Category: Software Hacks

Setting up a file server can be intimidating to the uninitiated. There are many servers to choose from, and then you need to decide how to install it — Docker? Kubernates? Well, what’s all that then? [9001] has come to the rescue with Copyparty, a full-featured file server in a single Python script. It’s light […]
Do you find an odd comfort in the uncanny, regular intonations of a Numbers Station? Then check out [edent]’s numbers station project, which leverages the browser’s speech synthesis engine to deliver a ceaseless flow of (mostly) numbers, calmly-intoned in various languages. The project is an entry for the annual JavaScript Golfing Competition, in which participants […]
Here’s something fun from our hacker [Piers]: Software Defined ROMs. In this series of three videos, [Piers] runs us through what a software defined ROM is, how to make them, and then how to use them. As [Piers] explains, one frustration a retro technician will face is a failed ROM chip. In the era he’s […]
Over on his YouTube channel [Pat Deegan] from Psychogenic Technologies shows us two KiCad tips to save a million clicks. In the same way that it makes sense for you to learn to touch type if you’re going to be using a computer a lot, it makes sense for you to put some thought and […]
According to [Casey Connolly], Qualcomm’s release of how to interact with their embedded USB debugging (EUD) is a big deal. If you haven’t heard of it, nearly all Qualcomm SoCs made since 2018 have a built-in debugger that connects to the onboard USB port. The details vary by chip, but you write to some registers […]
Selecting a random sample from a set is simple. But what about selecting a fair random sample from a set of unknown or indeterminate size? That’s where reservoir sampling comes in, and [Sam Rose] has a beautifully-illustrated, interactive guide to how reservoir sampling works. As far as methods go, it’s as elegant as it is […]
When it comes to text, how small is too small? The experts say a six point font is the minimum for readability, but as [James Bowman] shows us, you can get away with half of that.  The goal is to produce a 40-character display on a 24 mm x 24 mm LCD that has a […]
[Hunter Irving] is a talented hacker with a wicked sense of humor, and he has written in to let us know about his latest project which is to make a GameCube keyboard controller work with Animal Crossing. This project began simply enough but got very complicated in short order. Initially the goal was to get […]
Can a 3D Minecraft implementation be done entirely in CSS and HTML, without a single line of JavaScript in sight? The answer is yes! True, this small clone is limited to playing with blocks in a world that measures only 9x9x9, but the fact that [Benjamin Aster] managed it at all using only CSS and […]
Unlike computer games, which smoothly and continuously evolved along with the hardware that powered them, console games have up until very recently been constrained by a generational style of development. Sure there were games that appeared on multiple platforms, and eventually newer consoles would feature backwards compatibility that allowed them to play select titles from […]