Ye Olde World Charm

The Solitaire brings us a link to Datamancer, where Richard R. Nagy shows off his Steampunk Laptop. The attention to detail and the creative style, which includes a copper-plated keyboard and speakers shaped like violin f-holes, make this an impressive case mod. From Datamancer: "This may look like a Victorian music box, but inside this intricately hand-crafted wooden case lives a Hewlett-Packard ZT1000 laptop that runs both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux. It features an elaborate display of clockworks under glass, engraved brass accents, claw feet, an antiqued copper keyboard and mouse, leather wrist pads, and customized wireless network card. The machine turns on with an antique clock-winding key by way of a custom-built ratcheting switch made from old clock parts."

That is truly amazing work ...

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Although the HP laptop does bring new meaning to the phrase "turnkey system".

Re:what the fuck is a steampunk?

[paleo2002 (1079697)]

I guess you didn't like Bioshock then . . .

I'm not a big fan, I've only read The Difference Engine. Stephenson's Baroque Cycle may count too. The point of the genre is to draw attention to the parallels between the modern boom in technological progress and innovations on a similar scale which appeared at the end of the 18th and 19th centuries. Appreciation of history and all that.

As for aesthetics, well art simply is.

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[rah1420 (234198)]

I normally don't respond to trolls but come on - De gustibus non disputandum est, bro.

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[LordNightwalker (256873)]

Probably not what you're looking for, but it includes "lol", cats and ancient egypt: http://youtube.com/watch?v=NVOFmu2ZIqI [youtube.com]

Dear Santa.....

[Stanislav_J (947290)]

I know now what I want for Christmas.....

I usually don't fawn over things like this but, damn, that is one friggin' awesome thing of beauty.

The Fossil Computer

[PIPBoy3000 (619296)]

Years ago, before I had my second kid, I created a Fossil computer [archive.org] that was Victorian themed in brass, wood, and had an old fish fossil mounted where the tag went. It took a huge amount of time, but was one of those great father-son bonding experiences (he has a full machine shop, so he did most of the work). I loved the look and still feel I should turn it into a Media PC and stick it in our living room.

It seems a little sad that it's now my daughter's computer, sitting on the floor. The most excitement it gets these days is to play online Barbie or NickJr games.

Re:The Fossil Computer

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Nice job. Personally I've always liked the idea of a computer system simply disappearing into the background as just another piece of furniture (never really understood the case modders that put electroluminescent tape and UV tubes inside their machines. But hey, whatever floats your boat ... no accounting for taste.) Quite some years ago, strictly as an experiment, I took my regular tower case and covered it in mahogany-grained contact paper: the front was already black so they went well together. People would look at my keyboard and display and ask me where the computer was. It was right there on the floor in front of them, but since it was almost a perfect match for my desk it blended right in and they didn't see it. I dunno, must've thought it was a wastebasket or something

I loved the look and still feel I should turn it into a Media PC and stick it in our living room.

You know, you should do that: put together another system for her, and return your wooden gem to its former glory. I have an old Compaq desktop enclosure that I use in our living room as a media PC: it fits nicely in the entertainment center and that's all well and good. However, if I were to do what you did and turn it into furniture, I'd buy myself a lot of brownie points. Well, and now you've gone and made me think about my next winter project ...

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[value_added (719364)]

People would look at my keyboard and display and ask me where the computer was. It was right there on the floor in front of them, but since it was almost a perfect match for my desk it blended right in and they didn't see it.

Well, that's a start, isn't it?

I'm thoroughly impressed by people who have the time and skill to do what the guy in the article did, but my compromise approach has always been to put everything in a cabinet and hide it. It's a shame the desktop computer hasn't evolved into something th

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[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Nice speech. I have the exact opposite perception: only a fool who understands the true nature of neither would find them remotely similar or of equal value.

I will say that Robert A. Heinlein had a pretty good grasp of both, and that's who I was quoting. The two are, at the most basic level, incompatible. That's because faith is, by it's very definition, unreasoning. Much anguish has been caused down the centuries by repeated attempts to merge the two. In most cases, that meant simply ignoring reason, ig

The worlds of Belief and Reason are Orthagonal

[beer_maker (263112)]

Nice description of your position ... from a reasoning point of view. As anyone who has attempted to understand the feminine mind can attest, reason isn't everything.

I will happily agree that science (the world of Reason, or Rational thought) cannot be made compatible with any scheme of religion or belief, because they do not intersect to any great degree. Science is a wonderful tool for explaining how things work, but it cannot do diddly to explain the 2AM question "Why are we here?" (And the mere exist

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[Falladir (1026636)]

I doubt that faith is often billed this way in the unenlightened circles where it is most successful. If your religious leader, whom your society reveres, tells you something, you'll be inclined to believe it not because you "have faith," but because it's the most reasonable explanation you've been given. Put another way, you can't have faith that's the antithesis of science unless you've been trained in science. Faith, then, does not have as long and illustrious a history as the faithful would make it o

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[Nick Number (447026)]

GIGO indeed.

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[Harmonious Botch (921977)]

Fossil computer? Does this mean it runs windows?

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[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Nah ... it runs Ancient UNIX [wikipedia.org].

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[Windom Earle (1200137)]

That's right. Fashion may come and go, but the nixie-tube digital voltmeter on my bench just keeps on measuring.

IOW some of us sat and watch it come and go. The excellent gear sticks around, though. I fired up an old Superior Instruments CR Bridge (with 'eye-tube' indicator) last week that probably hadn't been powered in two decades. Yep, it still works, and now it will be useful. I keep saying that someday I will put my vacuum tube random noise generator online to share it as a source of randomness w

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[tubegeek (958995)]

Nixies. The technology that died too soon. R.I.P. -j

Re:The Fossil Computer

[QuickFox (311231)]

Who gives a flying fuck what YOU think?

Just in case you didn't notice, I would like to point out that you are not being entirely polite.

Furthermore, please note that this is a discussion site. This means that it is intended as a place where people may voice their thoughts and opinions, just like the grandparent did.

You might consider bearing this in mind in the future, should you wish to give a less stupid impression.

Re:

[aurispector (530273)]

Meh. I was cranky and inarticulate.

What irritates me is people's offhanded dismissal of a nice piece of art that obviously took a great deal of effort to create.

Dismissing this as having "jumped the shark" sounds like it came from a spoiled, whining child with a picosecond attention span, incapable of delaying gratification for even a moment who is constantly demanding more, more, more. Is that the prerequisite for being an arbiter of style? Or is it simply the the pose of someone wishing to sound like o

appropriate user

[v1 (525388)]

This would have looked right in place in the recent remake of the movie Time Machine. The gears in the lid are a very nice touch.

Only thing that I wouldn't like is how big it is. It looks to stand over 3" tall, a lot of that is in the lid I think.

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[ScrewMaster (602015)]

I have the feeling the thing is intended more to impress people than anything else, and it is impressive.

Not Steampunk per se...

[bomanbot (980297)]

Meh, as long as it doesnt really RUN on Steam, it is not a Steampunk Laptop to me ;)

Re:

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Well, that's really easy to fix. Go download Steam [steampowered.com] and run your computer on it.

Time line....

[mulvane (692631)]

This story is about as old as the genre of the articles coverage itself.

Too bad about the cover

[Goaway (82658)]

It really is a shame to put that much effort into making something, and then totally ruining it with that cover, that just screams that the creator knows nothing about how clockwork actually works. It really is kind of an eyesore on an otherwise beautiful piece of work.

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[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Yes, I tend to agree. Now, if that clockwork were motorized and actually did something it would be unbelievably cool. Imagine if you turned the key, and the clockwork engaged and did a Rube Goldberg thing and finally turned the power on.

Re:Too bad about the cover

[CensorshipDonkey (1108755)]

If you read the article, you'd see he originally attempted actual, moving clockwork on the back powered by an electric train motor. However, in order to hold gears in the very precise positions necessary, their axles must be set in a thick piece of material. This made for a top case so thick and heavy the laptop would overbalance and fall backward when opened. So, he instead went with a thinner, workable cover and cosmetic only gears.

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[ScrewMaster (602015)]

their axles must be set in a thick piece of material.

Yeah, alignment is critical with mechanism that tiny. Actually, what he could have done was have smaller pieces of strong material: that would have provided local rigidity without as much mass. Oh well. In any event, no I didn't read the article, I was too busy marveling at the pictures.

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[Falstius (963333)]

"I read it for the Articles, I swear"

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[nurb432 (527695)]

True, but how many people will take that close of a look, or actually understand?

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[Goaway (82658)]

Anybody who knows how a gear or ratchet works?

What is this, a defence of the lowest common denominator?

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[Goaway (82658)]

Sorry, I do know art. I know it well enough that I also know that it goes deeper than simple looks. Which is all this is, disregarding all but the most shallow features of what it tries to replicate, ending up as mockery instead of an homage.

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[Goaway (82658)]

Dude, that's the most childish argument on the internet. Please don't make it around grown-ups, OK?

You can judge a book without being able to write one. You can judge a building without being an architect. You can judge a meal without being able to cook it.

And "it's too hard" is not an excuse for doing a poor job. If it's too hard to do it right, don't bother doing it. Make something else that actually looks good.

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[Lemmy Caution (8378)]

And you are correct. It is hard to explain aesthetic insights like this to people who don't have a background in it, but it's true: adding the faux gearwork moves the work from the evocative to the connotative - from evoking the aesthetics of the Victorian era to simply referring to it, and that acts to diminish the effect of the piece (just like dressing as Batman for Halloween is less effective when you are wearing a shirt that says "Batman!" on it, instead of being the shirt that Batman wore, to use an e

Ye olde worlde .... YECH!

[by Anonymous Coward]

Ye Gods.

Once upon a time, there was a letter, Thorn [wikipedia.org]. It made a th sound. It came to look like the letter Y. Then it disappeared. What we are left with is Ye Olde Everything.

Thorn in the form of a Y survives to this day in pseudo-archaic usages, particularly the stock prefix Ye olde. The definite article spelled with Y for thorn is often jocularly or mistakenly pronounced /ji/ or mistaken for the archaic nominative case of you, written ye. It is used infrequently in some modern English word games to replace the th with a single letter.

Sigh. Anyway, the computer is amazing. I have to find one of those Underwoods.

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[Webs 101 (798265)]

I was going to point this out, but I'm somewhat heartened that somebody equally pedantic beat me to it.

/.ed

[gaderael (1081429)]

Me doth thinkest yonder website has been Slashdotted...eth

Re:/.ed

[Pollardito (781263)]

Blinketh thine lantern once if the slashdotting cometh by tube, twice if it cometh by dumptruck

He'll get some of my cash

[dada21 (163177)]

Here's an artist worth supporting, not for the work he's done, but for the work he's going to do.

Is it frivolous? Yes, but most art can be called that. Is it useful? Probably not, but we all need entertainment.

As a "jackass-of-all-trades" myself, my biggest wish was to be able to make my dreams into reality in a physical aspect, but I don't have the drive to work on a project as long as this guy does. Heck, even complicated LEGO designs lose my interest less than half-way through.

If you have a little bit of wealth, don't forget to support the arts -- it's the job of the wealthy to bring the unmarketable to the masses.

Great, but...

[TransEurope (889206)]

...are there any sites with selfmade high quality _Cyber_-Punk casemods or gadgeds around? I visited a dozen casemodding gelleries, but i found nothing really cool or interesting there. Any tips for good sources?

Corel Cache

[Razed By TV (730353)]

http://www.datamancer.net.nyud.net:8090/ [nyud.net]

Slightly off topic - clockwork

[Kupfernigk (1190345)]

For those who like clockwork that actually does something, the Russian Orion watch company makes inexpensive skeleton watches with both front and back transparent. Kind of an open source watch, for around $100

The problem with something like this computer is obsolescence, whereas an analog clockwork watch may wear out but will not become obsolete. Babbage was all too well aware of this, because owing to the slow pace of mechanical development, his designs became successively obsolete before they could even b

More Laptop Retro Moddings: Retro Typewriters

[wehe (135130)]

This is not the first steampunk laptop. Besides this approach there is a special retro modding technique: converting a laptop or notebook into a retro typewriter [repair4laptop.org].

Gizmodo interview with Datamancer

[Fzz (153115)]

Seeing as Datamancer's site is slashdotted, you can catch the laptop on Gizmodo [gizmodo.com] . Better still, here's their interview [gizmodo.com] with Richard Nagy, its very talented creator. Cheers, Fzz

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[Sorcha Payne (1047874)]

It kinda looks like an old box that might be worth something, so thieves don't even need to know its a computer.

Re:alternatives

[Hal_Porter (817932)]

You can spot these hidden goatse links quite easily. Let's break the code

Here's a search for "test" on google

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=test&btnG=Google+Search [google.com]

Now q is the search string. btnG is the function. If I clicked I'm feeling lucky I'd have got btnI instead.

Let's look at the parent link.

http://www.google.com/search?Searchq=old+world+case+mod&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&gn=10&refer=4e9fd9f4624c02685096769364a81d95&ref=cff0e9b1f2db017a44b88bb0d174771d&q=goatse.ca&btnI&link=hooray [google.com]

Searchq is ignored by Google. The next few things are obfuscation too. At the end we see q=goatse.ca and btnI which means I'm feeling lucky. First hit on goatse.ca is the dreaded image and btnI means "I'm feeling lucky", i.e. jump to the first hit.

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[celardore (844933)]

I'm not sure this would even be that easy for Google to fix. Sure, they could probably not accept GET requests using the btnI parameter, but don't some things pretty much rely on the parameter? Firefox for instance uses a form of "I'm feeling lucky" when you enter words into the address bar and press enter, I do not know if Firefox explicitly calls btnI, it might have another method.

I don't mind clicking a goatse link so much, as I can just roll my eyes and press the 'back' button. The last measure li

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[TheRaven64 (641858)]

Google could prevent this pretty easily by only allowing I'm feeling lucky if the referrer is Google itself. This would actually be in their interests, since it would mean they'd get to show adverts, although since the only people who ever post links to I'm feeling lucky (as opposed to the URL of the resulting page) are trolls it probably isn't worth bothering with.

Erudite Trolls

[TaoPhoenix (980487)]

Dear Mr. Troll.

At least you have given a high class description of your eyeball wrenching escapades.

However, Goatse is no longer the cutting edge of Troll Theory. You're much too good for that.

Instead, make yourself a valuable memeber of the community by supplying links related to the story titles. In this case, it would be a "hard hack laptop", which would be a photoshopped image of the Dell Gaming Machine with a Mining Excavator parked on top of it.

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[Windom Earle (1200137)]

It's the kind of thing my grandpa would have found at the dump, brought home, and converted into something useful.

I think I caught 'the bug' from him. He once turned an old wind-up phonograph mechanism into a jig to make his spearfishing lure rotate out in the ice house on the lak.

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[ScrewMaster (602015)]

I think I would have liked your grandpa.