Hackaday Links: October 19, 2014

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Introducing the Hayes Smartmodem 1200. The era of the single station microcomputer…. is over. The Hayes Smartmodem offers advanced features like auto answer and auto dial. Now if we could only find an ‘RS-232 Computer.’

Have a 3D printer and an old router? How about controlling your printer with Octoprint? For some cases, it might be better than using a Raspberry Pi and OctoPi, but you won’t get a camera for streaming pics of your builds to the web.

Last year, [CNLohr] built a microscope slide Minecraft thing and in the process created the smallest Minecraft server ever. The record has now been bested with the Intel Edison. There’s a bit of work to install Java, but the performance is pretty good for one player. Bonus: Minecraft is a single threaded app, so you have another core for garbage collection.

Remember the Scribble pen, that showed just how gullible people are and how crappy tech journalism is? They’re back with a beta program. A mere $15 guarantees you a scribble pen for their beta program. I wouldn’t give these guys $15 of someone else’s money, but lucky for us [ch00f] bit the bullet. He’ll be updating everyone on the status of his fifteen dollars, I’m sure.

Hey, guess what will eventually be in the Hackaday store? Keycaps for your mechanical keyboard. Yes, we actually figured out a way to do this that makes sense and won’t lose money. Pick your favorite, or suggest new ones in the comments:
keycaps

BSAPEDWLOVKTUB.YBKAB

26 thoughts on “Hackaday Links: October 19, 2014

  1. Are the files used to create the keycaps available? Based on the screen shots it looks like they were designed in OpenSCAD. The “Hackaday Cherry MX Keycaps” project page said that OpenSCAD could not do the “loft” but Brian could. I’m curious what that means exactly.

    1. Here ya go.

      ‘Lofting’ means a gradual transition from the ‘skull’ outline to the square outline of the base of the cap. OpenSCAD can not do this, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve. You’re free to print one yourself, but the MX connector is a bit too big. The files will eventually be reworked once we get to production, and yes, I’ll keep the files available to everyone.

  2. The one on the far right is my favorite (full Jolly Wrencher). Most keyboards I’ve used have keys that are convex on top. These appear to be rounded. Any idea how that will affect usability and/or comfort?

    1. It’s also worth noting that CNLohr’s servers are server emulators. The Edison appears to be running the actual Mojang/Microsoft java code. Neither of these achievements really negates the other, however.

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