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Hardware

"Y2k Bug", and Others Proves PCs Can Be Art 177

Posted by CmdrTaco from the now-that-takes-talent dept.
the_raptor pointed us to a pretty impressive case mod called the y2k bug. In addition, the site features several other cases that will job your jaw. Besides inspiration, the site features practical advice, like why not to window mod hard drives.
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"Y2k Bug", and Others Proves PCs Can Be Art More

"Y2k Bug", and Others Proves PCs Can Be Art

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  • "Job your jaw"? (Score:4, Funny)

    by GoofyBoy ( 44399 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @10:13AM (#7473802) Journal
    that will job your jaw.

    At least one part of me will be employeed.

  • Still its only another case mod
  • Opening up the hard drive to put a window on it. Now that's one way to guarantee failure!
    • When I read that bit, I just thought 'they won't work, there's no way!'. Sadly, I was right.
      • The guy claims they work perfectly. I've seen other case mods where people have done this, they look pretty funky. I wonder how long before the hard disk manufacturers start selling them with windows built in? (That's windows, not Windows, mind!).
        • They worked perfectly... until a day or two later. If you had read far enough, he says that he eventually found out that nobody had yet successfully windowed a drive with 40GB platters.
          • Yup. Several people HAVE, however, successfully windowed old junker drives. And they still work as well as they can be expected for old drives.
          • the metal casing of the drive helps bleed off the heat thats created by the platters. I imagine trying to window mod a 7200 and greater drive would have to take the heat into account as well.

            At least until scotty comes and tells us how to build transparent aluminum, I don't see anyone getting a modern drive to work with a window for very long.
          • Basically, a hard drive has built in error correction, so small bits of the disk surface can "fail" and the drive can continue operating.

            What probably happened here is that the dust that got into the drives slowly started damaging the platters until enough bits were "damaged" such that the errors were uncorrectable. At that point the drives become doorstops.

            It would be neat if drive manufacturers started selling drives with clear covers; I have actually SEEN such drives used for promotional purposes... I
        • Read on.. he screwed 'em. They worked that first time and then were dead when he went to install them in the box.
    • With older hard drives (10GB and smaller) and a poor-man's cleanroom, a window mod has about a 75% chance of wrecking the hard drive. If you've got access to a real cleanroom, the success rate goes up to almost 100%.

      I haven't heard any reports of people with access to cleanrooms trying to window mod a large-capacity hard drive -- they're still too expensive to risk destroying.

  • Aww Man... (Score:4, Funny)

    by dasdrewid ( 653176 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @10:16AM (#7473842)
    I'm glad I don't have something this nice. I'd feel so bad every time I kicked it across the room.

    At least it'd probably get better distance than normal, what with wings and all.
  • Besides inspiration, the site features practical advice, like why not to link to a site without asking them first. ;-)

  • whoring... (Score:4, Informative)

    by big_groo ( 237634 ) <groovis.gmail@com> on Friday November 14, 2003 @10:20AM (#7473869) Homepage
    gotta love google...

    index [google.ca]here...

    y2k [google.ca] casemod here...

  • Practical Advice? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mod_critical ( 699118 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @10:23AM (#7473894)

    "practical advice, like why not to window mod hard drives."

    I can think of a good reason not to window mod your hard drive, lest one not know what RMA stands for... Besides, why risk lessening the life of a drive by breaking the clean room sealed environment? The link was /.ed before I could peep it but I'm a little disturbed that window modding a hard drive and practical advice are in the same sentence here... I'll stick to modding things without 105 million transistor microchips, things that don't have parts that rotate at over thrice my truck's redline, and things that don't convert 550 watts of power.

    • Oh god I haven't rubbed all the crust out of my eyes yet, If you get rid of the "to" in that sentance I quoted you get to see what I was really replying to ;)

      /me leaves to make an ass of himself elsewhere

    • Well, you could window mod an older hard drive, like around 3 gigs or so. It would be plenty for a home theatre computer or something that just boots off the drive, and pulls the media over the network, and if you screwed it up, you wouldnt feel too bad. Be out what, $30?
      • And what, that VersaPak was only 3.6V, you still regretted shoving your finger in it.

      • Re:Practical Advice? (Score:3, Informative)

        by zakezuke ( 229119 )
        Actually, I was thinking something along the lines of creating a small enclosed enviroment in order to peform such a modification, much in the same way that a sand blasting cabinet needs to be enclosed.

        1. Wash externals with ether, it leaves no residue.
        2. Place drive in enclosure with window and glove access.
        3. Flush out the air remove all particulate mater.
        4. Add air from compressed tanks, perhaps helium as it's a nobel gas.

        I don't know the specifics of a true hard drive cleanroom enviroment, but i'm

        • Re:Practical Advice? (Score:3, Informative)

          by b1t r0t ( 216468 )
          I'd be a bit careful about #1 and #3 there... ether vapors are flammable (right?) and whatever you use to flush out the air better be safe to use with flammable gasses.

          • Re:Practical Advice? (Score:2, Informative)

            by Carnivore ( 103106 )
            actually, ether can be explosive, not just flammable. Ether is stored with some pellets of a stabilising chemical in the bottle, but it can still be unpleasant if treated improperly.

            When I was in college, the chem department found a 20 year old bottle of ether in a storage closet. They decided to call the bomb squad to dispose of it. yikes.

        • Re:Practical Advice? (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Artifakt ( 700173 )
          1. Clear plastic and duct tape around an old air conditioner mounting bracket for a frame. 2. Army chem agent gloves and more duct tape for access. 3. Portable vehicle vacuum cleaner (cheap dust buster) fitted with spare hepa filter from M1 tank NBC system and powered at reduced voltage for slight overpressure on cage. 4. Insert broken drive and all needed tools. Seal. 5. Do technical stuff (including opening case and freeing read arm assembly manually, replacing servo if needed). 6. close case, open plasti

        • Re:Practical Advice? (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Izmunuti ( 461052 )
          There are other things to worry about in addition to how clean things are:

          Electrostatic discharge - magnetoresistive heads are very sensitive to ESD. Those little baggies the site shows the drives being stored in without their covers, didn't look like ESD bags.

          Outgassing/particulates from the modified components. In the article, the guy glued a plastic shell to a hole cut in the aluminium cover and then siloconed in some LEDs. Any or all of that stuff could contaminate the insides.

          Altering the mechani
    • that don't have parts that rotate at over thrice my truck's redline

      You either have very fast drives or a very slow truck.

      If you are using 7200 RPM drives that would mean your truck redlines at 2400 RPM..

    • Re:Practical Advice? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by tap ( 18562 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @11:14AM (#7474301) Homepage
      What's so bad about having a window modded hard drive fail? I'm sure everyone who has done it realizes the reliability has been severely compromised. Hard drives don't cost $500 anymore, with rebates you can get them for less than $50. If your modded drive fails after 6 months, SO WHAT? Just buy another. It's not the end of the world.
      • I guess they looked pretty cool for the 3 days they were functional. I figure it's best not to mess with things that can be utterly destroyed by a piece of dust.

      • What's so bad about having a window modded hard drive fail?

        Well, there is that whole loss of data thing.

        Yes, I know that one should have 15 backups of all their data, stored in seperate climate controlled locations, along with multiple hard drive images. But why do something that is going to have minimal positive effect (who cares what your hard drive looks like?) and is going to cost you time, money, and posibly data?

    • from the article:

      Everything worked fine except the two modded hard drives. They had died completely and would only be recognized randomly by BIOS and the arms just moving back and forward trying to find the start track... I got the system up and running fine using an old 10GB HDD. I have a theory why the drives worked at first right after the mod but not later on. After some surfing around I learned that no modern drive with 40GB platters had been windowed successfully. The high density with the combinat

  • I liked 3 a lot, but I would prefer 52

  • What does a millenium beetle look like... (Score:5, Funny)

    by terraformer ( 617565 ) <tpb@pervici.com> on Friday November 14, 2003 @10:24AM (#7473907) Journal
    From the article:
    Hmm, a millenium bug, how do they look like? Well as always I turned to a trusty friend, Google, and after some time searching I had a nice collection of images on bugs, insects and other nasty stuff. None of which really looked like the one I had a mental picture of though.

    Apparently he picked the Dung beetle to use as his inspiration...

  • Practical advice (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Space cowboy ( 13680 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @10:26AM (#7473916) Journal
    This is the same level of advice as "how to use a toothpick", "How to eat a burger", etc.

    Don't open up a clean-room piece of precision hardware. It's stupid.

    Sheesh.

    Simon

  • Cool case gallery (Score:5, Informative)

    by Nutt ( 106868 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @10:26AM (#7473920)
    The cool case gallery [coolcasegallery.net] is also a good site for impressive cases. To see some sweet ones do a search and just set the rating high. My all time favorite has got to be the Hellraiser case [coolcasegallery.net] that's modeled after the puzzle box from the Hellraiser movies
  • A nice case mod show-off site that I Googled into when looking for information on hobbyist usage of acrylic and other plastics for robot parts:

    http://www.pimprig.com/

    Some of these folks are pretty professional about it, they have some useful tips, and lots of photos.

  • Now that computers are designer items... (Score:5, Funny)

    by swagr ( 244747 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @10:30AM (#7473954) Homepage
    they can be a part of the fashion cycle.
    In 10 years when there's no such thing as an ugly beige case, someone will start selling marked-up ugly beige cases calling them "retro".
    • Wasn't it one of William Gibson's cyberpunk books where a character was running around with a custom laptop, where the case was made with wood, seashells and other all-organic materials? IIRC the maker did a small but good business with those sorts of things.

      Companies like AlienWare are only scratching the surface of what kind of profits "custom hardware" can provide. There must be one or two low-profile shops in New York City or San Francisco that specialize custom jobs on hardware. If not, the first pers
    • Umm. This is Apple's business model.
      They are the Gap of computing.

  • One man's art . . . (Score:4, Interesting)

    by code shady ( 637051 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @10:32AM (#7473967) Homepage

    is another man's waste of time. Frankly, i find case modding to be a waste of time. Oooh, look, i can put neon lights and a clear window in my case, im so l33t. Please. case modders are the computer equivalent of rice boys.

    That said, i think that what this guy does are so far from your average case mod, that the light from case mod will take one million years to reach them.

    This guy is doing what apple does, desigining and fabircating a very very good, premium case that looks effing amazing. Is it "art"? eh, maybe. it certainley looks like sculpture. But i dont think this can be anyway contrued as just a case mod.

    • Re:One man's art . . . (Score:5, Insightful)

      by adamjaskie ( 310474 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @10:45AM (#7474058) Homepage

      I feel the same way. I hate the "cut a window in the side, stick in neons" case mods, especially since EVERYONE is doing it now. It was fine when it was the one kid at the lan party that had the window, now you go to a lan party and its like "Dude! Awesome computer! When are you putting in a window and neons?" "Im not." "Dude, you HAVE to! It would be SO AWESOME!" "uh..."

      These mods are original. Not everyone might like some of them, but at least they are different. I especially like the 1940s radio HTPC case.

      • I find some of the new lights really annoying. Blue LEDS in particular cast a light that is just very bright but thoroughly unpleasant, kinda ghastly.

        If I feel a need to "decorate", i find random and hopefully amusing stickers (not slogans) do a much more interesting job.
      • My latest case is one I picked up at work. They were throwing out an old Compaq dual Pentium Proliant server with SCSI drives. I actually got it working, but decided I wanted the case for my computer. It is a big honkin' steel tower case. I figured it would be good for cooling (lots of room inside) and noise (heavy steel, not flimsy crap or aluminum). I took the SCSI drives out, but can use the drive cages for my IDE drives. When done, it should be a monster case, just shy of 3 ft tall and about 75 lb
    • Respect to the lad for doing something original, but I personally think it is hideously ugly.

    • Re:One man's art . . . (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @11:26AM (#7474388) Homepage
      Oooh, look, i can put neon lights and a clear window in my case, im so l33t. Please. case modders are the computer equivalent of rice boys.

      Yes and No.

      if you slap a cheap ass wing on your car, neon, rollerskate wheels and a 3 inch exaust tip on your car is called customized then yes, it's the same as a poser-riceboy.

      Now if you are the kind that make your own custom case or mod he hell out of one by creating your own front plate, building a vacu-forming jig to make a part or bowed out window, and or building the whole damned case from scratch....

      Those people I am impressed with. they are engineers.

      any moron can go buy things, a real engineer makes things completely on their own, things you CANT buy.

    • Case modding is such a wonderful waste of time though! Do not forget that man who put neon lights in two Sun Fire 15K's. I'm engineering software for a startup company right now and we will also be building servers that ship with our software, and you had better believe that our boxes are gunna be eye shocking. After seening so many racks and racks of crap in so many server rooms, all I know is "I want it to be NEON! and Blink!" =D

    • Re:One man's art . . . (Score:4, Insightful)

      by pmz ( 462998 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @11:47AM (#7474579) Homepage

      Well, it really isn't art, in the "fine art" sense, as it's really design. While design is often taught in the art department, art to design is a lot like math to engineering, IMO.

    • Re:One man's art . . . (Score:3, Interesting)

      by LookSharp ( 3864 )
      case modders are the computer equivalent of rice boys.

      Yeah, except for two minor points:

      1) Case modders don't ride "their $10k car with $8k worth of mods and a ear-splitting fart can" through your neighborhood, wishing that Ricing was a capital offense, and

      2) There is a big difference between "ooh, I put in a light and clear window" and doing a real theme.

      I built someone a custom red "Mustang" PC with a clearcoat paint job, red neon interior, logo decals, and customized OS theme. Everyone who comes o
    • Okay, you brought it up, I have to ask.

      What is your definition of "rice burner" and "rice boy."

      Everyone I ever knew in New England defines a riceburner as a car with lots of stupid additions that do nothing for performance, like a 8 inch exhaust pipe and neon, and rice boys are the people you drive these angry-bumblebee-sounding cars. These are not to be confused with import tuners and their modded imports that could beat a Cobra in a drag race.

      Then I moved to Texas, where "rice" = "Asian" and suddenly
    • Yeah, I look down upon the rice boys who take whatever car their mommy and daddy gave them and put rims on it and go home satisfied too. However, true modders, of cars or computers actually put a great deal of time into their creations, and I have respect for them. My case right now has the lighted fans and stuff, but thats just for fun, and I don't go around bragging how 1337 my case is. IMO, it is shitty, because I didn't put that much time or effort into making it look that way.
  • This site [apple.com] has more example of computers as art.

    Alright, so that's a bit tongue in cheek but there is a point here - mainstream computing doesn't have to be ugly. I'm the owner of a Powerbook 12" and it's pretty sleek. On the PC side, I run a Shuttle small form factor [shuttle.com], so that too looks pretty nice. Even the co-lo server I run looks nice, as it is a Raq4 [google.com].

    It is possible to get decent looking kit and leave the beige boxes behind, without having to go to the lengths presented on that site. It's just a quest

  • Take a look at Orac - best mod I've ever seen (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ajm ( 9538 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @10:54AM (#7474129)
    I'm pointing to the second page as it has the first pictures of the case on it. The quality of the work and the attention to detail is just fantastic. This is custom modding at its finest, not just slapping some lights in a case. http://www.bit-tech.net/article/114/2

  • Processor usage should raise/lower wings (Score:5, Funny)

    by afniv ( 10789 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @10:54AM (#7474134) Homepage
    For idle times, the wings should be low; at full capacity, the wings should be highest. Maybe if you over clock it, the wings flap. :)
  • There can only be one true Y2K Bug (even with many incarnations [cruftbox.com]).
  • Check out BlingMethod [blingmethod.com].
  • Does anybody here see the resemblance of the case mod to one of the calamari-like sentinels from the Matrix triology?

    Now if you really want to impress me, make a case mod out of tiny little computers that comprise somebody's face ;)

    All kidding aside, this is a great mod, which really stands out against the bazillion other case mods which all look the same.
  • Maybe I'm under or oversexed, but those does anybody else notice that the two glowing harddrives look like breasts?

  • RF Interference from case mods? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mesocyclone ( 80188 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @02:33PM (#7475980) Homepage Journal
    I think some of these case mods are really nifty, and I've even ordered my new machine with a few glowing cables and other non-utilitarian visual stuff.

    But there is one concern when people are doing this: RF Interference. Modern computers generate a lot of radio frequency interference. If not properly contained (and any computer sold must meet FCC Part 15 emissions rules), that radiation can cause problems ranging from a nuisance to a hazard.

    It can interfere with your AM radio, your FM radio, your TV, your satellite, MY HAM RADIO, etc. If it has a small amount of power on 121.5MHz, 243 MHz or 406 MHZ it can literally interfere with search and rescure, because the satellites that pick up emergency beacons are very sensitive (as those of us in Civil Air Patrol who track them down can testify - we have found computers interfering with SAR satellites in the past). It can interfere with police radio repeaters ,and imagine the fun you will have when they show up at your door if you are jamming their system! Same if you show up on an operational military frequency!

    So I would suggest that case modders keep all this in mind. The best approach for RFI would be to put the real computer in a conventional case (maybe a shuttle or other little bitty one) and then put the art on the outside.

    In any case, if you find you can't listen to your favorite radio station any more, look around for a neighborhood kid with a case mod!
  • Carbon Fibre in a PC case? WTF? Is it to absorb the impact of a crash? To save weight during acceleration?

  • OS (Score:2)

    by Rupert ( 28001 )
    Does it run ME?
  • Do you think we could interest one of the drive manufacturers in building windowed drives? I'd certainly rather buy a factory-sealed unit then cut up my own. Or perhaps use a raid configuration and mirror each modified drive with a non-modified one?
  • Just a word of caution. If anyone here decides to use carbon fibre in their case mods, keep in mind that it is conductive. Yes, computer cases in general are made of metal, which is conductive as well, but since the carbon is basically a piece of cloth, people forget that it too conducts electricity.
  • This is somewhat off-topic, but it needs sharing. A very large bag of pretzels purchased at Costco (I think it was 6 pounds) had blatant evidence of Y2K buggery on it. The "best if eaten by" date had a three-digit year. Can you guess what it was? 104. heh. I laughed for a while when I saw that one, because it's gone uncorrected for at least four years now.

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