Links We Like: the Kowloon Walled City, Infobar Phones, and the Plimsoll Line

Kowloon city cross section via spoon-tamago.com

Kowloon city cross section via spoon-tamago.com

This week’s Links We Like examine the astonishing Kowloon Walled City, admire mobile phones worthy of being in MoMa, and uncover exactly what those cryptic hull markings on cargo ships mean.

As always, these links give you a glimpse on what we’re sharing around the office and are an invitation to a forum discussion. Got better links? Share them with us! And thanks for all the great comments, images, and links from last week’s post. Keep ’em coming!

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Links We Like: Decapping Integrated Circuits, 1980s Smartwatches, and the Soviet Video Arcade

This week’s links dive into the recent past. Unearthing the smartwatches of the 1980s business professional, revealing the innards of 1970s integrated circuits, and peering into the video game arcades of 1970s and 1980s Soviet Russia.

Break out your best Max Headroom sunglasses, pour a glass of Crystal Pepsi, and get ready to enjoy some techno induced nostalgia.

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This Is How We Made the 7’5″ Tall Mega PocketC.H.I.P.

IMG_0540-ANIMATION

Creating a monstrously large version of PocketC.H.I.P. took three months of planning, and a mad-sprint to finish in time for Maker Faire Bay Area.

Sharps and Jordan designed Mega PocketC.H.I.P. to be a 7’5″ tall working replica of PocketC.H.I.P.. This mega device not only had to look and operate exactly like PocketC.H.I.P., but also had to be entirely powered by C.H.I.P.! And just like Mega C.H.I.P. before it, all of the Mega PocketC.H.I.P. design files had to be open source.

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PocketC.H.I.P.’s Grand Day Out: Maker Faire Bay Area 2016

Last weekend we took Mega PocketC.H.I.P. and pockets full of PocketC.H.I.P.s to Maker Faire Bay Area. Attendees got a chance to play PICO-8 games, code them, and even got a peek at the PocketC.H.I.P. user interface.

This is the first time we’ve taken PocketC.H.I.P. to a public event and it did not disappoint. The booth was packed all weekend and Mega PocketC.H.I.P. won two Editor’s Choice Blue Ribbons from Make: magazine.

For those of you who were not able to make it out to the event, you’ll find some photos from the three days we spent at the Faire below. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth, it’s always a pleasure to meet C.H.I.P.sters and Pocketeers in person.

If you took any pictures of our booth, share them with us in our forums or tweet us @nextthingco.

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Links We Like: $1 Microscopy, Open Source Lab Equipment, and a History of Bioluminescent Organisms

Mountains of Foldscopes! Photo via

Mountains of Foldscopes! Photo via foldscope.com

This week’s links are all about different aspects of science. From empowering kids with inexpensive microscopes to building open source lab equipment and tracing the history of human interactions with bioluminescent animals.

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