Nobody likes reading the fine print, least of all when you’re just downloading some 3D model. While printing a copy for personal use this is rarely an issue, things can get a lot more complicated when you make and distribute a derived version of a particular model. Case in the point the ever popular 3DBenchy […]
There are many ways to build a radio receiver, but most have a few things in common, such as oscillators, tuned circuits, detectors, mixers, and amplifiers. Put those together in the right order and you’ve got a receiver ready to tune in whatever you want to listen to. But if you don’t really care about […]
Many of us used “big iron” back in the day. Computers like the IBM S/360 or 3090 are hard to find, transport, and operate, so you don’t see many retrocomputer enthusiasts with an S/370 in their garages. We’ve known for a while that the Hercules emulators would let you run virtual copies of these old […]
Different cultures have their own conventions for naming locations, for example in the United Kingdom there are plenty of places named for monarchs, while in many other countries there are not. An aspect of this fascinated [Ben Ashforth], who decided to find all the streets in Europe named after auspicious dates, and then visit enough […]
[Stephen Woodward] is familiar with digital potentiometers but is also familiar with their limitations. That spurred him to create the PWMPot which performs a similar function, but with better features than a traditional digital pot. Of course, he admits that this design has some limitations of its own, so — as usual — you have […]
If you’ve owned a CD player or other piece of consumer digital audio gear manufactured since the 1980s, the chances are it has a TOSLINK port on the back. This is a fairly simple interface that sends I2S digital audio data down a short length of optical fibre, and it’s designed to run between something […]
This week, Jonathan Bennett and Randal chat with Matija Šuklje about Open Source and the Law! How do Open Source projects handle liability, what should a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) look like, and where can an individual or project turn for legal help? https://matija.suklje.name/ https://openchainproject.org https://matija.suklje.name/fiduciary-license-agreement-20 Did you know you can watch the live recording […]
There are many AI models out there that you can play with from companies like OpenAI, Google, and a host of others. But when you use them, you get the experience they want, and you run it on their computer. There are a variety of reasons you might not like this. You may not want […]
You probably get a few of these things each week in the mail. And some of them actually do a good job of obscuring the contents inside, even if you hold the envelope up to the light. But have you ever taken the time to appreciate the beauty of security envelope patterns? Yeah, I didn’t […]
Modern remote control (RC) radios are capable of incredible range, but they’re still only made for line-of-sight use. What if you want to control a vehicle that’s 100s of kilometers away, or even on the other side of the planet? Cellular is an option, but is obviously limited by available infrastructure — good luck getting […]