As the calendar turns a leaf into September, Elliot Williams is joined by Jenny List for our weekly look at all things Hackaday.
In the news, our retrocomputing competition is well under way, but there’s plenty of time to get an entry in if you’ve got a cool old-style project to show us. And then Elliot’s been chasing seismic surveyors in Munich, where they’re looking for geothermal energy.
In the stand-out hacks there’s a discussion of smoothing 3D prints using frickin’ lasers, the effect of unreasonably high RAM and storage prices on the single board computer ecosystem, and an unfortunate air conditioning system that’s tricked into believing it’s a hot day. Finally, we look in depth at PETG, and take a dive into reverse Polish notation.
Download your own personal version of the podcast right here.
Episode 384 Show Notes:
Mailbag:
In out mailbag this week we had [Kevin Opalka] asking about roadtrip hacks and [Matthew Rowberry] explaining that most versatile yet underrated prototyping medium: the humble Lego brick. Which in turn gives us the chance to mention Lego House: Right Next To Denmark’s Legoland, But Way Cooler, a trip we made back in 2019.
Got something to say? Send an e-mail or an audio clip to mailbag@hackaday.com.
News:
- Announcing The 2026 Hackaday Retrocomputing Challenge
- Seismic investigation for Munich’s geothermal project.
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
- Laser Your Way To Smoother FDM 3D Prints
- Has the time of esoteric operating systems arrived?
- Tricking An Air Conditioner Into Cooling
- Wikipedia On A Cheap Yellow Display
- HDMI For The Color Computer 2
- RAM And EMMC Prices Are So High, Pine64 Has Stopped Linux Device Production
Quick Hacks:
- Elliot’s Picks:
- Jenny’s Picks:
Had to look up whether CCl4 is any good for solvent welding, and luckily the answer is mostly no. As for MEK, that one seems fairly common and it’s easily metabolized in small absorbed amounts. Perhaps there’s been a mix-up of the two.
1:05:30
Elliot going on a rant about how reverse-polish-notation is objectively correct because “The verb comes at the end”
Dude’s been living in Germany too long
:)
It’s actually all Forth’s fault, and I got a dose of that as a kid.
But little known fact: Yoda in German? English sentence order he speaks.
I suppose it’s because of smartphones that they can get away with the RAM prices, people use those in lieu of computers, otherwise I think they would not be able to get away with it, and there would be no need for AI as people with computers to use it would dwindle and without a market there is no industry.
It’s true, I sometimes really hate smartphones (mainly because of how the all try to force them, or their apps if you will, on you with a forcefulness you can at this point classify as violent) and I am happy if there’s another reason to justify to be negative, but still though, I think I have a point.
I thought the esoteric operating systems thing would be one article. It’s not, so I’ll just comment here:
I’ve always been surprised by Plan 9’s “famous and obscure” status. Everyone on HN and Lobsters knows what it is, but every single “alternative operating systems” listicle and the Raspberry Pi multiple-operating systems installer seem to come from an alternate universe where Plan 9 doesn’t exist, and operating systems textbooks rarely mention it, either. I’m not complaining, I just find it interesting that it’s as if there’s a moratorium on it. I don’t know how else you’d describe it when something is that well-known but never spoken.