Exploring the stars, thousands of light years away from Earth, sounds pretty great right about now. While Darian Johnson hasn't invented intergalactic travel, he has created a tiny desktop computer that looks straight out of Jean-Luc Picard's ready room, letting you at least pretend that you're safely aboard a distant starship.It's a testament to Star Trek: The Next Generation's production designers, including technical consultant Michael Okuda, that the fictional LCARS (short for Library Computer Access/Retrieval System) operating system used on the computers aboard the USS Enterprise-D still look futuristic, despite the show first airing 33 years ago. Gene Roddenberry himself insisted that the computer screens aboard the ship be as minimal and clean as possible to give the impression of the technology being incredibly advanced, and it's an aesthetic that many fans of the show are still fans of, including Johnson.Johnson's LCARS computer is based on an existing design for a similar TNG-themed alarm clock, which he upgraded with a larger 3D-printed enclosure, bigger screen, and additional components to add considerably more functionality.Using everything from an Adafruit ESP32 Feather Board to Amazon's AWS cloud servers, the computer can access and display a host of information, accessible with a series of simple buttons, including the weather, the temperature and humidity of the room, news headlines, calendar data pulled from Microsoft Outlook, fitness info courtesy of Google Fitness, a resistor color code chart and calculator, and even a tool for measuring power and current that Johnson can use as he develops other devices. Geordi La Forge would be proud.All of the files and schematics needed to create and customize your own are available for free on Hackaday for download, and while you don't need to be a Starfleet caliber engineer to build one, you will need soldering, electronics, and programming skills to make it so.
June 9, 2020, WIN Enterprises, Inc., a leading designer and manufacturer of embedded x86 motherboards and appliances for electronic OEMs, announces the MB-50040. The MB-50040 is a high performance Mini-ITX single board computer (SBC) for graphically-oriented factory process monitoring and IoT applications that require high performance. Features 8th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor Mini-ITX DDR4 2400MHz SODIMM up to 64GB Supports 3 independent displays: LVDS + DP/HDMI + DP/HDMI (Auto-detecting) DP++ resolution supports up to 4096x2304 @ 60Hz Multiple expansion: 1 PCIe x4, 1 M.2 M Key (SATA/PCIe), 1 M.2 E key (PCIe/USB) Storage: 2 SATA 3.0 Rich I/O: 2 Intel GbE, 4 USB 3.1, 4 USB 2.0 15-Year CPU Life Cycle Support Until Q1' 31 Three independent displays are supported for factory-line visualization. One display has DP++ resolution up to 4096 x 2160 @ 60Hz. To meet the requirements of a complete IoT architecture, the unit supports 2 S
Did you know: Alex Kidd served as Sega's mascot for a brief spell during the late 1980s but as Nintendo's flagship Mario character gained momentum, the company went in a different direction as Alex Kidd wasn't resonating with consumers as much as Sega had hoped for. In 1991, Sega introduced Sonic the Hedgehog and stuck with him as their official mascot for the long haul. One of Sega's lesser-known mascots is making a return to gaming. Alex Kidd, the protagonist of several video games in the late 80s, will return early next year in Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX. A remake of the 1986 Master System game, the new version will include all of the content from the original as well as new levels, alternative bosses, tweaked combat, movement mechanics and menu system plus new modes including a boss rush mode. There's also a retro mode should you prefer the blocky mid-80s visuals. The remake, announced during
Today's spotlight deal is a whopping 50% off the NEOGEO Mini International Arcade, which comes preloaded with 40 of SNK's most popular classic titles. The Oculus Quest is also finally available at Gamestop, but not for long. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla went up for preorder today and you can still score 40% off a PS Plus membership. 50% Off SNK's Official NEOGEO Mini International Arcade for $29.99 Own a piece of gaming history at a ridiculously good price. This is a fantastic deal considering it sells for $60 or more everywhere else. This mini arcade includes 40 preloaded masterpieces, including Metal Slug, King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown, Fatal Fury, King of Monsters, and more. The arcade itself is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and yet still houses a 3.5" display and joystick controls. For a more traditional style of play, it also includes an HDMI port for playing on your TV and two external controller ports.Oculus Quest VR Headset Back in Stock
Exploring the stars, thousands of light years away from Earth, sounds pretty great right about now. While Darian Johnson hasn't invented intergalactic travel, he has created a tiny desktop computer that looks straight out of Jean-Luc Picard's ready room, letting you at least pretend that you're safely aboard a distant starship.It's a testament to Star Trek: The Next Generation's production designers, including technical consultant Michael Okuda, that the fictional LCARS (short for Library Computer Access/Retrieval System) operating system used on the computers aboard the USS Enterprise-D still look futuristic, despite the show first airing 33 years ago. Gene Roddenberry himself insisted that the computer screens aboard the ship be as minimal and clean as possible to give the impression of the technology being incredibly advanced, and it's an aesthetic that many fans of the show are still fans of, including Johnson.
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