TechnologyIQ

Historical Technology Books - 47 in a series - An elementary treatment of the theory of spinning tops and gyroscopic motion by Harold Crabtree (1909)     PREFACE. The object of this book is to bring within the range of the abler Mathematicians at our Public Schools and of First Year undergraduates at the Universities, a subject which has hitherto been considered too difficult for any but the more advanced students in Mathematics, while even they have in many cases failed to derive more pleasure from the study of spinning tops than is contained in submitting the problem to the action of a complicated piece of Mathematical machinery^ which automatically, though unintelligently, turns out the correct result. In this attempt to present an elementary, and at the same time a scientific view of the subject, I have expanded several of the suggestive ideas put forward in Dynamics of Rotation by Professor Worthington, to whom is due a large debt of thanks for much liberal criticism and...

No matter what you love to DIY, there’s a good chance you have felt overwhelmed trying to find help online, especially for more elaborate cooking, crafting, or home projects. The geniuses at Google are here to save the day, because they’ve recently launched Tangi, a new app that lets users upload quick how-to videos in one place, helping to spark inspiration and also actually learn how to do stuff. Read Google Has a New App That Teaches You How to DIY Just About Everything via Apartment Therapy An interesting link found among my daily reading

Prolific maker [Jeremy Cook] recently put the finishing touches (at least, for now) on his impressive ClearCrawler remote controlled Strandbeest, which includes among other things a surprisingly expressive “head” complete with LED matrix eyes. For anyone in the audience who was only mildly terrified of these multi-legged robotic beasties before, you may want to avert your eyes from the video after the break. The clever locomotive design of [Theo Jansen] known as Strandbeest is a legged walker. What makes it special is that the legs themselves are not independent, but work together for a gliding action more akin to wheeled bots. [Jeremy’s] work with ClearCrawler has taken this to another level of precision and mechanization. Read RC Strandbeest Is A Head Above The Rest via Hackaday An interesting link found among my daily reading

Historical Technology Books - 46 in a series - Computer Game Forum Issue 01 (1987)     Computer Game Forum A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO COMPUTER GAMING QUARTERLY! Why Computer Game Forum? by Johnny L. Wilson, Editor T ihe funny thing that happened was that Computer Game Quarterly has become Computer Game Fomm. So, if you subscribed to CGQ, this is your first issue. If you didn’t subscribe to CGQ, you are part of a select group that is receiving this issue as a free sample. We hope there is "something for everyone" in this new publishing venture. Of course, there are always those who want to know "Why?" and the birth of a new magazine proves no exception.

Interesting general sensor idea for making homes smarter without individual sensors or “smart” appliances. — Douglas We explore the notion of general-purpose sensing, wherein a single, highly capable sensor can indirectly monitor a large context, without direct instrumentation of objects. Further, through what we call Synthetic Sensors, we can virtualize raw sensor data into actionable feeds, whilst simultaneously mitigating immediate privacy issues. We use a series of structured, formative studies to inform the development of new sensor hardware and accompanying information architecture. We deployed our system across many months and environments, the results of which show the versatility, accuracy and potential of this approach. Read Gierad Laput | Synthetic Sensors via Giedrad An interesting link found among my daily reading

A new project has been published to the Hackster.io website providing instructions on how to create your very own Raspberry Pi Internet radio. The 1970 Flirt Pi Internet Radio has been created by Martin Mander and is based on a Raspberry Pi Zero mini PC equipped with a Pimoroni Speaker pHAT, Pimoroni LiPo SHIM, Adafruit Micro Lipo and a few other components. Check out the video below to learn more. Read Raspberry Pi Internet radio 1970's style - Geeky Gadgets via Geeky Gadgets An interesting link found among my daily reading

Historical Technology Books - 45 in a series - Practical Wireless February 1955  

A small tip to make your online life just a little bit nicer! — Douglas Netflix has finally answered the plea of many, many customers and now offers a way to disable autoplaying videos when you’re browsing the home screen. If you’re tired of trailers for shows or movies starting to play whenever you briefly pause on a selection, this is the option you’ve been waiting for. The important thing to know is that you can only change this setting by signing into Netflix with a web browser; as of now, there’s no way to do it from the Netflix app on your smartphone, tablet, or TV. But the process couldn’t be much easier. Sign into your Netflix account on the web. Click your profile photo in the upper right and choose “Manage Profiles.” Choose the profile you want to disable autoplay for. Beneath the options for your profile name, language, and parental controls, you’ll see a section for autoplay controls. Read How to stop Netflix autoplay via The Verge An interesting link found among ...

  Let's measure distances with an ultrasonic rangefinder (distance sensor) and Arduino's digital input. We'll connect up a circuit using a breadboard and use some simple Arduino code to control a single LED. You may have already learned to read a pushbutton and PIR motion sensor with Arduino's digital input, and we'll build on those skills in this lesson. Ultrasonic rangefinders use sound waves to bounce off objects in front of them, much like bats using echolocation to sense their environment. The proximity sensor sends out a signal and measures how long it takes to return. The Arduino program receives this information and calculates the distance between the sensor and object. Read Ultrasonic Distance Sensor in Arduino With Tinkercad : 6 Steps (with Pictures) via Instructables An interesting link found among my daily reading

If you are looking for parts for your electronic or robotic tinkering, you might consider harvesting them from your old printers and other defunct electronic devices. This is a great demo of how to tear down a printer and what useful things you might find inside. — Douglas Watch How to Salvage Usefull Parts from Printers and Scanners via YouTube An interesting link found among my daily reading

Historical Technology Books - 44 in a series - How To Read Electronic Circuit Diagrams by Robert M. Brown; Paul Lawrence (1972)     Preface Circuit diagrams are the basic means for relating information regarding the construction and functions of electronic equipment, a method of showing the circuits and components in symbolic or pictorial form in a universal language. Therefore, the ability to read and understand electronics circuit diagrams is a must for those who aspire to a career in electronics or for those who will pursue electronics as a hobby. In this book you learn the significance of each type of diagram* Some show specific circuits with each part represented by a schematic symbol-while others use actual photographs or drawings to illustrate the appearance and physical location and relation of each part and circuit wiring—a pictorial or layout diagram. Thus you learn to recognize each diagram for its intended purpose, and develop the ability to derive the correct infor...

  This episode features Rand Miller, one half (with brother Robyn) of Cyan, Inc. creators of the early 90s puzzle adventure game, Myst. The game was developed on hacked, maxed-out consumer-grade Macs using the HyperCard program. Myst would go on to become one of the most successful and inspirational games of all time. Read "Myst" co-creator, Rand Miller, tells "War Stories" about pushing the hardware envelope while developing this classic 90s computer game via Boing Boing An interesting link found among my daily reading

BrachioGraph touts itself as the cheapest, simplest possible pen plotter, so, obviously, we were keen to find out more. Because, if there’s one thing we like about our community, it’s your ability to recreate large, expensive pieces of tech with a few cheap components and, of course, a Raspberry Pi. Read We love a good pen plotter via ブログドットテレビ An interesting link found among my daily reading