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Clocks really aren't as hard to make as radioshack made them appear back in the 70's see: http://www.electro-labs.com/di...

But the 9v battery was there to keep the time so your alarm would still go off when it was supposed to if mains was disconnected.

Nowadays we just put CR2032's in everything.

No I don't feel he invented anything either but I thought that as soon as I saw the transformer and how it was mounted in the box.
No one is going to bother cutting one of those stupid transformers out of a wall wart.

However the schools reaction was still wrong. Possibly even more wrong because it wasn't even home made just disassembled.

Anyone ever heard of the Mintyboost? Some people (the TSA) think they look scary and they are all home made http://www.natch.net/stuff/TSA...

Oh what fun things I would have made if I had had access to a 3d printer when I was in school.

"I would think RIAA would demand 3D scanner be illegal to own or operate as it is a device designed to circumvent "copy protection" known as "obsolescence.""

Not to mention circumventing Edison's original media lock technology:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/business/yourmoney/11edison.html?pagewanted=2

"An adapter permitted Victor records to be played on an Edison Disc Phonograph, but Edison forbade the sale of an attachment that permitted his records to be played on competitorsâ(TM) machines."

Of course if you wanted to rip his competitor's discs, you'd probably be violating their EULA - the language doesn't seem to have changed much in a century:

http://www.natch.net/stuff/78_license/

'Back when Edison was offering music on wax cylinders you could buy, I avoided going with George Westinghouse scheme to stream music. I wanted to own it! but now I can't find a player for them.'

Should have gone with Victor Talking Machine media - you can still find drives for those. The EULA is a bit restrictive, though:

http://www.natch.net/stuff/78_license/

Not really. The music industry has pretty much tested, since its very inception, the outer bounds of what the legal system would allow.

The whole idea of "licensing" or "leasing" music rather than selling it isn't a new one. The Victrola Company attempted all sorts of shenanigans with its records, including invalidating your right to play the record if you bought it for less than $1 (that's from 1906!). They attempted to back this up not only with contract law, but with patents as well. Their attempts at price-fixing via this method, both on records but even more significantly on machines, went all the way to the Supreme Court ("STRAUS v. VICTOR TALKING MACH. CO. , 243 U.S. 490").

So this is really nothing new at all. It's just the music industry playing screw-the-consumer in the same manner they have always done.

This is just a continuation of their previous ban on D cell batteries. Some guy had to give up his batteries before he could get on a flight.

Maxtor drives, eh?

http://www.natch.net/stuff/maxtor_turboing