see https://t.co/oazNPFLmB3 for an important Social Media update.

I am leaving X and have moved over to BlueSky. My user name is CuriousMarc and my handle is @curiousmarc.bsky.social (@kenshirriff and @TubeTimeUS have moved over there too)

今年も置いていただきありがとうございます #MFTokyo2024

We didn't.

ahh yes, the little known 3M Sandblaster Pro

In the @BlackHatEvents Book Store you can find "Open Circuits" - a wonderful @nostarch book about the internals of various things by @oskay (buts psst: they only brought 15 copies, 6 left, two on hold... 😉)

sometimes they look like this. it's perfectly natural, nothing to be ashamed of.

I need a breadboard that fits all the newer microcontroller dev boards that are gigantic like the ESP32 Dev Kit boards or FPGA boards. I also just want more slots sometimes. And every other column should be gray. 👍

after cleaning a couple of dirty contacts and freeing up the solidified grease on the subtract pawl here on the coin unit, the machine works again!

these old electromechanical pinball machines are tricky to work on. (yes i am aware of the Technology Connections video)

it's a really crazy design, like there are differential signals going all over the place even with some length matching. gotta be at the picosecond level.

here's a cool photo of a chip. this one is special because it's a real old-school photograph that i fed through my scanner.

I received a mysterious aerospace computer from the early 1970s, probably for navigation. It is crammed full of flat-pack integrated circuits surrounding a core memory module. Let's take a look inside... 1/17

many of you are mourning the Z80 CPU (recently discontinued after a nearly 50 year run). all is not lost--i bet Rochester will take up the torch. as according to the prophecy, Rochester will soon be the last remaining US semiconductor company.

fun fact! the numbers in coin cell part numbers are dimensions. a CR2025 is 20mm diameter and 2.5mm thick!

with this One Weird Trick, turn a CR2032 into a CR2016

too thick? it's easy to compress it in a vise, like so.

fun fact! the numbers in coin cell part numbers are dimensions. a CR2025 is 20mm diameter and 2.5mm thick!

cross section of a high power electric car charging cable. the electric current is so high that the copper wires would overheat, but coolant flows through small tubes in the center of each wire.

and we’re all caught up! i’ve got a bunch of projects planned for next year -- be sure to follow me on Mastodon! thanks for coming along with me. best wishes to you all for a happy 2024!

most recently, i reverse engineered a rare Apple II sound card (a sampler) using some blurry photos AND ARTWORK ON A RECORD ALBUM COVER!! https://t.co/U0GHqe1jRM