This week, it was Kristina's turn in the hot seat with Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams. First up in the news: Germany's solar expansion and a lot of wind have resulted in excess energy, which some people think is bad. In Hackaday news, the entries in the 2024 Business Card Challenge are really stacking up. Then it's on to What's That Sound, which Kristina provided this week and managed to stump Elliot. Can you get it? Can you figure it out? Can you guess what's making that sound? If you...

With Elliot off on vacation, Tom and Dan made a valiant effort to avoid the dreaded "clip show" and provide you with the tastiest hacker treats of the week. Did they succeed? That's not for us to say, but if you're interested in things like non-emulated N64 games and unnecessarily cool filament sensors, this just might be one to check out. We also came across a noise suppressor for a leaf blower, giant antennae dangling from government helicopters, and a desktop-friendly wire EDM setup that...

What did Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Al Williams find interesting on Hackaday this week? Well, honestly, all the posts, but they had to pick some to share with you in the podcast below. There's news about SuperCon 2024, and failing insulin pumps. After a mystery sound, the guys jump into reverbing garden hoses, Z80s, and even ribbon cable repair. Adaptive tech was big this week, with a braille reader for smartphones and an assistive knife handle. The quick hacks ranged from a...

Join Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi as they get excited over the pocket-sized possibilities of the recently announced 2024 Business Card Challenge, and once again discuss their picks for the most interesting stories and hacks from the last week. There's cheap microcontrollers in highly parallel applications, a library that can easily unlock the world of Bluetooth input devices in your next project, some gorgeous custom flight simulator buttons that would class up any front...

This week, it was Kristina's turn in the hot seat with Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams. First up in the news -- the results are in for the 2024 Home Sweet Home Automation contest! First and second place went to some really gnarly, well-documented hacks, and third went to the cutest pill-dispensing robot you'll probably see before you hit the retirement home. Which was your favorite? Let us know in the comments. Then it's on to What's That Sound. Kristina failed once again, but you will...

Elliot and Dan got together to enshrine the week's hacks in podcast form, and to commiserate about their respective moms, each of whom recently fell victim to phishing attacks. It's not easy being ad hoc tech support sometimes, and as Elliot says, when someone is on the phone telling you that you've been hacked, he's the hacker. Moving on to the hacks, we took a look at a hacking roadmap for a cheap ham radio, felt the burn of AM broadcasts, and learned how to program old-school EPROMs on the...

What were some of the best posts on Hackaday last week? Elliot Williams and Al Williams decided there were too many to choose from, but they did take a sampling of the ones that caught their attention. This week's picks were an eclectic mix of everything from metal casting and plasma cutters to radio astronomy and space telescope budgets. In between? Some basic circuit design, 3D printing, games, dogs, and software tools. Sound confusing? It won't be after you listen to this week's podcast. ...

Before Elliot Williams jumps on a train for Hackaday Europe, there was just enough time to meet up virtually with Tom Nardi to discuss their favorite hacks and stories from the previous week. This episode's topics include the potential benefits of having a dual-gantry 3D printer, using microcontrollers to build bespoke note taking gadgets, the exciting world of rock tumbling, and the proper care and maintenance required to keep your World War II battleship in shape. They'll also go over some...

This week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos convened once again to give the lowdown on this week's best hacks. First up in the news -- it's giga-sunset time for Gigaset IoT devices, which simultaneously became paperweights on March 29th. And all that Flipper Zero panic? It has spread to Australia, but still remains exactly that: panic. Then it's on to What's That Sound. Kristina failed again, although she was in the right neighborhood. Can you get it? Can you figure it...

It was Dan's turn behind the mic with Elliot this time as we uncovered the latest from the world of hacking, and what an eclectic mix it was. It was slightly heavy on machining, with a look at mini-mills that are better than nothing, and a DIY DRO that's A-OK. We also kicked the nostalgia bucket over -- whatever that means -- and got a new twist on the old "65-in-1" concept, found hidden code in 80s music, and looked at color TV in the US and how it got that way. We've got ample alliteration...

No need to wonder what stories Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Al Williams were reading this week. They'll tell you about them in this week's podcast. The guys revisit the McDonald's ice cream machine issue to start.   This week, DIY voice assistants and home automation took center stage. But you'll also hear about AI chat models implemented as a spreadsheet, an old-school RC controller, and more. How many parts does it take to make a radio? Not a crystal radio, a software-defined one....

Join Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi as they go over their favorite hacks and stories from the past week.  This episode starts off with an update on Hackaday Europe 2024, which is now less than a month away, and from there dives into wheelchairs with subscription plans, using classic woodworking techniques to improve your 3D printer’s slicer, and a compendium of building systems. You’ll hear about tools for finding patterns in hex dumps, a lusciously documented gadget for...

This week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos met up in a new disposable location to give the lowdown on this week's best hacks. First up in the news -- the Home Sweet Home Automation contest is still going strong. You've still got plenty of time, so get on over to Hackaday.IO and start your entry today. In the news, the UK is asking how powerful an electric bike should be (more than 250 Watts, certainly), and legal pressure from Nintendo has shut down two emulators. Then...

It's a leap year, so Elliot and Dan put the extra day to good use tracking down all the hottest hacks from the past week and dorking out about them. There's big news in the KiCad community, and we talked about all the new features along with some old woes. Great minds think alike, apparently, since two different e-ink weather stations made the cut this week, as did a floating oscilloscope, an automated film-developing tank, and some DIY solar panels. We talked about a hacker who figured out...

Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Al Williams sat down to compare notes on their favorite Hackaday posts of the week. You can listen in on this week's podcast. The guys talked about the latest Hackaday contest and plans for Hackaday Europe. Plus, there's a what's that sound to try. Your guess can't be worse than Al's, so take a shot. You could win a limited-edition T-shirt. In technical articles, Elliot spent the week reading about brushless motor design, twin-t oscillators, and a truly...

Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi discuss all the week's best and most interesting hacks and stories, starting with Canada's misguided ban on the Flipper Zero for being too spooky. From there they'll look at the state-of-the-art in the sub-$100 3D printer category, Apple's latest "Right to Repair" loophole, running UNIX on the NES (and how it's different from Japan's Famicom), and the latency of various wireless protocols. After singing the praises of the new Bus Pirate 5,...

Last week, we held an Episode 256 celebration round-table, but Kristina and I also met afterwards to talk about all the week's hacks.  That part didn't fit, but we didn't want to deprive you of your weekly hack fix either, so here they are!

For this week's episode, we did something super special -- we all convened to answer your burning questions about your hosts, both as hackers and as humans. We kick things off with a segment featuring a hearty round-table discussion between Elliot, Al, Dan, Kristina, and Tom. What's on our benches? What do we type on? Go find out! None of us figured out What's That Sound though a few of us had some creative guesses. Can you guess the sound? There could be a t-shirt in it for ya. Kristina...

This week, Dan joined Elliot for a review of the best and brightest hacks of the week in Episode 0xFF, which both of us found unreasonably exciting; it's a little like the base-2 equivalent of watching the odometer flip over to 99,999. If you know, you know. We had quite a bumper crop of coolness this week, which strangely included two artifacts from ancient Rome: a nanotech goblet of colloidal gold and silver, and a perplexing dodecahedron that ends up having a very prosaic explanation --...

This week Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Al Williams chew the fat about the Haier IOT problem, and all other top Hackaday stories of the week. Want to prove your prowess at C programming? Take a quiz! Or marvel at some hairy display reverse engineering or 3D-printed compressor screws. On the lighter side, there's an immense water rocket. After Al waxes nostalgic about the world of DOS Extenders and extended memory, the guys talk about detective work: First detecting AI-written...

This week Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi start things off with a traffic report from the Moon, which has suddenly become a popular destination for wayward robots. [caption id="attachment_657278" align="alignright" width="300"] Anonymizing an ATtiny85 via laser[/caption] From there, they'll go over a fire-tending contraption that's equal parts madness and brilliance, two decades of routers being liberated by OpenWRT, impressive feats of chip decapping, and USB-C's glorious...

This week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos met up to discuss the best hacks of the previous week. It's CES time once again in Las Vegas, and you know what that means -- some wacky technologies like this AI pet door that rejects dead mice. Then it's on to What's That Sound, which Kristina managed to nail for once. Can you get it? Can you figure it out? Can you guess what's making that sound this week? If you can, and your number comes up, you get a special Hackaday Podcast...

Welcome to 2024! This time around, Elliot and Dan ring in a new year of awesome hacks with quite an eclectic mix. We kick things off with a Pluto pity party and find out why the tiny ex-planet deserved what it got. What do you do if you need to rename a bunch of image files? You rope a local large-language model in for the job, of course. We'll take a look at how pinball machines did their thing before computers came along, take a fractal dive into video feedback, and localize fireworks with...

This week in the Podcast, Elliot Williams is off at Chaos Communication Congress, hearing tales of incredible reverse engineering that got locomotives back up and running, while Al Williams is thinking over what happened in 2023. There’s a lot of “how things work” in this show, from data buoys to sewing machines to the simulated aging of ICs. Whether you’re into stacking bricks, stacking Pi Picos, or stacking your 3D prints to make better use of precious bed space, this episode is for you....

'Twas the podcast before Christmas, and all through the house, the best hacks of the week are dancing around Elliot and Tom's heads like sugar-plums. Whatever that means. Before settling their brains in for a long winter's nap, they'll talk about the open source software podcast that now calls Hackaday home, the latest firmware developments for Google's Stadia controller, high-definition cat videos from space, and upgrades for the surprisingly old-school battery tech that powers the Toyota...