This week in the Podcast, Elliot Williams is off at Chaos Communication Congress, hearing tales of incredible reverse engineering that got locomotives back up and running, while Al Williams is thinking over what happened in 2023. There’s a lot of “how things work” in this show, from data buoys to sewing machines to the simulated aging of ICs.

Whether you’re into stacking bricks, stacking Pi Picos, or stacking your 3D prints to make better use of precious bed space, this episode is for you. Enjoy.

This is your last chance to download a new podcast this year. Take it!

Episode 249 Show Notes:

News:

• Elliot is off at Chaos Communication Congress

What’s that Sound?

• If you can guess what kind of devices are making this week’s noise, on a table at CCC, you can win a Podcast t-shirt!

Interesting Hacks of the Week:

• • Unbricking Trains, Uncovering Shady Behavior
  • The Tech That Died In 2023
  • Raspberry Pi Pico Parallel Mandelbrot Computation
  • 3D Printing Stacks
  • Absorbing Traffic Noise With Bricks Using Helmholtz Resonators
  • How Does A Sewing Machine Sew?

Quick Hacks:

• Elliot’s Picks:
  • Veteran SpaceX Booster Lost Due To Rough Seas
  • Liftoff! The Origin Of The Countdown
  • Building A Rad Super Capacitor RC Plane
• Al’s Picks:
  • $30 Guitar Build Shows What You Can Do With Amazon Parts
  • Talking Ohmmeter Also Spits Out Color Bands For You
  • Temperature Measurement By Wire

Can’t-Miss Articles:

• • Keeping Watch Over The Oceans With Data Buoys
  • How Do You Test If An EEPROM Can Hold Data For 100 Years?