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Hardware & Electronics
The most popular blog posts about hardware & electronics on Hacker News. 159 posts.
CPU Backdoors
It's generally accepted that any piece of software could be compromised with a backdoor. Prominent examples include the Sony/BMG installer , which had a backdoor built-in to allow Sony to keep users from copying the CD, which also allowed malicious third-parties to take over any machine with the software installed…
Hard, Not Soft, Kill Switches
Purism makes premium phones, laptops, mini PCs and servers running free software on PureOS. Purism products respect people's privacy and freedom while protecting their security.
NHL goal celebration hack: real-time machine learning and hue light show
This post does a deep dive on the **epic goal celebration hack**. In a single sentence, I trained a machine learning model to detect in real-time that a goal was just scored by the Habs based on the live audio feed of a game and to trigger a light show using Philips hues in my living room.
Introducing “6-pack”: the first open hardware modular switch
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Raspberry Pi Zero Hidden in an Xbox Controller
I like to tinker. My wife picked me up the new Raspberry Pi Zero. It's an ultra small and ridiculously cheap computer. How small and cheap? They give it away free on the cover of magazines... Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentIf you hurry down to WHSmith in Oxford, there are still a few @TheMagP1 copies left.❤️ 3💬 0🔁…
Windows 10 IoT Core for Raspberry Pi 2
Greetings, Makers! We are excited to announce the public release of Windows 10 IoT Core for the Raspberry Pi 2 and the MinnowBoard Max. Visit the Windows IoT Dev Center to choose your target board, then walk through the steps to provision your board, acquire the tools, and get started Making. This release of Windows
IBM is still making ThinkPad keyboards
This week I was doing a bit of shopping for an external keyboard for my old Thinkpad x200 laptop. I've grown used to its comfy keyboard and its trackpoint, so I looked on ebay to see if I could find one of the older external USB equivalents.
Introducing Google Cast for audio
In 2014, many of you—millions, in fact—helped make Chromecast one of the most popular streaming media devices globally. It's been exciting t...
Internet of Crappy Things
There is a flood of appliances which could be connected - and some are connected - without a second thought as to whether or not it’s necessary or secure.
Why Intel Added Cache Partitioning
Typical server utilization is between 10% and 50%. Google has demonstrated 90% utilization without impacting latency SLAs . Xkcd estimated that Google owns 2 million machines . If you estimate an amortized total cost of $4k per machine per year , that's $8 billion per year. With numbers like that, even small…
Storage for Photographers, Part 2
How a 12TB Synology DS415+ NAS changed my digital life: Data is eating me alive. Every gadget these days can shoot photos and record video. I captured 275GB of photos and videos on my last trip. Just one trip! And I'm just a hobbyist photographer with a mere 12MP camera. If you shoot with any regularity and a 20MP+…
Raspberry Pi Zero vs. Elliott 405
Twitter users @SadHappyAmazing and @HistoricalPics posted yesterday two photographs (copy) showing the Raspberry Pi Zero juxtaposed in front of the Norwich City Council Treasurer's Department building, where the delivery of the Elliott 405 computer was photographed in 1957. Here is how the two computers compare.
DIY Laptop 64 bit ARM
Few weeks ago I blogged about the idea to make OSHW Laptop based on Allwinner A64 64-bit SoC. Today we received the first samples of the laptop plastic body. The quality of the plastic parts is ver…
Facebook to open-source AI hardware design
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Laser-generated surface structures create extremely water-repellent metals
Scientists at the Institute of Optics have used lasers to transform metals into extremely water repellent, or super-hydrophobic, materials without the need for temporary coatings.
Listening to satellites for $30
I've ever dreamed of space & satellites, it turms out you can received pictures from them.
Are Your Devices Hardwired for Betrayal?
It's an interesting time to be a computer security researcher. Last week, Kaspersky Lab released a report about a new family of malware from an entity they called "The Equation Group". The report demonstrated for the first time that firmware-based attacks, previously only demonstrated in lab...
Reverse engineering an ancient wireless security keypad using RTL-SDR
A few weeks ago, some friends and I decided that our houses weren’t crammed full enough with useless crap and so we embarked on a journey to a large junk shop surplus warehouse. The place was a vast hangar brimming with old and curious pieces of technology ranging from IBM keyboards to VHS video editing …
Add a dirt-cheap screen to the Raspberry Pi B+
Recently the internet noticed the Raspberry Pi could drive LCD panels using DPI. This allows very inexpensive displays to be used with basically no additional hardware. In this post we dive into the hardware required, the software configuration, how to read screen datasheets, and basic troubleshooting.
How New Long-Range Radios Will Change the Internet of Things
New radios that combine miles of range with years of battery life are changing the way we build and use connected devices. Here’s how.
Motion sensing using the doppler effect
Recently I stumbled upon an interesting paper for implementing motion sensing requiring no special hardware, only a speaker and mic ! Unfortunately the paper didn't include code to test it, so I decided to reproduce it here on the web!