2161
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 4,807 posts.
Hardware & Electronics
Any year
2162
Reverse-engineering a mysterious Univac computer board
The IBM 1401 team at the Computer History Museum accumulates a lot of mystery components from donations and other sources. While going thr...
2163
The Reliability of Optical Disks
How long will burned CDs / DVDs / BluRays last?
2164
2165
Retro Compaq LTE Laptop Powered by Raspberry Pi
A while ago a came across an old Compaq LTE 286 laptop. When they were first released around 1989, these PCs were somewhat groundbreaking because they were the first to be compact enough to resemble the “notebook” form factor that we take for granted today. Unfortunately this particular unit was pretty much beyond…
2166
I didn't return my Apple Studio Display
The Apple Studio Display is, unquestionably, a very good monitor. But the real question is, should you pay €1,800+ for it? I have been asking that question myself for the past ten days. Today I decided that while I can't recommend it, I wil
2167
2168
Why the Black MacBook Cost More
From 2006 until 2008, Apple sold one of the coolest Macs ever: the black MacBook. The black MacBook was sold alongside the more popular — and less expensive — white MacBook. The price difference between the white and black models is often brought up when discussing Apple’s various strategies around product design and…
2169
How is portable AM radio possible?
If AM radio antennas were as long as a quarter wavelength of the carrier signal, you'd need an antenna as long as a football field.
2170
The hunt for the M1’s neural engine
How can you tell when software uses the Neural Engine in an M1 series Mac? How much power does it use, and what is Espresso? Mysteries unravelled.
2171
Oxide on My Wrist: Hubris on PineTime was the best worst idea
In my last Oxide-related post I got Oxide’s Propolis software running and said I might try and get their sled agent up and running next. Anyways that didn’t happen. Instead I ended up reading datasheets, writing rust codegen, spending 16 gigs of ram for an hour to build docs for a crate that’s just a glorified bundle…
2172
Twibright Optar – OPTical ARchiver – a codec for encoding data on paper
Data archiving codec for paper, laser printer and scanner
2173
Making a Stainless Steel Rubik's Cube
I wasn't entirely satisfied with the aluminum cube , so after thinking about the design for a while, I decided to make another one out of stainless steel. Just for fun, I thought I would make all the pieces using only manual machines. How hard could it be?
2174
Pocket-sized cloud with a Raspberry Pi
Put your pocket-sized silicon to work as the world's smallest API-driven cloud - to run automation scripts, scheduled tasks, functions and to host web sites
2175
Nintendo Switch prevents downgrades by irreparably blowing its own fuses (2020)
How the Nintendo Switch uses irreversible hardware fuses to prevent firmware downgrades.
2176
Connecting a gaming PC to Apple Studio Display
I'll never forget when I bought the first 5K Retina iMac. Almost as soon as I ripped it out of the box, I booted it while holding down Command-F2, assuming it…
2177
2178
Librem 5: First Impressions
The Librem 5 does not run Android or iOS, it runs a proper Linux operating system ( PureOS , derived from Debian). There are hardware kill switches for the baseband modem, the camera and microphone, and WiFi and bluetooth. The phone's main selling point is that it doesn't spy on you.
2179
Results of 500 MicroSD Benchmarks on SBCs
I've tested over 20 microSD cards on every Raspberry Pi model to help you find the fastest one for your Raspberry Pi Single Board Computer
2180
The Apple-1's unusual MOS clock driver chip
Apple's first product was the Apple-1 computer, introduced in 1976. This early microcomputer used an unusual type of storage for its disp...
2181
Using a tiny HC32L110 ARM chip
A while ago, Hackaday highlighted a new chip, the HC32L110. This chip was one of the many ARM-based microcontrollers that sprung up in China, but this one was remarkable because its diminuitive size: it came in an 16-pin WCSP package of a miniscule 1.6x1.4mm. Aside from that, it seems to be a chip that is somewhat…
2182
Using a Minitel 1B as a serial terminal
So you've got your hands on a late 1980s Minitel 1B (or something slightly later) and then you realize that the entire Minitel network shut ...
2183
2184
Verilog Is Weird
Verilog is the most commonly used language for hardware design in America (VHDL is more common in Europe). Too bad it's so baroque. If you ever browse the Verilog questions on Stack Overflow , you'll find a large number of questions, usually downvoted, asking “why doesn't my code work?”, with code that's not just a…
2185
Apple’s Universal Control
Apple’s “Universal Control” is holy-shit good
2186
Documenting Sony Memory Stick
Dmitry.GR: The first complete documentation of Sony Memory Stick from HW to DATA
2187
Down the mechanical keyboard rabbit hole
I’m writing this to share my experience adapting to weird keyboards and layouts.
2188
2189
Semiconductors are more than just processors and GPUs
If you ask a software developer the question 'What are some example uses of semiconductors?', they'll probably mention 'silicon chips', like the ones found in processors or graphics cards. Indeed, this is probably the answer that I would have given just a couple years ago, but I have since become enlightened as to the…
2190
The first RISC-V portable computer is now available
The DevTerm R-01 is a RISC-V based "slabtop" computer.