The Great Automotive AM Radio War of 2023 rages on, with the news this week that Ford has capitulated, at least for now. You’ll recall that the opening salvo came when the US automaker declared that AM radio was unusable in their EV offerings thanks to interference generated by the motor controller. Rather than fixing the root problem, Ford decided to delete the AM option from their EV infotainment systems, while letting their rolling EMI generators just keep blasting out interference for everyone to enjoy. Lawmakers began rattling their sabers in response, threatening legislation to include AM radio in every vehicle as a matter of public safety. Ford saw the writing on the wall and reversed course, saying that AM is back for at least the 2024 model year, and that vehicles already delivered without it will get a fix via software update.
In other corporate oopsie news, HP has apparently borked a bunch of printers with a firmware update. The issue appears to go back to around May 8, and impacts OfficeJet 902x series printers. HP customer service reps seem to have been taken by surprise by this at first, telling people that the “83C0000B” error displayed on the locked-up screen on their printers was due to a print head problem. It didn’t take long to figure out that something had gone wrong with a firmware upgrade, but HP didn’t have much to offer by way of a solution. As of this writing, there still doesn’t appear to be a fix, so if you own one of these printers, you’re out of luck for now.
Speaking of HP, they’re now selling a 40-year-old calculator for $120, and we’re not the slightest bit mad about it. The HP-15C “Collector’s Edition” is a reissue of the iconic scientific calculator that first hit the market in 1982, a machine that many engineers made their bones on. Everything about the look and feel of the original, from the chunky and satisfyingly clicky keys to the blocky LCD display to the landscape-format layout is just like you remember it. We never owned one of these; we never really got the hang of RPN, so the HP-22S was a better fit for us. But we’ve been banging on this thing for the better part of 40 years now, so maybe it’s time to grab one of these. And really, $120 is a bargain considering that the 15C was originally priced at $135, and that was in 1982 dollars. Expect more unboxing videos like the one below as people get their hands (back) on the 15C.
Thallasophobia warning: those who wisely fear the yawning depths of the ocean really don’t need to check out the new 3D scans of Titanic in her watery grave. The ill-fated ship, which has been lying off the coast of Nova Scotia in almost 4,000 meters of water since 1912, has been photographed hundreds of times since being discovered in 1985. But getting a full portrait of the ship has never been possible, at least until now. A deep-sea mapping company, Magellan Ltd., spent most of 2022 collecting thousands of images with ROVs, which served as raw data for producing the 3D scans. The results are eerie, to say the least, and the level of detail is astonishing. Check out this guided tour of the wreck, from someone who really knows the Titanic, from stem to stern.
And finally, if you’re looking for the best in automotive repairs and you just happen to be in the Houston metro area, you should check out Hackaday’s own service center. Sure, maybe they spell the name a little differently, but there’s no doubt they’ll get you fixed up and on your way in no time.
Hackaday Links: May 28, 2023
Source: Manila Flash Report
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