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What should your first instinct be when the room catches on fire? Maybe get out of the room, pull an alarm, and have a disco party? Not your first instinct? …read more

We all know that it’s easy to get caught out by fake electronic components these days, with everything from microcontrollers to specialized ASICs being fair game. More recently, retro components …read more

During the 1980s a lot of consumer devices suddenly got a lot smaller as large-scale integration using semiconductor technology took off. This included radios, with Philips’ TDA7000 FM radio receiver …read more

Although the most popular e-reader by far is the Kindle, some argue that its primary use isn’t even as an e-reader at all but rather as a storefront for one …read more

When all else fails, there’s amateur radio — and handwritten notes. Both ham radio and clear thinking helped rescue a mother and her son from a recent California camping trip …read more

The Apple II was made in great numbers, as was the Commodore 64. But the Mimic Spartan? It was a weird Apple II clone that you needed a Commodore 64 …read more

We have all seen those cheap digital microscopes, whether in USB format or with its own screen, all of them promising super-clear images of everything from butterfly wings to electronics …read more

Guitar Hero was all the rage for a few years, before the entire world apparently got sick of it overnight. Some diehards still remember the charms of rhythm games, though. …read more

Keeping retrocomputers going can be tricky enough, but when you’re talking retro laptops, the battery packs add an extra challenge. While one could simply live without the battery, that’s not …read more

Fermentation is a culinary art where tiny organisms transform simple ingredients into complex flavors — but they’re finicky about temperature. To keep his brewing setup at the perfect conditions, [Ken] …read more

When Beyblades first came out a couple of decades ago, they quickly became a fad across Japan and several Western countries. There was a whole ecosystem of parts that you …read more

Sometimes, brilliant perspectives need a bit of an introduction first, and this is clearly one. This video essay by [Cleggy] delivers what it promises: an ode to the aesthetic of …read more

Before the era of large-scale integration (LSI) semiconductor circuits, discrete logic circuits using the common diode-transistor logic (DTL) were still necessary and available in a format that was modular and …read more

Learning Morse Code is no longer a requirement for HAMs in many jurisdictions, but it’s still a nice skill to have. [I_void(warranties)] wanted to learn, but couldn’t find a trainer …read more

The key to Short Takeoff and Landing (STOL) operations is the ability to fly slow– really slow. That’s how you get up fast without a long takeoff roll to build …read more

We’re saddened to report the passing of Shunsaku Tamiya, the man behind the Tamiya line of models. What was surprising about this, though, is how many of our readers and …read more

When your GPU fan goes rogue with an unholy screech, you either shell out for a new one or you go full hacker mode. Well, [ashafq] did the latter. The …read more

[Arkandas] had a problem. They liked reading in bed, but their bedroom lamps weren’t cutting it—either too bright and direct, or too dim and diffuse. The solution was custom lighting, …read more

Universal control is a neat feature on Macintosh computers, allowing you to slide your mouse seamlessly from device to device. Of course you need a relatively recent version of MacOS …read more

Do you use a spell checker? We’ll guess you do. Would you use a button that just said “correct all spelling errors in document?” Hopefully not. Your word processor probably …read more