Slashdot Mirror
Build Your Own Cityscape
Hoagy writes "Many friends think I've moved when I show them this picture. I've constructed a lit model of midtown Manhattan to fill an otherwise unspectactular view out of our kitchen window. The website details the construction process and how to design and build your own. The city lights also automatically turn on/off via an X10 cronjob on my home Linux server." Nice hack job.
News agencies have been doing this for years. People aren't really interviewed in front of the best view in the city.
P.S. The cityscapes in the background on Connan and Leno and Letterman aren't real either.
When the new towers are erected, will you update the cityscape?
I have been pwned because my
I live in a city
Late night TV Like David Letterman, Jay Leno, and
Conan O'Brian. Not an original idea, but
nice to see it in practice.
If we don't fight for ourselves no one will.
i thought it was kinda neat until i saw the size of the thing. my god, what a colossal waste of time.
It would last about 5 minutes. Little kids find a little city just perfect for sight-seeing. The problem is that they like the godzillia view...
Nice work, impressive and well-thought out. Kudos for showing us the steps you took.
One thing, you need some better color. For a second I thought it was real, then I noticed how black and white it was, and how all the windows were exactly the same size.
Anybody know what other colors the lights should be? More yellow-ish?
Would there be any way for /. to have an indicator on the story heading to indicate that the site being linked in the story is currently slashdotted?
And maybe keep track of the slashdot effect in terms of intensity and duration...
I bet this would really help the poor souls out there whose sites are brought down by the barbaric hordes...
"Piter, too, is dead."
1. What ugly view did it cover up?
and
2. What did the neighbors build to keep from having to look at the back of the project?
The city lights also automatically turn on/off via an X10 cronjob on my home Linux server. /. effect's been unleashed on that poor server.
Methinks they'll be off for awhile under once the
...gets my vote for the "Too Much Time On His Hands Award of the Week."
Bonus points for bringing a Slashdotting upon himself.
~Philly
Also have a setup where it would look like cars were in front of my house, put shadows in my windows, and have cron job play music on Friday and Saturday nights to make it look like I have a life. Now THAT would have to look convincing.
I've lived in small towns and my mother owns vast tracts of land.
It sucks.
Stick with the city. It's where human life is. I know I am.
Hurry before it's too late!
My window is covered by a big black peice of fabric to block out light....
What's so great about the outside...
What day of the week is it?
Weatherbug says it's really nice outside...
Hmm... lemme check weather.com to see if it's gotten cloudy again so I can get my mail without getting sunburned....
Whhoppie. He figured out to get the lights blink on and off with a computer. What next, a miniature choo-choo train?
/.ers) to run around in his city mugging each other and such I aint impressed.
Unless he clones little people (or little fat people if they're cloned
How to blow 5 months of your life.
What is it?
Approximately 7 feet past the window is a large (Your mother's been talking about me again has she?) single plane of wood with windows cut into it. The 7 x 11 foot plane of wood is actually two layers of wood with a ~1" air gap where xmas lights are mounted to light up the inside. The front plane is thin (1/8") and has the 1540 windows cut into it while the back plane of wood is 1/2" sheets of plywood. The xmas lights (about 700 lights) are mounted behind the front plane so that the light bounces off of the plywood (back plane) to scatter the light so that pinpoints of light are not visible. The models of the Empire State and Chrysler buildings consist of multiple layers in order to simulate the effect of having lights shining on their own roofs.
Most of the display is painted in light grey latex paint for both weather-proofing and tinting of the light coming from the inside. However the front is painted dark grey to make it blend into the night sky above.
How Did You Build It? - Background
Last summer (summer of 2001) I thought of this idea to make the view out of our kitchen window more interesting. Previously the view only consisted of the backs of some tall bushes but did allow lots of sunlight to enter in the mornings. The bushes were approximately 10 feet away which provided ample room to be creative. Very near that time we saw a video for the song "This Isn't Maybe" by Waldeck on Mtv2 which had a model of a city outside a balcony. The buildings were swaying to the music... this provided an example of what such a thing might look like.
Then America had a really bad Tuesday morning in September and all of my fond memories of New York City were resurrected. The cityscape project became much more interesting and conveniently the graphics startup I was working for was soon going to lay me off which meant lots of free time.
I started looking into photos of NYC in detail.. noticing the perspective effects on windows and rooftops of skyscrapers. Part of me wanted to do a realistic model, but at the same time a surrealistic (idealistic?) (stylized?) approach was attractive. Then I found "the one" (see photo right).. a photo online of the view that I had in mind. I wanted a view of midtown Manhattan at the 40-60th floor level. Distant bridges and the street level would be even more difficult to simulate, so this photo conveniently and naturally occluded these troublesome features of the real NYC.
From here on, I had a much more concrete idea of what I wanted to create.
How To Design Your Own Cityscape
1. Find A Photo
Start by collecting photos of the city that you're interested in. Building details as well as overall city layout are important. The internet is a vast resource for this and I found lots of good pics at www.corbis.com . Find a photo that is at least close to the view you are looking for (see pic right). This is where you start your design.
Then, using this picture or set of pictures as your basis, you'll want to tailor it to your needs. Some things that you'll want to look at are scale, size, perspective, and complicated details.
Scale is important because you want to simulate the proper distance to the skyline. For example, if the model is too small, it will appear as if your house/apartment is too far away or too high up.
When considering size, realize that as you approach your window, your field of view widens. So you actually need to make the city larger than the window if there is going to be any distance between the city and the window. Distance between the city and the window increases realism in two ways. When walking past the window, you want the city to shift in relation to the window frame just like it would with a real city view. This is a natural effect called parallax that your brain uses every day to judge distance. The other reason for placing the city out several feet, is to minimize your ability to use stereo vision to see the distance to an object. Human stereo vision is only effective to 12-18 feet.
Perspective is the feature that will really sell your city as a realistic view. Notice top to bottom perspective as well as depth perspective. Top to bottom is pretty easy.. mount the city so that the average person's eye height is going to be level with the floors of windows that do not slope up or down. Mine is slightly off center top-to-bottom in order to fit more skyscrapers in, but it isn't obvious to most people. You'll need to make a judgement call on how much depth perspective to use. Was the original photo taken with a really wide angle lens?
You will also want to choose a photo without complicated details or edit them out. If you're an expert model maker, then by all means build a Brooklyn Bridge. It would look fantastic! But the rest of us will probably want to tone down the complication. This project is going to be laborious enough as it is. Avoid street-level views because the streets of a city are usually very animated and a static street scene will look odd.
How To Design Your Own Cityscape
2. Edit Photo
Use your favorite image editor (GIMP, Paintshop Pro, etc) and adapt your chosen photo to your needs. For example, I needed to make the sky black and experiment with placement of the Chrysler building. For a while, I was experimenting with placement of the Twin Towers closer to the foreground. And ultimately I inserted a building very close to our viewpoint for an added depth effect.
I suggest that you do *all* of your experimentation on the computer. It takes way more time to re-carve out all those windows if you screw up on wood.
With modern editing programs you can assign buildings to layers and easily move them around to get the arrangement just right. Make some features more obvious.. such as windows in the photo that aren't very clear. You'll need to use your eye and imagination to create any detail that may be missing from the photo. Notice that I added more floors below those featured in the original photograph.
By creating a crude cardboard cutout of the city outline, I determined that I needed to model the lower floors for when my guests would approach the kitchen sink and look down.
Finally, place a grid over your final design. I imported the image into AutoCAD, scaled it to be actual size, and then placed a grid of 2" x 2" lines over it. You'll use this grid to transition the design to wood.
How To Design Your Own Cityscape
3. Design Your Skyscrapers
I learned the hard way that I could not create a good (detailed) model of a skyscraper without a very detailed design. The Empire State and Chrysler buildings have features lit up by flood lights on their exterior. You can't simulate that effect with windows. I started out making a prototype of the Empire and it turned out awful (see pic right).
So I created a detailed design in Autocad and then printed out the design on 11x17 paper at full-scale. I could then cut out the various pieces of the Empire State from the paper and use them as stencils on the wood. Use 1/32" tolerances on everything for a much better fit. 1/16" turns out sloppy.
Because of limited room in my skyscapers, I cut holes in the back support and inserted the xmas lights deep into these holes. I used particle board because I could cut holes for xmas lights much closer together in particle board whereas plywood would just splinter apart.
Each skyscraper probably won't need a whole 50 or 100 lights, so if you take lights out of the strand, you'll need to insert a resistor so that the remaining lights don't burn brighter and burn out quickly. I've found that a string of 50 lights usually consumes about 10 Watts, so since I only needed 23 lights on the Empire State building, I removed the unneeded lights and inserted a 5 Watt 127 Ohm resistor.
How To Design Your Own Cityscape
4. Build A Small Prototype
With this prototype, you will be testing paint colors, window sizes, some perspective, light placement, practice cutting the materials, and skyscraper details. I made my prototype to be approx 1 foot square and used some of the window sizes that I knew I would be using. In addition, it had the beginnings of an Empire State building on the top.
Some of the things I learned from this: 1) Natural wood color would look very warm and artistic, but also looked a lot like a jack-o-lantern. 2) I could not build an Empire State building that looked good simply by free-hand drawing the pieces. Calculated CAD work was called for instead. 3) The smallest windows would need to be punched out because no jigsaw blade is small enough to cut out a 1/8" window.
How To Design Your Own Cityscape
5. Build Skyscrapers
Your skyscrapers are going to bring a lot of detail to your model. So spend the time to make them look good. Your prototype gave you the opportunity to screw up all you wanted without it being the real deal. Notice the big difference on the photo to the left between when I was at the prototype stage and when it came time to make the Chrysler Building.
My Chrysler and Empire State buildings needed to consist of several layers in order to simulate the effect of spotlights shining up on a building's rooftop. AutoCAD helped me immensely in deciding how the various layers were going to fit together. Then the best part was that with AutoCAD I could plot out my design in real world (1" = 1") scale and use it as a stencil.
I didn't have room to fit the lights on the inside of the model, so I just cut holes in the support board and inserted the lights perpendicularly. But here, too, I needed to insert a resistor in the string of lights because I was only using half of the strand.
How To Design Your Own Cityscape
6. Build The Support Framework
The framework is pretty easy.. If you're not expecting much wind, it only has to be a couple feet deep. You can use 2x4s and wood screws. Be sure to run the back supports up a significant portion of the back of the display. If your skyline has dips in it, you'll want to keep the framework from showing through. Once the city is built, just run 2" wood screws into the supporting 1/2" plywood back.
The Cityscape Project
7. Build The City
7a. Draw Out The Design
This step takes a surprisingly long time to complete. On a large flat surface, take your 1/8" hardboard 8' x 4' sheet and with pencil draw out the grid that you placed over your city design and label the rows/columns. Then begin drawing the window grids. You'll want to draw out an entire building's window grid using straight edges and then X out the windows that are going to be cut out. This keeps all your windows straight and even. Also draw out the skyline that will be exposed on the top. Mark everything clearly so that there are no mistakes with the jigsaw!
7b. Cut Out Windows
Another tedious task; place your hardboard sheet on sawhorses and begin by cutting out the unneeded skyline area. On small windows, you'll have to just drill one 1/4" hole in them and use the jigsaw blade to cut out the corners. On larger windows, drill two holes per window in opposite corners, then use the jigsaw to cut inside the lines. I went through 3 jigsaw blades very easily on the 1540 windows I had to cut out.
7c. Draw And Cut Support Backing
Place your 1/2" x 8'x4' plywood sheet on the sawhorses and then lay your cut out hardboard sheet on top. Trace the outline of the skyline onto the plywood and cut it out.
7d. Glue On Trim And Spacers
Now you need to measure, cut, and paste the trim pieces. The trim creates a gap between the hardboard layer and plywood layer where the lights can do their magic. Do all of the measuring and cutting before you begin gluing. Leave the bottom open for any water to drain out. Also place a trim piece (remember to cut notches out of it for later wiring) horizontally halfway up the display for support.
You will also want to put 2"x2" spacers scattered through the design. These spacers will be the attachment points for the plywood support panel. With mine I used 1/4" x 1+3/8" trim and conveniently 3 2"x2" cuts of plywood stacked created the perfect 1+3/8" spacer. Glue everything well and use weights to make the various pieces of trim make good contact with the hardboard. This step isn't too time consuming compared to everything else. Don't use Elmer's Wood Glue, it will melt in the rain!
7e. Paint Everything
This takes forever. Paint the plywood backing and hardboard / trim pieces completely. You want to seal the wood from the elements outside. This means you need to paint the edges around each and every window. Ugh.. painful. A large (4") paintbrush works for most of the plywood, but the edges of the plywood and window panel needs a tiny brush and a 2" brush. I've found that it works best to paint a small area of the back side first, then move to the front to paint and clean the paint out of the corners of the windows and then move back to the back to touch up any runs back there.
After the whole panel is painted, you may want a different color on the front of the display. An easy way to do this is to use a paint roller that has only a light amount of paint on it.
7f. Mount Lights
Place your hardboard/trim panel (frontside - down) on a flat surface and glue the lights to the back. Hot glue seems to work the best and is cheap but don't glue the actual bulbs down; you'll want to be able to replace the bulbs as they burn out. Try to keep the lighting even, although you might apply more for close buildings and less for far away buildings. Keep in mind any angle that the viewer will be at and hide the lights / wires from sight.
Construction Tips
I used 1/8" hardboard for the front panel, 1/4" x 1 3/8" door trim strips as spacers, and 1/2" plywood for the back support. The frame that holds this large thing upright and at the proper distance off of the ground is made of 2x4s. 1" countersunk screws connect the back support to spacers glued to the front hardboard panel.
Laying out the design onto the hardboard is as tedious as cutting out the windows. Don't draw the windows free-hand. At least in my experience, the best looking windows are produced with measurement and proper angles. Remember that the windows on a building are usually very aligned and your eye picks up on this alignment very easily. The few windows that I tried to eye-ball or free-draw turned out much less acceptable. So usually you must draw out a grid of windows for each building and then "X" out the ones that are going to have lights on inside.
Glue: don't use Elmer's Wood Glue since it melts in the rain. I've been using Franklin International's Titebond II weatherproof wood glue but haven't had a rainstorm to test its durability.
Jigsaws: The Bosch 1587AVSP is a fantastic jigsaw. It's very balanced for a smooth cut and design features like the quick change blades are very handy as well. I used this saw for most of the project and while cutting out the windows I went through three 1/4" blades that cut on the up and down stroke.
Some of the windows on far away buildings are too small to use a jigsaw. I ended up using a 1/8" screwdriver (like the ones used to repair eyeglasses) and a hammer to chisel out these windows.
Collect your xmas lights during the xmas season. It's very difficult to find inexpensive xmas light strings off-season.
If you have trouble with seeing the pinpoints of xmas light out of the windows of your skyscrapers, try covering the inside of your windows with wax paper. It will diffuse the light a bit.
When designing the city, use a large piece of cardboard as a rough approximation for what you're thinking. Mount it to a light-weight frame and see if it looks like you imagined.
TOTAL: $394.31
Special Thanks To:
These people helped the project out either with loaned/donated equipment, patience/understanding, or just plain cash.
Dave and Mary
Uncle Scott
Mom and Dad
Both Grandmas
Dan, Stacey, and Rich
Direct Access Index
Intro
What Is It?
How Did You Build It? - Background
How To Design Your Own.
1. Find A Photo
2. Edit The Photo
3. Design Skyscrapers
4. Build A Small Prototype
5. Build Skyscrapers
6. Build The Framework
7. Build The City
7a. Draw Out The Design
7b. Cut Out Windows
7c. Draw And Cut Support Backing
7d. Glue On Trim And Spacers
7e. Paint Everything
7f. Mount Lights
Construction Tips
Equipment List / Cost
© 2002 Ryan Hoagland
I wonder who's going to come up with the idea of making a cover for a 40 in plasma screen that simulates a window and have a stationary webcam hooked up to it... That way, the office lights on the 17th floor turn on to follow the janitors.
And no need to break out the jigsaw when another buiding goes up.
"Piter, too, is dead."
Do you charge $11.95 for tiny grilled chese sandwichs in your kitchen now?s
Buy your fav baseball player's steroid-merchandise!
Pretty cool looking, I think it's a shame that the 'cityscape' isn't visible from the 'bay window beside the dining table' (hypothetical, I haven't been in this man's house. :) :)
The view is a little less impressive coming from the inside of a homely looking kitchen window. (No disrespect!, I'm currently living at home with my mother after losing my job in the i-net/.com debacle, So I guess I don't have room to talk about living in a classy place
Ansi's and stupid tricks!
Cronjob. That sounds so dirty.
you added Godzilla rampaging through...
I'm glad folks take the time to document these projects so nicely...
I always imagine nothing will come out right and no one would want to look at anything i do....
well the /. effect is going to pull a "King Kong" on your webserver.
four-oh-four
during the day it must look pretty strange out there .. i think i would rather build a small patio or deck .. or move to the city ..
Well you should light that ESB up red white and blue like they do here for real. In honor of our fallen 9/11 heroes. If you're REALLY into it you can turn it off at 11:59 pm every night like they do as well.
BTW 10 karma points to anyone who could give me an exact location as to where that view would be from!
--------------
David O.
Seems wasteful, expensive, hazardous to do all of this with 700 Xmas lights. Why not use LEDs?
mA on the dollar.
~.~
I'm a peripheral visionary.
Remember in BTTF 2, the "Scene Screen" or whatever that was in the McFly's living room of 2015 that was tuned to the Scenery Channel? I might buy one of those, and it would look a lot better from the outside. Let's see this guy take some business initiative and crank something good out!
404 File Not Found
/. Slashdot?
The requested URL (articles/02/06/06/1847216.shtml?tid=133) was not found.
If you feel like it, mail the url, and where ya came from to pater@slashdot.org.
....
Did we just
GOD DAMNIT , MODERATE ME!
What is outside your kitchen window without the model? Reality? Get some exercise, fatty fat mcfat.
Well, my city scape would be the free beer truck pulling up to my driveway, the girls gone wild partying in my front yard, and the cops hauling off the asshole neighbor I have who always wants to tell me about his work for the 'cia' investigating Intel amd their link to the former USSR(This ain't no lie, his day job is locksmith).
<p>
Oh yeah, and before I forget 50 foot Penguin scaring the shit outta all the Windows users I have to support on a daily basis. Life would then be good.
<p>
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
C'mon guys, he did something artistic to his place that's kinda cool. I'm seriously disappointed with the negativity that I have read so far.
"Oh it's unoriginal because it's done on the news" -- Amusing logic considering that a news station can hire a crew of professionals to build something like that.
"Waste of time!" -- Yah, like there aren't people out there who think posting stupid comments like that on Slashdot isn't a waste of time. Never mind that he did it during a period of unemployment. I'll tell you something, I know a few people who got laid off in the last year or two, and they turned into total bums during that period. Frankly, I think it's cool that somebody used his artistic skill to improve his living conditions instead of sitting around, playing Quake, and behaving as if the world shit on him/her.
Before you make your negative post about what this guy did, ask yourself: What independent project have YOU taken on? Did you do anything remotely as ambitious? Did you release information about how you did it?
Consider this: When you say "this isn't original because something like that's been done before...", how much did you oversimplify your idea before you came to that conclusion? There was a post earlier that said "Nothing new, they do this on the news all the time." To make a comment like that, they had to filter out conditions like 'News stations pay extra money for stuff like that to appear local.' and "It's an uncommon thing for home-owners to do something like that." That's a lot of information to throw out, and what is the benefit? "Oh, I'm unimpressed. That makes me sound like I've seen more than most people."
When somebody works to create something like that, it really hurts to have people not like it because they're unwilling to put more than a moment's thought into it.
"Derp de derp."
He put up a wallpaper mural in his living room. Seems like a lot less work, and it still looks pretty cool.
Just watch out for the alligators.
The city lights also automatically turn on/off via an X10 cronjob on my home Linux server
:)
You know what? Tell your X10 cronjob to take a break. I think we're gonna turn off your lights for you tonight... no no, don't thank us. It's our pleasure.
.... in fact, you don't really have much of a choice now, do you
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Are we at the point where we can make jokes about this? I'm currently 3 blocks from the hole and I don't find this funny. :\
--------------
David O.
Well it's a sure fire way to test a server. I can see it now:
Guy1: Hey can you help me. I need to load test the server.
Guy2: Sorry I don't have the time. ( Jokingly ) Heh, why don't you submit your city line model to Slashdot, it's a pretty cool hack.
Guy1: Hey thanks, (Thinking to himself) That's not a bad idea...
The next morning...
Guy2: (To Guy1) HEY IDIOT I DIDN'T THINK YOU WERE GOING TO TAKE ME SERIOUSLY!!!
"It takes many nails to build a crib, but one screw to fill it."
It's the ceilingline...
David Letterman had better watch out, we're going to replace him with another clown sitting in front of another city backdrop, and we'll throw in Hanson to replace Paul Schaffer.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
funny funny shit... wish I had some karma to give.
Well, if that site is also hosted on his "home linux server" then it wont be running any cron jobs for a little while.
:wq
Another good reason for news agencies (or anyone) to use a fake backdrop is so they don't get views like this.
[news for me, stuff that doesn't matter]
Secondly, to the people who say it's a waste of time, there are those who would say that posting on slashdot is a waste of time, yet you clearly enjoy it. Leisure is incredibly important, yet far too many people do anything other than sit on their couches, and watch TV. This, to me, is a really interesting artistic project, not only improving the view, but also improving the soul.
Thanks for sharing your project with the world!
stuff that matters
Right out of Resident Evil (the movie), as soon as I saw the pic, I thought; How many stories below ground do they live? =)
.:[MiE-g0nk]:.
Good thing I saw the site before it was posted. Maybe adding a superhero swinging between the building would be a nice touch. :)
agreed, this is not funny. I worked in the wtc (north tower, 9*th floor) and I know many, many people that died (instantly, I hope).
the shitheadery that you demonstrate is currently the bane of my existance.
There aint no pancake so thin it doesn't have two sides.
What he needs now is something like a small model airplane or a ufo to go across every once in a while. or maybe a monorail or other futurama type decoration.
Or cutouts from magazines of small people to put into the windows of the sky scrapers. all kinds of little details that make it come alive.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Pretty damn neat. ;)
But I'm wondering what exactly the cron job does... is it just a highly complex substitute for a light timer, or does it do things like turn off lights in sequence or something?
Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
- Nietzsche
Some serious lamers replying to this. This is really awesome, much respect to Hoagy for doing this. Its beautiful and creative.
I don't see anyone calling CmdrTaco names or telling him he has too much time on his hands for building an arcade cabinet (link)
Well fuck you then.
exactly how does the cron job make the lights turn on and off? i didn't see it in the tutorial.
otherwise, cool.
lf.o
Aluminum foil works better. When I was working the night shift, I covered all 5 of the windows in my room with aluminum foil. It worked fantastically. With the AC cranked, in the middle of a summer day, my room stayed pitch black and about 60 degrees.
I have to admit, the basic ideas of doing it, reguardless of what you want to look at, is quite innovative for home use. I'm sitting here in my basement pondering to myself, 'Hey, is this something I could do in the little window wells I have down here?'
While I might not choose a cityscape to gaze up at in my tiny window down here, I'm sure about anything is better than looking up at my neighbors house!
Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
this is just one of the coolest hacks I've seen in a long long time. Besides the fact that he designed it in a cad program, you actually (well, I do at least) get the feeling that I'm looking out of an apartment window many many stories up. What an unbelievable feeling! Kudos to this guy for "thinking outside the box" and doing something really new and cool!
I posted to
Are we at the point where we can make jokes about this?
Yeah, we're pretty much there, I'd say.
If not, the terrorists have won.
Why the fuck am I just seeing sunjuects instead of fucking comments? Registering is over-motherfucking-rated.
Would it be in bad tase for the kid next door to fly his model airplanes into this?
(B) + (D) + (B) + (D) = (K) + (&)
I for one think this is very cool, and its amazing how much work this guy put into this. Great job man! Howevery, I have one tiny suggestion. Get rid of the blinds on the window. Since you've blocked off outside light, no need for blinds. And its such nice work, let the whole window be filled up with it instead of having the blinds at the top. (Not trying to be negative at all, this is totally sweet work this guy did! Great job!)
yep, i'd say your skewed alright.
Does this thing still work after it rains ?! Looks like a few bad storms could break it real good and proper.
I thought I saw a music video on unplugged or amp where they guy did this and they girl he had over to show it off to tipped a building over or something.
Regardless of its origins, its a hell of alot cooler than the nasty grass and 8-month-dead marigold I have in the flowerbox outside my kitchen window.
This is not the greatest sig in the world, this is just a tribute.
Having this view is proof that you are hardcore bridge and tunnel. The only people who have this view are from brooklyn,queens or new jersey. The view to have in manhattan is of central park and you won't have it for under 10 million.
It doesn't necessarily float MY boat, but this guy seems to have put together a pretty cool little project that he's clearly proud of. I congratulate him, and thank him for his contribution. But I think the word "hack" (used by the editor) is extremely overused on this site, and at the risk of sounding like a pedant and inviting the hoards of /.ers to pick every nit in my post, this seemed like a downright incorrect usage to me. "Nice hack job"... I'd rather have insightful commentary than me-too jargon slinging and elitism. "Cool hack" would have been more appropriate, but even then the term "hack" (in this sense) grows so tiresome.
The streets shall flow with the blood of the Guberminky.
He picked a crappy view if you ask me. I mean, if you can pick anything you want, wouldn't you build a view from the top?
Heck, mine would be a view out of the window of the ISS. Hm. That might get a bit expensive, though...
My
Limekiller
gaag
If you read the page, it says that's where he got the idea
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
I have a room with a view of a garage, I was going to install a light box with a transparency of some thing interesting. I haven't decided what yet. But this is really a cool idea I wish I had clearance behind the window for some thing like it.. It would also be cool if some how the lights changed, like some turning on and off at random to simulate people.
Over all, very cool!
...you got yourself one fucking ugly view of cardboard cut-outs!!! Way to go.
:)
I agree. Hats off to the guy, he did an awsome job.
You have no right posting here if you don't hate America. After all, just ask a filthy subhuman Muslim what their fucking problem is and they'll always blame someone else. Al Qaeda blames the America, Palestinians blame Israel, Pakistan blames India. The 'sons of allah' *spit* would NEVER even deign to think that maybe they're at fault.
Right now, Taco is running a reverse DNS lookup on your pasty white American-sympathising ass and will be sending the ragheads round to destroy you. Are you proud?
WTF is wrong with you guys?!? Huh?
/fun/ and /cool/ and /kitchy/, a project which deserves a helluva lot more kudos than it's getting here, and all I've read so far are negative comments ("Oh that's so unoriginal", "The lights should be more yellow"), or at best, indifference.
:) I wish I had more stuff like that that I could show off to my friends.
Here we have something totally
Stop being such a pack freaking sour nerds, and get a bit of bloody spark into yourselves!
I've had a pretty dreary day so far, and reading this is the first thing that has put a smile on my face so far
Isn't that a bit overkill tech-wise for a task that could probably be performed by a cheap programmable timer (such as this one, for 9 bucks)? Especially since low tech programmable timers tend not to be vulnerable to slashdotting.
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He lied to us through song. I hate when people do that!
TrailerScape
Oh yeah, right there on the third page. Maybe I shouldn't post after midnight...
This is not the greatest sig in the world, this is just a tribute.
I'm impressed of this guy. I wish I had the space to do something simular at home. From my window all I can see is the bottom of a cliff about 30 feet away. So this would be perfect at my place. But I'll guess I would prefer something with blue sky and the sun shining. This way I would be the only guy in Norway waking up to sunshine every morning.
If it's wet, Drink it!
But the windows aren't lighting up to say "Crash and Burn"!
:)
What makes you think we should all go around in black armbands becauses your country got attacked? The USA has been funding and supporting terrorism all over the world, including the UK (you know, the people who saved your arses in the Gulf and in Afghanistan?), but when the terrorists hit the US with *one* attack you get all precious about it.
No wonder you get so little sympathy.
Bugs Bunny did this years ago by nailing a picture of an island up to the side of a ship luring the entire crew to jump overboard to try to get to it :).
box cutter (already had)
Hmm, terrorist in training?
No reason why you cant have it: just watch out for all those warring minatures
Hitchcock had a detailed model of the New York skyline (with lights) constructed for his movie Rope which was entirely studio based, and shot in 'real-time'. The lights came on along with a fake sunset.
His cameo (he did one in most of his films) took the form of a Neon sign in the shape of his face!!
No, you won't. You'll build your own Iron Curtain around the USA, and hide from the evil terrorists outside. Look at yourselves now - your government has banned you from travelling to, or trading with Cuba. How can you say you're free?
Your idiotic governments keep getting you tangled up in wars that you should stay out of. Oh, there isn't a war on just now? Let's start one! It's funny how all your wars seem to have something to do with wealthy, oil-producing countries.
Put some lights below so it looks like streetlights are emanating from the street level.
It took me a little while to figure out why that was odd.
Throughout the 70's and 80's, possibly even into the nineties - remember NORAID, I don't remember the USA stopping the bank accounts of NORAID members. America has, until recently, always backed the Republican cause (which would be fine if it wasn't so entwined with Terrorism).
In Northern Ireland we deal with Terrorism every day (the past weekend has been a nightmare with shootings just two minutes walk from me), and I don't see America coming down on the IRA, UVF, UFF etc.
Forget the past, it's irrelevant - America and the UK both share plenty of blame for what's going on in the world.
Has no-one asked the question 'why do they hate us so much', instead of just seeking retribution.
The crew quarters had astronomical and such pictures on the walls. I'd *love* to ship out on the Enterprise, but I expect I'd have nature scenes on my walls. If I wanted to see astronomy, I'd look out a window/porthole or viewscreen.
I suspect everyone wants a view of what they can't easily have.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Certainly people have asked that question, but whatever it is that they hate, we should by no means change it. It's surprising to see how many in the UK have not yet learned the lesson of Neville Chamberlain. Appeasement is not the way to eliminate hate from the world. Quite the opposite, the surest way to provoke more terrorist attacks would be to give these terrorists any part of what they want.
put a screen in front of your window
;)
point the projector at the front or back (depending on your space and angle availability)
put in one and/or series of slides
viola
Now if I only had a window to call my own
dgd
No, you won't. You'll build your own Iron Curtain around the USA, and hide from the evil terrorists outside. Look at yourselves now - your government has banned you from travelling to, or trading with Cuba. How can you say you're free?
Oooh please... Get off your high horse. Everyone has limits to their freedoms. Freedom without limits is anarchy and I hope you're not advocating that. Almost all countries use sanctions and travel restrictions as tools to influence other country's policies. Almost every country in the world has severe trade and travel restrictions with Iraq during the past 10 years so don't get all preachy about Cuba.
Your idiotic governments keep getting you tangled up in wars that you should stay out of. Oh, there isn't a war on just now? Let's start one! It's funny how all your wars seem to have something to do with wealthy, oil-producing countries.
Yeah!! There's so much oil in Afghanistan its not even funny! =P The Gulf War? That was the World vs. Iraq. Your rants while bringing up the popular subject of American bashing are short on facts and long on hollow rhetoric.
G. Washington on Government "it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
Not necessarily, real diplomacy along with the threat of possible force is what is needed - not the 'do as we say or else' attitude. One mans terrorist is anothers freedom fighter
is to make the lights be a big VU meter just like the MIT's hack in Boston.
"Yeah!! There's so much oil in Afghanistan its not even funny!"
Uh, no, but there is TONS in Turkmenistan and we have been wanting a pipeline through Afghanistan for a long time now. Why do think we were so in favor of supporting a top advisor to the El Segundo, California-based UNOCAL Corporation as the interim prime minister? Haven't you been paying attention? Or do you just use what ABC McNews tells (or doesn't tell you) to form your perception of reality?
Christ, wake the fuck up. No wonder the rest of the world thinks we are ignorant jingos.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
I personally liked how W. handled the whole Afghan issue... "if they want to call us Imperialist dogs, then thats what we'll be!"
Hello Afghanistan, we're going to mold you into a country whose existence makes our country's existence safer.
whoot!
...I hope this guy doesn't have neighbors from Saudi Arabia working on their own model airplanes.
If you'd like to keep score on whom is saving the asses of whom, I need only point out that you're posting your message using the English language, rather than the language that certainly would have been your mother tongue, German, twice over. (Or Russian, possibly... You don't think it was fear of England that kept the Bear at bay for 50 years, do you?)
Neither is this the first time the U.S. has been subject to a terrorist act. The attack on the WTC was the second attack on that location alone.
Sure, European nations have been living with terrorism a lot longer than we have, but can it produce a single terrorist event that ended more lives, or caused more property damage, than what happened in New York, and Virginia, last year?
Not even close.
That said, we don't need your sympathy. We'll manage just fine without it. And then next time Europe finds itself at war, maybe we'll have the wisdom to let that dead continent finally extinguish itself the way it should have during the last century.
British Empire [snip] they're also the cause of the India/Pakistan conflict. Both situations were caused by the exact same thing, poor border designs by the British Empire.
The British did not want to partition India. The Indians didn't want to partition India either. The only people who wanted partition were Muslim rabble rousers who wanted there own country in the NW of British India. Gandhi and the British both knew that partition would be a disaster and so it proved. The original massacres occured in the Punjab and Rajastan and were down to having to draw a line somewhere and the impossibility of avoiding splitting populations.
The current mess in Kashmir had little to do with the British. The only input the British had here was in letting the rulers of the nominally independent princely states decide which country to join. Ususally this was an easy decision but Hyderabad (Muslim ruler in the Hindu heartland) and Kashmir (other way round) dithered. India eventually overthrew the Nizam of Hyderabad and likewise Pakistan invaded Kashmir. That would have been that if the Pakistani army had actually seized control quickly but they were too busy looting, raping and pillaging and gave the Indians time to respond to the Maharajah's plea for help leaving the world with the mess we have now.
</HISTORY LESSON>
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Reverse outsourcing: it's the future
Is someone to change his cronjob so the city scape flashes "CRASH N BURN" across a few adjacent buildings ;)
(Obreference)
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Man, we sure got a bunch of turds posting today. This is an excellent, well thought out piece of work. I'd appreciate more detail on the cron stuff on the site tho' ...
I can see why he used a jigsaw to cut the edge of the skyline, but to cut out all those windows he would have been better served with a Roto-zip tool. Cutting out 1,540 windows with a jigsaw would take forever!
...remember that cityscape? That was cool huh. I'm ashamed that I was led away from a cool topic like the out-the-window cityscape into this hole.
-- Probability does not dismiss possibility --
jesus, that was some good shit that you took if it was only one hit. Where might one purchase some of this fine quality substance?
Cool!
What if there's no one around to hear them? Do they still make a sound?
"I've constructed a lit model of midtown Manhattan to fill an otherwise unspectactular view out of our kitchen window."
Um, it still looks rather unspectacular. In fact, it looks like one of those early Star Trek models fitted with Christmas tree bulbs. And what's this? "Nice hack job"!? As in poorly done? Hack? Somehow I think if somebody surrounded a gopher hole with barbed wire, micheal would consider it some sort of hack. "Tee hee! I found a website for underwater BB stacking! Nice hack!"
Maybe if he used fiberoptices. An actual skyline you could see. Changing backgrounds. Something beyond cardboard and Christmas lights. Everybody has their hobby sure, and I respect that. But why am I seeing it here? News for Nerds, stuff that matters, anyone?
You need a FREE iPod Nano
The depth projection is a nice effect.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
I have a view of uptown manhattan from my window... only cost me $1350 a month. I guess your way is cheaper. And I can't see the Empire State or Chrysler Building.
;)
I can see the Frederick Douglas Houses tho..
in the movie Total Recall, an entire wall was devoted to a landscape scenic view (using 3 panels) that turned into a television (using 1 panel).
i think that this portrayal is a very real indication of what we will have in the near future.
I wonder why he does it with a cron job - any simple timer would do it too (and it'd be less likely to crash).
Does he do anything freaky with it, like, for example, have the computer automatically switch it off and on according to calculated sunrise and sunset times?
where's all that Karma?