James Brown

@ancientjames
5K Followers
188 Following
1,052 Posts
In New Zealand, making things.

I was hoping that Tom Lehrer's songs being in the public domain would mean I could use them in a video, but YouTube has flagged "Selectramatronics sings The Elements" as copyright protected.

I assume the actual recordings are still owned by someone. But does anyone know if there exists a public domain recording of him singing his (public domain) songs?

I don’t understand why people keep saying it’s “creepy”.
That’s No Moon, Er, Selectric

If you learned to type anytime in the mid-part of the 20th century, you probably either had or wanted an IBM Selectric. These were workhorses and changed typing by moving from typebars to a replace…

Hackaday

Have you ever listened to a beatboxer and thought, imagine if a machine could do that?

(As suggested by @aeva)

I'm getting better at remembering to video things as I do them.
This one turned out not to be useful, but it is pretty.

https://www.jrpanel.com
Okay, turns out you can just get membrane keypads made for crazy cheap. I always assumed you could (and I probably still would just ask Elecrow to deal with them on my behalf), I just didn't expect there to be a JLC-style online ordering setup.

Now I need to come up with the silliest possible nonsense to do with a membrane keypad.
(Someone else please do this so I don't have to)

I'd say the new Thumby Color is slightly *less* impossible and much more playable. More about that (and links!) in my micro-review! https://www.theverge.com/hands-on/716423/thumby-color-micro-review-gba-rp-2350
Thumby Color micro-review: a delightfully tiny GBA clone that doesn’t play Nintendo

From the makers of the TinyTV, the new Thumby is a tiny open-source take on the Game Boy Advance that is actually playable unlike the original Thumby.

The Verge
I think I'm ready to call this piece finished.
Turns out a PCB fits nice and snugly in a Lego brick separator.
It looks cuter with its face on. And honestly, who among us can't say that?