Need something to keep you busy this weekend? We’ve got you covered. The Weekend Workshop is our weekly column in which we showcase a badass DIY project that you can complete with minimal skills and expertise. We’ve dug through all the online tutorials and gone the extra mile to pinpoint projects that are equal parts easy, affordable, and fun. So put on your work pants, grab your tool belt, and head to the garage. It’s time to start building!
Just because summer has officially drawn to a close doesn’t mean you have to give up all of the incredible benefits the sunny season has to offer. Granted, you may not be soaking up some rays at the beach or enjoying a dry bike ride until next May, but there’s no reason you can’t enjoy a perfectly cooked hot dog beneath cloudy skies. No, we aren’t talking about barbecuing inside, but rather cooking a frankfurter using electricity … and a DIY contraption, of course.
Thanks to a former physics major and Instructables user named makjosher, whipping up your very own electric hot dog cooker shouldn’t take much more than a few hours with a smattering of electrical equipment and some patience. Basically, you stick a hot dog between two electrodes and wall current cooks it from the inside as it flows through the dog. Having already built prior models that proved the concept but could also potentially kill you, this model was built as a safer alternative with more features, like a dimmer knob that controls the heat.
To help you get started, we’ve sifted through the Instructables walkthrough to figure out an exact build list. Because the construction of this electric hot dog cooker calls on the use of a hacksaw, miter saw, and soldering iron, it’s incredibly important you know how to use these tools before beginning. It also goes without saying that using protective gear is paramount. If you feel uncomfortable using any of the tools, we recommend finding someone to help or skipping this week’s project. With that said, here’s what you’ll need to get started:
With the required tools and materials gathered, it’s now time to start assembling this novel electric hot dog cooker. Simply follow makjosher’s thorough Instructables walkthrough and before the weekend comes to a close, you’ll be enjoying some franks from the comfort of your own kitchen. Happy building!
The step-by-step instructions for building this electric hot dog cooker can be found at Instructables.
San Francisco startup Dimensional advertised for people to walk robot dogs through city streets. The New York Times reported that the job could include carrying a roughly 33-pound robot back to the office if it overheated. A lift home is an awkward requirement for a labor-saving machine.
Keeping the hardware running is only one challenge. Anthropic's robotics tests found that language models mostly failed when controlling joints directly, but did better when directing trained controllers. Giving an AI agent a body doesn't teach it to handle ordinary household objects.
Soon, a mattress protector may be more than a bed cover. Australian medtech company Sleeptite and researchers at RMIT University have received a US patent for FlexiSense, a smart bedding technology that tracks body position and posture to help caregivers identify when older residents may be at risk of falling.
The technology is being developed for Sleeptite’s in-bed monitoring system, REMi, and was recently on display at The MedTech Conference in Boston. A peer-reviewed study in Flexible and Printed Electronics says the sensors can also be made at scale without sacrificing performance or durability.
AI companies spend enormous amounts of time convincing us their technology is safe and secure. But what happens when those same companies become targets of increasingly sophisticated AI-powered attacks? Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is now facing that question. According to a Washington Post report, cybersecurity startup Cathedral discovered vulnerabilities that let its researchers access sensitive information in Anthropic's internal systems.
The researchers used AI agents to identify potential entry points in less than 12 hours. Interestingly, they didn't need to crack Claude itself. Instead, they exploited weaknesses in third-party business applications that Anthropic uses for everyday operations. Anthropic's security testing program disclosed the findings, which allows outside researchers to identify and report vulnerabilities.