Back in the late 1980s, a group of engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) grabbed a camera and decided to document their workspace before the computing landscape changed around them. The resulting footage is a remarkable walk through Building 230, the room responsible for keeping Voyager, Galileo, and Ulysses on course through the solar system, guided by a staff member who clearly knows every piece of equipment by heart.
Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology, working alongside data storage specialists at Cerabyte, have created the world’s smallest QR code, and it is not even close to visible without specialized equipment. The entire thing measures just 1.98 square micrometers, with each individual pixel coming in at 49 nanometers across, smaller than most bacteria and roughly three times more compact than the previous record holder.
Niels Leenheer wanted to see how far he could push a modern web browser, and as it turns out, the answer is much further than most people would have expected. He completely reconstructed the visual environment of the original 1993 DOOM game using only cascading style sheets (CSS). Every wall, floor tile, barrel, and charging imp is a standard HTML div element. Here’s the interesting part: JavaScript controls all of the game logic, while the browser handles all of the drawing using pure CSS. The end result is a game that runs well on any modern tab and feels quite similar to the real thing.
Luxo Jr. has been bouncing around in the hearts of animation fans since the 1986 Pixar short, and LEGO has now given everyone a chance to own a version of that iconic lamp through a new Ideas set (#21357). The 613 piece build, priced at $55.95 (was $70), comes together at a satisfying pace for an adult set, with most of the time spent shaping the lamp’s articulated arm and weighted base.
Billions of marshmallow chicks roll off a single production line in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and the fact that each one once took 27 hours to make by hand makes the modern process all the more remarkable. An engineer in the early 1950s changed everything with a machine that collapsed that timeline dramatically, and today a finished batch of Peeps marshmallow candy takes just six minutes from start to shelf.
Swedish designer Love Hultén’s latest creation, the NES-SY2.0, is real nostalgia overload. On the surface, this object resembles a wooden mock-up of the Nintendo Entertainment System from the 1980s. However, opening the front panel reveals what it’s all about. This item is a full-fledged music synthesizer that nonetheless proudly wears its gaming roots on its sleeves.
NASA has awarded Intuitive Machines a $180.4 million contract to deliver seven science payloads to a carefully chosen site near the lunar south pole. The Houston based company will use one of its larger lander configurations for the mission, designated IM-5, with a target landing date of around 2030 at Mons Malapert. The location was selected for good reason. The ridge maintains fairly consistent line of sight with Earth, receives relatively steady sunlight, and sits close to permanently shadowed regions that may hold water ice, a resource that could prove critical to sustaining long term human operations on the Moon.
The Veehop 4WD Scooter is worth a look for anyone who wants to take a scooter somewhere a standard two wheeler simply could not handle. Four wheels, each with its own electric motor and independent suspension, give it the kind of all terrain capability that the name suggests, and with the stem folded down it is compact and light enough to fit in most car trunks.
