Month: April 2023

Printing a Brutalist Kitchen Timer

A kitchen timer is one of those projects that’s well defined enough to have a clear goal, but allows plenty of room for experimentation with functionality and aesthetics. [Hggh]’s exploration of the idea is a clean, Brutalist kitchen timer. The case for [Hggh]’s kitchen timer is 3D printed with openings for a TM1637 four digit,

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Building an Energy Sword Replica From Halo

A good many of us whiled away the hours of our youths playing Swords Only deathmatch in Halo 2. The Energy Sword, aka the Plasma Sword, was the star of the show, with its devastating glowing blades granting us scoreboard domination. [Arnov Sharma] has now built a quality replica of this science-fiction weapon. The build

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Why Do Rifa Capacitors Fail?

Anyone who works with older electronic equipment will before long learn to spot Rifa capacitors, a distinctive yellow-translucent component often used in mains filters, that is notorious for failures. It’s commonly thought to be due to their absorbing water, but based upon [Jerry Walker]’s long experience, he’s not so sure about that. Thus he’s taken

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How researchers, including at Meta’s AI lab, use AI to study EEG readings, decoding how neurons in the brain communicate and exploring the nature of cognition (Christopher Mims/Wall Street Journal)

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal: How researchers, including at Meta’s AI lab, use AI to study EEG readings, decoding how neurons in the brain communicate and exploring the nature of cognition  —  Thought is ever-changing electrical patterns unconnected to individual neurons.  Meta is working on a system to read your mind.

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Cat Skull for Internet Connection Divination

[Emily Velasco] has an internet provider that provides sub-par connectivity. Instead of repeatedly refreshing a browser tab to test if the network is up, [Emily] decided to create an internet status monitor by embedding indicator lights in a cat skull…for some reason. The electronics are straightforward, with the complete parts list consisting of an Arduino

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Ocado wins AutoStore’s lawsuit after the UK High Court invalidated two of AutoStore’s warehouse automation patents for being publicly disclosed before filing (Brianna Wessling/The Robot Report)

Brianna Wessling / The Robot Report: Ocado wins AutoStore’s lawsuit after the UK High Court invalidated two of AutoStore’s warehouse automation patents for being publicly disclosed before filing  —  Yesterday, the UK High Court ruled that AutoStore’s patents, which have been the subject of a patent infringement case against Ocado …

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An investigation details how a Georgia man was wrongfully arrested based on a bad facial recognition match and other tech meant to make policing more effective (New York Times)

New York Times: An investigation details how a Georgia man was wrongfully arrested based on a bad facial recognition match and other tech meant to make policing more effective  —  Because of a bad facial recognition match and other hidden technology, Randal Reid spent nearly a week in jail …

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The NLRB says Activision Blizzard broke US labor law by illegally surveilling staff during a walkout and threatening to close Slack channels amid a union drive (Daniel Wiessner/Reuters)

Daniel Wiessner / Reuters: The NLRB says Activision Blizzard broke US labor law by illegally surveilling staff during a walkout and threatening to close Slack channels amid a union drive  —  Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI.O) violated U.S. labor law by illegally surveilling employees during a walkout and threatening …

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Sources: Lyft co-founders’ departures followed months of staff worries as the company’s market cap fell 85% to under $3.5B in two years, while Uber fared better (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal: Sources: Lyft co-founders’ departures followed months of staff worries as the company’s market cap fell 85% to under $3.5B in two years, while Uber fared better  —  New CEO says he aims to boost employee morale and overhaul customer and driver experience  —  Tech Live: Lyft Co-Founder on Stock-Price Tumble, Autonomous Cars

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Sources: Lyft co-founders’ departures followed months of staff worries as the company’s market cap fell 85% to under $3.5B in two years, while Uber fared better (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal: Sources: Lyft co-founders’ departures followed months of staff worries as the company’s market cap fell 85% to under $3.5B in two years, while Uber fared better  —  New CEO says he aims to boost employee morale and overhaul customer and driver experience  —  Tech Live: Lyft Co-Founder on Stock-Price Tumble, Autonomous Cars

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Sources: ByteDance generated $80B+ in 2022 revenue, up 30%+ YoY, after growing 70% between 2020 and 2021; TikTok represented ~12% of ByteDance’s total revenue (Juro Osawa/The Information)

Juro Osawa / The Information: Sources: ByteDance generated $80B+ in 2022 revenue, up 30%+ YoY, after growing 70% between 2020 and 2021; TikTok represented ~12% of ByteDance’s total revenue  —  ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, generated more than $80 billion in annual revenue last year, up more than 30% …

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Sources: ByteDance generated $80B+ in 2022 revenue, up 30%+ YoY, after growing 70% between 2020 and 2021; TikTok represented ~12% of ByteDance’s total revenue (Juro Osawa/The Information)

Juro Osawa / The Information: Sources: ByteDance generated $80B+ in 2022 revenue, up 30%+ YoY, after growing 70% between 2020 and 2021; TikTok represented ~12% of ByteDance’s total revenue  —  ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, generated more than $80 billion in annual revenue last year, up more than 30% …

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