Floppy disk drive converted into smart TV remote for kids — dev’s toddler inserts vividly labeled floppies to watch his favorite shows By Mark Tyson published 18 January 26 Techy dad creates easy, tactile, Smart TV control system fed by colorfully labelled floppy disks.
Wikipedia is now 25 years old — world’s 7th most popular website now has over 7 million English articles and 7 billion monthly visitors By Mark Tyson published 17 January 26 Free online knowledge base displaced giants like Encyclopædia Britannica and Microsoft Encarta in the public psyche.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman raises $252 million for brain computer interface venture — but Merge Labs is still in an early research phase By Mark Tyson published 16 January 26 OpenAI has signaled its intentions to become a major player in brain computer interfaces (BCIs) with a $252 million investment in Merge Labs.
Buying all DLC for Monster Hunter Wilds unlocks twice the FPS performance — higher FPS accidentally paywalled by resource-hogging background check for paid content By Mark Tyson published 15 January 26 A performance-crushing bug in Monster Hunter Wilds appears to vanish as more DLC is purchased and added to the game.
Chinese UK 'Super embassy' to feature ‘hidden chamber’ alongside ‘Britain’s most sensitive communication cables’, claims report — 'spy basement' plans cited as security concern, but true purpose unclear By Mark Tyson published 13 January 26 Unredacted plans for China’s new ‘super embassy’ in London suggest the CCP wants to build a 'spy bunker' in the UK's capital, says The Telegraph.
Iran government takes down Starlink amidst civil unrest with 'military-grade jamming signals', report claims — President Trump vows to speak to Elon Musk to restore internet in crisis-hit country By Mark Tyson published 12 January 26 Amid widespread anti-government protests, Iran shut down all methods of internet access, including Starlink.
Retro Apple emulator ported to $60 ESP32 microcontroller-powered touchscreen tablet — supports Mac OS8.1 and a virtual MC68040 CPU in major emulation leap By Mark Tyson published 12 January 26 A new emulator makes running classic Apple Macintosh 68K software a breeze on a cheap, portable, IoT development kit.
Gauss MT90 3D printer offers office‑safe metal printing without powders — uses paste-based metal extrusion (PME) tech By Mark Tyson published 11 January 26 MetalPrinting was at CES 2026 with its next-generation metal paste 3D printer dubbed the Gauss MT90.
Windows Media Player’s ‘find album information’ functionality has been removed — you’ll have to find other software for playing and ripping CDs with relevant track information By Mark Tyson published 11 January 26 Microsoft has quietly removed ‘find album information’ and ‘update album info online’ tools from the Media Player apps supplied with Windows 11.
Dev creates selection of UEFI games you have to beat in order to boot your computer — 10-month project will shut down your PC if you lose By Mark Tyson last updated 10 January 26 Dev creates a quintet of UEFI games with the premise of Win -> Boot, Lose -> Shutdown.
This $2,000 Bitcoin mining water heater can pay for itself by slashing your energy bills, company claims — can rake in $1,000 a year in BTC, offset 80% of electricity and water costs By Mark Tyson published 10 January 26 It also estimates that a 700-apartment community could earn nearly a million dollars a year.
Apple-1 ‘Prototype Board #0’ system is expected to fetch $500,000+ at a 50th Anniversary auction — and the firm’s first ever check is valued at the same amount By Mark Tyson published 9 January 26 An auction featuring 191 lots of historic Apple Computer artifacts, some with estimates of $500,000+, has begun.
Major Japanese electronics store begs customers for their old PCs as hardware drought continues — ‘we pretty much buy any PC’ pleads the Akihabara outlet By Mark Tyson published 8 January 26 A major Japanese PC and electronics store is pleading with customers to sell it their old PC gear.
Samsung Magician SSD software ‘High Severity’ vulnerability patched — upgrade to the newest v9.0.0 to prevent potential DLL hijacking and privilege escalation By Mark Tyson published 7 January 26 Samsung has published a security advisory after a high-severity vulnerability was discovered in its Magician SSD management software on Windows.
Commodore 64 floppy drive has the power to be a computer — bulky 1982 Commodore 1541 5.25 inch drive packs a 1 MHz MOS 6502 CPU By Mark Tyson published 6 January 26 TechTuber shows that the Commodore 1541 floppy disk electronics were powerful and capable enough to work as a standalone computer.
Sega co-founder David Rosen passed away on Christmas Day — 95-year-old former U.S. airman helped set up Sega after his service ended in Japan By Mark Tyson published 6 January 26 David Rosen, one of the co-founders of Sega, passed away on Christmas Day.
Chinese semiconductor outfit has Linux MPP repository on Github disabled after a DMCA takedown request — FFmpeg team accuses it of using libavcodec code without attribution By Mark Tyson published 6 January 26 Leading Chinese fabless semiconductor company Rockchip has had one of its major software repositories taken down in response to a DMCA takedown notice.
Samsung teases AI OLED Cassette and Turntable — display division stretches the feasible use cases for its latest tech at CES 2026 By Mark Tyson published 4 January 26 Samsung is teasing some intriguing new OLED products, ready to showcase at CES 2026 over the next few days.
Blu-ray hits 20 years old, and it isn't dead yet — optical disc format was introduced to the public at CES 2006 By Mark Tyson published 4 January 26 20 years ago today, the CES in Las Vegas was buzzing with talk of Blu-ray technology, players, and media, and the format isn't dead yet.
US Army tests 20,000W vehicle-mounted laser systems for drone defense — updated LOCUST device is now more lethal against drones By Mark Tyson published 4 January 26 The U.S. Army is now testing a more lethal 20kW vehicle mounted LOCUST laser weapon system from AeroVironment (AV) Inc.
Laser cutting and engraving from a software perspective — master your hardware and optimize your creative output with some software know-how By Mark Tyson published 3 January 26 We take a closer look at the software side of laser cutting and engraving.
Dev uses Claude AI to write a ‘functional NES emulator’ — you can test it now, playing Donkey Kong in your browser By Mark Tyson published 2 January 26 A developer has succeeded in prompting Claude to write 'a functional NES emulator.'
NES-a-like mini PC brings modern chips to the classic Nintendo case design — Ryzen AI 9 CPU, Radeon 890M iGPU should make it a decent all-round system By Mark Tyson published 1 January 26 Mini PC with AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 in NES-a-like case 'coming soon.'
ARPANET standardized TCP/IP on this day in 1983 — 43-year-old standard set the foundations for today’s Internet By Mark Tyson published 1 January 26 On January 1, 1983, ARPANET system architects initiated the cutover from the existing NCP to TCP/IP on all hosts.
100,000-Watt Iron Beam laser becomes world’s first drone defense zapper to be operationally deployed — it can also shoot down rockets, mortars, and other aerial threats By Mark Tyson published 30 December 25 The first Iron Beam laser defense system was deployed by Israel on Sunday. This 100kW laser weapon thus became the world’s first drone defense zapper to be operationally deployed.
