I've seen neat practical tricks in pinball over the years, but I swear nothing has ever topped my reaction to Bram Stoker's Dracula and its Mist multiball start. When started, the game will float a ball across the playfield like magic, while you have another ball in play. If you manage to knock the floating ball off whatever magical force causes it to move, you'll get them both in play. Miss, and it's gone!

As you probably have guessed by now, it's magnets. There's a huge self-reversing screw across the playfield, on which a carriage with an electromagnet moves back and forth. On top of the playfield there's gates on each end, so if the ball is not hit, the gate is closed behind, locking the ball until the next attempt.

As you can see in the video, this mechanism takes a huge chunk of the playfield's underside and basically the game's wiring look detours around this thing.

#pinball #mechanism #magnet #howstuffworks

Crap. howstuffworks is also using AI slop.

"We created this article in conjunction with AI technology, then made sure it was fact-checked and edited by a HowStuffWorks editor."

Yeah, sure you did. People fact-checking AI slop is exactly what we need and what will produce results everybody can trust.

https://animals.howstuffworks.com/birds/goose-vs-swan.htm

#howstuffworks

How do we keep our lives and processes squeaky clean? 

Professor Ian Wilson and his research group respond with a question of their own:

How clean is clean?

Watch the video:

https://youtu.be/obqRLf1V3k4

#CuriosityInAction

🧪⚙️🌱🔋

 #Cleaning #Science #Rheology #HowStuffWorks
https://youtu.be/obqRLf1V3k4

How Shazam Works.

Stolen from elsenet.

#HowStuffWorks #funny

This is a pretty solid, plain-English, explainer!

ChatGPT, explained https://www.theverge.com/24161231/chatgpt-generative-ai-explained

#HowStuffWorks #AI

ROGUE WAVES
HOW STUFF WORKS
Mastodon Post

For some reason, rogue waves were in this morning's news at my usual news site.

Long ago, I heard a discussion on paranormal radio that touched on the search for a hundred foot wave.

These two things got me to searching the Web for the largest rogue wave ever observed.

HowStuffWorks

What Was the Largest Wave Ever Recorded?

By: Clarissa Mitton | Apr 16, 2024

https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/largest-wave-ever-recorded.htm

"The highest rogue wave ever recorded measured 84 feet (25.6 meters) in height and was detected by a Norwegian oil platform in the North Sea in 1995, making it the most extreme rogue wave observed in modern maritime history."

We're waxing down our surf boards
We can't wait for June .....
-- Surfin' USA

:

#clarissamitton #howstuffworks #oceanography #paranormalradio #roguewaves #sciencenews #surfingusa #surfinusa

:::

Regardless of what scandal has forced Leo Varadkar to leave office, he'll land somewhere pleasant. 🌴

#HowStuffWorks #mastodaoine

November 15th: Want to know how computers REALLY work at the microchip level? Attend this meetup — I’ll explain the “guts” of your computer and phone, and we’ll have fun playing with machine language!

#Tampa #TampaBay #meetup #meetups #technology #hardware #computer #ComputerHardware #ComputerArchitecture #MachineLanguage #HowStuffWorks

https://www.meetup.com/tampadevs/events/296432415/

Ever wonder how radio buttons—you know, the IRL thing that gave the form buttons their name—work? I had never really thought about it, but I loved discovering it with this video.

#HowStuffWorks #UX #TIL