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This is a scientific BCD calculator that uses binary-coded decimals, the same internal number format HP used in its scientific calculators going back to the 1970s. It represents every decimal digit as a 4-bit nibble, which means perfect decimal accuracy, no floating-point conversion errors, and an architecture that is genuinely shaped by the problem it […]

  While it is in the name, you don’t actually need a Raspberry Pi to protect yourself from ads. Pi-hole will run on any hardware that meets the minimal requirements and is running one of the many supported operating systems. Switch and Click uses Docker to turn an old computer into an ad-blocker for the […]

Be on Reddit next Thursday 21st May, 3–5pm BST to see Eben Upton (CEO), James Adams (CTO of Hardware Engineering), and Gordon Hollingworth (CTO of Software Engineering) at Raspberry Pi. They will answer your questions, with a focus on industrial and embedded use of Raspberry Pi. Between the three, they will cover the full stack, […]

NEW PRODUCT – Machined Red Aluminum Servo Arm – 1.75″ Long If you’ve bought a servo from us, you probably got a bunch of plastic add-ons that you can snap onto the servo’s rotating shaft. These are called ‘servo horns’ and the standard ones you’ll get are plastic pieces. They’re good but often short and […]

Adam Hughes writes about the sensors contained in modern smartphones and how they can be used, especially with web browsers. Your phone is dense with sensors. Cameras and microphones, of course, but also accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, ambient light sensors, GPS, Bluetooth radios. Most of them are accessible from a web page — a single HTML […]

Dmitry Grinberg posts about the Fisher Price Pixter and the first ever complete reverse engineering, documentation, emulation, and preservation of all Fisher-Price/Mattel Pixter device series and [almost] all the games. Fisher-Price (owned by Mattel) produced some toys in the early 2000 under the Pixter brand. They were touchscreen-based drawing toys, with cartridge-based extra games one could plug in. […]

J. B. Crawford posts on the Computers Are Bad newsletter about Very Low Frequency and Extremely Low Frequency transmitters as used by the US, mainly for submarine communications. Radio communications with the US Navy dates back to 1887. And use on submarines started with launching new vehicles in 1909. Early tests didn’t go well. It […]

What casino game has the best odds? Every player asks this sooner or later. The answer depends on the house edge, the rules and how you play. Some casino games offer nearly even odds, while others quietly take a much larger cut over time.

What country has the most immigrants? The United States. According to the United Nations International Migrant Stock 2024, about 52.4 million international migrants lived in the U.S. in 2024—far more than in any other country.

NYPL shared this list of Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists that are available at the library. What a way to pick to your next read or listen! Each year the Pulitzer Prize recognizes excellence in journalism, books, drama, and music. The literary awards include fiction, nonfiction, history, biography, memoir/autobiography, and poetry and make for an […]

Super fun (and super cute-looking) project from maker gokux: While many makers are busy building desk buddіes, I wanted to try something unique. I wonderеd if a ‍fortune cookie could actually hold an ΕSP32. This idea led to the eFortune Cookie, a smаll interacti‍ve gadget featuring an e-paper disрlay. By simply shaking the device, a […]

You can do almost anything in your browser. Your agents should be able to as well. But when agent products are built on top of existing browsers, they inevitably run into captchas, login failures, and blocked sessions. Rotunda is a browser forked from Firefox and honest about fingerprinting. It’s designed so the agent on your […]

Inside the Heathkit Factory: How a $39.50 Kit Built Michigan’s Empire…. Then Lost Everything. If you were tto walk into any electronics lab in the 1970s, you’d find Heathkits—oscilloscopes, multimeters, signal generators—equipment people had built themselves and understood completely. In 1947, a $39.50 oscilloscope kit changed American electronics forever. It wasn’t sophisticated. It wasn’t pretty. […]

If you missed this week’s Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter, here is the ICYMI (in case you missed it) version. To never miss another issue, subscribe now! – You’ll get a terrific newsletter each Monday (which is out before this post). 12,368 subscribers worldwide! The next newsletter goes out Monday morning and subscribing is the best way to keep […]

Amazon is adding AI-generated "podcasts" to Alexa+, letting users request custom audio explainers on any topic featuring two synthetic co-hosts. Variety reports: Seemingly to dispel the notion that these "podcasts" will be AI audio slop, Amazon emphasized that it has deals with major news organizations to ensure "accurate, real-time news and information." Those include the Associated Press, Reuters, the Washington Post, Time magazine, Forbes, Business Insider, Politico and USA Today; publications from Conde Nast, Hearst and Vox Media; and more than 200 local newspapers across the U.S. In an example clip shared by Amazon of the new Alexa Podcasts feature, the two AI-generated hosts discuss "the latest music releases." A male Alexa+ narrator says more than 50% of music listening now comes from unsigned artists. "The monoculture is just gone," a female-voiced Alexa+ narrator chimes in. The male Alexa+ host says there has been "stoner metal," indie pop and experimental hip-hop music "all dropping on the same Friday," and adds, "That's not chaos -- that's the healthiest the music ecosystem has ever been." [...] To use Alexa Podcasts, users can simply tell Alexa what topic they're curious about and "it does the rest in minutes." Alexa+ will provide an overview of what it plans to cover, and let you adjust the length and direction before it generates the podcast. When your episode is ready, you'll get a notification on your Echo Show device and the Alexa app.

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The original ayumi AY-3-8910 / AY-8912 emulation library by true-grue is mathematically perfect, but it uses double (64-bit) floating-point numbers. The ESP32-S3 microcontroller has no hardware FPU for double, causing I2S underruns and crackling. The AY8912_ESP32 library re-implements the exact same logic using float (32-bit) numbers. The ESP32-S3 hardware FPU handles float natively, leaving CPU […]

Zane St. John plugged in a $35 projector from AliExpress and pointed it at a bedroom wall. Within minutes of connecting it to WiFi, the home Pi-hole security portal lit up due to issues. When I powered it on, the experience was more professional than expected. Android 11 (API 30), production build (not signed with […]

The Python for Microcontrollers Newsletter is the place for the latest news involving Python on hardware (microcontrollers AND single board computers like Raspberry Pi). This ad-free, spam-free weekly email is filled with CircuitPython, MicroPython, and Python information that you may have missed, all in one place! You get a summary of all the software, events, projects, and the latest hardware worldwide once a week, no […]

Europe is testing laser-based satellite communications through a new mountaintop ground station in Greece, aiming to deliver faster, more secure links than traditional radio systems as bandwidth demand grows. The Register reports: Lithuanian space and defense biz Astrolight says that it has commissioned a new optical ground station in Greece that will support ESA-backed CubeSat missions testing laser-based communications between satellites and Earth. The Holomondas Optical Ground Station was built through the PeakSat project, led by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with backing from the European Space Agency and Greece's Ministry of Digital Governance. Its job is to receive data from satellites via infrared laser links rather than the radio systems that space operators have relied on for decades. PeakSat and ERMIS-3, two Greek CubeSats launched in March under ESA's wider Greek IOD/IOV mission program, both carry Astrolight's ATLAS-1 optical communication terminal. Astrolight also built the ground segment, giving the project a fully integrated end-to-end optical communications setup. [...] The company says the station uses an 808-nanometer laser beacon and an optical C-band receiver capable of receiving data at up to 2.5 Gbps. Unlike traditional RF systems, optical links use tightly focused infrared beams that are harder to intercept or jam while also supporting significantly higher throughput.

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