Macro pads are handy for opening up your favorite programs or executing commonly used keyboard shortcuts. But why stop there? That’s what [Jeroen Brinkman] must have been thinking while creating the Programmer’s Macro Pad. Based on the Arduino Pro Micro, this hand-wired pad is unique in that a single press of any of its 16 […]
In theory, any piece of software could be built out of discrete pieces of hardware, provided there are enough transistors, passive components, and time available. In general, though, we’re much more likely to reach for a programmable computer or microcontroller for all but the simplest tasks for several reasons: cost, effort, complexity, economics, and sanity. […]
There’s something that kills coding speed—iteration time. If you can smash a function key and run your code, then watch it break, tweak, and smash it again—you’re working fast. But if you have to first compile your code, then plug your hardware in, burn it to the board, and so on… you’re wasting a lot […]
[Simon Willison] has put together a list of how, exactly, one goes about using a large language models (LLM) to help write code. If you have wondered just what the workflow and techniques look like, give it a read. It’s full of examples, strategies, and useful tips for effectively using AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, […]
Any statement regarding the potential benefits and/or hazards of AI tends to be automatically very divisive and controversial as the world tries to figure out what the technology means to them, and how to make the most money off it in the process. Either meaning Artificial Inference or Artificial Intelligence depending on who you ask, […]
Generally speaking, writing your own games for retro consoles starts with C code. You’ll need to feed that through a console-specific tool-chain, and there’s certainly going to be some hoops to jump through, but if everything goes as expected, you should end up with a ROM file that can be run in an emulator or […]
Although generative AI and large language models have been pushed as direct replacements for certain kinds of workers, plenty of businesses actually doing this have found that using this new technology can cause more problems than it solves when it is given free reign over tasks. While this might not be true indefinitely, the real […]
Sometimes, hardware projects get cancelled before they have a chance to make an impact, often due to politics or poor economic judgment. The Tsushin Booster for the PC Engine is one such project, possibly the victim of vicious commercial games between the leading Japanese console manufacturers at the tail end of the 1980s. It seems […]
Porting the original DOOM game to various pieces of esoteric hardware is a rite of passage in some software circles. But in the modern world, we can get better performance than the 386 processor required to run DOOM for the cost of a dinner at a nice restaurant, with plenty of other embedded systems blowing […]
Smartphones have replaced a desktop calculator for most folks these days, but sometimes that tactility is just what you need to get the mathematical juices flowing. Why not spruce up the scientific calculator of yore with the wonders of modern microcontrollers? While you won’t be able to use Sci-Calc on a standardized test, this classy […]