plant

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Navarre Bartz

Waves crash near a rocky shore. Large, SUV-sized blue "floaters" sit in the water perpendicular to a concrete pier. The floaters look somewhat like a bass boat shrink wrapped in dark blue plastic and attached to a large piston and hinge. A grey SUV sits on the pier, almost as if for scale.

Renewables let you have a more diverse set of energy inputs so you aren’t putting all your generation eggs in one basket. One type of renewable that doesn’t see a …read more Continue reading US Is Getting Its First Onshore Wave Power Plant→