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Hardware Hacking

Five Custom Gadgets You Can't Buy 118

Posted by CmdrTaco from the because-you-can dept.
photojournaliste noted a little story running over on Forbes which kinda looks like their editors read Slashdot. Their Five Gadgets You Can't Buy include a few things you might have seen here, as well as some new custom hardware hacks. If you didn't get it for christmas, maybe one of these will inspire you to build it yourself.
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Five Custom Gadgets You Can't Buy More

Five Custom Gadgets You Can't Buy

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  • was the Millineum Falcon 'puter. Now that was cool. The others were a streth to be even interesting.
  • www.hackaday.com www.mini-itx.com
  • ..but you can build them for not that much of money.

    actually, if you want to buy them, i'll sell them to you for 2000e a piece.

  • How about... (Score:3, Funny)

    by elid ( 672471 ) <eli DOT ipod AT gmail DOT com> on Sunday December 26, 2004 @09:22AM (#11184618)
    ...a Phantom console? :-)

  • Worst Story Ever. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SlamMan ( 221834 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @09:24AM (#11184622)
    This is seriously one of the dumbest lists I ever seen. The first one you can actually buy, Belkin makes it. The second is a drink cooler, which you can get a device that does that same thing for 8 bucks. The third one (lego person inside of a mouse) is at least original.

    The controlled etcha-a-sketch is actually cool.

    And then followed by a mini-itx pc someone shoved into the body of an old Millennium Falcon toy.

    So over all we've got 1 cool one, 2 ugly ones, 1 creative but useless one, and one that just shouldn't be in the list because you can buy a good version of it.

    • Re:Worst Story Ever. (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Actually, I would say it's a dumb story because:

      It's a story on Slashdot, linking to a story on Forbes, which is essentially a story from Slashdot, which SLashdot originally got from somewhere else in the original Slashdot story itself. And on top of it all, the article self-references this third-party referencing of self-referenced slashdot referenced material.

      Retarded.

    • Anyone get the sense of outright pandering here? Either this is 'hardware hacking lite' for your grandmother, or a really pathetic attempt to woo the /. type crowd into the folds of Forbes.

      Granny: What'ca doin' there young man?

      Me: I'm modding out my Sega Genesis with switches for Region, NTSC/PAL and overclocking the CPU!

      Granny: Oh, you're putting a little man inside it..

      Me: Um.. I love you granny!

    • Well, if they were any good, you could buy them.

      Here's somthing I'd add;

      Bacteriophages. Try getting a hold of some. yup.

    • Even better: The article claims 10 gadgets, there's only 5. And the frozen dude mouse is actually the mouse for the Falcon case mod. I don't know why you think that's more useless than a mouse controlled etch-a-sketch :P
    • And they get a whole lotta ad hits. Looks like SOMEONE got something out of this list.

    • Not.

      This was a great story about innovation. He are 5 projects where some bright folks got off their butts and solved different problems in order to improve an everyday item.

      Sure, Belkin makes an external battery for an iPod. But it's not in an Altoids tin. That's cool.

      And just about everybody who uses a computer uses a mouse at some point; and here this dude puts a little cyrogenic spin on it. Hey, does anyone know where I can find a Lego sized Bill Gates?
      • I'm sorry battery mods have been around, probably as long as batteries.

        I've got a camera that requires a $10 non-rechargeable battery, or 2 standards AA batteries taped together and a bit of wire to connect up the contacts.

        I remember wiring up transformers to various electronic devices instead of using/buying batteries, 15 years ago.
      • ...Sure, Belkin makes an external battery for an iPod. But it's not in an Altoids tin....
        It would have been cooler if they used a Dilbert mints tin. You know? Invest-mints, Harrass-mints, Empower-mints, Manage-mints, Accomplish-mints, Improve-mints, and Postpone-mints.
    • Here here!

      WTF?

      Honestly, I'm still looking for TFA in that link, because all I see are advertisements for Amazon, Walmart and the...uhh...Ohio Art...Company? (Which one of things just doesn't belong? Which one of these things is not like the other?)...not to mention the 16 sq. inch Reuters add occupying more than its share of my browser realestate.

      Check out the market price for OART (ignoring the 500 script errors) I wish I could buy about 12 billion shares at the price, then cash in at $0.01...

      Mayb
    • This is seriously one of the dumbest lists I ever seen.

      It is from Forbes. Shouldn't that tell you enough? This is the publication that, even as of August 2004, thinks that SCO has such a wonderful case. That alone should tell you something about Forbes credibility.
    • The third one (lego person inside of a mouse) is at least original.

      I'm pretty sure I've seen a fish floating in a miniature tank on the back end of a mouse for sale.
    • The lego person cryogenically frozen inside a mouse was on Slashdot a couple years ago. I even suggested that the thing to do would be put a Facehugger alien on the side, climbing in through the glass.

  • I thought... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Jeff DeMaagd ( 2015 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @09:26AM (#11184632) Homepage Journal
    I thought there was already an iPod external battery pack for sale by someone. A google search shows one for sale by Bilk'n, er, Belkin.

    The article seemed short, I only counted three gadgets, with it being page 1 of 1.

    • Re:I thought... (Score:3, Informative)

      by Xeo 024 ( 755161 )
      I thought there was already an iPod external battery pack for sale by someone. A google search shows one for sale by Bilk'n, er, Belkin.

      You're right, people have been selling external battery packs for awhile now. But this article seems to be talking about a home-made one called the "Altoids iPod Battery". Why anyone would want to buy this battery pack is beyond me, it looks absolutely horrendous and you can buy a much better looking and capable one from various different vendors.

      If you click on "Click H

      • This external power source for iPod music players uses three nine-volt batteries to provide up to ten hours of play time.

        9v batteries? Talk about stupid. They're expensive, and hold very little energy for their size [solarbotics.net]. A bank of AAA or AA batteries (rechargable, of course), or some Li-Poly cells (which hold even more energy, but would require some electronics to prevent discharge below 3v/cell, and would complicate charging) would be much smarter.

        Also, judging from the picture, it looks like two 9

      • You're right, people have been selling external battery packs for awhile now. But this article seems to be talking about a home-made one called the "Altoids iPod Battery"

        One of your batteries cost $40.00. That seems fair. But for $3.00 each or so you can one time use batteries. I could see that being useful for when you are planning to be away from power sources yet want music. And you can replace the cells when they stop holding a charge unlike many battery packs on the market today.

        For example... I

  • Next week, 10 things you cant buy, ever! (Score:5, Funny)

    by ActionJesus ( 803475 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @09:31AM (#11184643)
    1: Jupiter
    2: My toe-nail clippings
    3: Profit!
    4: A profound sense of well being.

    My (not very good point) is that just because you cant buy them, doesnt necessarily mean youd WANT to buy them.
  • Good idea to have an article on custom gadgets. PC mods can be found everywhere, however.
    Batteries for those small devices should be more of a concern these days as they *do* eat through them like mad. When it comes down to it, all you need are some cells and some resistors to regulate the power, but it'd be nice if someone started a little how-to section for each individual device.
    The cryogenic mouse is neat.. not extremely practical I'm afraid. I'm sure someone will start making them commercially now tha
    • "Anti-gravitational engines, that sort of thing"

      Simply buy some weather balloons, helium, and a lawnchair...

      Make sure to wear a parachute to improve your chances of living to see the pokey they'll put you into for endangering air traffic.

  • Sure you can't buy? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rgarcia ( 319304 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @09:40AM (#11184665)
    You probably could buy any of these. Like with everything, it's only a matter of price.

  • Ipod battery (Score:3, Funny)

    by NetDudeFL ( 10362 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @09:41AM (#11184670)
    Looks like something MacGyver would come up with. Just try to get it through a TSA screener!

  • None of these are wanted gadgets (Score:5, Insightful)

    by xot ( 663131 ) <fragiledeath@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Sunday December 26, 2004 @09:45AM (#11184679) Journal
    ...Most of these gadgets are really quite useless.I would'nt pay anything exhorbitant to get any of these.There are quite a few mods/hacks in the slashdot archives which are a gazillion times better than these.
  • The slide show is an interesting way to force viewing of ads, and the new cookie set every other screen is a good profit generator, but why are there no controls to go back and forth? To insure a minimum view time for ads? Or were there control but the UI so bad that I could not find them.

    I am not anti-advertising. Just interested in the compromises that are made to sell product.

  • Where's Wally (Score:2, Insightful)

    by TapeCutter ( 624760 )
    It is like playing "where's wally" except your looking for the TFA hidden in the ads.

    • It is like playing "where's wally"

      You've never actually seen "Where's Waldo?", have you?

      • Actually I have bought Waldo books, maybe you haven't heard of Wally. The name depends on what country you live in and when you bought the book(s). I don't know if it is like the street names on the monolpoly board or if Waldo/Wally is a rip-off. I bought some "Where's Wally" books for my kids in Australia about 15yrs ago and he looked just like Waldo's twin brother. There was also a wizard, cane, dog, hat, etc to find after you had found Wally. If you are interested in fairness in naming rights, google "Ug

  • Apple: Where is your Tablet? (Score:3, Informative)

    by WillAdams ( 45638 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @10:16AM (#11184772) Homepage
    Instead of a new Mac, I picked up a copy of Phatware's PenOffice, to make my Fujitsu Stylistic even more useful (PenOffice works w/ a wider variety of apps than Windows Pen Services, doesn't lock up like CIC PenX does on my machine after ~15 minutes use, and has a nifty annotation feature for Word .docs) --- unfortunately the only pen computing solutions Apple offers are Macs w/ Wacom graphic tablets (I mislike working on one surface and watching what happens on another, and gave up on schlepping a graphics tablet and a laptop around when I got my NCR-3125) or a PowerMac w/ a Wacom Cintiq --- that last is a pretty cool (albeit expensive) solution, but it's uncommon enough not much software specifically takes advantage of it (Alias' Sketchbook was ported to Mac OS X after many requests). Contrast this w/ the situation for Windows Tablet PCs and look at http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html &c.

    Think of it as an extension to the iPod line --- the iPod lets one carry all of one's music (as a backup too) and modify the order it plays in --- the iPod Photo adds all of one's images to that --- how about a further upscale unit to allow one to carry all of one's documents?

    Even if it did nothing but display a .pdf version (why aren't .pdfs as document previews in bundles a standard for apps these days?) and allowed one to do basic annotation and mark up it'd still be fabulously useful (can you say ebooks? importing annotations from Acrobat and applying them as revisions in Word?)

    Being able to run Mac applications in situations where a laptop is inappropriate / inconvenient (meetings, interviews, while walking about), and having the (portable!) equivalent to a Wacom Cintiq (look at the program Maxivista for an example of how this could work) is just icing on the cake.

    And of course, it'd be nice to replace my Newton which I still use for contact management, note-taking and reading some ebooks.

    William
    (whose Stylistic has music, hundreds of ebooks, a complete graphic design portfolio _and_ all the tools necessary to update and work on said portfolio --- see http://members.aol.com/willadams/portfolio.html --- including a copy of TeX, LyX &c.)

  • Here's a link to the only cool thing there [cornell.edu].

    Why didn't Forbes just shit on my face instead of paying somebody to make that website? For more efficient in causing me misery.


  • Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday December 26, @09:12AM
    from the because-you-can dept.
    photojournaliste noted a little story running over on Forbes which kinda looks like their editors read Slashdot. Their Five Gadgets You Can't Buy include a few things you might have seen here, as well as some new custom hardware hacks. If you didn't get it for christmas, maybe one of these will inspire you to build it yourself.

    Flattery - when orginality isn't enough.
  • Wow! Nice cars! I really can't afford them but Mercedes are nice to look at. What do you mean "look on the left side?". Oh! the article was referrring to the left side corner, not the prominent product advertisement from Mercedes?! If you mean this crappy hardware made by some kids, forget it then...
  • The following caught my eye as I read the Forbes article:
    The article refers to the iPod external battery pack as being powered by "three nine-volt batteries"; however, the photograph clearly shows two nine-volt batteries and two AA batteries in a holder. I'm surprised such a well-known publication would make such a flagrant error...
  • I've been searching for a 'MP3 player format' SIDchip which is able to play SIDs to live out. Anyone know if such a thing exists? Optionally or besides this, it would be nice if other modules are also supported such as XM / S3M / IT however a bunch of SIDs on a flash ROM together with a SIDchip is both smaller, more of a unique hack, and better quality as well ;).
  • When posting a link to www.forbes.com articles, please note that you have to have cookies (or is it ActiveX and cookies) enabled in order to read it. All I get when I follow the posted link is an infinite loop of "skip this welcome screen", and then when I click on that, a page that redirects right back to the welcome screen (which really just shows an empty box, since I have ActiveX disabled).
  • For Christmas, I made my girlfriend a tissue box amplifier for in her car. It was a quick and artistic solution for her no-stereo problem, and could be plugged right into her brand new MP3 player.
  • I read about the iPod battery, and I must say I thought it was clever. I was impressed.

    That is, I was impressed when I read the article about it almost a year ago, before battery packs were availible for sale commercially.

  • The Electr-sketch reminded me of that movie Elf where he drew the mona lisa and stuff. I wonder if you could really draw like that. I guess the line has to be connected from beginning to end so its probably not possible.
  • "Cool" maybe... but hardly functional. Most of that stuff had been on Slashdot already. Maybe I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up.
  • ...was truly geek classic. It was kludgy, dumb, clunky, obviously home-made, and a Rube Goldberg work of art! Out of all of them it was the only one that made a "statement" to me, although the prisoner-in-the-mouse was pretty good.

    As for the rest....no cigar.

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