HN user
hscott.net
I'm not in the car industry, but I am in the electronics industry and I have definitely felt the chip shortage. Some of my parts just aren't available, and lead times are 3-4 months. Seems to be the result of production stopping at the beginning of the pandemic and they still haven't caught up.
And that's where the term "tape out" comes from, and the term is still used to this day (although mostly just in IC design).
Am I the only one who can smell these pages as I look at them?
The data itself isn't 60 GHz, you're just modulating it onto a 60 GHz carrier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulation
You can order trinitite from United Nuclear. I stuck some in an HPGe and was able to learn some interesting things: https://www.hscott.net/analyzing-trinitite-a-radioactive-pie...
This is really exciting. I've thought about building a datapath on an FPGA that uses partial reconfiguration to synthesize new hardware blocks based on the math being doing at a particular instant, and it sounds like DARPA wants to do that on steroids. Server CPUs coupled with FPGAs are already being used for a lot of interesting things and I think it makes a lot of sense to integrate together even tighter. I'm also really happy to hear that they're funding new EDA software that is actually smart. The best we have right now is some whitelist based rule checking for schematics and layout. I want full simulation, a perfect, proven parts library with symbols, footprints, 3D models, non-ideal SPICE models, and a thermal model for every part in existence, smart rule checking that looks not only for things like unconnected nets, but logic level mismatches and clock edges that are too fast.
Little pieces of this exist already, but in my opinion, software for creating hardware is way behind software for creating software.
Correction: their last day is tomorrow, April 8th.
While this page is mostly about sound waves, here's a great talk using similar tools to explain RF: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUGr_Z04SKs&t=12m31s
Here's the interactive slides to play with: http://visual-dsp.switchb.org/
There's no evidence that nonionizing radiation like microwaves can cause cancer. I think that was probably more likely due to the fact that everyone back then smoked about 4 packs a day.
Now what if we add an Uber-like component to this and let people share/carpool together to reduce the number of cars above and below ground? Instead of tires that wear out, we could use steel on rails! Aaaand, we just re-invented the subway.
Conversational Navajo. It's such an interesting language with an amazing history. I don't know any other languages right now besides English and a bit of Spanish, and I didn't grow up around any Navajo people. Despite a relatively small speaking population, there seems to be enough information online to learn at least enough to hold simple conversations.
I spent a little time trying to extract the program from the audio at the end of this video, but it turns out someone had already done it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ReverseEngineering/comments/4boa6p/...
"If you think you know the answer, write it on the back of your classified one time pad key and send it to: NSA, Box 35 Fort Meade (our fair city) Maryland".
I always thought it would be cool to make a necklace or something with ferrite cores after they'd been "written" to, so you could keep a secret message with you (albeit a short one) without suspicion.
They've only landed a handful now, but they're already making it look so easy.
Someone opened an issue: "Check continuity on O2 cryogenic tanks before allowing stir"
I thought this would just be an application of Benford's law, but they note in the beginning that using Benford's law doesn't work for elections (citing this paper: http://www.vote.caltech.edu/sites/default/files/benford_pdf_...)
Does anyone know why Benford's law doesn't work here but does work for other made up numbers in applications like accounting?
This guy also wrote about his hunt for the crash site of a predecessor of the SR-71. I enjoyed reading it: http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/area-51-and-other-strange...
Whoops, typo.
Apparently it's binary coded decimal.
You might also like PoC||GTFO: https://www.alchemistowl.org/pocorgtfo/
The phrase "incredible journey" is often used by startups when they get acquired, especially when the acquisition also means shuttering the product or service. People like to joke because of how often that phrase is used.
Wow, a radar that uses ionizing radiation is a crazy idea.
If you opened some of the built in audio files in Windows XP with a hex editor, you could see that they were created with a cracked version of SoundForge.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/pirated-software-used-to-creat...
Someone filed a FOIA with the FBI to try to get them to release it: https://twitter.com/wisemana/status/677510714236510209
Seems like it's unlikely that you can just FOIA arbitrary data from a CD or hard drive that's been seized during an investigation though.
Whether you get a USRP or not, the Ettus Research bootable image has GNU Radio already installed and configured, as well as a bunch of other useful radio tools: http://files.ettus.com/liveusb/latest/
They've also got some good tutorials on using GNU Radio Companion.
I'd recommend an RTLSDR, USRP, or HackRF. All good, all different price range, and all have a good community and support around them. If you're interested in a particular band, you may want to get an antenna for that band as well. Ettus Research sells some antennas, or you can buy one from an amateur radio store, or build one for very cheap from the dozens of plans out there by ham radio operators.
Maybe it's hidden like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OECOoNYZXmk
Oh, one other thing I wanted to add: The 3-4 year lifetime of lead acid batteries is the average lifetime. There are certainly outliers, but if you go to the store and buy a lead acid today, the warranty is about 3 years.
The BMW thing is interesting. The reason they do that little "ritual" is because they want to program the ECU to use a particular charging profile for your battery, and it needs to know the age of the battery and the type (AGM or not). That's to try to extend the lifetime of the battery. We don't really need to worry about that, since we handle all the charging profiles internally. One of our testers drives a BMW, so we're making sure that we can handle that and similar cases.
You should get a bit longer than just a month of disuse before it shuts itself off. Are there modern cars that don't even let you use the key to open the door? I know Tesla has the thing where the handle is flush with the door, but are other cars doing that too now?
Ohm can be used for racing, assuming the rules of the race don't require using a stock battery. A lot of our early users and testers actually come from the racing community.