Optical Character Recognition (OCR) forms the bridge between the analog world of paper and the world of machines. The modern-day expectation is that when we point a smartphone camera at some characters it will flawlessly recognize and read them, but OCR technology predates such consumer technology by a considerable amount, with IBM producing OCR systems […]
This week the Hackaday Podcast is on vacation, but we’d like to wish you all happy holidays and a great 2026. Thanks for tuning in! We’ll be back next week. This wasn’t a real show, but that doesn’t prevent you from downloading it as an MP3 anyway. Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast Places to follow […]
There are all kinds of fun, glowing PC cases on the market these days. However, if you want something that focuses on serviceability over flash while still looking stylish, you might like the Makeyo MK01. It’s a PC case that you can print yourself, and [Marst_art] has published a video on what it’s like to […]
It’s no surprise that NVIDIA is gradually dropping support for older videocards, with the Pascal (GTX 10xx) GPUs most recently getting axed. What’s more surprising is the terrible way that this is being handled by certain Linux distributions, with Arch Linux currently a prime example. On these systems, updating the OS with a Pascal, Maxwell […]
Names and labels are difficult. Take this “3D Printed” water-cooling loop by [Visual Thinker] on YouTube. It undeniably uses 3D printing — but it also uses silicone casting and laser-cut acrylic, too. All of these are essential parts, yet only 3D printing gets top billing in his thumbnail. At least the version we saw, anyway; […]
Perhaps the most beautiful aspect of mathematics is that it applies to literally everything, even things that do not exist in this Universe. In addition to this there are a number of alternative ways to represent reality, with Fourier space and its related transforms being one of the most well-known examples. An alternative to Euclidian […]
Facebook Marketplace provides you with a free grain silo, so what do you do with it? If you are [saveifforparts], you mix it with other materials and produce a retro-style rocket ship prop. Art project? Sure, we’ll call it that. We have to admit, we also see rockets in everyday objects, and the silo does […]
Although you can purchase many types of FDM filaments containing ‘carbon fiber’ these days, they are in no way related to the carbon fiber (CF) composite materials used for rocket hulls and light-weight bicycles. This is because the latter use continuous fibers, often in weaved CF mats, whereas the FDM filaments just use small, chopped, […]
Pagers were once a great way to get a message to someone out in public; they just had to be cool enough to have one. These days, they’re mostly the preserve of doctors and a few other niche operators. [Kyle Tryon] is bringing the beeper back, though, with a custom ESP32-based build. The ESP32 is […]