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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'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 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!
Yah. I was thinking I could do the same thing with a wireless hub and a stuffed bunny (anntenne in the ears).
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
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.
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)
:)
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.
We all know this is just MIT's devious plan to begin marketing computers to elemetary-aged girls. :)
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
"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!
Imagine how many hits you'd get if you turned your stuffed animal into a webserver... brings new meaning to "server farm"...
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.
This story has all the right elements to appear on the front page. It mentions:
College students (and lots of bonus points for being MIT students)
Star Trek
"female companionship"
The challenges of geekhood
Network connectivity
Taking things apart and modifying them, not necessarily for a useful purpose.
Toys
Of course, I don't know how it got through without even mentioning Linux or Anime. Maybe Slashdot needs to work on its story filter.
Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.
if i were gonna give my girlfriend a stuffed animal with electronics inside, it wouldn't just consist of a hub. there'd definately be some "imaging" equipment too..
this is just a placeholder till i send back my real sig from the future.
First person to crack up buy the round after work.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
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.
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? */
They have some class B networks as well (as if a class A network is not enough for them). It's a well known fact that MIT has more IP addresses than the whole China.