This week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos met up to discuss the best hacks of the previous week, at least in our opinions.

After chasing the angry bird away from Kristina’s office, we go to the news and learn that we’re in the middle of a solar conjunction Essentially, the Sun has come between Earth and Mars, making communication impossible for about another week. Did you know that this happens every two years?

Then it’s time for a new What’s That Sound, and although Kristina had an interesting albeit somewhat prompted guess, she was, of course, wrong.

And then it’s on to the hacks, beginning with a really cool digital pen that packs all the sensors. We learned about the world’s largest musical instrument, and compared it to the Zadar Sea Organ in Croatia, which if you’ll recall was once a What’s That Sound.

From there we take a look at fake buck converters, radioactive water as a health fad, and a garage door company that has decided to take their ball and go home. Finally we talk about how slippery neutrinos are, and discuss Tom’s time at JawnCon.

Check out the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!

Download and savor at your leisure.

Episode 244 Show Notes:

News:

• Solar conjunction halts communications between Mars missions and NASA

What’s that Sound?

• Fill out the form, place yer bets!

Interesting Hacks of the Week:

• D-POINT: A Digital Pen With Optical-Inertial Tracking
• Virginia Cave Is The Largest Musical Instrument In The World
  • Sea Organ – Zadar, Croatia – Atlas Obscura
  • Zadar Sea Organ – YouTube
• Cheap Power Supplies With Fake Chips Might Not Be That Bad
• Radioactive Water Was Once A (Horrifying) Health Fad
  • The Radioactive Source Missing In Australian Desert Has Been Found
• Does Getting Into Your Garage Really Need To Be Difficult?
  • Cory Doctorow: An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet’s Enshittification and Throw It Into Reverse – YouTube
  • GitHub – Kaldek/rat-ratgdo: Open source schematics for ratgdo PCB
• 3D Printed Stamp Rollers

Quick Hacks:

• Elliot’s Picks:
  • Solder Two Boards At Once With This Dual Reflow Plate
  • Putting 3D Printed Screw Threads To The Test
  • Neopixels? Try Liquid Nitrogen To Color Shift Your LEDs Instead
  • Leaky SMD Electrolytics? Try These Brute Force Removal Methods
• Kristina’s Picks:
  • Arduino Sticker Dispenser Saves Time
  • Forever Writing On Monofilament Fishing Line
  • Hack A Soda Can To Jewellery
    • Soda Can Strip Cutter : 10 Steps (with Pictures) – Instructables

Can’t-Miss Articles:

• Detecting Neutrinos, The Slippery Ghost Particles That Don’t Want To Interact
  • Prototype for DUNE detector will test new technology that can handle more neutrinos

• JawnCon 0x0: A Strong Start With A Bright Future