Tag Archives: gadgets

What time is it?

Posted on February 25, 2016 by paulwallich

My next kit build is an Ice Tube clock from Adafruit. Which brings back lots of memories, because one of the first kits I built and wrote about was a nixie clock from Jeff Thomas, who was pretty much the … Continue reading →

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A child of the 80s

Posted on January 21, 2016 by paulwallich

Sometimes I wonder if the 11-year-old is too retro. His current hobby is playing an emulated version of Street Fighter 2 on his PC. And now that a vintage-gaming store has opened in the next town over, he pretty much … Continue reading →

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cleaning out the basement one bright idea at a time

Posted on January 15, 2016 by paulwallich

When we were making new year’s resolutions last month, mine was to, y’know, build some of the cool kits and kit-like part collections I’ve acquired over the years. First up: Solarbotics marble machine. Cute, simple, less than an hour build … Continue reading →

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Sometimes the old ways are best

Posted on October 22, 2015 by paulwallich

So after HP finally replaced the lemon laptop that I’d gotten this spring with a brand spanking new touchscreen laptop, I waited until I had a few completely open days to do a dual-boot install of ubuntu on it, just … Continue reading →

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The Roombaphone

Posted on October 21, 2015 by paulwallich

It might not be the most over-engineered way to make low-quality 8-bit sounds ever, but I think it’s in the running. This is what comes of allowing a 10-year-old access to the basement. My mother-in-law got a Roomba for christmas … Continue reading →

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Clearing the deck

Posted on September 29, 2015 by paulwallich

Back in my misspent youth, I was a stage lighting geek. Lots of time on ladders with a speed wrench, hours poring over swatches of filters with names like “Surprise Pink” and “1/4 CT Blue”. So years later, when I … Continue reading →

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You get what you pay for, yet again

Posted on September 17, 2015 by paulwallich

Dunning and Krueger strike again. I thought I knew the retail PC industry well enough, just because I’ve chatted with so many of the people who invented it. But times have changed. This spring I bought a refurb windows laptop … Continue reading →

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Anti-aging technology

Posted on July 30, 2015 by paulwallich

Along with some of my mother’s tool collection, I inherited her complaint that as she got older her arms were getting too short to read things. Even if I wanted to just crank up the type size, there’s a limit … Continue reading →

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I don’t know whether to be pleased or annoyed

Posted on May 22, 2015 by paulwallich

I got a refurbished  HP laptop off a discount site a couple months ago, so that I could have a machine for doing hacker/maker stuff away from home (we have a macbook, but it’s flakey with arduinos and only runs … Continue reading →

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Sometimes you don’t want to be on the internet

Posted on March 23, 2015 by paulwallich

Yesterday I went to a piratebox workshop at Generator. It was a good thing, because although the installation process is fairly straightforward, there are a few places where it’s good to have someone walking you through it. (Yes, it really … Continue reading →

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