WebUSB bridges two amazing universes: the open web and the maker movement. Web pages can now talk directly to external hardware over USB, and it works on both mobile and desktop (at least in Chrome). There are a few basic samples out there, but for my own edification, I wanted to get my hands dirty. I hooked up a Wii Nunchuck to an Arduino, and built a webpage to plot sensor readings in real-time. Here’s the resulting video and code.

Toddler toys are stacked with blinking lights, loud attention seeking noises, and earworm songs. They are often made of plastic and sadly, feel cheap. My daughter deserves better!

So I set out to design her a perfect music box: an old concept infused with modern technology, without subjecting her to the hazards of screens. I wanted the box to play her favorite songs, be durable and portable, have long battery life, all while being a beautiful object. This is the result:

A parismonious use of pixels (160 x 114) and color (four-color greenscale) lends itself super well to reproduction as a LEGO mosaic! LEGO has this amazing service called Pick-a-Brick where you can buy spare parts that accidentally ended up in your vacuum cleaner's dustbin. Or you can buy tiles and flats and make an awesome mosaic based on your favorite 2-bit sprite. But how many tiles of each color do you need? Not to worry, I've got you covered with this color counting script. Fully assembled, two-bit LEGO Link makes an excellent coaster for the office mug.