Shimon Schocken gave a really interesting Google Tech Talk titled From Nand to Tetris in 12 Steps. In the video, he describes a course where students design a complete virtualized computer system from scratch, building from the humble nand gate, to a functional cpu and memory architecture, to compiler software and an operating system, all […]
In 1970’s Communist Czechoslovakia, the state-run magazine ABCs for Young Technicians and Natural Scientists published a cut-out paper camera called the Dirkon. Looking very much like an old Nikon, the little camera is essentially a simple pin hole design, dressed up to look like its SLR cousin. Fast forward to 2000’s Capitalist USA and you’ll […]
We’re all familiar with the hibernate/deep-sleep features that are typical on your standard laptop. In this mode, the entire contents of RAM are written to the disk and the machine is completely shut down. When it’s next booted, the system is restored to the exact state it was at before sleep, with all of your […]
The fifth international ArtBots exhibit is being held on September 19-21 in Dublin Ireland. Whether you’re interested in creating a robotic work of art, or a robot capable of producing its own works of art, you have till May 1st to submit an entry. I’ve seen the output from this robot talent show / art […]
I’ve only had to solder a couple of SMT chips, and though my attempts have worked out for me, it’s always been a combination of frustration and fear that I’m damaging the IC. John Gammell sent this video to me in response to one of my newbie attempts. In it, he shows how a pro […]
It looks like the 0.1alpha3 release of the Wii Twilight Hack now works with the internal SD slot. No USBGecko or other additional hardware needed. There are 5 versions of the chainloader for the different regions and releases of the Wii console. Follow the instructions to unzip the right one to the correct directory on […]
Check out Angela Yuan’s Etch-A-Scetch Clock. An Arduino powers a few stepper motors that clear the screen once a minute and then draw the current time. It looks like there is a laptop that is sending commands, presumably time updates, to the Arduino via processing. Her site is a little scant on details, but there […]
