211
Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)
We turned a MacBook into a touchscreen using only $1 of hardware and a little bit of computer vision.
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 3,044 posts.
Hardware & Electronics
Any year
212
New Apple Silicon M4 and M5 HiDPI Limitation on 4K External Displays
A regression in external display support on Apple Silicon M4/M5 generation chips prevents full HiDPI modes on 4K monitors, limiting users to either blurry non-HiDPI or reduced workspace HiDPI.
213
Bring Back MiniDV with This Raspberry Pi FireWire Hat
In my last post, I showed you to use FireWire on a Raspberry Pi with a PCI Express IEEE 1394 adapter. Now I'll show you how I'm using a new FireWire HAT and a PiSugar3 Plus battery to make a portable MRU, or 'Memory Recording Unit', to replace tape in older FireWire/i.Link/DV cameras. The alternative is an old used…
214
Hold on to Your Hardware
A warning about rising prices, vanishing consumer choice, and a future where owning a computer may matter more than ever as hardware, power, and control drift toward data centers and away from people.
215
Using FireWire on a Raspberry Pi
After learning Apple killed off FireWire (IEEE 1394) support in macOS 26 Tahoe, I started looking at alternatives for old FireWire equipment like hard drives, DV cameras, and A/V gear. I own an old Canon GL1 camera, with a 'DV' port. I could plug that into an old Mac (like the dual G4 MDD above) with FireWire—or even…
216
A nearly perfect USB cable tester
Your USB cables may lie to your PC. Let me show you how to catch those.
217
Running Tesla Model 3's computer on my desk using parts from crashed cars
David Schütz's bug bounty writeups
218
IRIX 3dfx Voodoo driver and glide2x IRIX port
At the moment only SST1 (Voodoo1) is supported on IP32 (O2). Only tested on IRIX 6.5.30 with RM7000C CPU. -driver sources (SST1 and CVG support on IP32) https://github.com/sdz-mods/tdfx_irix -glide2x IRIX port (SST1 on IP32) https://github.com/sdz-mods/glide_irix -hinv wrapper with 3dfx support…
219
Box of Secrets: Discreetly modding an apartment intercom to work with Apple Home
Discreetly modding my friend’s apartment intercom to work with Apple Home.
220
What came after the 486?
Changing from part numbers had benefits for Intel, but it took time
221
My DIY FPGA board can run Quake II
kind of a blog
222
Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools
This frame of Screamer 2 was rendered not by an original 3dfx card and not by an emulator, but by an FPGA reimplementation of the Voodoo 1 that I wrote in SpinalHDL. Available on GitHub .
223
BIO: The Bao I/O Coprocessor
BIO is the I/O co-processor in the Baochip-1x, a mostly open source 22nm SoC I helped design. You can read more about the Baochip-1x’s background here , or pick up an evaluation board at Crowd Supply .
224
How many branches can your CPU predict?
Modern processors have the ability to execute many instructions per cycle, on a single core. To be able to execute many instructions per cycle in practice, processors predict branches. I have made the point over the years that modern CPUs have an incredible ability to predict branches. It makes benchmarking difficult…
225
Write up of my homebrew CPU build
The blog of an engineer from Canada
226
What makes Intel Optane stand out (2023)
Once in a while new hardware is released that makes a difference. Such a device is the Intel Optane series of high-performance SSD’s for professional use, which was released in late 2017. In this case I’m talking about the Intel Optane P4800X and P5800X and their consumer counterparts ( 900P and 905P ). All drives are…
227
Rack-mount hydroponics
how to grow plants in a server rack
228
Electric motor scaling laws and inertia in robot actuators
Engineering contraptions
229
Home Assistant waters my plants
Some readers will know, but most will not, that I am a bit of a self-confessed foodie. I enjoy cooking, but especially so when others get enjoyment from it. Be it friends, family, or neighbours, and sometimes all three, I’m always up for putting something together.
230
Kona EV Hacking
Header page for hacks and investigations of the Hyundai Kona electric vehicle
231
232
The MacBook Neo
May the MacBook Neo live so long that its name becomes inapt.
233
RISC-V Is Sloooow
143 vs 36 minutes is far too big difference
234
Show HN: How I topped the HuggingFace open LLM leaderboard on two gaming GPUs
ML, Biotech, Hardware, and Coordination Problems. Sometimes I write about hard problems and how to solve them.
235
I don't know Apple's endgame for the Fn/Globe key–or if Apple does
The origin and the evolution of the most confusing modifier key
236
Tested: How Many Times Can a DVD±RW Be Rewritten? Methodology and Results
Now that we’ve covered the contenders for this test, I will cover how this test will be performed and go through the results. It was a long time for me, but for you, it’ll just be a few…
237
Building a TB-303 from Scratch
Code music in the browser.
238
TCXO Failure Analysis
Back in January, the ThunderScope team sent me a PCIe card version of their prototype open hardware oscilloscope.
239
Dumping Lego NXT firmware off of an existing brick (2025)
Catgirls can have little a RCE, as a treat
240
Every single board computer I tested in 2025
I benchmarked 15 SBCs released in 2025 across every price point. Here's what stood out, what disappointed, and what the year looked like for single board computers.