A Modern Web Browser For Classic Mac OS

May 29, 2026 by 9 Comments

When using older computers there comes a point at which modern software drops support, as for example is happening with builds for Windows XP. Every now and then though, along comes something that bucks the trend. Enter [mplsllc] with Macsurf, a port of the Netsurf browser for classic MacOS 9 on PowerPC. Bring your nineties beige box back online!

The first generation of PowerPC Macs occupy an odd position, being faster and more capable than their predecessors while not sharing the ability to run MacOS X like their G3 descendants. Macsurf has the promise of bringing them into the 2020s, but if you’re expecting the equivalent of Google Chrome you might be disappointed.

Netsurf is a browser that started life on RiscOS, the original ARM OS from the Acorn Archimedes. It’s lightweight and portable, it’s an active project, it has a good rendering engine that does up to date HTML and CSS, it offers native TLS, and it has JavaScript built in. It’s ideal for a 1990s PowerPC, but with the caveat that sites expecting the very latest browsers might struggle. Sadly we don’t have a ’90s Mac to hand so we can’t try this port, but we’re used to it on other lower-power machines so we thing it’ll be a great asset to the platform.

We last looked at Netsurf when we had a look at RiscOS, if you are interested.

Low-Cost, Portable Streaming Server

January 2, 2026 by 14 Comments

Thanks to the Raspberry Pi, we have easy access to extremely inexpensive machines running Linux that have all kinds of GPIO as well as various networking protocols. And as the platform has improved over the years, we’ve seen more demanding applications on them as well as applications that use an incredibly small amount of power. This project combines all of these improvements and implements a media streaming server on a Raspberry Pi that uses a tiny amount of energy, something that wouldn’t have been possible on the first generations of Pi.

Part of the reason this server uses such low power, coming in just around two watts, is that it’s based on the Pi Zero 2W. It’s running a piece of software called Mini-Pi Media Server which turns the Pi into a DLNA server capable of streaming media over the network, in this case WiFi. Samba is used to share files and Cockpit is onboard for easy web administration. In testing, the server was capable of streaming video to four different wireless devices simultaneously, all while plugged in to a small USB power supply.

For anyone who wants to try this out, the files for it as well as instructions are also available on a GitHub page. We could think of a number of ways that this would be useful over a more traditional streaming setup, specifically in situations where power demand must remain low such as on a long car trip or while off grid. We also don’t imagine the Pi will be doing much transcoding or streaming of 4K videos with its power and processing limitations, but it would be unreasonable to expect it to do so. For that you’d need something more powerful.

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Illustrated Kristina with an IBM Model M keyboard floating between her hands.

Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Ultimate Portable Split

December 23, 2025 by 8 Comments

What do you look for in a travel keyboard? For me, it has to be split, though this condition most immediately demands a carrying solution of some kind. Wirelessness I can take or leave, so it’s nice to have both options available. And of course, bonus points if it looks so good that people interrupt me to ask questions.

A pair of hands poised above a blue split keyboard that packs easily for travel in a 3D-printed case. The case doubles as a laptop stand.
Image by [kleshwong] via YouTube
Depending on your own personal answers to this burning question, the PSKEEB 5 just may be your endgame. And, lucky for you, [kleshwong] plans to open source it soon. All he asks for is your support by watching the video below and doing the usual YouTube-related things.

You’ll see a couple of really neat features, like swing-out tenting feet, a trackpoint, rotary encoders, and the best part of all — a carrying case that doubles as a laptop stand. Sweet!

Eight years in the making, this is the fifth in a series, thus the name: the P stands for Portability; the S for Split. [kleshwong] believes that 36 keys is just right, as long as you have what you need on various layers.

So, do what you can in the like/share/subscribe realm so we can all see the GitHub come to pass, would you? Here’s the spot to watch, and  you can enjoy looking through the previous versions while you wait with your forks and stars.

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Building A (Not Very) Portable Xbox

September 21, 2025 by 24 Comments

Modern handheld game consoles are impressive feats of engineering, featuring full fledged computers in near pocket-sized packages. So what happens if you take an original Xbox and sprinkle on some modern electronics and create a handheld? Well, if you’re [James] of James Channel, you end up with this sandwich of PCBs held together with hot glue and duck tape. 

The first order of miniaturization in this Xbox was replacing the hard drive. Because a CompactFlash card uses parallel ATA, that could be a simple drop in replacement. However, the Xbox locks the hard drive to the system requiring a mod chip for the CF card to work. Fortunately, the sacrificial Xbox came with a mod chip installed. After using an arcade machine to flash the card and copy over the contents of the drive, the CF card install was a breeze. 

For the screen and batteries, a portable DVD player that had remained unused since 2006 was repurposed. The battery cells were rather unhappy, but managed to get resurrected with some careful charging. As it turns out, the iPod 30 pin connector inside the portable screen contains an S-Video line. By tapping into that and adding in some power management for the batteries, the Xbox became a pile of PCBs that could maybe be taken places.

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A black and white device sits on a beige table. A white rotary knob projects out near the base of it's rectangular shape nearest the camera. Near it is a black rectangular section of the enclosure with six white dots protruding through holes to form a braille display. A ribbon cable snakes out of the top of the enclosure and over the furthest edge of the device, presumably connecting to a camera on the other side of the device.

This Polaroid-esque OCR Machine Turns Text To Braille In The Wild

August 15, 2025 by 2 Comments

One of the practical upsides of improved computer vision systems and machine learning has been the ability of computers to translate text from one language or format to another. [Jchen] used this to develop Braille Vision which can turn inaccessible text into braille on the go.

Using a headless Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 running Tesseract OCR, the device has a microswitch shutter to take a picture of a poster or other object. The device processes any text it finds and gives the user an audible cue when it is finished. A rotary knob on the back of the device then moves the braille display pad through each character. When the end of the message is reached, it then cycles back to the beginning.

Development involved breadboarding an Arduino hooked up to some MOSFETs to drive the solenoids for the braille display until the system worked well enough to solder together with wires and perfboard. Everything is housed in a 3D printed shell that appears similar in size to an old Polaroid instant camera.

We’ve seen a vibrating braille output prototype for smartphones, how blind makers are using 3D printing, and are wondering what ever happened with “tixel” displays? If you’re new to braille, try 3D printing your own trainer out of TPU.

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A Portable Chainsaw Sawmill

December 14, 2024 by 25 Comments

Unless you’re running a commercial logging operation, with specialized saws, log grapples, mills, transportation for the timber, and the skilled workers needed to run everything, it’s generally easier to bring a sawmill to the wood instead of taking the wood to the sawmill. Especially for a single person, something like a chainsaw mill is generally a much easier and cost effective way to harvest a small batch of timber into lumber. These chainsaw mills can still be fairly cumbersome though, but [izzy swan] has a new design that fits an entire mill onto a hand cart for easy transportation in and out of a forest.

The entire mill is built out of a sheet and a half of plywood, most of which is cut into strips and then assembled into box girders for the track. The remainder of plywood is machined on a CNC to create the carriage for the chainsaw to attach as well as a few other parts to fix the log in place. The carriage has a 4:1 reduction gear on it to winch the chainsaw along the length of the log which cuts the log into long boards. After the milling is complete, the entire mill can be disassembled and packed down onto its hand cart where it can be moved on to the next project fairly quickly.

For a portable mill, it boasts respectable performance as well. It can cut logs up to 11 feet in length and about 30 inches across depending on the type of chainsaw bar used, although [izzy swan] has a few improvements planned for the next prototypes that look to make more consistent, uniform cuts. Chainsaws are incredibly versatile tools to have on hand as well, we’ve seen them configured into chop saws, mortisers, and even fixed to the end of a CNC machine.

Thanks to [Keith] for the tip!

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A chocolate coating machine works in the round to enrobe mint Oreos.

Chocolate-Coating Machine Mk. 2: The Merry-Go-Round

November 28, 2024 by 17 Comments

This holiday season, [Chaz] wanted to continue his family’s tradition of enrobing a little bit of everything in dark chocolate, and built an improved, rotating chocolate-coating machine.

You may remember last year’s offering, aka the conveyor belt version. Although that one worked, too much chocolate was ultimately lost to the surface of the kitchen table. [Chaz] once again started with a standard chocolate fountain and bought a round wire rack that fits the circumference of the bowl at the bottom. He snipped a hole in the center large enough to accommodate the business part of the fountain and printed a collar with holes that he cleverly zip-tied to the rack.

[Chaz] also printed a large gear to go around the bowl, a small gear to attach to a six RPM motor, a motor mount for the bowl, and an air blade attachment for a portable Ryobi fan. The air blade worked quite well, doing the double duty of distributing the chocolate and thinning out the coating. Plus, it gives things a neat rumpled look on the top.

Want to make some special chocolates this year, but don’t want to build an enrober? Get yourself a diffraction grating and make some rainbow goodies with melted chocolate.

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