ti-83plus
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Mod turns your graphing calculator into a selfie camera
Your graphing calculator may not be getting much use these days now that other mobile devices can do the job, but it still has a few tricks up its sleeve if you're willing to do some tinkering. Christopher Mitchell's latest project, ArTICam, lets you turn a TI-83 Plus or TI-84 Plus calculator into a selfie-oriented camera. The mod mostly requires a Game Boy Camera and a programmable Arduino board like the Uno. After a little bit of wiring and some (thankfully ready-made) code, you can snap self-portraits with a calculator command. The 128 x 123 grayscale pictures you take won't win photography awards, but that's not the point -- this is more about having fun with gadgets that might otherwise sit in the closet gathering dust. Hit the source link if you have the gear and want to give ArTICam a whirl. [Thanks, Christopher]
Unlike the cake, Portal on a TI calculator is not a lie (video)
People have been using scientific calculators as math class distractions for years, from gunning down Nazis in Wolfenstein to hunting demons in Doom. But our jaws dropped in amazement when we discovered that an enterprising fellow that goes by Builderboy from Omnimaga has ported over Portal to the humble number cruncher. Dubbed Portal Prelude, the monochrome game is built only for the TI-83 Plus and TI-84 Plus series of graphing calculators and was based on the Flash clone of the popular video game due to the two-dimensional nature of the platform. Sure, it's not as engaging as the genuine article, but seeing as it's the only portable version of the game we know of, we'll take it. Indeed, you can go ahead and download it right now if you have a compatible calculator. In the meantime, we're eagerly waiting to see how this could be rejiggered to take advantage of the color display of the TI-84+. You can take a peek at the demo video after the break.
Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus review
The year was 1999. I was pondering all too carefully what kind of threads I'd be wearing come the new school year. But all I could really think about was exactly how much of my styling budget would be blown on some antediluvian piece of technology that -- in my mind -- was no longer necessary due to the invention of the internet. That hunk was Texas Instruments' TI-83 Plus. So far as I could understand it, the "Plus" meant that it had a few extra megabytes of RAM; why you needed loads of RAM in a graphing calculator, I had no idea. At $119.99, it was the most expensive purchase I made leaving middle school, and now that I've had well over a decade to toy with it, it's about time I sat down and gave it a proper review. Join me after the break, won't you?
Retro gadget orchestra nails House of the Rising Sun, puts your garage band to shame (video)
YouTube user BD594, also known as James Cochrane, is no stranger to pushing retro tech to its musical limits. Back in 2009 he coaxed a scanner, an Atari 800XL and a host of other antiquated gadgets to perform Bohemian Rhapsody. The results, while certainly enjoyable, were a tad tone deaf. Well, in the years since he's tweaking his "musicians" and his orchestra has just issued its second single -- a stunning rendition of House of the Rising Sun, in the style of the Animals. Seriously, this staple of '60s high school rockstar wannabes is absolutely nailed by the assortment of hard drives, oscilloscopes and the scanner. Cochrane isn't alone in his quest to turn obsolete tech into musical magic. Christopher Mitchell managed to hack a Ti graphing calculator and floppy-disk drive into a monophonic media player. While his accomplishment is impressive, he loses this round for wasting his skills on the saccharin stylings of Cold Play. Check out both videos after the break.
