Hackaday Newsletter 0xBE

Hacking is the Antidote to Hype [Hackaday] Solar System Wars: Walmart versus Tesla [Read article now »]( Don't Believe the Hype! By [Elliot Williams]( Maybe you already know about the [Gartner Hype Cycle]( It's a cynical, but useful way of looking at the public's reaction to technological progress. First there's "innovation", followed shortly by the "peak of inflated expectations", from which the fall into the "trough of disillusionment" is inevitable. Only thereafter does the tech become well enough understood that it climbs the "slope of enlightenment", finally to be well-established, ho-hum, and reliably located on the "plateau of productivity". it sounds tongue-in-cheek, it's pretty much right for mainstream views of technology. But we hackers have the antidote to the hype cycle: actually working with the tech in question. After all, if you've tried to get the machine, algorithm, or software library working as effortlessly as it does in the movies, you know what the state of the art is, and isn't. Hands-on experience is the antidote to hype. I was thinking about the hype cycle again after reading [this article]( (in German, [translated here)]( about the hype around the 3D printer. The author claims that makers thought that we were going to change the world with 3D printers, entering a post-historical era of universal prosperity where ... stop me if you've heard this one before. And now that the whole 3D printer dream has fizzled, we're crushed. In the very early days of hobby 3D printing, a time that looks now like it was the end of the slope up just before the peak of inflated expectations, I and some others were maintaining a RepRap Darwin. Far from changing the means of global production, we were just happy when the thing's (over-constrained) axes worked, or the print head wasn't clogging up. I wasn't really ever thinking about a global micro-manufacturing revolution or the end of scarcity, but rather about how acrylic was a bad choice for a machine exposed to vibration and stress, and how we could fix or improve this beast. So you can't imagine how stoked I was to read almost exactly this same view, written as a [response to the first article]( ([translated again]( written by someone else who was down in the trenches. He makes the point clearly that those of us who like / use / need 3D printers as a tool never had these inflated expectations, and consequently, we're not disillusioned. In fact, 3D printers have gotten steadily better and cheaper over the past 10 years, and that's a development that we all celebrate! And the end of the article is a little angry, but pitch-perfect: You made the hype, you bury its corpse. Leave those of us involved in building / improving / using 3D printers in peace to work. With this perspective, I can only imagine how the folks actually doing work on AI, delivery drones, satellite systems, or autonomous driving feel. From The Blog [What’s in a Name? Tales of Python, Perl, and The GIMP]( By [Sven Gregori]( When a project forks, it needs a new name. You might think that programmers wouldn't care about such trivialities. You'd be very, very wrong. [Read more »]( [Linux Fu: Shell Scripts in C, C++, and Others]( By [Al Williams]( We all write scripts in Bash. C is for the operating system or heavy number crunching, right? [Read more »]( [This Week in Security: Simjacker, Microsoft Updates, Apple Vs Google, Audio DeepFakes, and NetCAT]( By [Jonathan Bennett]( Computers hiding in SIM cards, audio deep fake "boss scams" and other goings-on from the wild world of computer security. [Read more »]( [Hackaday Podcast EP036]( By [Hackaday Editors]( Hackaday Editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams talk hacks, news, art, science, and much more. Come join us! [Read more »]( If You Missed It [Stunning 4-Cylinder Solenoid Motor Should Be A Hit With Subaru Fans]( [Modified Tombstone Welder Contains a Host of Hacks]( [Hackable Ham Radio Multitool Contributes To Long Term Survival Of The Hobby]( [Atomic Pi Gets A 3D-Printed Mac Makeover]( [The Benefits And Pitfalls Of Using PCBs As An Enclosure]( [Hackaday]( NEVER MISS A HACK [Share]( [Share]( [Share]( [Share]( [Terms of Use]( [Privacy Policy]( [Hackaday.io]( [Hackaday.com]( This email was sent to {EMAIL} [why did I get this?]( [unsubscribe from this list]( [update subscription preferences]( SupplyFrame, Inc · 61 South Fair Oaks Avenue · Suite 200 · Pasadena, CA 91105 · USA