NEW by
@rrix: Cool Things from Fall 2024
Here's some of the most interesting things I read this season, finally entering my Archive:
BOOTHAMMER Aims to Deliver Simple "Intermittent Computing" for Energy-Harvesting Arduino Sketches [2024-11-11 Mon 12:14]
the team introduces its project: BOOTHAMMER, a assembly rewriter targeting Arm's Thumb architecture which adds checkpoint and restore operations — automatically saving the progress of computation at intervals to protect against power loss and restoring from the saved point when power returns
Having resilient low-power systems, things that can handle low sunlight conditions common in the Willamette Valley's winters, is going to be an important thing as we start building more ambient/embedded computing. I would love to have little ultra-low power radio sensors attached to my Home Assistant server and handing this scenario really opens doors.
Top ranked games in the Autumn Lisp Game Jam 2024 - itch.io [2024-11-11 Mon 12:16]
I made a a roguelite card game and it placed fourth in the game jam, there are some other neat entries in here. Play Prism Escape!
BYD EV Teardown In Japan Reveals The Secret To Its Affordability [2024-11-11 Mon 12:22]
China sells a 20000$ highly capable EV and Japan asks how:
The Atto 3 teardown in Japan revealed one of the ways BYD manages to keep costs down and pass the savings down to the person who buys the car. It’s all about producing as many of the components as possible in-house and integrating them. The source article highlights the so-called “E-Axle” used by BYD, which is comprised of eight different components.
It includes not only the motor, inverter, transmission and controller but also the onboard AC charger, the DC-to-DC converter and the battery monitoring system (BMS). This approach, combined with the economies of scale (the larger the number of cars you build, the cheaper you can build them) goes a long way toward explaining how these highly competent Chinese EVs can be sold at such low prices.
...
Kenichi Ito, director of industrial machinery company Sanyo Trading and one of the seminar organizers, noted that "Chinese manufacturers attach great importance to low-cost production” and "their views on quality are different from those of Japanese manufacturers." This was a subtle way of saying they are not built to the same standard, but the market doesn’t seem to mind, and BYD sold 300,000 Atto 3s in the vehicle’s first year of production starting in February 2022—it's been doing quite well in some European markets too.
A California Wetland Program’s Flood of New Funding Lifts Hopes for Shorebirds | Audubon [2024-11-11 Mon 12:24]
Brennan has been working with growers for three decades and today he manages thousands of acres for farms including Robbins Rice Company and Davis Ranches. While rice remains his top crop, birds and wetlands have become an important side hustle—not just for Brennan but for scores of Central Valley farmers enrolled in BirdReturns, a program that pays them to flood their land, creating temporary wetlands when and where birds need them most.
For millennia seasonal wetlands dotted California’s Central Valley, providing crucial habitat for millions of shorebirds to rest and refuel during migration. But as farms and towns have taken over the landscape, nearly all those shallow, ephemeral water bodies have disappeared, leaving avian migrants with scant options for pit stops. With shorebirds rapidly declining along the Pacific Flyway, conservationists and landowners have joined forces to help turn the tide. Launched in 2014, BirdReturns runs via reverse auctions: Farmers offer up acreage and name the price. If it’s right, they get cash in exchange for spreading a thin layer of water across their land, where birds can forage on aquatic invertebrates and other foods. Since its inception, the program—jointly run by Audubon California, The Nature Conservancy, and Point Blue Conservation Science—has paid more than 100 farmers a total of $2 million to flood 60,000 acres throughout the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. Buoyed by a recent $15 million grant from the state, the program is poised to greatly expand its reach.
Hiding Images in Plain Sight: The Physics Of Magic Windows [2024-11-11 Mon 12:29]
Documenting the process of converting a greyscale image in to an acrylic block which when illuminated, presents the image in the cast shadow by (ab)using caustics:
Caustics are the bright patches of light we see when illuminating a transparent object. All the photons that don't pass directly through the object are what form the object's shadow. All those photons still have to go somewhere; they contribute to the caustic pattern.
The most interesting aspect of caustics is that they arise from even the tiniest of variations in surface flatness. Even the gentlest waves on the surface of a pool form powerful lenses that cast intense caustics on the floor below.
The reason my acrylic square can form an image is because I've distributed just the right amount of concavity and convexity into the surface so that the refracted light forms a caustic image.
