It’s Independence Day here in the USA, but if you’re not a fan of fireworks and hot dogs, Elliot and Dan’s rundown of the best hacks of the week is certainly something to celebrate. Rest easy, because nothing exploded, not even the pneumatic standing desk that [Matthias] tore into, nor the electroplated 3D prints that [H3NDRIK] took a blowtorch to. We both really loved the Ploopiest knob you’ve ever seen, which would be even Ploopier in anodized aluminum, as well as an automatic book scanner that takes its job very seriously. We looked into the mysteries of the Smith chart, another couple of fantastic student projects out of Cornell, the pros and cons of service loops, and what happened when the lights went out in Spain last Spring. And what does Janet Jackson have against laptops anyway?

Download this entirely innocent-looking MP3.

Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast

Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:

iTunesSpotifyStitcherRSSYouTubeCheck out our Libsyn landing page

Episode 327 Show Notes:

News:

Supercon CFP ExtendedAnnouncing The 2025 Hackaday One Hertz Challenge

What’s that Sound?

Fill out this form for your chance to win!

Interesting Hacks of the Week:

Open-Source Knob Packed With Precision Ploopy Open Source Trackball Keeps Rolling AlongA Ploopy Pick and PlaceStanding Desk Uses Pneumatics To Do The JobData Visualization And Aggregation: Time Series Databases, Grafana And More Howto: Docker, Databases, And Dashboards To Deal With Your DataVictoriaMetrics: Simple & Reliable Monitoring for EveryoneA Scanner For Arduino-Powered Book Archiving Page-turning Book Scanner RoundupAutomatic Book Scanner To Bring Knowledge To Ethiopian StudentsAudio Localization Gear Built On The CheapMeet Cucumber, The Robot DogBlowtorching Electroplated 3D Prints For Good Reason

Quick Hacks:

Elliot’s Picks Turbine Blower 3D Prints Every Part, Including Triple Planetary GearsWindows 95 On PlayStation 2 Works As Well As You ExpectedPhone Keyboard Reverse EngineeredDan’s Picks: Pi Networks The Smith Chart WayAre Service Loops A Good Idea?Move Over, Cybertruck: Series Hybrids From Edison Are On The Way Edison Blue Hex Code

Can’t-Miss Articles:

One Laptop Manufacturer Had To Stop Janet Jackson Crashing Laptops Shouting in the Datacenter – YouTubeThe 2025 Iberian Peninsula Blackout: From Solar Wobbles To Cascade Failures The 2003 Northeast Blackout And The Harsh Lessons Of Grid Failures

From Blog – Hackaday via this RSS feed