Posts

Featured Post

Blurry Image Placeholders, Generated With Minimal CSS

Image
Low-quality image placeholders (LQIPs) have a solid place in web page design. There are many different solutions but the main gotcha is that generating them tends to lean on things like JavaScript, requires lengthy chunks of not-particularly-human-readable code, or other tradeoffs. [Lean] came up with an elegant, minimal solution in pure CSS to create LQIPs . Here’s how it works: all required data is packed into a single CSS integer, which is decoded directly in CSS (no need for any JavaScript) to dynamically generate an image that renders immediately. Another benefit is that without any need for wrappers or long strings of data this method avoids cluttering the HTML. The code is little more than a line like <img src="…" style="--lqip:567213"> which is certainly tidy, as well as a welcome boon to those who hand-edit files. The trick with generating LQIPs from scratch is getting an output that isn’t hard on the eyes or otherwise jarring in its composition. ...

Printable Pegboard PC Shows Off the RGB

Image
Sometimes it seems odd that we would spend hundreds (or thousands) on PC components that demand oodles of airflow, and stick them in a little box, out of site. The fine folks at Corsair apparently agree, because they’ve released files for an open-frame pegboard PC case on Printables . According to the writeup on their blog, these prints have held up just fine with ordinary PLA– apparently there’s enough airflow around the parts that heat sagging isn’t the issue we would have suspected. ATX and ITX motherboards are both supported, along with a few power supply form factors. If your printer is smaller, the ATX mount is per-sectioned for your convenience. Their GPU brackets can accommodate beefy dual- and triple-slot models. It’s all there, if you want to unbox and show off your PC build like the work of engineering art it truly is. Of course, these files weren’t released from the kindness of Corsair’s corporate heart– they’re meant to be used with fancy pegboard desks the company als...

Make Your Own Telescope, Right Down To The Glass

Image
Telescopes are great tools for observing the heavens, or even surrounding landscapes if you have the right vantage point. You don’t have to be a professional to build one though; you can make all kinds of telescopes as an amateur, as this guide from the Springfield Telesfcope Makers demonstrates. The guide is remarkably deep and rich; no surprise given that the Springfield Telescope Makers club dates back to the early 20th century. It starts out with the basics—how to select a telescope, and how to decide whether to make or buy your desired instrument. It also explains in good detail why you might want to start with a simple Newtonian reflector setup on Dobsonian mounts if you’re crafting your first telescope, in no small part because mirrors are so much easier to craft than lenses for the amateur. From there, the guide gets into the nitty gritty of mirror production, right down to grinding and polishing techniques, as well as how to test your optical components and assemble your fin...

libogc Allegations Rock Wii Homebrew Community

Image
Historically, efforts to create original games and tools, port over open source emulators, and explore a game console’s hardware and software have been generally lumped together under the banner of ā€œhomebrew.ā€ While not the intended outcome, it’s often the case that exploring a console in this manner unlocks methods to run pirated games. For example, if a bug is found in the system’s firmware that enables a clever developer to run ā€œHello Worldā€, you can bet that the next thing somebody tries to write is a loader that exploits that same bug to play a ripped commercial game. But for those who are passionate about being able to develop software for their favorite game consoles, and the developers who create the libraries and toolchains that make that possible, the line between homebrew and piracy is a critical boundary. The general belief has always been that keeping piracy at arm’s length made it less likely that the homebrew community would draw the ire of the console manufacturers. ...

Neutron Flux Impact on Quartz Expansion Rate

Image
Radiation-induced volumetric expansion (RIVE) is a concern for any concrete structures that are exposed to neutron flux and other types of radiation that affect crystalline structures within the aggregate. For research facilities and (commercial) nuclear reactors, RIVE is generally considered to be one of the factors that sets a limit on the lifespan of these structures through the cracking that occurs as for example quartz within the concrete undergoes temporary amorphization with a corresponding volume increase. The significance of RIVE within the context of a nuclear power plant is however still poorly studied. A recent study by [Ippei Maruyama] et al. as published in the  Journal of Nuclear Materials placed material samples in the LVR-15 research reactor in the Czech Republic to expose them to an equivalent neutron flux. What their results show is that at the neutron flux levels that are expected at the biological shield of a nuclear power plant, the healing effect from rec...

A New And Weird Kind of Typewriter

Image
Typewriters aren’t really made anymore in any major quantity, since the computer kind of rained all over its inky parade. That’s not to say you can’t build one yourself though, as [Toast] did in a very creative fashion. After being inspired by so many typewriters on YouTube, [Toast] decided they simply had to 3D print one of their own design. They decided to go in a unique direction, eschewing ink ribbons for carbon paper as the source of ink. To create a functional typewriter, they had to develop a typebar mechanism to imprint the paper, as well as a mechanism to move the paper along during typing. The weird thing is the letter selection—the typewriter doesn’t have a traditional keyboard at all. Instead, you select the letter of your choice from a rotary wheel, and then press the key vertically down into the paper. The reasoning isn’t obvious from the outset, but [Toast] explains why this came about after originally hitting a brick wall with a more traditional design. If you’ve eve...

Layout A PCB with Tscircuit

Image
Most of us learned to design circuits with schematics. But if you get to a certain level of complexity, schematics are a pain. Modern designers — especially for digital circuits — prefer to use some kind of hardware description language. There are a few options to do similar things with PCB layout, including tscircuit. There’s a walk-through for using it to create an LED matrix and you can even try it out online, if you like. If you’re more of a visual learner, there’s also an introductory video you can watch below. The example project imports a Pico microcontroller and some smart LEDs. They do appear graphically, but you don’t have to deal with them graphically. You write ā€œcodeā€ to manage the connections. For example: <trace from={".LED1 .GND"} to="net.GND" /> If that looks like HTML to you, you aren’t wrong. Once you have the schematic, you can do the same kind of thing to lay out the PCB using footprints. If you want to play with the actual design, y...