You can write a Python program or use a Jupyter Notebook to do almost anything. But you can also get a lot of things done quickly using a spreadsheet. Grist is a “hacker’s” spreadsheet that merges these worlds. It looks like a spreadsheet, but underneath are SQLite tables and the […]
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Robots Chase Down Balls In Fun Outdoor Game
Art installations aren’t always about static sculpture or pure aesthetics. In the case of Operation Kiba, they can be fun games for everyone to enjoy. The aim of Operation Kiba is for the players to collect all the “balls” on the playing field, which are intended to represent scoops of […]
3D Print Yourself A Tiny Steam Train Complete With Smoke Effects
Model trains are fun, but sometimes little whirring motors in electric models feel a long way from the hulking metal beasts of the real railways. [Lewis] of [DIY Machines] adds back some of the flavor with this little steam train build, smoke effects included! The body of the train itself […]
It’s Pi All The Way Down With This Pi-Powered Pi-Picking Robot
While most of us live in a world where the once ubiquitous Raspberry Pi is now as rare as hens’ teeth, there’s a magical place where they’ve got so many Pis that they needed to build a robotic dispenser to pick Pi orders. And to add insult to injury, they […]
Glass 3D Printing Via Laser
If you haven’t noticed, diode laser engraver/cutters have been getting more powerful lately. [Cranktown City] was playing with an Atomstack 20 watt laser and wondered if it would sinter sand into glass. His early experiments were not too promising, but with some work, he was able to make a crude […]
A Vacuum Pick Up Tool For Not A Lot
When working with grain-of-dust surface-mount components, one of the tools which makes a huge difference is a vacuum pickup pen. Instead of trying to move the part with tweezers and succeeding only in flicking it into the middle distance, a tiny rubber suction cup with a vacuum feed allows you […]
TRS-80 Model II Lives Again
A lot of people had a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I. This was a “home computer” built into a keyboard that needed an external monitor or TV set. Later, Radio Shack would update the computer to a model III which was a popular “all in one” option with a monitor […]
What’s Old Is New Again: GPT-3 Prompt Injection Attack Affects AI
What do SQL injection attacks have in common with the nuances of GPT-3 prompting? More than one might think, it turns out. Many security exploits hinge on getting user-supplied data incorrectly treated as instruction. With that in mind, read on to see [Simon Willison] explain how GPT-3 — a natural-language […]
A RPI HAT For Synchronized Measurements
A team from the Institute for Automation of Complex Power System (ACS) at RWTH Aachen University have been working for a while on the analysis of widely distributed power systems. In a drive to move away from highly specialised (and expensive) electronics platforms, they have produced some instrumentation designed to […]
Robot: Will Draw For Food
Biological systems often figure out the best ways to get what they need to survive. Now a robot created by researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Imperial College London, and the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign can make the same claim. The robot operates in front of a plate that has […]