It’s a hot one at both microphones, as Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos wilt in the heat with ice lollies and freezer packs. But still, we persevered long enough to make a podcast.
In Hackaday news, Supercon is on! It’s going down in Pasadena, California, but the talks will be somewhere slightly larger, with a courtyard instead of an alley. Get your talk proposals in now! In other Hackaday news, we still have our Frikkin’ Lasers Contest going on until Thursday, July 23rd.
Interestingly enough, we got a comment on an older article from none other than [Michael J. Van de Graaff], whose grandfather invented the Van de Graff generator and was “quite upset” when plans for a DIY version appeared in Scientific American. And finally, Google Earth’s desktop client is being discontinued, but you can still travel the globe on your phone, or in your PC’s browser.
Not only do we have another triple mailbag this week, we have another failed attempt at guessing the Sound by Kristina. However, [Alexander] knew that it was CD-ROM drive a-spinnin’. Speaking of What’s That Sound, be sure to let us know your ideas for the new prize.
That sounds like a lot of preamble, but we quickly get to a full slate of hacks, a couple of which are pretty retro in retrospect. 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!
Episode 378 Show Notes:
News:
- 2026 Hackaday Supercon: Call For Proposals
- Google Earth Desktop Client To Be Retired In 2027
- Frikkin Lasers Challenge
- The Book That Could Have Killed Me
Mailbag:
- Two-fer! [Jonathan Comer] has many ideas for generating random numbers when it comes to rolling for the What’s That Sound winner, and [Paul Clyne] wants to know how to get a jolly wrencher sticker.
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
- Making A Locked Down Wearable Work Without A Subscription
- Get A Handle On This Compact Pi Portable
- AIM-ing For A More Open Platform Than Discord
- Reject Modernity, Return To 80s, Learn C.
- Building A Better CNC Hot Wire Foam Cutter
- Clay Extruder Enables Printable Pottery
Quick Hacks:
- Elliot’s Picks:
- Kristina’s Picks:
Rather than t-shirts, could you send out a custom PCB with 8 push buttons and 4-position dip switch (on/off), and an esp32 and a speaker, and then have each button correspond to the laugh of each of the hackaday editors. Make it possible to record your own laugh and add it to the esp32. The switch positions determine the selected person, so you could have up to 32 different laughter sounds played depending on the dip switch position and the button pressed. You could use it as a prop during the podcast, or even as a ‘guess that sound’ HAHAHA. I love it. Please make it.