Nuclear Monster

  • The first episode of Tim Hunkin’s The Secret Life of Components, which as you may have determined I am very happy to watch, is now available on Tim Hunkin’s YouTube channel. This first episode covers everything you need to know about working with chain to make things. The show’s creator and star, has this to say about the series on his website:

    In the past, when people asked me how to learn practical skills, I’ve told them they just have to make things badly to start with but to keep going and they will improve. I made things badly for the first half of my life. However, I now learn a lot from watching practical youtube videos and realise that they can teach the sort of informal tips that used to be part of traditional apprenticeships. So I’m delighted to be contributing to this wonderful new learning resource! I hope my videos, each about 45 minutes long, are entertaining enough to be fun for beginners, but also detailed enough to be useful for pros.

    I’m hoping some day to make it out of the “making things badly” stage of making things and I’ve also noticed that Hunkin is asking for donations on his website and at the end of the video. If you have come to enjoy his work as much as I do please consider donating a few dollars.

  • The Secret Life of Machines‘ Tim Hunkin announced a new series consisting of eight episodes about components for making things. In the announcement video above Hunkin lets us know that he has been inspired by online crafters showing how they do things, and offers to show us his processes for working with glue, switches, connectors, springs, bearings, hinges, LEDs, and chain and belt mechanisms when the show premiers on March 4th.

    Tim Hunkin and Rex Garrod’s The Secret Life of Machines is very important for so many other people who have left comments on Tim’s videos about how it inspired them to become engineers or just make things for fun. The show crossed borders to demystify and let people know how the machines in our lives work. Washing machines, cars, fax machines, there was no topic too simple for Tim & Rex and at some point during every episode they would risk Rex’s life by doing something extremely silly with the parts from inside the machines like flipping Rex over in a moving vehicle using parts from a washing machine for some reason. That was in 1988 through 1993 and since then Hunkin has been creating ridiculous arcade machines that make a hilarious mockery of real life like this machine that teaches you how to work at an Amazon warehouse:

    The entire Secret Life of Machines is available online via Tim Hunkin and oddly enough San Francisco’s Exploratorium here if you’d like something to watch while you’re waiting for the The Secret Life of Components to premier on March 4th at Tim Hunkin’s website. If you’re in the United Kingdom and somehow there isn’t a pandemic anymore, I wish I could be there and visit Tim Hunkin’s arcades in London and Suffolk.

  • Nintendo announced a collaboration with Sanrio (the company behind Hello Kitty and other cute characters) for Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch today. This means there will be new residents to unlock and new themed items will be available.

    In the video above, Nintendo showed off items from Hello Kitty, Pompompurin, Little Twin Stars, Cinnamoroll, My Melody, Keroppi, and said these new items would be available in a pack of 6 NFC-enabled amiibo cards for Animal Crossing: New Horizons starting on March 26th and a software update will be available on March 18th to support the new stuff. The card pack is exclusive to Target in the US.

  • The most beloved mechanical keyboard among some is IBM’s Model M keyboard, it popularized the buckling spring switch for the utmost tactility and sound. Now, Unicomp is making a Mini M in a familiar design that sacrifices the number pad in order to use less desk space than the original Model M. Unicomp also swapped out the detachable PS2 cable for a new detachable USB wire.

    This Mini M is only available in black, and there are two keycap color options (All Gray or White & Gray) however the buckling spring switches most likely aren’t compatible with most custom keycap sets. Those custom keycap sets are designed to work with Cherry MX-compatible switches that have a different mounting mechanism for keycaps.

    The Mini M is available now from Unicomp for $121.

  • Daft Punk announced their retirement via the above video titled Epilogue today after almost three decades of making tremendous music. What a career.