Hackaday Links: January 15, 2017

What’s more expensive than a car and a less useful means of transportation? A 747 flight simulator built in a basement. There’s a project page where a few more details are revealed. There’s a 180 degree wrap-around screen for the main display, a glass cockpit, and the controls and gauges are ‘good enough’ to feel like the real thing. The simulator is running a highly customized version of FS9 (Microsoft’s flight sim from the year 2004).

For the last few years, Google has been experimenting with high altitude balloons delivering Internet to remote populations. This is Project Loon, and simply by the fact that Google hasn’t shuttered this Alpha-bit, we can assume the project is a success. A Project Loon balloon recently crashed in Panama, which means we can get an up-close look at the hardware. These balloon base stations are a lot bigger than you would think.

We’ve seen beautiful PCBs before, but [Blake] is taking this to another level entirely. He’s developed a process to convert bitmaps into files suitable to send to a PCB manufacturer. The results are… strange, and very cool. Check out a video of the process here.

If you want to dial out from behind the great firewall of China, you’re probably going to use a VPN. Here’s an idea that doesn’t work as well as a VPN. Use an acoustic coupler with your iPhone. Will it work? Of course it will – modems have been standardized for fifty years. Will it work well? No, I can speak faster than 300 baud.

Do you sell on Tindie? We have a dog park. Tindie sellers around the world will be meeting up on Hackaday.io next Friday to discuss Tindie and Tindie-related activities. Join in!

A quick aside relating to Hackaday and Tindie swag. 1) The Tindie dog as a stuffed animal. 2) A Hackaday logo t-shirt where the skull is decorated like a Día de Muertos sugar skull. Pick one, leave your response in the comments.

28 thoughts on “Hackaday Links: January 15, 2017

      1. 1. Do not mess with the skull
        unless to make it gold.
        2. All animals are equal
        some are more equal than others.

        Seriously, though, I don’t have a problem with it. Sugar skulls are awesome.

  1. Tindie dog as a stuffed animal please. I got a Tindie t-shirt back when Tindie first launched for my gf and now I need a stuffed Tindie dog for my wife (was the same gf).

  2. I was looking to buy stickers the other day couldn’t find them on the hackaday store, I would like to suggest that you start selling them instore. Also it would be amazing if Hackaday could find an EU redistributor as postage prices would be reduced a bit.

  3. “A Project Loon balloon recently crashed in Panama, which means we can get an up-close look at the hardware.”

    You all say it like it’s some Top Secret military hardware. Now if it was an Apple balloon… ;-)

  4. Whoever James Laen farms out his OSH Park work to must just shake their heads when they see the variety of stuff that are on his panels. Must look like a patchwork quilt every time.

  5. “A Hackaday logo t-shirt where the skull is decorated like a Día de Muertos sugar skull” – definitely this.

    I learnt something new today – wikipedia agrees with you calling it “Dia de Muertos” (no “los” needed), it is a back-translation to call it “Dia de los Muertos”. Not entirely sure what the difference is (day of dead vs. day of the dead?), anyone know enough Spanish to explain the difference?

    1. I know almost no Spanish, and my mostly Latin-American coworkers know this very well.

      I also have a completely flawless pronunciation of Dias de los Meurtos, because it was featured in my favorite episode of a Mexican-themed cartoon I used to watch. My boss was startled and impressed. That is all.

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