Author: sweethess

considering that Google announced the Nexus Q media streaming device at the Google developers conference a few weeks ago, a lot of devs have been toying around with the idea of running Android apps on this small media sphere. [Det] over at BrickSimple threw his hat into the ring with a Pong and/or Breakout app that showcases the substantial rotary volume knob on the Q.

The Nexus Q was hacked into running proper Android apps not long after it made its way into the hands of Google IO conference attendees. Of course with no way to get user input into Google’s little sphere, that hack was of questionable utility. Recently, [kornyone] over on the XDA developers forum got USB HID input on the Q, allowing for full mouse and keyboard support.

Not much has been said about the Q’s most prominent physical feature, the half hemisphere rotary encoder that serves as the volume knob. To build his Pong/Breakout clone, [Det]’s app simply responds to volume up/volume down events by moving the paddle to the left or right.

A neat build, and hopefully we’ll see a few a lot more Nexus Q hacks in short order.

in some cases a terrific hack is terrific for no other reason than that it’s fun, and [Michael Rechtin]’s diy active Aero Spoiler and Air Brake certainly qualifies as a fun hack. This is a mod developed to live in a world where looks are everything, stickers add horsepower, and a good sound system is much more essential than good wheel alignment. Why is that? because like the switch that exists only to activate the mechanism that turns it off, the diy active Aero Spoiler and Air Brake seen below is practically completely useless. So to understand its allure, we should understand its inspiration.

For a few decades now, luxury sports automobile producers have been adding active aerodynamic elements to their vehicles. For example, several Porsche designs feature adaptive spoilers that adjust to driving conditions. very cars and trucks such as the Bugatti Veyron have spoilers that flip up at high angles during braking to increase drag and decrease braking distance. all of these features are unfortunately missing from the average two or four door family-car-turned-wannabe-track-fiend. until now!

[Michael] has created a new active spoiler for each mall-bound muffler-challenged hand me down. The build starts with a CNC cut foam wing which is covered with fiberglass, Bondo (an automotive necessity) and some synthetic carbon fiber for that go-fast feel. An Arduino, IMU, two servos, and a battery pack discover deceleration and immediately increase the spoiler angle just like the big boys, but without needing any integration into the cars systems. Or bolts, for that matter.

It’s unlikely that the braking force is enough to slow down the car though, given that it’s not enough to pop the suction cups holding it to the trunk lid. but does it have the “wow” element that it was developed to induce? Spoiler Alert: It does!

As it turns out, this isn’t the first adjustable spoiler featured here at Hackaday, and this adjustable spoiler on a automobile that’s produced actual racing is quite interesting.

Thanks to [Zane] for the suggestion on this project!

If you can’t envision composing a letter on a typewriter as well as putting it in a mailbox, then you take computers for granted. however that’s just the suggestion of the iceberg. much more niche applications begat niche machines, as well as a number of them are on screen in this film that the computer history Archives job released last month. aside from the File-o-matic Desk, the Addressograph, or the noise Scriber, there a number of other gadgets that provide us a peek into a bygone era.

One device that’s still around, although in a much computerized form, is the stenograph. Not so prominent these days is the practical stenograph carrier, enabling a patient’s statement to be recorded bedside in the medical facility promptly after a cars and truck accident. cable recorders were all popular in 1947, as were floppy disks (for audio, not data). Both media were utilized to time-shift dictation. Typing champions like Stella Pajunas might transcribe your letters as well as memos at 140 WPM utilizing an electric typewriter, outpacing dot matrix printers however a snail’s speed compared to a laser jet.

Typing ten Feet Wide

Before the IBM Selectric as well as its changeable font style balls, there was the Varityper. It was a advanced typewriter supporting several font styles as well as proportional spacing. An unusual one is shown here, utilized for typing notes on engineering drawings as well as maps as much as ten feet wide, in different font styles as well as sizes.

Chinese Typewriter is ingenious however Flops

Next we have the IBM electronic Chinese typewriter, the innovation of IBM Rochester engineer [Kao Chung-Chin] (US patent 2,412,777, Dec 1946). In his design, [Kao]’s service to dealing with countless Chinese glyphs is not a monster keyboard. Rather, he needs the typist to go into a four-digit code utilizing a moderate number of keys. In contemporary terms, this would be like typing your file utilizing Unicode values on a numeric keypad. in spite of this impediment, IBM worker [Lois Lew] handled a respectable 45 WPM on this behemoth. as well as unlike the typewriter project, which was cancelled, [Lois] is still to life as well as kicking in Rochester. She just recently linked with Stanford university professor [Thomas Mullaney] who is a researcher in Chinese history as well as focuses on typewriters. You can checked out his piece on this typewriter’s history as well as [Lois]’s involvement with the job in this short article he composed back in May.

[Lois Lew] operating the IBM Chinese Typewriter
Feeling truly Old

Addressograph Cards Are Still Available
I recognized, as well as really utilized a few of the products featured in this film. My father’s workplace, where I would in some cases hang out after school, had a few of these machines back in the 1970s. the most spectacular was the Addressograph system, utilized to prepare mailings for newsletters, publish cards, etc. It was essentially a mechanical database. Each person was represented by a special card, prepared by a Graphotype machine, a specialized typewriter that embosses text on little metal plates, not unlike a dog-tag. The card was really a frame, which held the embossed plate, a piece of card stock with the info typed by traditional means, as well as a series of slots along the top of the card which might hold metal tabs. These tabs denoted different user-defined categories. In an engineering company, for example, you might assign tab positions for every department, for every building, for every job team, etc. The entire business roster is now contained in one or much more filing drawers, each about the size of an old-fashioned library card catalog drawer.

When you want to send out a letter to all the mechanical engineers working in the Poughkeepsie office, the operator would set up the Addressograph device accordingly. The stack of cards from each drawer is slid into the feed rack, as well as each card is conveyed one-by-one with the device for printing. only those cards whose tabs match the configuration are printed onto the envelopes. Cards not chosen for the mailing would be passed over. After some time, my father realized that each drawer had its own quirks as well as temperament, so he provided each of them names.

Pedro might always be counted upon to misbehave.

These machines needed a bit of maintenance to keep running, however they were developed like a tank. The ones I encountered as a teenager were bought in the late 1940s as well as kept operational up until the early 1980s, when other inexpensive choices ended up being viable. That seems like a long time today, when office devices has lifespans determined in years not decades. in spite of getting the task done, such single-purpose specialized office machines have all however vanished from the common office these days. as well as no question — practically every function featured in this film can be done today with a desktop computer as well as a multifunction printer / scanner.

Check out the the video below the break. Are you still utilizing any type of obsolete office devices today? let us understand in the comments below.

[Robert Murray-Smith] wanted to recreate exactly how some ancient microscopes worked: with a decrease of water as a lens. The concept is that the meniscus of a decrease of water will work as a lens. This works since of surface tension as well as by controlling the attraction of the water to the surface,  you can really type convex as well as concave surfaces.

What’s fascinating is that this doesn’t need a great deal of equipment. Some plastic, a hole punch, some pens, a flashlight, as well as some other chances as well as ends. then it’s just a matter of grabbing some puddle water as well as examining the critters inside. Of course, with a single lens, these are more properly magnifying glasses. Some insurance claim that people in China built such instruments thousands of years ago. [Robert] mentions [Antonie van Leeuwenhoek] as the father of the microscope, although he wasn’t the very first to develop such a device. He did produce outstanding glass lenses utilizing a technique he kept trick however has been worked out utilizing contemporary science.

It is difficult to see much with the camera, however it clearly was magnifying. Not a poor little rainy day kid’s job since you most likely have whatever you requirement on hand. We question what other readily-available things you might picture with a gadget like this.

Of course, if you want to develop a genuine microscope, the styles are out there. You can even make one utilizing — mainly — LEGO.