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New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 132 posts.
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Building a Thermal Camera
I'm a Computer Science graduate working in software & electronics development.
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Computer latency: 1977-2017
I've had this nagging feeling that the computers I use today feel slower than the computers I used as a kid. As a rule, I don’t trust this kind of feeling because human perception has been shown to be unreliable in empirical studies, so I carried around a high-speed camera and measured the response latency of devices…
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Repairing a 1960s mainframe: Fixing the IBM 1401's core memory and power supply
A few weeks ago, I wanted to use one of the vintage IBM 1401 mainframe computers at the Computer History Museum, but the computer wasn't wor...
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Keras and deep learning on the Raspberry Pi
In this guide you'll learn how to perform real-time deep learning on the Raspberry Pi using Keras, Python, and TensorFlow.
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Building a Poor Man’s Deep Learning Camera in Python
Streaming a webcam to a deep learning model the hacker’s way
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Decoding an air conditioner control's checksum with differential cryptanalysis
Back in 2009 I wrote an Arduino library ( IRRemote ) to encode and decode infrared signals for remote controls. I got an email recently fr...
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Hands-on with the PocketBeagle: a $25 Linux computer with lots of I/O pins
The PocketBeagle is a tiny but powerful inexpensive key-fob-sized open source Linux computer. It has 44 digital I/O pins, 8 analog input...
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Gemini PDA: 20 years on, meet the all-new Psion Series 5
I knew that having been in the game for so long would pay off eventually, as I finally got a hands-on with a device I’ve longed to see for almost 20 years! The new Gemini PDA, from Planet Com…
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How do you move out of a smarthome?
I've an unhealthy amount of smart gadgets at home. Enough so that it's worth running an orientation session when friends come to visit. This is what the Alexa does, here's which light switches not to use, don't be scared if the Roomba attacks. That sort of thing. I don't know how long we'll live in this place. It's…
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Exploring the BBC Micro:bit Software Stack and OS
If you grew up in the UK and went to school during the 1980’s or 1990’s there’s a good chance that this picture brings back fond memories:
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The Poor Man's 3D Camera
Each of us have our own giants to face. This is a story about one of my giants. Something I never imagined could make a grown man cry, until it did. A 3D camera. No one can face your giants for you. This is a story, not a walkthrough. Expect no useful information. For that I recommend 50 Game Camera Mistakes by…
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Reprogramming a $13 consumer wifi-enabled outlet
The HTML5 Herald
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Fixing the MacBook Pro
Despite my love for the previous Retina MacBook Pro , I won’t be able to use it forever. The best laptop to ever exist should be in the future, not the past.
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Apple Begins High Sierra Automatic Rollout
I have heard rumblings that Apple was considering making a bigger push for macOS users to upgrade to High Sierra. At the time, I was very unsure what that meant. Forcing updates for patch releases, such as 10.13.0 to 10.13.1 is one thing; moving users from Sierra to High Sierra with little input is another thing…
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The best laptop ever made
Apple has made many great laptops, but the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro (2012–2015) is the epitome of usefulness, elegance, practicality, and power for an overall package that still hasn’t been (and may never be) surpassed.
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Inside a low-budget consumer hardware espionage implant
The following analysis was performed on a S8 data line locator which replied to the hidden SMS command for version query ( *3646655* ) with:
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An Open Letter to Intel
Thanks for putting a version of MINIX inside the ME-11 management engine chip used on almost all recent desktop and laptop computers in the world. I guess that makes MINIX the most widely used computer operating system in the world, even more than Windows, Linux, or MacOS. And I didn't even know until I read a press…
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Fixing the Ethernet Board from a Vintage Xerox Alto
A Xerox Alto system on the East coast had Ethernet problems, so the owner sent me the Ethernet board to diagnose. (After restoring our Alto,...
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Exploring different microcontrollers less than $1
A new series that reviews 21 different microcontrollers — all less than $1 — to help familiarize you with all the major ecosystems out there.
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Keyboard latency
If you look at “gaming" keyboards, a lot of them sell for $100 or more on the promise that they’re fast. Ad copy that you’ll see includes:
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The impossible dream of USB-C
I love the idea of USB-C: one port and one cable that can replace all other ports and cables. It sounds so simple, straightforward, and unified.
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Inside the vintage Xerox Alto's display, a tiny lightbulb keeps it working
In this Alto restoration episode, we repaired a second CRT display, exercising our TV repair skills and discovering a tiny mysterious lightb...
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Using the Web Audio API to Make a Modem
What do you do when you cannot copy text between computers due to lack of internet connectivity? I built a modem using the Web Audio API, allowing data transfer via audio.