Ant Farm PC

secolactico writes "This has got to be the coolest case mod I've come across. An ant farm in your PC case. Too bad there are no pics of the case actually on a working PC. It'd be interesting to observe the effect that the temperature and vibration of an operating PC would have on the ants."

simpons mental picture

[adamruck]

why does simpsons come to mind?

Im picturing homer in space when the ants get loose in the space ship.

Re:simpons mental picture

[shogun]

I for one will welcome our new insect overlords.

Re:simpons mental picture

[QuantumFTL]

I for one will welcome our new insect overlords.

This has got to be the only place where that comment could be modded "insightful!"

Gotta love ol' /.

Their tunnel systems...

[DaedalusLogic]

will resemble the fractal patterns of your screen saver.

Re:simpons mental picture

[clambake]

Having ants learn how to sort tiny screws would actually come in handy in this case...

Re:Freedom! Horrible Freedom!

[fireman sam]

Apparently, they will eat it (or try to) as PCBs contain some foodstuffs. Same goes for plastics. Anyone have details of what is included. I forgot to eat my daily dose of 486 mobos today and I am feeling a bit low.

Re:Freedom! Horrible Freedom!

[pe1rxq]

PCBs contain some foodstuffs.

Don't know about that, but they sure as hell contain a lot of poisonstuffs...

Jeroen

Too bad it's only a case-mod

[eric434]

Any other Terry Pratchett fans around here reminded of Hex, the ant-powered computer (of Unseen University)?

Now, THAT would be cool. To overclock, just add caffeine to the water supply :-)

More details?

[antdude]

Do you have any information about this? I am unable to find many hits on Google. I have never heard of Hex and Terry Pratchett.

Re:More details?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you have any information about this?

Enter the wonderful world of Lspace [lspace.org].

Re:More details?

[BrokenHalo]

Do you have any information about this? I am unable to find many hits on Google

This might seem radical, but try your local bookshop.

Re:More details?

[petecarlson]

"your local bookshop" had around 3,000 hits [google.com] but it didn't help.

Re:More details?

[Malacca]

The Lspace [lspace.org] links to a veritable treasure trove of Pratchettiana but there's so much there, you'll have to have a poke around to find what you're after.

Terry Pratchett is an English writer known for his Discworld novels, a series that began purely as a humourous parody of fantasy books. The Discworld stories have evolved over time, a reflection of Pratchett's own development

The HEX is the Discworld version of a computer made by the guys in the HEM (High Energy Magic) building. It contains ants. A

Re:Too bad it's only a case-mod

[Kenja]

Before or after it was given its teddy bear from the Hog Father / Death?

My computer has enough bugs...

[Anonymous Coward]

*groan*

Re:My computer has enough bugs...

[Zork the Almighty]

I got an Alienware-Ant-Farm, ba-doom, pssh!

Idea for an experiment!

[qewl]

Let's fill up the case with internal strobe lights and other various case mod lights and see if ants can have seizures!

Re:Idea for an experiment!

[Zork the Almighty]

Why not get a hamster, on a wheel, powering the computer ? Oh wait, I use an AMD... and 400 hamsters dying of heat exposure would not be nice.

Re:Idea for an experiment!

[drinkypoo]

I suspect they'd just dig a disco hall and throw ragers all night long.

Fried ants..

[Larkfellow]

It would be interesting to see if the heat generated by the CPU/etc killed the ants.

Re:Fried ants..

[Anonymous Coward]

I would guess the vibration would kill the ants -- years ago, I had an alligator lizard for a pet. It ate crickets. I would buy crickets by the box (of 100 or 200) and feed them to him periodically. I learned early (and more than once, unfortunately) that leaving a box or cup of crickets on a noisy PC case will kill them in a few hours. :-(

-- TTK

snake pc mod

[Anonymous Coward]

http://forum.kingsnake.com/whats/messages/6849.htm l [kingsnake.com]

Next time on Oprah.

[Mondoz]

Overclocked Watercooled Ants?

Do they work faster with higher bus speeds?

Re:Next time on Oprah.

[IICV]

Of course they do!

The only problem is getting buses that small.

They showed a working one...

[grishnav]

I happened to catch the episode where they showed this thing... Yes it works, no the heat/vibrations didn't kill the ants. It was a pretty cool mod.

Re:They showed a working one...

[outsider007]

Yes it works, no the heat/vibrations didn't kill the ants.
at least not right away.
I predict that you will never see a follow up to that story because all the ants were dead within days.
at least I hope so for their sake,
it would really suck to be one of those ants.
seriously.

Re:They showed a working one...

[Afrosheen]

The ants here in Texas don't mind the summer heat, so I doubt an AMD case would be much different.

Actually it might be nicer since at least they get a breeze from the fans.

idea

[adamruck]

s/ants/fish/

then you have a cool case

Re:idea

[wirelessbuzzers]

heh. and add a water-cooling system.

Seriously, tough, there could be some problems with this. Specifically, warm water doesn't hold as much O_2... you'd need tropical fish, and even that would be a stretch.

Tropical fish

[newsdee]

you'd need tropical fish

The Piranha PC would indeed be a neat mod. :-)

Re:Tropical fish

[Micro$will]

The problem with predatory fish is they tend to live fast and die young, either by design (insert pet shop conspiracy here), or because of sick feeder fish (insert another pet shop conspiracy here). My friend had a bunch of those cool little barracudas that will gobble up guppies, but they would always die withing 2 - 4 weeks. I thought maybe he was overfeeding them, but I dunno...

Other fish however last a long time, as long as they don't eat each other.

Re:idea

[Monkelectric]

Been done already [overclockercafe.com] my friend.

Re:idea

[TrumpetPower!]

s/ants/fish/

then you have a cool case

No...then you have chowder.

Cheers,

b&

Re:idea

[RalfM]

And of course there are also macquariums [google.com] galore out there.

Ralf

Re:idea

[PerryMason]

Well I won't be impressed until I see an Apple case mod with a worm farm inside.
You know, worms in an Apple, bugs in a PC?

:ducks

I preferred these

[shut_up_man]

Stained glass case mod [lucentrigs.com] (by a hemophiliac too, that's just crazy)
Fish tank case mod [nobispro.com] (with genuine Neon Tetras)

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:I preferred these

[ncc74656]

There's no mention of a water filter on the page, and with a tank under 2 gallons, ammonia is going to build up from fish waste very quickly.

In this picture [nobispro.com], you can see that there's a small fishbowl-type filter in the tank. I'm not sure how effective they really are (I use an undergravel filter in a 10-gallon tank at work and a hang-on-the-back type of filter on a 55-gallon tank at home), but it appears there was at least some thought put into keeping it livable.

That said, $720 to put what can't be more than a 2-gallon aquarium inside a computer is a bit ridiculous. You can set up a 10-gallon tank (much more room for the fishes) for somewhere around $50, and you'll get better visibility and no chance that a leak will toast your computer. (Besides, my dual-Athlon machines run too hot anyway...fish stew, anyone? :-) )

Sim Ants

[AmVidia HQ]

... 2003

Live action expansion pack (tm)

moving the case

[Mr.Zuka]

this case could not be moved since it would destroy the tunnels or worse let the bugs loose inside the computer.

nah...

[romco]

I'm waiting for the "sea monkey" case

Ants?

[Cyno01]

This may not be the best idea, i was watching something on the discovery channel the other day about fire ants. It was talking about all the damage they've caused across the south because they're atracted to electrical fields. They short out computers, traffic lights, appliances, and make hell for the linemen because they ussually nest under high voltage lines. They had a bunch on a live pc board, and they just swarmed over certain components, the ones i'm assuming that had strong em fields. This may be just fire ants though, i have no idea.

Re:Ants?

[cybermace5]

So THAT'S how the electromagnetic compliance engineers test circuit boards! They never taught us that in school!

Hammerhead Sharks & Electric Fields

[handy_vandal]

Hammerhead sharks [uci.edu] can detect subtle electric fields -- the "hammers" are actually sensor arrays, which the sharks use to find the bioelectric signature of prey animals buried in the mud. The sharks also follow geo-electric paths to feeding grounds.

Re:Hammerhead Sharks & Electric Fields

[zutroy]

That is the coolest thing I've learned in a long time. Thank you.

Most if not all shark species, isn't it?

[ianscot]

From Electroreception in Elasmobranchs [umbc.edu]:

Sharks and rays were among the first animals to be identified as having electroreceptive organs. The following description is taken from a paper by Andres and vonDuring from 1988. The main structure involved in electroreception in elasmobranchs is the Ampullae of Lorenzini. It consists of one or more alveoli at the blind end ofa jelly-filled canal. The canal opens to a pore on the skin surface.

...The organ acts as an insulated core conductor.

Great Whites have th

Re:Hammerhead Sharks & Electric Fields

[gosand]

Hammerhead sharks can detect subtle electric fields -- the "hammers" are actually sensor arrays, which the sharks use to find the bioelectric signature of prey animals buried in the mud. The sharks also follow geo-electric paths to feeding grounds.

So *that's* why there was a hammerhead shark in my PC case the other day. I wondered how he got in there.

Re:Ants?

[el-spectre]

My father is an electrical inspector... he says that lots of the controllers (for traffic lights) are infested with ants, you have to open the box and spray it with compressed air before you stick your hand in.

Also fun are the black widows...

Re:Ants?

[antdude]

They appear to look like harvester ants in the photographs. They are not bad as fire ants.

Re:Ants?

[cybermace5]

Practical Use: Obtain several radio-controlled cars. Attach a crude spark-gap high voltage coil to each. Drive the cars around the countryside gathering a swarm of fire ants. Make a red skin-tight costume (don't forget the cape), practice your "evil laugh" and TAKE OVER!

The ANTMASTER will make you cry "UNCLE!"

And his PUNS are every bit as torturous as his fire-ant swarm!

Re:Ants?

[IICV]

However, if you are stupid enough to use freaking fire ants in your case, you deserve whatever's coming for you.

Those buggers can kill humans, not to mention chew through plastic.

There should be no problem with the normal varieties that don't break out and carry off young children.

I can testify to that!

[beer_maker]

I lost a power supply 6 years ago when a migrating column of "sugar ants"* wandered up the power cable and into my non-l33t Compaq PC. I had just got a then-new Roadrunner cable modem, so the system was on 24/7, apparently generating a tasty vibe.

I returned home that evening and noticed the screen was doing an unusual flickering. When I snapped on the lights, I found the system crawling with bugs like ... well, you know. I took it outside, pulling out all the components and dusting them off with my tru

Hex?

[ackthpt]

This puts me in mind of the computer in Pterry Pratchett's books, Hex. It's effectively a colony of ants which move things about, thus performing operations, calculations, etc. often of a thaumatical nature. There's a sign mentioned in one of the books, "Ant Hill Inside"

yes, ants deserve such torture

[lingqi]

especially if you have ever been anywhere near fire ants [miami.com]. (for the record, I used to be in Louisiana - and I concur every bit with the article.

i don't think you need to worry about it

[lingqi]

humans will do themselves in, and we dolphins will rule the earth!

well, 70% of it...

erm, okay, 25% of that 70% that hasn't been (badly) poluted yet...

actually, erm, 10% of that 25% of the 70% that hasn't had its ecosystem seriously impacted due to over-fishing...

ahh fsck it. i'm moving to ganymede.

Forget the heat/vibrations, what about the EM?

[Build6]

Aren't ants sensitive to electromagnetism/radio-frequency waves? Won't having them so near an EM source as a PC's innards do strange things to their behaviour (I'm presuming it won't be "good"/healthy/conducive for the ants...).

Re:Forget the heat/vibrations, what about the EM?

[zutroy]

When ants take over the earth, we'll all wish that we had listened to you.

Kind of sad that Adm. Hopper is dead...

[PHAEDRU5]

I think she'd kind of grasp the irony.

And to think

[Perdition]

people said that Linux wasn't ready for your ants and uncles...

It was *my* idea....

[cybermace5]

He claims to have no idea where he got the idea to put an ant farm in a PC.

Among other obvious sources, here is one of my posts from a past Ask Slashdot: Pets [slashdot.org]

Of course the guys at TechTV must read every little comment on Slashdot. ;-)

Or maybe it's just another one of those "critical mass of knowledge" effects, where technology (or boredom) reaches such a level that an idea springs to life simultaneously for multiple individuals.

worse then vibration

[mr_exit]

what would the em radiation do to the ants... hard drives can throw out more radiation then a monitor if you are sitting right infront of it.

any physicists or bioligists have any insights?

Re:worse then vibration

[zutroy]

As a physicist and a biologist, I can confirm that it will fuck them up.

Nope.

[inertia187]

It'd be interesting to observe the effect that the temperature and vibration of an operating PC would have on the ants.

What's the point. Everyone knows all we really want to do it whip out the old magnifying glass. Hehe.

Mir space station..

[SystematicPsycho]

I used to have a pentium 133 that had a huntsman spider living inside. It didn't bother me so I didn't bother it, they're not dangerous.

This computer was so bad that when I booted it I had to manually kickstart the fan to start spinning by tapping it a bit, kind of like how they used to spin those propellors on airplanes to start them up.

Anyway, I thought "MIR" was tha appropriate name to give to this poor sod. It was decommisioned around a year ago.

You are far kinder than me

[Sycraft-fu]

My policy is that anything creeping, crawling, slinking, etc that is smaller than my cats is subject to immediate termination, if said cats don't terminate it first. Then again, I live in the desert so there aren't a whole lot of bugs, comparatively, so I am used to generall bug free living.

In fact the only bug infestation I ever had was a bunch of Kool Aid ants. I call them that since I'm not sure what kind of ants they REALLY were and they seemed to thrive on the Kool Aid that my roomate was fond of drin

Re:Mir space station..

[SystematicPsycho]

No it hung itself. I gave it a proper burial, under my shoe.

Feeding???

[wideBlueSkies]

Photo Caption:

The opening is how the ants get their food

Um, how does that work? Is it that the ants leave the colony through that big wide opening and look for food around the floor of your workspace?

Spiders and lizards and fuzzies, oh my!

[ChaoticCoyote]

I've found all sorts of strange critters living in my systems. Back about ten years ago, I opened a 386 to find a Black Widow merrily tending her egg sacks in a web built around the power supply. I had a system offline for a couple of months; When I started it up last week, I heard something inside. Upon examination, I found an anole (small lizard) inside the case. Those dang things get in everywhere... they even move in with my Uromastyx sometimes. Must think he's their big brother or something. But I can't see building a specific house for ants in my computer. After all, I live in Florida, and wage war against fire ants almost daily...

Re:Spiders and lizards and fuzzies, oh my!

[Ian Peon]

I actually had an and farm set itself up in my laptop a few years back.

Left the thing sitting for about a month under a desk. Pulled it out and fired it up and ants crawled out of everywhere! (not fire ants thankfully) Shut it down, grabbed the thing up and set it out on the back porch standing open on its side - wasn't sure whether to curse or laugh. Thought that I might have just had dropped some cola on the case, but the ants were carrying brewd - so they had indeed set up shop.

Came back every few

Keep that Anole!

[interactive_civilian]

I lived in FL for 5 years (4 years of university and then one year of work in Melbourne). All I can say is that the anoles (and any geckos that you may have around the house) are a blessing in the war on fire ants and other insect life.

My room had a door to the outside, so I would leave it open to let the anoles in and probably had a good 4 or 5 living in my room at any given time. Since they were there, the ants were not (nor were the cockroaches/palmetto bugs). They took good care of me and they stayed away from the photography chemicals (my room doubled as a darkroom...guess they didn't like the smell...this was another reason why I would leave my door open).

However, sometimes they did there job a little too well. Though I would rarely find any insect life in my room, there were the sad occasions when I would find a dead and mummified anole when cleaning. :-(

Never found one in my computer case though. I wonder what attracted one to yours (heat? electric field? curiosity?)

Anyway, in the war on bugs (hehe), natures defense turned out to be the best defense in my experience. Especially the geckos. If you have an insect problem and can effectively seal off your house/apartment/room, catch or buy a gecko and set it loose in there. Don't forget to catch it after a few days, because it will probably eat everything and you need to keep it from starving. Then you can either set it free, or keep it in an aquarium and feed it crickets and stuff until you need it to be out and around again.

At least, these were my experiences. YMMV.

Re:Keep that Anole!

[spun]

I lived in Waianae, on the leeward coast of Oahu. Our house was on a farmlot way back in Waianae valley. At any one time, we had several hundred geckos in and around the house.

I liked 'em, but they creeped out Chisa, my roommate's daughter. She would get her revenge when they crawled on the outside of the window screens. She'd flick the screen with her finger, and the litl' guys would go sailing off into the night.

The worst part about geckos is that the males love to fight each other. They also like to crawl on the ceiling. Did I mention I sleep with my mouth open?

Nothing like waking up to find a pissed off, defeated male gecko in your mouth.

been done... rember the ibook ant farm?

[jdunlevy]

been done... but more naturally... rember the ibook ant farm?

Remember this [slashdot.org]?

Ants are attracted to electricity

[Stonent1]

Ask any air conditioner repairman. The ants get stuck inside the relays and cause the relay to fail. Sometimes they eat the insulation of the wiring, cause it to short and trip the breaker. So don't be suprised if your power supply starts smoking one day.

and pcb's

[dsb]

Back in my college days, living in a house with a few other guys we had a bad ant problem. We first thought that maybe we should clean up the week old chinese food and yesterday's pizza, but that did not work. It got so bad that we were obsessed with our clean living habits in the kitchen. Finally, after living with a new cleaniness lifestyle we were able to track the source of the ants. They were making homebase in the base station of the cordless phone unit. Apparently, they were attracted to the glu

Re:and pcb's

[Nogami_Saeko]

All your....

Nope. Not going there ;)

N.

Biological display unit?

[kinnell]

Does that mean it would be possible to manipulate them using electric fields? You could put a backplate on the ant farm with a matrix of electrodes. The ants would be attracted to the ones which were switched on. You could control it from a parallel port to have an ascii display composed of swarming ants. Not only would this be a cool hack, it would completely creep out anyone who saw it in action. IANAB - does anyone know if this would work?

ASCII ants

[Miguel de Icaza]

The server is /.'ed, here is an ASCII-image of the ants:

-

-

more picture here [ascii-art.de]

Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!

Reason: Please use fewer 'junk' characters.

That's nothing compared to this ...

[npj]

If you really want an out-there case, then you just have to check out this [divxstation.com].

You know you've been reading /. too long when...

[ruiner13]

you say something like:

"It'd be interesting to observe the effect that the temperature and vibration of an operating PC would have on the ants."

'nuff said.

honey?

[bilbobuggins]

'why are there bugs all over your computer?'
'those aren't bugs, they're features'

See?

[rune2]

Ant ain't just a cool Java tool!

Imagine

[pyro_peter_911]

Imagine a beowulf clusteAAArrrrrgggghhhhh Get Them Off Of Me!!!

Naysaying

[SUB7IME]

It strikes me as being somewhat unethical to put ants into such extreme conditions (high temperature and lots of vibration) without any purpose other than 'looking cool'. At least when we send them up to outer space we have a scientific goal in mind. When you have them on the side of your case you are just causing them harm for no real gain.

I got a better idea, forget ants how about...

[WolfWithoutAClause]

Bees!

Think about it. Bees don't like their hive to get too hot, cos then they all die. So, if it does they station a whole bunch of workers on the outside and get them to flap their little chitinous wings to cool it all down. It's a self cooling case!

Admittedly the bees buzzing all the time might be louder than an overclocked AMD with an ill chosen fan, but you have to admit; it would be a unique case mod. And you get honey!

So, is a self-cooling-honey producing-beehive case a great idea or what?

TechTV's video clip?

[antdude]

Is there a video clip of this HowTo online? I don't have cable TV and satellite dish.

Earthquake!

[retro128]

I'm guessing those ants don't like LAN parties.

Incompatibility

[Throatwarbler Mangro]

What Kevin failed to mention in his notes is a major flaw in this system...

It's incompatible with RAID arrays.

Yes, I'm ashamed of myself for that one :)

EM rather than heat

[UnixRevolution]

I think the electromagnetic field rather than the heat, noise, or vibration would be the worst for the ants. (yes, i know heat is a form of EM radiation, just bear with me :P) Ants are known to infest stuff like transformer boxes and stuff because they're lured by the EM field. I imagine the EM field generated by case fan motors/circuit boards/procs/drives/PS would have a similar effect, I.E. drive the ants insane. I remember Another Story [slashdot.org] where someone's iBook (like mine) got infested with ants. They must have been attracted by the EM.

A better idea!

[pesc]

I would like a screen mod with an ant farm!

An extra glass in front of the screen. Some sand in the bottom, almost covering the taskbar panel. And ants crawling over the windows, chasing the mouse pointer.

Creepy!

Ants in my laptop.... NOT A JOKE!

[Total_Wimp]

This is too funny seeing this here. A couple weeks back we had some ants on the kitchen table (a few here and there) and I got rid of 'em. A while later there were a few more. I didn't see anything sticky that they might be going for, but I decided to clear off the table and wipe it down to make sure.

Well, one of the things I had on the table that needed clearing off was my laptop. When I lifted it up there were a bunch of ants underneath it and that's when I noticed there were a bunch more crawling in and out of the cooling holes. I saw at least one of them with some kind of a crumb or something and since I seriously doubt he got it from inside the laptop, my best guess was that he was carrying it from wherever he found it to store it in the laptop.

I had the laptop on the kitchen table for a few days at this point and it had been on the whole time so it was running plenty hot. The ants didn't seem to mind at all. I guess if they can live in Arizona then they wouldn't mind the interior of a laptop either. The only thing I never figured out is why they would go there in the first place? Was there some kind of noise drawing them in? Did they prefer the higher heat environment?

TW

Every time you upgrade your video card

[blair1q]

God kills a hundred ants.

Re:This begs the question....

[Anonymous Coward]

Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of old jokes? Talk about a nightmare...

Re:This begs the question....

[UniverseIsADoughnut]

" Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of these? Talk about a nightmare..."

I think that would be a Beowulf Hill, or Beowulf cluster hill. And if you really want to spice up the computer, use fire ants

Re:This begs the question....

[UniverseIsADoughnut]

" you have to link all the ant farms together with tunnels"

So SSH is going to be involved?

That's not questioning begging.

[Potor]

Begging the question is when the conclusion of an argument is also a premise of that argument.

Re:If this was *BSD the ants would do all the work

[IICV]

If it were Windows, all the ants would turn blue and stop working whenever they encountered something unexpected.

If it were Unix, the ants would all ignore anything unexpected, even if that meant walking into it repeatedly.

Re:If this was *BSD the ants would do all the work

[scubacuda]

And if they were SCO ants, they'd kill the Linux ants, only to be eventually eaten by the Windows ants.

Re:let me guess...

[cybermace5]

How about the junction of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah?

Well...

[FireballFreddy]

I dunno, it is kinda cool I guess. But at what point have case mods go too far?

• Ceramic tile case with tiny sink and faucet for water cooling?
• Astroturf case with miniature army attached?
• Leather case? With zipper and buckles? Maybe alligator skin? Or human flesh?
• Ice case? (Must be kept in freezer permanently.) Dry ice case?
• George Foreman Grill laptop?
• Warsteiner Mini-Keg case?
• Pumice case?
• Birdhouse case?
• Fire-breathing propane case?

Sure, it's neat to look at, but at the end of the day all you c

Re:Finally!

[FireballFreddy]

C'mon now, no more making fun of Windows for being buggy. That's like making fun of a retarded kid wearing a crash helmet. Sure, it's worth a laugh, but the laugh isn't socially acceptable. Keep it on the inside.