Slashdot Mirror
The Teddy Borg is Alive!
probabilistic writes: "Check out what bored MIT students are up to -- a few of my friends, in their never-ending quest for network connectivity and female companionship, created the Teddy Borg. It might look like an innocent teddy bear, but behind the soft exterior lurks a GigaFast 5-port 10/100 ethernet switch."
What's the point of this? Maybe networking a bunch of animals together? Or the proverbial Beowulf cluster of stuffed animals?
"A group of words expressing something other than their literal intention. Now that... is... irony!" - Bender
Oh, well. If it was done at MIT it must have been impressive. As a non MIT graduate I would find it impossible to put some electronics inside something else.
Actually I'm going to start a new project: given raw materials of a computer and a box, I will put the computer inside the box. Clever eh?
Actually no. It'll never be interesting because I'm not at MIT.
I bet you could sell these things like hotcakes for LAN parties. Seriously.
...Steve
I'm sorry, but that's kind of ... impossible.
The Raven
The Raven
~~~
I must get one of these for the office.
I'm sure there could be a million inventive ways to hide our mundane technology into things that are more decorative.
How about hiding a switch inside a picture frame... or even better a wireless switch...
Computers like any other technology component ultimately should be invisible or at the very least appealing to home users.
I have a feeling that this bear, like many other "whim" ideas may be the beginning of something much better.... A step in the "refinement" of home computing.
Some girls just don't have a sense of humor.
She likes it because its cute.
You like it because its a Giga switch
...I think it's cute. =P
I have to agree...just what was the point?
Bored indeed.
I to wondered what the heck "Teddy Borg" is for....
Then I saw the poll at the end.
Desirable to geek chicks.....
Guess this is why I'd never get into MIT. These guys KNOW how to get laid!
I think the project could have been helped a lot by using an actual Borg Teddy Bear.
--Metrollica
"Bother," said the Borg. "We've assimilated Pooh."
Let's see them put a network switch inside a *real* bear. Then I'll be impressed.
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
Yeah, the next step is to extrapolate and sell this great idea to Microsoft so that they can install the .NET platform on teddy bears and other kinds of toys. Resistance is futile.
Engage!
The Money Shot!
mySig
...is because MIT/IS does not allow switches on the network. All you are allowed to do is plug cat5 directly into a port. If you need more ports, you gotta tell IS to give you more. This incredibly public advertising is a good way for the admins to take away your connectivity :)
I dont have a
i submitted a story last week about IBM embedding strong cryptographic chips in their computers and it was rejected.
instead we have MIT boneheads embedding a switch in a bear.
to get a story posted to slashdot. I always wondered how to get my articles actually up there. NExt time I have a story, I will shove it into a stuffed animal and prepare my servers for slashdotting.
Gimme a break already.
comment directly in my journal
This doesn't sound like much.
Now, if you put a Wi-Fi hub in the teddy, that would be something.
For extra credit, make it so that your girlfriend likes it and keeps it in the bedroom, so that you can surf the web conveniently behind her back..
replaced one of their Lab ethernet switches with this without the knowledge of the staff, THEN this would have been worthy of an MIT hack. Otherwise its just some guys with too much spare time. ;-)...
;-)...
Not that I do anything useful with my spare time
All bow to his Noodliness!! His Noodle Appendage has touched me!
Let's hope the thing doesn't overheat....
crispy.
"Ford," he said, "you're turning into a penguin. Stop it."
I expected to see some modifications to a Teddy Ruxpin. Remember those? robotic teddy bears that reacted to the TV show the kids were watching.
how about turning a furby into an IR hub?
just shoving computer parts into a different "chasis" in this case a stuffed animal, is not new.
C'mon people now.
comment directly in my journal
The page you were looking for has apparently been eaten.
Sorry. I was hungry.
It been slashdotted already?
Ok, slim material, but I did like seeing the status LEDs in the eyes.
I dunno, maybe it's just me but I woulda used red for the bear's eyes
And as far as his "vain hope of attracting women" goes, well, dude thay're the vainest! (ie don't cross your fingers, and wait for the phone to ring)
:)
You obviously don't have a dachshund. They have this need to rip teddy bear apart. The dog toys that make sounds (Santa said "Ho ho ho" for instance) don't last long. The longest working dog toy is at 2 toys after purchase.
I would put this bear anywhere near a small dog unless you want your network to go down fast.
Hmm, maybe a linksys firewall inside a stuffed animal? I smell marketing for other products ...
It has a Matrix reference too. :)
;)
Hmm, I think I need an Ant Farm with geeky cables, LEDs, etc.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Judging by people's posts thus far, most just don't get it. What's the point to this--it's just a switch in a teddy bear? Heck--I could do this on my own. It's not that interesting. Oh wait, since it was students at MIT, it must be really neat.
Frankly, I doubt most people here could ever get it. This teddy bear is so cool only because it makes a much nicer UI than a cheezy box with a few blinken lights and ports. It's soft and fuzzy. It's not beige and scary. If I had a daughter, I'd love the idea of giving her a laptop and a switch like this. All of a sudden, the idea of a "sleepover computer party" wouldn't be so gosh darn nerdy. They could stay up all night playing with Virtual Barbie or whatever is the software of the year.
Plus, what's so special about these MIT guys is that they have documented the heck out of this little endeavour. I'd gladly hire one of these guys to work with me. Sure, it's not the best idea every conceived--but at least it's documented. I could now go and reproduce their efforts without much thought.
In all, it seems rather impressive to me. It's a neat new UI that's not typical. It's documented to all heck. That beats half of everything I've ever done.
Long, cute, or funny Sigs are just another form of over compensation, used by geeks, nerdz, etc.
Would there be any problem with this thing getting too warm? It seems like stuffing any piece of hardware inside of something like a bear would make it heat up a lot.
We all know this is just MIT's devious plan to begin marketing computers to elemetary-aged girls. :)
As a maths undergrad at Imperial College London, I always thought those students lurking in the darker areas of the building known as the Department of Computing were pretty hardcore geeks.
...
How neive of me to think that their counterparts across the pond couldn't stoop to even lower levels
Also since this thing is sick and evil anyway, they really should've gone the whole hog and used red LEDs in the eyes for that evil Terminator effect.
--
From Phil
... And half of /. readers would never leave their house.
Not meaning to be rude, but you do realize that your data is not stored in a switch, and that of all active equipment, the switch or hub is the least relevant as far as data storage goes.
Once they raid your house, confiscate your computer and grab whatever media you have hanging around, you can do exactly one thing with your bear-concealed switch: fuck it.
Sigged!
Put one of those wireless netcams in it. Give it to the hot chick down the hall, Instant Free DormPorn. Of course this is very illegal and I am not responsible for the beating you will recieve from her boyfriend and subsequent jail time if you get caught.
"Our products just aren't engineered for security,"
-Brian Valentine,VP in charge of MS Windows Development
We tried to deploy it but it kept eating our RFC1149 packets.
--hickmott
Does your teddy bear have ethernet cabling sticking out of severl appendages as well as a power supply? Then yes, they probably would.
"Awwww, what a cute teddy bear! His eye's even light up!" (reaches out and grabs bear, ripping out cables in the process)
"Nooooooooooooooooo! Not my game of Quake!"
"I don't trust goats," --To Catch a Spy
Sorry...I couldn't resist... ;-)
"It take 9 months to bear a child, no matter how many women you assign to the job."
Yeah. I stopped reading right there. I don't want to know how to access the bear's ports, thank you very much!
This sig is a virus, take it and use it.
LinuxWorx
Spelling errors are intentional as are gramatical error
How about you get an old Teddy Ruxpin and make it into a router. You would input the route tables by developing a custom inteface to his screen reading technology.
Either that or stick a few firecrackers in his head and measure how far away his bits were blown.
Live web cams
They forgot an option on their poll.
Fire hazzard.
I was forced to vote evil in the absence of a fire hazzard option.
A little work on its "speech" curcuit and "Network down, waaaaa!"
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Can we all pitch in to subscribe Anonymous Coward to Slashdot? I think it'd solve all our problems.
-
I'm surprised nobody has posted this yet.
The ping in the last picture on the Teddy Borg has the IP 18.238.3.106 listed. I can ping it from here.
oh come on, a little fun once in a while doesn't hurt.....
or are you so Above the rest of us that you are afraid of being brought down to our level by a little amusement? *raises a brow with a grin*
That's why I'm not gonna subscribe to slashdot.
In addition to insulating the switch and causing severe potential problems for it down the road, this project is about as documented as a grade 6 student's project on ANIMALS.
This is modded up as interesting, but it's supposed to be Funny, because this guy is FUCKING KIDDING.
that an MIT student would pick a teddy bear over a hobbit/R2D2 doll.
"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well."
a DoS attack on a Teddy Bear?
"If you are on fire you can just stop, drop, and roll. If you fall into Lava you are just dead." - my 5yr old daughter
where exactly do you plug things into this bear?
0xC3
An i thought that I didn't have enough to do on weekends....
Mac tried the computer inside the lamp. Not willing to allow mac to claim the world's most pointless computer design, they created the switch inside the teddy bear.
Response to sig: maybe you should change your sig once in a while or talk about "how you have a personal hatred of linux how you think open-source is a doomed community, how you prefer MS-Paint to the GIMP, and how you think Slashdot looks lamer than an Angelfire page, that hasnt been reworked in Perl so as to remove the goddamn adverts." Yes, i actually did that.
0xC3
oh oh, me next, I never have a switch with me when I need it . . .
...the bear is evil?
First a Teddy Bear switch. What's next, a potpourri heat-sink for your CPU, perhaps?
Smell the over-clocked goodness.
Some people have a way with words, and some people, um, thingy.
its storys like that, that will make me a paying subscriber. very cute
thanx =)
The More Knowledge you have the Luckier you Get- J.R. Ewing
No Linux in the story?
Twaddle!
I think that screen shown when pinging
through the bear is probably showing Linux.
someone takes a knife, slits open a bear, stuffs a switch in it and it's news...
and people are impressed because the letters MIT are mentioned. Good grief..
Any moron can do this.. there is nothing smart, clever, or special about this.
How about my 10/100 switch inside my Ovation celeberity Guitar? or a 10/100 switch inside my toaster oven, toolbox, couch cusion (networked couch!) la-z-boy, VCR (I have a 5 port switch that will fit in the slot!) BOOK! I can hollow out a book!
Please... look to see if they actually did something impressive instead of going posting just because it said MIT on the page.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Man, they need to make this a surgical procedure that can be done to humans. Wouldn't it be trippy to have data from 5 computers flowing in and out of your brain?
-Evan
Check out the furbeowulf cluster -- similar except it uses fibre instead of cat5.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
I was curious which box he was pinging, and did a whois database search... It's at MIT alright, but what was more amazing was that it owns all 18.x.x.x IPs -- quite a large block!!
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (NET-MIT-TEMP)
1 Amherst Street
Cambridge, MA 02139-1986
US
Netname: MIT
Netblock: 18.0.0.0 - 18.255.255.255
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
I don't think this story was posted because people thought it was something impressive. It was posted because people thought it was something funny and original, not every story posted has to be an earth-shattering breakthrough so stop complaining about it. And the fact that its from MIT has very little to do with it I imagine, its just a funny story that Timothy thought we might enjoy.
/* Of course I'm real, but can you prove it? */
Here's a pick up line that actually seems to work on the hunny's (pun intended). So when you're feeling ballsy enough to and "Wanna come back to my place and see my Linux box?" isn't working, give it a try:
"If I was a Pooh bear would you let me lick your hunny pot?"
No sig for you!!
A quick check shows that IP is running Windoze.
Screw Micro$oft.
Besides the heat issue, I think this is a really cool idea, but I would have tried to be more decorative about the whole "Borg" thing, like looping lots of unused wires in and out of the "skin", especially around the head. Maybe mount a laser-pointer (or a CueCat?!) in front of one of the eyes.
Or, maybe I'm getting carried away.
This is incredible! What next, a fully functional Lego brick?!? Now THAT would be the highpoint of technological journalism!
But, instead, I got a job smuggling. Ahh, the choices. And, I should have gone to Harvard and met King Bill....no regrets.
About the bear and the prestige of MIT, don't be so hard on the story, posters. It "bears" some cleverness, but I could add that it does not "bear repeating".
Did I really say that?
db
Cig:
ôô
If not, then all you have to do is find a taxidermist...
"It take 9 months to bear a child, no matter how many women you assign to the job."
I'll have to give it a try again a bit later once things settle down.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
If they wanted female companionship they should have used a Real Doll instead of a dumb old bear.
I see many misdirected e-mails in my future.
I wouldn't mind a Domo Kun stuffed animal switch. You could have some sort of LCD readout in his mouth, or have him emit steam from his butt due to excessive packet collision.
They already have a flapping-arm Domo Kun that flaps its arms if you run an IR remote control to it.
Image is here.
--lithboy
I am a geek chick and this totally attracts me :)
---
I support spreading santorum
Warning! Spoilage!
I remember watching Ghostbusters the movie, and at the end of the movie, there was one part where no one was supposed to think of a thing, because that one thing was the damnation of all of the world.
I, then known as Venkman (I still cannot spell my own name) could only think of one thing, a Cybertronic Teddy Bear the size of the Statue of Liberty... Controlled remotely by a cat 3 super fast ethernet connection. What finally demised that bear was the coaxial cable it was connected to, the person with the remote connection just couldn't keep the coax straight. I was the one who caused the coax to crumble, so to speak.
His offspring survived, and after life altering open-stuffing surgery, recieved a different set of commands, and this fast ethernet switch that was so advanced, only evil doctors and the students of MIT recieved it.
Now this bear hunts me. And it seems that slashdot is following it's exploits now. I wouldn't be surprised if by next week, it were me with the fast ethernet switch in my backside, and not this bear....
Really, when it comes down to it, stuffed animals are cute and fun...but they are not very useful. I have more than enough stuffed animals that just gather dust. A really thoughtful and useful birthday or Valentine's day present would be a bear with an ethernet switch inside of it, especially considering the time put into it.
Just a thought...
"I don't want the world. I just want your half" ~TMBG
do things like this than making a gauss cannon inside a teddy bear.
""
Look ma my bear is sick.......
THUNK
Mom why are you lying down?""
-THIS SPACE FOR RENT!
It's good to know that stories like these get published, while entirely irrelevent subjects are rejected in record time by our watchful editors. I mean, just take these two for example:
- MS Paints Bulls-Eye On AOL. Certainly of no import to the technically oriented. Little squabbles over who's going to control internet access for millions isn't much of a news item.
- Stupid White Men Debuts At Number 3 On New York Times Best-Seller List. Everyone knows the average geek can't stand to read more than five minutes of political commentary, especially if it has nothing to do with Linux. Little things like investigating the shenanigans surrounding the 2000 presidential elections aren't at all interesting - in fact, they're downright unpatriotic! Besides, most techies are white and we wouldn't want to offend their touchy egos.
Yes, the more I read slashdot the more I'm convinced that our editors do a wonderful job of culling out all those 'unimportant' stories so that we don't have to exercise our brains and do the culling for them. Especially when it's so much more critical to know about the latest kernel release, or the newest toy.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
Where's the embedded webcam for girl snooping? I think (based on /. article summary) that this teddy is supposed to be in the room full of girls providing network connectivity for them (as official service) and pictures of girls in the room for those interested (as "unofficial" service).
:)
hany
What the fuck is gay about it?
I guess now you would also claim that Tux is gay too because he's too cuddly?
Get over your homofobia, or atleast keep it to yourself.
And no, I'm not gay either.
Well.. even better.. instead of stuffing network switches into a teddy bear, why not stuff a cable modem / adsl modem into one? I guess those would sell more popularly, and I would definately have a Tux penguin sat on top of my PC knowing that it actually served a purpose :)
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
Haha, this is cool!,
:)
How long until they start selling these on thinkgeek? I think there could be a whole line of functional stuffed animals,
I want a stuffed penguin firewire harddrive..
I wonder how long it will take before one boored to death geek will make a true teddyborg(p4, webcam for eye, wlan, linux, and a little sound chip connected to a speaker saying "resistance is futile, you will be assimilated" whenever you get spam.
- "There is nothing quite like an ineffective solution to an nonexistant problem"
My girlfriend built herself her own computer, but the smell of the chemical cleaners used on the case were really strong, so she hung an air freshner inside the case. It worked.
Great minds think alike... that was the *first* thing I thought when I saw the pics. To be fair, stuffed animals are required by law to be (to a certain extent) fire-resistant. Nevertheless, I wouldn't have the thing in my house. For the record, I voted for "sick" and "cool". Cool because, fire hazard or no, it's cool. Sick because the cables come out of its paws.
Freedom: "I won't!"
...news for nerds, stuff that matters.
I think we got confused along the way.
proton != antielectron
The paws are probably the least sick place the cables could have come out of. Imagine them coming out anywhere else, the farther you get from the paws the sicker it gets.
What is WRONG with these people?
They go through all the work of gutting a cute 'n' cuddly teddy bear, stuff it full of network electronics, and don't even put a webcam in the eyes?
Now that would be an evil idea. "I want you to make sure you put this bear on your dresser so you can see it every night when you've crawled into bed." And so it can see YOU, young lady! Heh heh hehhhhh.....
Sorry. I'll go get some coffee now.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
I much rather look at a cute bear with wires all over than a Drab metal box. VERY desireble to Geek chicks! This inspires me to make one...Made out of Legos. (it's worth a shot!)
Amazing, but I need more ports. Where can I get a stuffed octopus?
I just got a gigabit switch in a rather unique case. It's called a cardboard box!
When is this case mod nonsense going to stop? I would think that Slashdot would be the last place where people embrace the sizzle and not the steak. Who cares what it looks like, what's under the damn hood?
Carpe Deez
So THATS what I felt last night. Could have sworn someone shoved a network switch up my ass... but everyone thought I was crazy... until I linked their computers together.
Humor note: see "Name" above.