Hack

​Instrument modder Frank Piesik has combined 3D printing, electronic hackery and touch sensing to create the ElektroCaster that bridges the gap between traditional guitars like a Telecaster and full-on electronic sound makers like the (no longer in production) Kitara.​

Facebook has removed another batch of pages, groups and accounts for "coordinated inauthentic behavior." This time originating in Iran, the pages targeted hundreds of thousands of people across the Middle East, Latin America, UK and US with political content designed to shape their opinions.

​We've seen a number of frankly odd creations from serial synth scientist Sam Battle of Look Mum No Computer over the years. His latest build turns a bunch of cute and cuddly robot toys from the late 1990s into the stuff of horror movie nightmares.​

​SpecNext started shipping its updated ZX Spectrum board to Kickstarter backers in December. Rather than having to connect his Next to a TV, Dan Birch opted to design a rather fantastic-looking Spectrum laptop that rocks its own screen, chiclet keyboard and stereo speakers.​

​We've seen a number of frankly bizarre time-keepers over the years. Architect and hobby tinkerer Ekaggrat Singh Kalsi joins that strange clock party with the Edgytokei, where dancing mechanical arms show hand positions on a clock face ... except there's no clock face.​

A study released by Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, says that the world's nuclear weapons may be more vulnerable to cyber attacks than previously thought and could result in an accidental missile launch.

Cyberwarfare is a growing problem, with 2017 seeing some of the most devious attacks ever. As part of a US$50-million DARPA program to improve cybersecurity, computer scientists at the University of Michigan are developing a security system baked into the hardware that's said to be “unhackable.”

Rather than bopping your head in time to the music coming through the headphones, what if your headbanging could actually control the beat? Engineer Andrew Lee has developed a system that does exactly that, triggering audio and setting tempo with a nod of the head.​

Hackspace tinkerer Koka Nikoladze has built an impressive electromechanical monophonic step sequencer called the BlinkWheel. The looped sounds are triggered when a rotating arm comes into contact with LEDs spaced out around the upper disc.

Thecorpora has launched an Indiegogo campaign to get the Q.bo One robot into the hands of kids, educators, developers and robot enthusiasts. The open source desktop bot is described as easy to build, simple to program and easy to hack.​

Wacky garage inventor Colin Furze occasionally takes on build projects suggested by viewers of his popular YouTube channel. Such is the case for his latest build – a microwave oven with an LCD display panel squeezed into the door, and ports for feeding in games from a pocket console.​

The landscape orientation of computer monitors is perfect for watching YouTube videos or Netflix movies, but not so good for reading PDF or MS Word documents. Maker Robert Johnson has come up with a mechanism that physically rotates his widescreen monitor from landscape to portrait when needed.​