This week's topic for my Free for All Friday is really a compilation of a bunch of tech links I've wanted to talk about for a while. They're all either hacks, modifications, or genuine improvements on existing everyday items. Truly, that's what drives innovation: looking at an item we use commonly and thinking "Wouldn't it be better if I did X with that?"
First up is one close to my heart. It's an external hard drive enclosure made out of a first generation Gameboy! I still have my old Gameboy in a box in the closet and every so often I'll pull it out, put in fresh batteries, and play
Excitebike for a while (or Tetris)! The original post via
BoingBoing is a little difficult to read because it's in French, but what really makes this hack stand out is the fact that the original power light comes on and the screen displays a custom start screen (in this case, Super Hard Drive) that looks like an original Gameboy game would have back in the day! Kudos to detail!
Next up is a very neat improvement on that stick blind people use to get around (or at least not crash into things). It's the basic red and white blind stick we're all used to seeing, but designer
Wonjune Song has developed an Eye Stick for the blind. It has a small lens embedded in the lower portion of the stick that can sense objects and changes in elevation (like stair, for example) and then send a vibration into the handle that tells the operator what to expect next. The article doesn't indicate if different vibrations are used for different alerts, but it would stand to reason that that's the case.
Lastly, artist
Kevin Cyr is building a pop-up camper fixture atop a regular old shopping cart. It's a fascinating little piece of work, this one! I can see it becoming very popular amongst the homeless. Now, I understand this is meant to be art, but Kevin is also building it to be fully functional. So, working on that premise, you'll totally be able to climb inside for a lie down! Mind you, having spent a childhood of either riding in or pushing someone in a shopping cart, I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be putting my bulky frame inside one of these and not having it flip over the first time I toss and turn in my sleep. Regardless, it's going to be a neat piece and I'm sure when the
apocalypse rolls around, we'll all be pushing our carts around nomadically camping out in leftover parks and campgrounds!
First up is one close to my heart. It's an external hard drive enclosure made out of a first generation Gameboy! I still have my old Gameboy in a box in the closet and every so often I'll pull it out, put in fresh batteries, and play Excitebike for a while (or Tetris)! The original post via BoingBoing is a little difficult to read because it's in French, but what really makes this hack stand out is the fact that the original power light comes on and the screen displays a custom start screen (in this case, Super Hard Drive) that looks like an original Gameboy game would have back in the day! Kudos to detail!
Next up is a very neat improvement on that stick blind people use to get around (or at least not crash into things). It's the basic red and white blind stick we're all used to seeing, but designer Wonjune Song has developed an Eye Stick for the blind. It has a small lens embedded in the lower portion of the stick that can sense objects and changes in elevation (like stair, for example) and then send a vibration into the handle that tells the operator what to expect next. The article doesn't indicate if different vibrations are used for different alerts, but it would stand to reason that that's the case.
Lastly, artist Kevin Cyr is building a pop-up camper fixture atop a regular old shopping cart. It's a fascinating little piece of work, this one! I can see it becoming very popular amongst the homeless. Now, I understand this is meant to be art, but Kevin is also building it to be fully functional. So, working on that premise, you'll totally be able to climb inside for a lie down! Mind you, having spent a childhood of either riding in or pushing someone in a shopping cart, I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be putting my bulky frame inside one of these and not having it flip over the first time I toss and turn in my sleep. Regardless, it's going to be a neat piece and I'm sure when the apocalypse rolls around, we'll all be pushing our carts around nomadically camping out in leftover parks and campgrounds!
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