Using the DGX Spark as a daily driver computer

Daniel Lawrence Lu bought an NVIDIA DGX Spark.

It’s actually quite a competent general purpose computer while being super tiny and power efficient. It basically just has an ARM CPU, a decent NVIDIA GPU (with the same number of CUDA cores as the RTX 5070), 128 GB of unified memory, and a 4 TB SSD.

The DGX Spark runs “DGX OS” but it is in fact just plain old Ubuntu 24.04 with some additions. The CPU has a Geekbench 6 score roughly on par with an M3 Pro 14 core and an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X: 2983 single core and 18183 multi core.

Can it run Crysis? It turns out, it can totally run Crysis. The DGX Spark is quite decent at gaming in fact.

So anyway the whole thing is great (price tag notwithstanding):

• it handles my “main PC” use cases, such as light occasional gaming, CAD needs (Rhino 3D), and photography workflow
• generates LLM tokens decently for simple coding tasks and automation
• power-efficient and quiet
• looks nice
• whatever doesn’t run out of the box, I can just get AI agents to get it working

See the details in the evaluation here.

 

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Weasley Clock

The various magic-tech objects in the Harry Potter books + movies are often ingenious and imaginative (omnioculars, Dumbledore’s Pensieve). Few stand out in my mind as vividly as the Weasley Clock. This build from maker lakeprojects turned out great (cool to see it done in German, too!). Via Instructables:

I can not remember when exactly, but at one point I thought it would be very cool to have a proper working Weasley. It sholuld be a gift for my mom, who loves Harry Potter and is a huge fan of Molly Weasley.

So I designed and produced this clock, which can display the location of 5 people, ever via GPS tracking or by using an app on each users phone.

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Turning a Fender Frontman 10G into a Bluetooth Speaker

image via zx82net, Instructables

 

zx82net turned an old amp cabinet into a bluetooth speaker and shared the build on Instructables. We love zx82net’s focus on adapting for what you have on hand!

This started with a $4 purchase: an empty Fender 10G practice amp cabinet, sitting around looking for a second life. It’s now a great sounding Bluetooth speaker with controls to easily adjust it for any placement, indoors or outdoors, against a wall or in the middle of a room. It runs for hours off the internal rechargeable battery and charges with UCB-C. It’ll make a great addition to any summer garden party.

I’ll describe this build in detail, but also explain how to adapt the design to use whatever cabinet and drivers you have to hand.

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Learn how to make a Bluetooth speaker with an ESP32 Feather in the Adafruit Learning System with the Ruiz Brothers and Liz Clark.

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NASA Explains The Science Behind ‘Project Hail Mary’

NASA separates the science facts from the science fiction in Project Hail Mary.

In the science-fiction novel and movie “Project Hail Mary,” the story revolves around the rigors of an astronaut working and surviving during a yearslong mission, the power of deep-space communications, the search for life beyond Earth, and nearby star systems that actually exist — Tau Ceti and 40 Eridani A.

Let NASA shed some light: Explore the resources below to learn the science facts fueling the science fiction.

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A computer mouse controlled entirely by your tongue

Augmental introduced two new accessibility products

A lot of the gadgets that get promoted at CES never make it past the concept stage so it’s cool to see this mouth mouse hit the market. Introduced by Augmental at CES 2024, the MouthPad is like a retainer that gives you full cursor control with your tongue. The company also showcased a wearable pendant that can dictate your voice from a whisper. Learn more from DigitalTrends:

The MouthPad is custom-made for each user and fits over the upper teeth like a slim retainer. It features a pressure-sensitive trackpad that rests on the palate and, combined with head tracking, can be used to move a cursor, click, and swipe. Every gesture is customizable through a companion app. Augmental says more than 100 people with mobility challenges already rely on it day-to-day, with some using it for up to 16 hours each day.

Learn More!

and more from Augmental!

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We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!

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Writing the English Alphabet in Cat Font

Japanese Calligrapher Takumi writes the English Alphabet in cats and I’m already imagining sending out a couple post cards written in cats.

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Backyard Squirrel Box With Camera

image via Hey Jude in Living, Instructables

 

Interacting with local nature can be very fun. Over on Instructables Hey Jude in Living put together a build a nice little home for squirrels that also serves as a squirrel observation opportunity:

So, dear remaining readers, as someone who is also up for some squirrel shenanigans, welcome, and this Instructable was a fun way to entice squirrels to nest. I have not got there just yet, but signals look promising, so I remain hopeful. It should also be said, perhaps do not do this if you are worried about squirrels running amuck in your attic or suchlike, and indeed, I give a freestanding variation on this later on. They are basically very entertaining rats with more fluff, so perhaps don’t encourage them to set up home near where you might regret it.

This guide is more where I got to in making a place that will invite squirrels, whilst also enabling filming, and indeed, making the film gear ‘squirrel proof’ (ie protecting cameras and cables from sharp teeth, and a tendency for squirrels to wanna gnaw stuff at random!!).

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This project remind us of the IoT Bird Feeder project in the Adafruit Learning System created by the Ruiz Brothers and Liz Clark – put down the binoculars and watch the birds on your feeder from anywhere in the world with this project.

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