This SSD Will Self Destruct In Ten Seconds…

In case you can’t wait for your flash memory to die from write cycling, TeamGroup now has a drive that, via software or hardware, can destroy its own flash chips with a surge of voltage. If you wonder why you might want this, there are military applications where how you destroy a piece of equipment is right up there in the manual with how to use it.

They have obviously put a lot of thought into it, as you can see in the video below. Apparently, if you are in the middle of blowing up the flash and power cuts out, the chip will resume frying itself when you restore power.

Continue reading “This SSD Will Self Destruct In Ten Seconds…”

Opening A Six-Lock Safe With One Key Using Brunnian Links

Brunnian links are a type of nontrivial link – or knot – where multiple linked loops become unlinked if a single loop is cut or removed. Beyond ‘fun’ disentanglement toys and a tantalizing subject of academic papers on knot theory, it can also be used for practical applications, as demonstrated by [Anthony Francis-Jones] in a recent video. In it we get a safe that is locked with multiple padlocks, each of which can unlock and open the safe by itself.

This type of locked enclosure is quite commonly used in military and other applications where you do not want to give the same key to each person in a group, yet still want to give each person full access. After taking us through the basics of Brunnian links, including Borromean rings, we are introduced to the design behind the safe with its six padlocks.

As a demonstration piece it uses cheap luggage padlocks and Perspex (acrylic) rods and sheets to give a vibrant and transparent view of its workings. During the assembly it becomes quite apparent how it works, with each padlock controlling one direction of motion of a piece, each of which can be used to disassemble the entire locking mechanism and open the safe.

Brunnian links are also found in the braids often made by children out of elastic bands, which together with this safe can be used to get children hooked on Brunnian links and general knot theory.

Continue reading “Opening A Six-Lock Safe With One Key Using Brunnian Links”

Mini Car Racing Game Really Shows Off Multicolor Printing

Quality 3D printing is a common hobbyist tool nowadays, and [wontonnn]’s mini arcade car racing game really shows off how 3D printing can bring parts from functional to fantastic. There are quite a few details we like in [wontonn]’s design, so let’s take a closer look.

The mini mechanical game is one of those treadmill-based car racing games in which the player navigates a little car between an onslaught of belt-borne obstacles. A little DC motor spins things up in a modular side assembly, and a hand-cranked option is available. The player’s car attaches via a magnet to a steering arm; if the player’s car gets knocked off the magnet, game over.

Treadmill belt segments print as large pre-assembled pieces, with ends that snap together without connectors. Belts like this are sometimes tricky, so this is worth keeping in mind should one ever need a similar part. Since there are no external fasteners or hardware to depend on, one could resize it easily to suit their own project purposes.

The finishing touches on the whole assembly look great. It used to be that the sort of colors and lettering seen here would come from a sticker or label, but [wontonn] gets clean lines and colors by raising (or sinking) different parts of the design. The checkerboard pattern, for example, has the light squares raised for printing in a different color.

Electromechanical arcade games have an appeal all their own, being a fusion of both mechanical and electric design that comes together in a special way. Want to make your own? Get inspired by the classic Lunar Lander reimagined, or check out this LEGO treadmill racer that takes an entirely different approach to the concept.

Continue reading “Mini Car Racing Game Really Shows Off Multicolor Printing”

FLOSS Weekly Episode 841: Drupal And AI: The Right Tool For Everything

This week Jonathan and Katherine talk with Jamie Abrahams about Drupal, and how AI just makes sense. No, really. Jamie makes a compelling case that Drupal is a really good tool for building AI workflows. We cover security, personal AI, and more!

Continue reading “FLOSS Weekly Episode 841: Drupal And AI: The Right Tool For Everything”

Mach Cutoff: Bending The Sonic Boom

Supersonic air travel is great if you want to get somewhere quickly. Indeed, the Concorde could rush you from New York to London in less than three and a half hours, over twice as fast as a conventional modern airliner. Despite the speed, though, supersonic passenger service has never really been sustainable thanks to the noise involved. Disruption from sonic booms has meant that supersonic travel over land is near-universally banned. This strictly limits the available routes for supersonic passenger jets, and thus their economic viability.

Solving this problem has been a hot research topic for some time. Now, it appears there might be a way forward for supersonic air travel over land, using a neat quirk of Earth’s atmosphere.

Continue reading “Mach Cutoff: Bending The Sonic Boom”

Front panel of Sony Blu-ray player

Blu-ray Won, But At What Cost?

Over on their substack [ObsoleteSony] has a new article: The Last Disc: How Blu-ray Won the War but Lost the Future.

In this article the author takes us through the history of Blu-ray media and how under Sony’s stewardship it successfully defeated the competing format of the time, HD DVD. Sony started behind the eight ball but through some deft maneuvering managed to come out on top. Perhaps the most significant contributing factor was the inclusion of Blu-ray drives in the PlayStation 3.

The person leading the Blu-ray initiative for Sony was Masanobu Yamamoto, whose legacy was the compact disc. What was needed was a personal media format which could deliver for high-definition 1080p video. As the DVD format did not have the storage capacity required, new formats needed to be developed. The enabling technology for both Blu-ray and HD DVD media was the blue laser as it allowed for more compact encoding.

Sony’s Blu-ray format became the dominating format for high-definition personal media…just as physical media died.

Thanks to [Stephen Walters] for writing in about this one.

The DEW Line Remembered

The DEW line was one of three radar early warning systems of the time.

If you grew up in the middle of the Cold War, you probably remember hearing about the Distant Early Warning line between duck-and-cover drills. The United States and Canada built the DEW line radar stations throughout the Arctic to detect potential attacks from the other side of the globe.

MIT’s Lincoln Lab proposed the DEW Line in 1952, and the plan was ambitious. In order to spot bombers crossing over the Arctic circle in time, it required radar twice as powerful as the best radar of the day. It also needed communications systems that were 99 percent reliable, even in the face of terrestrial and solar weather.

In the end, there were 33 stations built from Alaska to Greenland in an astonishing 32 months. Keep in mind that these stations were located in a very inhospitable environment, where temperatures reached down to -60 °F (-51 °C). Operators kept the stations running 24/7 for 36 years, from 1957 to 1993.

System of Systems

The DEW line wasn’t the only radar early-warning system that the US and Canada had in place, only the most ambitious. The Pinetree Line was first activated in 1951. However, its simple radar was prone to jamming and couldn’t pick up things close to the ground. It was also too close to main cities along the border to offer them much protection. Even so, the 33 major stations, along with six smaller stations, did better than expected. Continue reading “The DEW Line Remembered”