Are you familiar with huffman encoding? That’s where you pick shorter codes for more frequent letters. Morse code is the same way. Shorter characters are the ones you are most likely to use. [Matheus Richard] had the same idea for optimizing your workflow in the Linux shell. The idea is to measure what commands you […]
The ESP32 is s remarkably powerful microcontroller, where its dual-core processor and relatively high clock speed can do some impressive work. But getting this microcontroller designed for embedded systems to do tasks that would generally be given to a much more powerful PC-type computer takes a little bit more willpower. Inspired by his dog, [Folkert] […]
Vintage hi-fi gear can be very attractive, particularly compared to modern stuff. However, when this stuff starts getting into its third or fourth decade after production, things start to wear out. Chief among them—the little incandescent bulbs that light up the dials with such a beautiful glow. [Piffpaffpoltrie] was suffering just this problem on an […]
While you tend to think of diamonds as ornamental gemstones, diamonds also have many important industrial uses, and many of those diamonds are now synthetic polycrystalline diamonds. How are they made? [JerryRigEverything] takes us behind the scenes at a diamond manufacturing facility, something you don’t get to see every day. Check out the giant presses […]
Altermagnetism is effectively a hybrid form of magnetism and ferromagnetism that might become very useful in magnetic storage as well as spintronics in general. In order to practically use it, we first need to be able to control the creation of these altermagnets, which is what researchers have now taken the first steps towards. The […]
[CNLohr] has been tinkering with some fun parts of late. He’d found out that ordinary LCD screens could be used as simple touch sensors, and he had to try it for himself. He ended up building a little doohickey that combined USB C, an LCD display, and a touch interface, all for under a buck. […]
There’s a Blue Bendix in Texas, and thanks to [Usagi Electric] it’s the oldest operating computer in North America. The Bendix G-15, a vacuum tube computer originally released in 1956, is now booting, and running code from paper tape. [David, aka Usagi] received the G-15 about a year ago from The System Source museum. The […]