Real Wood iPod 289
An anonymous reader submits "People have tried modding their iPods using wood before, but it took the genius of ZapWizard to create the Real Wood iPod. Hand carved from a solid piece of African hardwood to a thickness of just 2mm, the end result has to be seen to be believed. Wood grain is the new Apple White!"
Re:well.. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Touch wheel (Score:5, Informative)
"No War for Hardwood!" (Score:5, Informative)
Some softwood types are also sensitive - old-growth redwoods forests and high mountain areas. Forest Service roadbuilding typically costs about 10 times as much as the value of the wood that gets logged using those roads, so it's essentially subsidizing the destruction of old-growth forests; the Clinton administration belatedly got around to banning it in many areas, and the Bush Administration rapidly re-authorized it.
Re:Wood Ipod (guilt) (Score:3, Informative)
Plastic: Made from Oil.
Metal: Mined out of the ground, heated with electricity generated from Oil, or Polluting Coal, or *heavens* NuCuLar energy, or River Blocking Dams.
Wood: Actually a non-perishable resource, if the right species are used. Maple is good.
That said, you can obsess over whatever you want, that's your right, but be aware that there's no such thing as "clean" technology. Even if you go back to making plastic out of wood pulp, that is not guilt free.
And forget about going tech-less. The Native Americans cleared land by burning, and many parts of the globe suffer from desertification and treelessness from cutting firewood and overgrazing.
Hopeless, isn't it?
--
BMO
Re:Touchpad? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Wood Ipod (guilt) (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Exactly ! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Touch wheel (Score:5, Informative)
Here's the blurb for those too lazy to search the site
QWheel(TM) touch wheel technology can be thought of as a 'capacitive potentiometer', where the wiper is a finger. The electrode consists of a simple resistive ring element placed behind the plastic panel; three capacitive QT sensing channels are connected to this ring, and the signals processed to 7-bits of absolute position. The result is output on an SPI serial interface. The device can be set to sense through panels up to 3mm thick, and even through gloves.
The entire circuit with the electrode ring can be fabricated on a single-sided PCB for very low cost. In many cases the technology is less expensive than mechanical equivalents, and in all cases is more reliable.
durability (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Wood Ipod (guilt) (Score:2, Informative)
To clarify for clarifications sake, it can't really be true that *all* the CO2 is released, since the tree may become trapped in sedimentary rock, and become a deposit of fossil fuel over the next few millenia. Until it's dug up and burnt.
In terms of conservation of matter (plus the fact that photosynthesis is essentially the reverse of respiration, especially in terms of waste products), if the tree is burnt, then the net amount of CO2 absorbed over its life will be equal to the CO2 released over its life plus burning.
If the tree is entirely decomposed, then all the carbon will be recycled back into the environment. But not necessarily all as CO2, since some anaerobic bacteria metabolise sugars in low oxygen conditions, producing by-products like alcohol and methane. Eventually it may all be converted back to CO2, since that is the main waste-product of burning and respiration. But this is simply a further application of the conservation of matter.
And do note that all instances of the word 'burnt' refer to some sort of perfect combustion of all fuel, leaving no soot or charcoal behind.
In other words, the post you originally replied to was a vast over-simplification.
-Tez
Re:Wood Ipod (guilt) (Score:5, Informative)
This was some pretty cool stuff.
Re:well.. (Score:5, Informative)
> How long until we can start getting, say... a mahongany powerbook?
You can't get your hands on real big-leaf mahogany nowadays as it's very rare and there has been talk of protecting it under CITES [cites.org]. Most reputable timber yards won't handle it.
The various replacements that are sold as "mahogany" are too soft and not dense enough.
> A pine iBook sounds appealing.
Again, too soft. What would be nice is one made out of African Blackwood. African blackwood is used for making woodwind instruments and is jet black and very hard wearing. Doesn't need any finish either and is fairly easy to shape with rasps etc.
Re:Touchpad? (Score:3, Informative)
Nope its a 4th gen [mp3.com]. This is from the creator in the article discussion:
As many have mis-read. This is not a old generation iPod with a scroll wheel. This is a 4th generation iPod with touch click wheel. It is held together by little tabs.
Re:Not sure about this. (Score:3, Informative)
Wood inlays consist of thin slices of wood covering a substrate. Wood inlays are generally used for decorating a flat object and it is possible to have curved wood inlays. This iPod case is a three dimensional carving made from one piece of wood, not an inlay.
Wood carving and wood inlays are both techniques that can be used to create beautiful works of art, and both techniques can be combined in the same piece.
Re:Improved Audio As Well (Score:4, Informative)
See http://www.synaptics.com/technology/cps.cfm [synaptics.com] or http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-5512416-1.html [cnet.com] for more info.
Re:mm... the 70's (Score:3, Informative)
Well they removed the harvest gold when they added the 6GB HDs... but Green is most certainly there.