Despite the summer doldrums, it was another big week in the hacking world, and Elliot sat down with Dan for a rundown. Come along for the ride as Dan betrays his total ignorance of soccer/football, much to Elliot’s amusement. But it’s all about keeping the human factor in sports, so we suppose it was worth it. Less controversially, we ogled over a display of PCB repair heroics, analyzed a reverse engineering effort that got really lucky, and took a look at an adorable one-transistor ham transceiver. We also talked about ants doing surgery, picking locks with nitric acid, a damn cute dam, and how to build one of the world’s largest machines from scratch in under a century. Plus, we answered the burning question: can a CRT be used as an audio amplifier? Yes, kind of, but please don’t let the audiophiles know or we’ll never hear the end of it.

Worried about attracting the Black Helicopters? Download the DRM-free MP3 and listen offline, just in case.

Episode 280 Show Notes:

News:

• Congratulations To The 2024 Business Card Challenge Winners!
• Show Us Your Minimalist Games, And Win
  • Simple Version Of Pong Played On A Row Of LEDs
• Time’s Up For Mbed

What’s that Sound?

• First gravity wave detected by LIGO: Congrats to [Lil Trashpanda]
• Keynote Video: Dr. Keith Thorne Explains The Extreme Engineering Of The LIGO Hardware

Interesting Hacks of the Week:

• Five Ways To Repair Broken PCB Traces
• Build Your Own Hydroelectric Dam
• Hacking An IP Camera To Run Your Own Software
• You Can Use A CRT As An Audio Amplifier Tube
  • VFD As A Sound Amplifier
• Flexures Make Robotic Fingers Simpler To Print
  • Print Your Own Flexures
  • 3D Mouse With 3D Printed Flexures And PCB Coils
  • 3D Printed Flexure Shows Precision In Action
• How The Bell System Was Built

Quick Hacks:

• Elliot’s Picks
  • Seiko Had A Smartwatch In 1984
  • A Look At The DEC VT220, A Proper Serial Terminal
  • Playing Rock, Paper Scissors With A Time Of Flight Sensor
• Dan’s Picks:
  • Tiny Transceiver Gets It Done With One Transistor
  • Surgery — Not Just For Humans Anymore
  • Nitric Acid Is The Hot New Way To Pick Locks

Can’t-Miss Articles:

• Embedded Python: MicroPython Is Amazing
• Smart Ball Technology Has Reached Football, But The Euros Show Us It’s Not Necessarily For The Better
  • Germany vs. Denmark Highlights (worked in the US at least; play in question is about 10 minutes in)