MetaFilter posts tagged with electronics

Moog-y Christmas

Joe Beese — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:21:42 -0800

Do you like musical instruments with lots of keyboards? And lots and lots of dials? Then you may like 36 15 MOOG: Stuff with Moog and/or 60's and 70's vintage synths in it. (related Ask MeFi) Stuff like George Harrison's Electronic Sound (1969). The soundtrack to the "Bubbleator" exhibit at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. Music For Robots. And some cover art that may mess with your mind. It also has the legendary "Esper Edition" of Vangelis's Blade Runner soundtrack - without which you have never properly heard this music.

Arduino

DU — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:23:07 -0800

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. (Previously) Many more projects and resources.

The machines are making such a wonderful music, who would want to pull the plug?

filthy light thief — Tue, 26 May 2009 12:48:53 -0800

Computer music is relatively old, going back to the very early 1950s. In the following decades, people have been creative with programmable technology, leading to "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" being played on an IBM chain printer back in 1966, and in more recent years, HP ScanJet 5100c included an Easter Egg. The HP ScanJet 4c's SCL (Scanner Control Language) unofficial PLAY TUNE command lead to these fine little ditties. Now over a decade ago, the duo known as [The User] enlisted three specialists to operate a computer program via a server that synchronized the dot-matrix printers and read complex ASCII text files in order to create musical compositions. The result was a techno-sounding piece that was performed by the administrators of the system, rather than one that was simply being played. Like a symphony of car horns, the coordination of these printers became Symphony #1 and #2 for Dot Matrix Printers (samples of Symphony #2, Symphony #2 Slashdot thread). [More computer music exploration inside] A track from Symphony #1 was used as the soundtrack to Radiohead - Skyscape [10], part of Radiohead TV, and another track was used for this short, odd juggling video. The Austraialian sound artist, Sue Harding is making music in the realm of [The User], but she's going it alone with her collection of printers. She has released a few tracks as part of experimental electronic compilations. Want to try your hand at this chaos? Hack A Day has some information, but mostly takes the chance to show off some videos. If you want to get into the software of printers, you may want to try fine-tuned printing. As is usually the case, you can find more odd computer music previously discussed on MetaFilter. Bonus videos: Younnat's "Dot Matrix Printer Etude", Mistabishi's drum'n'bass "Printer Jam" music video, Cornelius' "Toner," the mysterious "Star Wars floppy", and so much more.

Technomadics

Ogre Lawless — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:45:59 -0800

Inspiration to do something with your holiday weekend: Steven K. Roberts is an interesting guy with a bit of a hobby problem. In 1983 his recumbent bike sported "only" a security system, lights, a CB radio and a state-of-the-art TRS80/100 laptop. Winnebikeo would eventually evolve into BEHEMOTH, the "Big Electronic Human-Energized Machine... Only Too Heavy". BEHEMOTH incorporated (amongst other things) HUD, cooling system, small Sun SPARCstation, HAM Radio, credit card verifier, bubblejet printer, hydraulic disk brakes... Eventually Roberts discovered that BEHEMOTH was developing a life of its own as he worked through trade shows and talk circuits. Feeling that bicycling still constrained one to roads and rest stops, he turned to kayaking. Of course, not much room in a kayak for modding...well, enough. Roberts has more recently turned to a number of larger vessels, including the S/V Nomadness. In between kitting out vehicles he's made a portable universal comm device for the modern era, written a bunch of tech articles and keeps up a blog on his multitudinous ongoing projects.

Revolutionary Semiconductor

daniel_charms — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:35:51 -0800

Friday Flash Fun*: Конструктор: Engineer of the People, in which you are an engineer working in a top-secret semiconductor facility called H3, designing top-secret integrated circuits based on specifications provided to you. *For certain values of 'fun'

France or Hilton

Fiasco da Gama — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:22:24 -0800

The piece is attached via a network cable to the internet. The needle indicates results.

The final hours of Circuit City

Joe Beese — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:14:15 -0800

The final hours of Circuit City. (via)

this product reverberates a maximum amount of info known as the web

Potomac Avenue — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:46:13 -0800

The corporate logos of Kevin Bewersdorf More writing, art, music, and products available on his website: Maximum Sorrow PLUS: Top 500 Reviewer for Amazon (nsfw) Formerly of GEARt.e.k. Corporation Soundtrack to LOL the Movie Video for "Get This Party Slammin"

Paper. Rock. Scissors.

Bageena — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:23:58 -0800

In 1986, most gamers who were lucky enough to own a new video game system at home were playing the original Nintendo. It's launch in 1985, a year before the Sega Master System was launched in the states, allowed it plenty of time become the most popular console in the market, and the game Super Mario Bros. quickly became the best-selling video game of all time (a title it continues to hold, having sold over 40 million copies to date). However, even though Nintendo commanded 95% of the North American video game market at the time and the CEO of Sega made little effort to promote and market it, some people still bought and gave the Sega Master System a chance. Perhaps it was the 3-D glasses or it's unique ability to read multiple media inputs... or perhaps that the original version of the system had a secret game built right into it (and it was unbeatable!). Although the system was an underdog, it underwent several redesigns and mascot changes, ranging from Alex Kidd to, finally, Sonic in the end. When the system was redesigned around 1990, Sega finally tried to market it aggressively, but it was too late. By 1992, sales were nearly non-existent in North America (although it should be noted the console was very popular in Europe and several other countries where Nintendo did not sell consoles). Which is all too bad, because there were many brilliant, brilliant games for the SMS. For those of us lucky enough to have owned a SMS, we can delight in the nostalgia brought about by the mere mention of games such as Zillion, Alex the Kid in Miracle World, Choplifter, Ys, After Burner, Altered Beast, Phantasy Star, Hang On/Safari Hunt, and Shinobi.

Deep Geek: Understanding Memristors

NortonDC — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:54:57 -0800

The coming memristor revolution in electronics and how it works. The newly created memristor, only the fourth fundamental fundamental type of passive circuit element, has the promise of computing advances both prosaic (faster, cheaper and "bigger" flash drives) and momentous (relatively effortless mimicry of brain cells and their activity). This is the story of the memristor's genesis, told by R. Stanley Williams, the leader of the team that created the device. Being deeply geeky myself, I've read about memristors before, but reading this article and sidebar finally let me understand how the memristor works and what happens inside it. And that felt pretty damn good. The article is fantastic, but it does leave one key connection unmade. To create a practical memristor, the team "needed [a] mechanism by which we could change the effective spacing between two wires in our crossbar by 0.3 nm. If we could do that, we would have the 1000:1 [variation in conductivity] we needed... Where would we find a material that could change its physical dimensions like that?" They did create a way to vary that spacing, in a controllable, repeatable, and extremely fast-acting manner, but Williams doesn't directly explain how the internal actions of the switching layer meet that requirement. The payoff for that setup is missing. When electrical current pushes the conductive impurities in the layer of titanium dioxide toward the other wire, the conductive portion of the layer grows toward the other wire, and the insulating portion of the layer thins. That thinning is described, but the article never tells the reader that expansion of the conductive layer is that long-sought means of moving the wires. If you read the article and made that connection before I described it, then you might have felt as smug about it as I did. Williams gets to feel more smug.

My Life In Ham Radio

jackspace — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:00:22 -0800

"Ham Radio is a life long learning experience. You never stop learning." Don, W3RDF, is a CW enthusiast who shares with us his love of a hobby that has been a source of many friends from around the globe. With Solar Cycle 24 just beginning, the Ham Bands have been heating up with activity. Perhaps you might want to listen to what they are saying.

The Birth of the Ipod

mattholomew — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:45:47 -0800

You may have never heard of Kane Kramer, but it's likely you use the product and online store he patented. In 1979.

The Man Who Invented Stereo

rongorongo — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:10:27 -0800

In a single 1931 document, electrical engineer Alan Blumlein patented stereo records, stereo movie sountracks and surround sound. His equipment was used to make some of the first stereo recordings at EMI's Abbey Road studios - several decades before the technology came into popular use. Blumlein went on to pioneer 405 line TV (the first wholly electronic format which won out over John Logie Baird's rival system) and to produce the equipment that made the first outside TV broadcast possible. At the outbreak of World War 2 he was a key architect of the secret H2S radar project. Unfortunately he was killed in a plane crash while testing the technology and the whole incident was kept secret. Hence he remains an obscure figure despite his achievements. A recent BBC Radio 4 program contains a lot of the archive stereo footage and tells his story.

Pocket Calculator Show

serazin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:14:53 -0800

Pocket Calculator Show. via: Beware of Blog

Blinking lights!

orthogonality — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:45:07 -0800

This is a cool game you can download. Here are some rule books for it. Ok, it's not really a "game", but it's lots of fun, especially if like me you're too clumsy to actually solder.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a flying puppet!

MrMoonPie — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 05:19:08 -0800

Carl Rankin builds awesome RC planes out of straws, plastic wrap, tape, and foam take-out boxes. (via)

Inside industrial design

WPW — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 12:36:40 -0800

The birth of a gadget. [Wired]

Radiophonic Workshop - Alchemists of Sound

hama7 — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:45:48 -0800

Radio phonic Work shop - Alchemists of Sound .

Freely-available textbooks

Upton O'Good — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 23:35:44 -0800

Open Text Book: a blog which lists freely-available online textbooks. These textbooks include ones for basic and advanced math (warning: giant PDF), engineering, electronics, and philosophy, among others.

If Sylar were into bugs...

Lush — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 01:00:27 -0800

Insect Lab. Insects retrofitted with antique watch parts and electronic components.

The Toriton Plus - Water and light music interface.

loquacious — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 12:48:46 -0800

The Toriton Plus A new electronic music interface using water and light. (YouTube). Make your own. From Little-Scale, which is chock-full of cool and wonderous stuff.

"What's all this FPP stuff anyhow?"

fatllama — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 18:38:49 -0800

Analog by Design: Reality TV for Design Engineers (autoloads Flash with sound). Author, self-proclaimed Czar of Bandgaps, and minor hero to many scientists and engineers Robert Pease now has an online video podcast.

Handgun of the Future

reverendX — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 18:44:25 -0800

Metal Storm Limited specializes in weapon systems featuring rapid fire electronically fired bullets, up to 1 million a minute. The weapons platform can be used to make the worlds strongest handgun as well as be used to equip unmanned drones with firepower. The most frightening of which is perhaps the "dragonfly" micro copter. Their site has a number of videos showcasing some of the various weapons applications. Metal Storm has been around for a while, without getting a product to market, but with a recent influx of funding it doesn't look like they are going to go out of business any time soon.

The World's Cutest Synth!

Rev. Syung Myung Me — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 11:40:16 -0800

Have you ever seen a synth and said "Man, what this needs is cartoon eyes?" A bit similar to the Buchla Box or theremin in that they don't have a keyboard to control the sounds -- it's probably closest to the Booper, invented by The Weatherman from Negativland (or, well, Circuit Bending), the Thingamagoop is a photosynthesizer... which means it basically uses light sensors to generate sounds. The signal's run through a couple oscillators and, well, it comes out as somethin' that's pretty dang awesome. I'm on the fence on pickin' this one up. On one hand, it's a really neat toy that makes noise... on the other hand, um.... um.... I dunno. It's not made of candy?

Discover the goodness that is Hack A Day

Ogre Lawless — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 11:41:35 -0800

Discover the goodness that is Hack A Day -- DIY geekery of all sorts awaits you: vacuum forming • Infrared web cams and digital cams • robotic helicopter • Telemarketer Interception System • Jacob's Ladder • Dobsonian telescope [pdf] • prison tatoo gun • TIG welder • parallel and serial port sound • LCD projector • FM transmitter [tripod] • computer-controlled glider • jet-powered beer cooler • retro wooden laptop • White Trash hoverboard • refrigerator speaker cabinet • tornado machine [pdf] • fog machine • LED Pimp Bed • seismometer • persistence-of-vision game system • webcam telescope • racing game controllers • Segway • laser projectors • flamethrower • bagpipes and hours upon hours of time wasting others.