A Look At The Small Web, Part 1

September 10, 2024 by 62 Comments

In the early 1990s I was privileged enough to be immersed in the world of technology during the exciting period that gave birth to the World Wide Web, and I can honestly say I managed to completely miss those first stirrings of the information revolution in favour of CD-ROMs, a piece of technology which definitely didn’t have a future. I’ve written in the past about that experience and what it taught me about confusing the medium with the message, but today I’m returning to that period in search of something else. How can we regain some of the things that made that early Web good?

We All Know What’s Wrong With The Web…

It’s likely most Hackaday readers could recite a list of problems with the web as it exists here in 2024. Cory Doctrow coined a word for it, enshitification, referring to the shift of web users from being the consumers of online services to the product of those services, squeezed by a few Internet monopolies. A few massive corporations control so much of our online experience from the server to the browser, to the extent that for so many people there is very little the touch outside those confines. Continue reading “A Look At The Small Web, Part 1” →

Slim Tactile Switches Save Classic TI Calculator With A Bad Keypad

September 10, 2024 by 16 Comments

For vintage calculator fans, nothing strikes more fear than knowing that someday their precious and irreplaceable daily driver will become a museum piece to be looked at and admired — but never touched again. More often than not, the failure mode will be the keypad.

In an effort to recover from the inevitable, at least for 70s vintage TI calculators, [George] has come up with these nice replacement keypad PCBs. The original membrane switches on these calculators have a limited life, but luckily there are ultra-slim SMD tactile switches these days make a dandy substitute. [George] specifies a 0.8 mm thick switch that when mounted on a 1.6 mm thick PCB comes in just a hair over the original keypad’s 2.2 mm thickness. He has layouts for a TI-45, which should also fit a TI-30, and one for the larger keypads on TI-58s and TI-59s.

While these particular calculators might not in your collection, [George]’s goal is to create an open source collection of replacement keypads for all the vintage calculators sitting in desk drawers out there. And not just keypads, but battery packs, too.

DOOM On A Volumetric Display

September 9, 2024 by 16 Comments

There’s something magical about volumetric displays. They really need to be perceived in person, and no amount of static or video photography will ever do them justice. [AncientJames] has built a few, and we’re reporting on his progress, mostly because he got it to run a playable port of DOOM.

Base view of an earlier version showing the motor drive and PSU

As we’ve seen before, DOOM is very much a 3D game viewed on a 2D display using all manner of clever tricks and optimizations. The background visual gives a 3D effect, but the game’s sprites are definitely very solidly in 2D land. As we’ll see, that wasn’t good enough for [James].

The basic concept relies on a pair of 128 x 64 LED display matrix modules sitting atop a rotating platform. The 3D printed platform holds the displays vertically, with the LEDs lined up with the diameter, meaning the electronics hang off the back, creating some imbalance.

Lead, in the form of the type used for traditional window leading, was used as a counterbalance. A Raspberry Pi 4 with a modified version of this LED driver HAT is rotating with the displays. The Pi and both displays are fed power from individual Mini560 buck modules, taking their input from a 12 V 100 W Mean-Well power supply via a car alternator slip ring setup. (Part numbers ABH6004S and ASL9009  for those interested.) Finally, to synchronise the setup, a simple IR photo interrupter signals the Pi via an interrupt.

Continue reading “DOOM On A Volumetric Display” →

A photo of a farmer in Kazakhstan wearing a balaclava mask standing in front of a farm house with a rusting piece of Soyuz space capsule used as part of the farm's animal feed trough

One Giant Steppe For Space Flight

September 9, 2024 by 16 Comments

In a recent photo essay for the New Yorker magazine, author Keith Gessen and photographer Andrew McConnell share what life is like for the residents around the launch facility and where Soyuz capsules land in Kazakhstan.

Read the article for a brief history of the Baikonur spaceport and observations from the photographer’s fifteen visits to observe Soyuz landings and the extreme separation between the local farmers and the facilities built up around Baikonur. A local ecologist even compares the family farmers toiling around the busy spaceport to a scene our readers may be familiar with on Tatooine.

Continue reading “One Giant Steppe For Space Flight” →

Getting Started With Polypropylene (PP) 3D Printing

September 6, 2024 by 26 Comments

Polypropylene (PP) is a thermoplastic that has a number of properties that sets it apart from other thermoplastics which see common use with 3D printing, including PLA, ABS and nylon (PA). Much like ABS (and the similar ASA), it is a pretty touchy material to print, especially on FDM printers. Over at the [All3DP] site [Nick Loth] provides a quick start guide for those who are interested in using PP with 3D printing, whether FDM, SLS or others.

A nice aspect of printing with PP is that it requires similar temperatures for the extruder (205 – 275 °C) and print  bed (80 – 100 °C) as other common FDM filaments. As long as airflow can be controlled in the (enclosed) printer, issues with warping and cracking as the extruded filament cools should not occur. Unlike ABS and ASA which also require an enclosed, temperature-controlled printing space, PP has an advantage that printing with it does not produce carcinogenic fumes (styrene, acrylonitrile, etc.), but it does have the issue of absolutely not wanting to adhere to anything that is not PP. This is where the article provides some tips, such as the use of PP-based adhesive tape on the print bed, or the use of PP-based print plates.

As far as PP longevity and recyclability goes, it compares favorably with ABS and PA, meaning it’s quite resilient and stable, though susceptible to degradation from UV exposure without stabilizers. Recycling PP is fairly easy, though much like with polymers like PLA, the economics and logistics of recycling remain a challenge.

How Sony Mastered The Transistor

September 4, 2024 by 35 Comments

When you think of Sony, you probably think of a technology company that’s been around forever. However, as [Asianometry] points out, it really formed in the tough years after World War II. The two people behind the company’s formation were an interesting pair. One of them was a visionary engineer and one was a consummate businessman.

While it is hard to imagine today, securing a license to produce transistors was difficult in the early days. What’s worse is, even with the license, it was not feasible to use the crude devices in a radio.

Continue reading “How Sony Mastered The Transistor” →

Boss Byproducts: The Terrible Beauty Of Trinitite

September 4, 2024 by 17 Comments

While some byproducts recall an idyllic piece of Americana, others remind us that the past is not always so bright and cheerful. Trinitite, created unintentionally during the development of the first atomic bomb, is arguably one of these byproducts.

A see-through vial pendant with several small samples of Trinitite.
A Trinitite pendant. Image via Galactic Stone

Whereas Fordite kept growing back for decades, all Trinitite comes from a single event — the Trinity nuclear bomb test near Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945. Also called ‘atomsite’ and ‘Alamogordo glass’, ‘Trinitite’ is the name that stuck.

There wasn’t much interest in the man-made mineral initially, but people began to take notice (and souvenirs) after the war ended. And yes, they made jewelry out of it.

Although there is still Trinitite at the site today, most of it was bulldozed over by the US Atomic Energy Commission in 1953, who weren’t too keen on the public sniffing around.

There was also a law passed that made it illegal to collect samples from the area, although it is still legal to trade Trinitite that was already on the market. As you might expect, Trinitite is rare, but it’s still out there today, and can even be bought from reputable sources such as United Nuclear. Continue reading “Boss Byproducts: The Terrible Beauty Of Trinitite” →