As the calendar turns a leaf into September, Elliot Williams is joined by Jenny List for our weekly look at all things Hackaday. In the news, our retrocomputing competition is well under way, but there's plenty of time to get an entry in if you've got a cool old-style project to show us. And then Elliot's been chasing seismic surveyors in Munich, where they're looking for geothermal energy. In the stand-out hacks there's a discussion of smoothing 3D prints using frickin' lasers, the effect of unreasonably high RAM and storage prices on the single board computer ecosystem, and an unfortunate air conditioning system that's tricked into believing it's a hot day. Finally, we look in depth at PETG, and take a dive into reverse Polish notation. Check out the links over on Hackaday.

What did Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Al Williams read in Hackaday last week? Probably everything, but you can tune in and hear about their favorites on this week's podcast. They heard from lots of listeners this week, and also saw DIY projects running from a 3D-printed Stirling engine, to clogs, to LEDs. There are some over-the-top hacks like a refit for a decades-old watch to do tap-to-pay and a -- for lack of a better word -- a record player that optically reads MOD files. Want to emulate an iPod? Talk to Eliza? Print a hand-operated rail car? Hackaday is the place to read about it all. The can't miss articles included a talk from Hackaday Europe about making magical PCBs and a not-so-brief history of space stations starting in the 1800s. Check out the links if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!

In this week's episode, Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi start things off by getting excited about the recently announced 2026 Retrocomputing Challenge. From there the conversation will cover efforts to improve desktop 3D printing with lasers, an expensive grill with an ESP32 controller and an open source firmware, open source tools underground, and some impressive techniques to squeeze a bit more utility out of the common QR code. You'll also hear about turning PVC pipes into flat stock, old school Radio Shack electronic kits, and VR soldering demos. Stick around to the end of the episode learn about the latest developments in over-the-counter hearing aids and the 1-bit CPU that's enjoying an unexpected fandom nearly 50 years after its release. Check out the links if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!

It's still hot on both sides of the Atlantic, but Kristina has a new secret weapon for staying cool without making noise. Will Elliot and the others follow suit? Time will tell. In Hackaday news, well, there's a lot of it. For starters, Supercon Ten tickets went on sale Thursday morning, but chances are good that by the time you read this, the early bird offering will be all pecked out. But, never fear! More tickets will be released soon enough. Don't want to buy a ticket, but still want to go? Submit a talk proposal that gets accepted, and you'll be welcomed in free of charge. Lucky for you, we just extended the deadline by two weeks to August 26th. After exhausting the news, Elliot reached into the ol' Mailbag and found a funny anecdote from [Vik Olliver]. (Funny in that it'll make you go 'hmm'.) A brief discussion about imperial vs. metric ensued, but then it was on to the hacks. Check out the links on Hackaday if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!  

This week's Hackaday podcast is a European affair again, as Elliot Williams is joined by Jenny List on a summer evening to review the week. And we have a feast of hacks for your delectation. As the title above says, one of the stand-out hacks this week was a set of airless mountain bike tyres 3D printed in glorious fluorescent TPU. They look as though they shouldn't work but in fact they showed real promise, and we discuss the process behind their design. Then we take a look at a hybrid of a UV printer and an SLA 3D printer, capable of making high-resolution and robust 3D prints. The prospect of new Amigas intrigues us for a while, then carbon-fibre fabric in 3D prints. Finally we're in awe of the tech behind the Las Vegas Sphere, and we're there for some radio at the Danish BornHack hacker camp. Follow that one up and you'll find a bonus, an unofficial extra Hackaday podcast. All the usual links are on Hackaday, but before you head on down to have a listen, don't forget we've got a mailbag for the podcast and we'd love to hear from you!

Elliot Williams and Al Williams got together to compare notes on the most interesting posts this week on the site. As usual, there are just too many choices, so you'll have to settle for just the few that can fit in a podcast. The guys were excited about 3D printing -- both FDM and SLA -- as well as a few camera projects. Ever wanted your own starship? They do, too, and you'll hear about it along with portable radar and more. Want to make flexible PCBs? Fill up a carbon dioxide tank? Or play Doom via regular expressions? Tune in, and you'll find out about those stories and more. Follow along with the links, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments! Better still, drop us a note in the mailbag, and you might hear your question on a future episode. You can record audio or send us a message, and one of the hosts will read it on your behalf.  

On this episode, Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi discuss their love of electronic paper, clunky cartridges, and keeping old games alive by any means possible. You'll also hear about getting the most out of the sensors in our 3D printers, playing with X-rays at home, a ring that runs Java, and a roulette wheel that outgrew its 555 timer. Stick around to the end to learn about a different sort of IRC that's even more niche than the one you're probably familiar with, as well as the logistical challenges and potential benefits of catching rockets with a giant net. Check out the links if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!

It's a hot one at both microphones, as Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos wilt in the heat with ice lollies and freezer packs. But still, we persevered long enough to make a podcast. In Hackaday news, Supercon is on! It's going down in Pasadena, California, but the talks will be somewhere slightly larger, with a courtyard instead of an alley. Get your talk proposals in now! In other Hackaday news, we still have our Frikkin' Lasers Contest going on until Thursday, July 23rd. Interestingly enough, we got a comment on an older article from none other than [Michael J. Van de Graaff], whose grandfather invented the Van de Graff generator and was "quite upset" when plans for a DIY version appeared in Scientific American. And finally, Google Earth's desktop client is being discontinued, but you can still travel the globe on your phone, or in your PC's browser. Not only do we have another triple mailbag this week, we have another failed attempt at guessing the Sound by Kristina. However, [Alexander] knew that it was CD-ROM drive a-spinnin'. Speaking of What's That Sound, be sure to let us know your ideas for the new prize. That sounds like a lot of preamble, but we quickly get to a full slate of hacks, a couple of which are pretty retro in retrospect. Check out the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!

This week's podcast sees Elliot joined by Jenny List, as both suffer silently in the European summer heat as the sound of a desk fan would come over on the recording. The stand-out hack of the week comes from [Bitluni], whose GPU made from thousands of cheap microcontrollers is on a scale we've never seen before. It's an amazing project in itself, but the manufacturing and power consumption issues of so many processors running at the same time make for a discussion of their own. Otherwise, we have diecasting on the bench, an impressive achievement by any measure, a Raman spectrometer, and an open source take on something like a Kei truck. In quick hacks there's a dicussion of soldering versus crimping for high current connectors, and neon tubes used as digital logic in an organ. The recording finishes with a discussion of 7-segment display history, and whether an engineering education teaches design for manufacture. Drop us a comment and check out the links over at Hackaday.

Hackadya's Elliot Williams and Al Williams were in a retro mood this week. There was a new '486 computer, a new mechanical TV, and a USB stick with a magnetic personality. Can you watch YouTube on a Game Boy? Maybe. For the can't miss articles, this week, Elliot and Al reflected on the awkward phase of 3D printers when they transformed from being expensive commercial machines, to where they are now. Meanwhile, Al was interested in how airplanes know how fast they are going. Along the way, there were musical hacks, precision machine tools, and a quantum 8 ball. Check out the links if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments! Or write or record something for our mailbag segment.