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Wi-Fi Alliance introduces Wi-Fi 6
New generational approach enables users to easily differentiate between Wi-Fi® technologies
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AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM
I always love when I find a really dumb solution that works reliably to fix a problem that should never really be a problem in the first place. But having worked with audio devices before—though nothing nearly as complex as the AirPods—I am willing to cut Apple some slack in building a seamless aural experience with…
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Introducing the Librem Key
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.
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Inside the die of Intel's 8087 coprocessor chip, root of modern floating point
Looking inside the Intel 8087, an early floating point chip, I noticed an interesting feature on the die: the substrate bias generation circ...
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Intel and the Danger of Integration
Intel is in an increasingly bad position in part because it has been captive to its integrated model. Or, you could simply say they were disrupted.
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The DisplayPort Pin 20 Problem
When you read up on the DisplayPort connector in the VESA specification, it will show that both the source and the sink are supposed to provide power at 3.3V+-10% and 500mA on the DP_PWR pin, pin 20, of the connector.
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Machine learning can run on tiny, low-power chips
Photo by Kevin Steinhardt When Azeem asked me to give a talk at CogX, he asked me to focus on just a single point that I wanted the audience to take away. A few years ago my priority would have bee…
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The HP-35: Consumer Electronics, an Origin Story
Ault and Wiborg’s art nouveau poster ads.
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Why Intel will never let owners control the ME
The Intel Management Engine is an auxillary microprocessor embedded into modern Intel x86 CPUs or chipsets. 1 It runs an Intel-signed proprietary binary blob. Due to code signing restrictions enforced by the hardware, it cannot be modified or replaced by the user. (AMD x86 CPUs have a similar auxillary microprocessor…
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The Decline of the MacBook Pro
I’ve been using Macs for almost nine years. I got a 15” MacBook Pro the summer before my freshman year of college through my school’s computer store. I used it for six years before getting a 13” model in 2015. I’m considering getting a new one in the next year or two, but the latest MacBook Pros have become worse in…
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The Apple Watch – Tipping Point Time for Healthcare
I don’t own an Apple Watch. I do have a Fitbit. But the Apple Watch 4 announcement intrigued me in a way no other product has since the original IPhone. This wasn’t just another product announcemen…
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Fast line-following robots
Since February 2016, I have been participating in DIYRobocars meetups here in the SF Bay Area, wherein a bunch of amateur roboticists compete in autonomous time trials with RC cars. I had been doing very well in the competition with essentially just a glorified line-following robot, but have lately upgraded to a full…
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Review: Purism Librem13 laptop
Last year Purism contacted me after they read on the Pepper&Carrot blog that my laptop has been stolen in the burglary of my house. At that time, they proposed me to contribute to my Pepper&Carrot project by sending me a shiny new Librem13 laptop. So, since October 2017 I have this laptop with me and because I saw a…
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A 48Khz digital music player for the Commodore 64
Move over, Sennheiser. Make yourself scarce, Bose. Here comes the ultimate Hi-Fi solution for your living room: The Commodore 64! I s it sa...
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Atomically thin LED opens the possibility for invisible displays
Tiny device opens the door to displays that would be bright when turned on but see-through when turned off -- or in futuristic applications such as light-emitting tattoos
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The Camera Is the Lidar
It was clear when Ouster started developing the OS-1 three years ago that deep learning research for cameras was outpacing lidar research…
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No Cutting Corners on the iPhone X
When the iPhone X launched, a lot of designers were put off about the screen shape. Those complaints have mostly died down, but I haven’t…
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Jeri Ellsworth and the Robot Uprising of 2038
In a stuffed apartment filled with hydrofluoric acid, oscilloscopes and a transistor curve tracer, Jeri Ellsworth carefully places a hand-cut silicon wafer into a 1000 degree furnace. The ambient noise of police sirens can be heard in the background: "Ugh, the police are coming... So the instructions for the…
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E-Stop and Fuel, software that keeps you awake at night
Computer code that I’m writing usually doens’t keep me up at night. After all, it’s only bits & bites and if something doesn’t work properly you can always fix it, that’s the beauty of software.
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Build your own IoT/MQTT node for less than $2
How to use a bare ESP-12F module as a standalone IoT/MQTT node — powered directly from a USB charger with just a handful of passive componen...