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.
I live in a city
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...
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.
Do you charge $11.95 for tiny grilled chese sandwichs in your kitchen now?s
Buy your fav baseball player's steroid-merchandise!
P.S. The cityscapes in the background on Connan and Leno and Letterman aren't real either.
What a relief! Here I thought Dave Letterman was going to hurt someone when he flung his notecards out of the window.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
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."
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."
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!
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"
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.