Slashdot Mirror
Beautiful Case Modding
Miles S.F. writes "Thought you guys might appreciate this little project I've been working on.
This is what happens when the left and right brain get bored and start talking with each other." Excellent case mods, entertaining reading, good ideas, and a solid site design. Worth a read if only to see the case modded to include a furby.
What's the advantage of having to click your case to get at the power supply?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
I'm sorry to disagree with the modder, but to WAKE a furby you shake it. To make it COO, you turn it upside down. The fact that I know this is quite sad.
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
Case modding is slowly becoming more mainstream. While trawling the TV at an ungodly hour last week, I saw an ad for a PC ("Tomorrows technology today" was the catchline, which was funny, given the fact they were using an old ATI Radeon in it...). The side of the case was carved out, had plexiglass fitted, and had neon lights inside. WAY cool looking machine.
I think case modding is rapidly becoming to computers what hot rodding is to cars. More and more people are customising their systems to add some individuality, which is hardly surprising given the prevalence of beige...
..what's so special about it? On every case-mod-page I can find hundreds of those, right? So what's so special that it justifies an own story?
I am now boycotting www.designmethod.com.
Apparently I am too, since the site is slashdotted.
I remember those cases from back in the day. Acer had those. They had this wierd handle on the front that flipped down to open the case. Wow, those things were a bitch to take off!
Ah, the last peanut -- overflowing with the oil and salt of its departed brothers. -Homer
Just a comment, most of you case modder types keep refering to that handy clear plastic you use as Lexan... most of the times I've seen the plastic wrap still on it in your photos, it's not Lexan, it's Lucite. These are not the same, Lexan is a tradename for polycarbonate, Lucite is a trade name for acrylic. Acrylic is much, much, much less tough than Lexan (or Hyzod, or Tuffak, or other trade names for polycarbonate), but also a lot cheaper... for case modding purposes, it's fine, but don't get the two confused if you're counting on the impact resistance of Lexan and you put in Lucite...
right now i'm working on building a custom little case small enough to fit underneath the passenger seat of my car, an lcd monitor, a mini keyboard, and i can watch divx on the road, which, in all reality, would be an improvement over my normal driving ability!
--fetch daddy's blue fright wig, i must be handsome when i release my rage
Maybe you should check your browser / plugin can handle flash movies before visiting a flash only site?
:-)
> Thought you guys might appreciate this little project I've been working on
is he ASKING to be slashdotted? what is he, insane?
"Be sure to wet the towel first as they tend to catch fire rather easily"
Was this something you found out from personal experience or just an old case modder's maxim that you're repeating for the sake of posterity?
> This is what happens when the left and right brain get bored and start talking with each other.
No, schizophrenia is what happens when the left and right brain get bored and start talking with each other.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I posted a mirror here.
A cool site (All that flash stuff will just increase the
Cogito ergo sum in Slashdot.
I've heard that in the sequel, Vin Diesel hooks a supercharger up to his case fan on his laptop.
evil adrian
18" inch wheels: $1600
ridiculously high functionless wing: $1000
noisy coffee can like tail pipe: $500
mp3 player that resembles furby and takes up the entire back seat: $1200
Knowing you're the liberace of side show circuit with your 115 hp honda civic: Priceless
You thought wrong.
He spends all that time modding multiple cases and a monitor, and there are no Legos in sight! A truly sweet case mod without Legos is like a peanut butter sandwich without jelly.
It appears that a LOT of readers either don't have or have disabled Flash, and I'm one of them. It might be worth waiting until the website repairs their site into something standards-conforming. HTML + PNG preferred.
- David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
Seriously, why does every case design done like this have to have a window and neon? I mean seriously guys, it has been done.
How about a wood case? How about a leather clad case to match your wife's purse? How about a faux fur case? How about a carpet case to match your floor? How about a Shoji-Screen type case? How about a pyramid case? A dice-colored case?
Or how about a case that doesn't slowly cook their users by emitting massive unshielded electromagnetic radiation?
Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
The world is neither black nor white nor good nor evil, only many shades of CowboyNeal.
I think I've discovered two constants in the universe.
1) Slashdot will post just about any case mod "story" that gets submitted.
2) People who submit case-mod "stories", even with the knowledge of what the Slashdot Effect is, will gladly let their web-server burst into flames just so people can see what shaky-handed work they did with a Dremel tool and a piece of aluminum.
s/F/S/. How about meanwhile contributing to a media stunt and reading a Slashdot effect analysis.
It's actually a mediocre mod at best. The most impressive thing is what he did to his monitor.
t tp://www.taconuts.org/casegal/2001/08/25/page1.p hp
I don't know of any great pictures off by heart, so here are two random links:
http://www.coolcasemods.com/gallery.php?p=50
h
Wake up: the web is about communication. If you conform to open standards, you aid communication, because it means that anyone can reach you. HTML, PNG, etc., all conform to standards (such as those produced by the W3C and IETF). Gratuitous use of non-standard formats is worth complaining about, because when enough complaints get made, the websites either stop using the nonstandard format, or convince enough people to create a standard for it.
- David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
It might be worth waiting until the website repairs their site into something standards-conforming. HTML + PNG preferred.
Actually he probably should convert all the images to ASCII so that someone with Lynx can see it. Common, the site isnt Broken cuz its flash. If you dont have falsh installed your missing alot of funny and interesting stuff on the web.
"All I can tell the "lesser of two evils" folks is that if they keep voting for evil, they'll keep getting evil."-Lp.org
I plan to over the winter build a PC into the base of a sofa - iwill act as main file server for mp3's. Makes alot of sence as there is plenty of space and any heat would only act as a heated seat :D. There is also the aspect of having one hell of a noise sepretion unit aka the sofa itself. Of coarse one vigarous romantic fling on said sofa would risk the chance of actualy crashing the server, so a strong sofa will be procured forsafty reasons. I appreciate that it wont have many flashing blueled fans and the like with disco lighting extreme inside but it does pose a pratical use of space and natural sound proofing without excessive costs in uber expensive magneto electro fans with climate controlled RPM and in built drivers for most games - but thats half the fun isn't it.
The side-window mod is so mainstream now that it can only laughingly be referred to as "hot-rodding". Several suppliers now build cases with those nice, EF-emitting windows standard. If you're going to be cutting into your case, you could have at least put a little design into it. Hell, a checkerboard pattern of lucite/metal would have been more interesting.
And on the subject of design: your front page would be a hell of a lot better if you did it in HTML. It's a static page -- nothing's moving around, no music (not that this is a bad thing). You could design a page in HTML with images that looks exactly the same, would be smaller, faster to load, and viewable by those without the Flash plugin. You don't need a forklift when you can just use your hands.
In the V3 mod, I really like the CD-ROM modification. I've seen many case mods, but I haven't seen this before.
Basically the CD-ROM runs open, painted nicely, and under a plexiglass opening in the top. You can watch the disc spin. Very nice, something I will keep in mind if/when I get around to doing a case mod.
I also like the heavy use of those $6 rope-lights. Much cheaper/more flexible than neon, though they do get warm (I have one, it's like 35 watts and runs on house current)...
NGWave - Fast Sound Editor for Windows
Um, Isn't it a little dangerous to take the cover off of your power supply? I've never tried it myself, but I've always heard that it was bad. I guess it's only dangerous if you touch it though. Good thing he put that handy little finger hole for the kids right in front of it.
What have you done to Stephen Hawking?
Noooo!!!!!!
I have one machine here that has Flash installed, but Javascript is disabled, so the site is useless anyway [unless it was just not responding due to the /. effect].
Now I'm in danger of being called names for not enabling Javascript, no doubt. It's not even that a site needs to be terribly "standards" conforming -- who cares if the webpages starts with a DOCTYPE or just goes straight to an HTML tag? And while PNG might be nice, GIF and JPEG work just as well.
Ah, well, I wonder how hard it would be to modify the /. preferences to include "Ignore articles that refer to flash-only or javascript-required sites."
Pick One: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~stremler/sigs/sigs.html (Note - disable Javascript first!)
taking apart a monitor can be deadly. There's still a fair amount of voltage in monitors.
They should not really be mucked about with by case modders unless they carry lots of life insurance and don't care about getting electrocuted.
If you're going for the "Young Einstein" look, then maybe modding monitor cases could be a lucrative career option for you, but for everyone else? Well, the what-should-be-obvious applies:WARNING! HIGH VOLTAGE!
The best part is.... I can't see a single way this site benefits from being done in flash. Of course the other pages of the site aren't all flash, but you don't know that as you can't get past the first screen and into the content.
That is soooo wrong!
And a lil PS to all the whiny bitches complainin' bout the site. Boo freakin hoo, cry me a river. Flash may suck, but so did Java, and that didn't stop everyone from mounting it like a rabid dog, eh? Stop yer complainin' and enjoy some resonably-decent mods, wouldya?
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
I got into modding a few months ago and even got my wife tricking out her box.
Erm... Dare I even remark on the last half of that statement?
...as they're trying to re-mod the case by melting the server, using the slashdot effect. By clicking that link, you are contributing to a work of art (or at least finding out what a million monkeys really can do)!
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Look at "Version 4," the tenth picture. The one talking about how he fit the Dell power supply into the HP case.
How did he do it? He removed the cover to the power supply and mounted it flush to the bottom of the case. That power supply is nekkid in the case. This is going to be his KIDS GAMING COMPUTER. The plexi cover is hinged so that, presumably, the kids can fix the interior components themselves.
Holy $#!^, this is a BAD THING. Kids will be kids, they haven't had basic electrical engineering yet. Opening up a power supply is *always* a bad idea, there are capacitors in there that'll take a dangerously indefinite "while" to discharge when the system is unplugged. I can't stress enough that a naked power supply is a high-amperage electric shock waiting to happen.
Miles, dude, if you're reading this, DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT POWER SUPPLY!
"I am an Adept of Tantric VAX."
seriously - check out www.mini-itx.com for some greate case mods. they use the low power, how heat via mini-itx motherboards and look perfect for interesting case mod projects. not high power work stations, but just right for pretty media boxes or advanced routeres, even a nice quiet workstation.
No, I'm not going to "just install flash"
The major reason to not install it: How the hell do you make it go away? Why can't I disable it, or get a pop-up "Would you like ot view the Flash content on this webpage?" After installing Flash, I see lots of stupid ads that never bugged me before.
Flash was cool like five years ago when gabocorp.com was making us cream our jeans. Now it's basically a glorified pop-up ad, and I don't have the patience any longer.
I haven't felt the need to shoot my box since canning WinME in favor of RH7.3.... Bye Bye Lexan...
There is a way to turn it on and off at will via shortcuts (in win200), it works well.
I made the same comlaint a wile back, and someone told me how. Unfortunatly, since /.'s search engine leave much to be desired. I can't find the origonal post on how to do it. Hopefully someone will post it again.
But seriously, I think Slashdot submitters should make sure the linked information is on the web. Flash doesn't count.
A tip for Mozilla users:
-- or wherever your plugin directory is. It works with other Mozilla-based browsers such as Phoenix and Galeon. It stops the browser asking if you want to get Flash every time you load a page with a flash file on it. You will get just one more annoying pop-up, on which you can tell it to stop bothering you about plugins.
You can use a special separate instance of Mozilla for when you want to use plugins. It's much less trouble than dealing with them all the time when you're just trying to browse the web.
. . . and even got my wife tricking out her box.
Could you post a picture of that?
think about it, on his resume he can put:
"wrote flash program viewed by over 100,000 people!"
and
"/. did a story that used my flash skills"
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
well lets see... ~300k or so for 15+ pictures including thumbnails, and you get them all at once with no server CPU time other than transferring the file.
/. effect. instead of download 10k thumbnail (server request), click (server request), view 90k image, close, repeat 15 times, you click once, download 300k (1 server request total) and you're done.
i think flash probably REDUCED the
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
This Guy!
Opening up your monitor should always come with some sort of DEATH IS EMMINANT warning. And running your power supply with the cover off? What the? Especially with little kids around, sheesh.
On a more intelligent note, does anyone have any background or experience with removing the shielding on cases? I remember visiting an engineering firm where they field tested new electronic devices to see if they met FCC requirements for emissions - they noted that they have tested computer equipment and cases before, although they mainly stick to car radios and whatnot, and that they have rejected many test subjects. Most case mods involve some sort of window that I would tend to think would cause interference with adjacent electronic devices. Any thoughts on this, or anyone know of problems setting modded cases next to your monitor/speakers/TV/entertainment equipment? Perhaps all the other devices' shielding is enough to protect it.
There is an open fan on the front of the Kids gaming machine. Just right for the little darlings to stuff candy, straws, pens, peanut butter with jelly and even fingers in to the ~4k RPM fan. EEK!
I like this guy.
Heroscape, it's like legos combined with anachronistic wargames.
Spumco Studios did more for Flash as art form than anyone. "Weekend Pussy Hunt," "The Goddamn George Liquor Show"...great fsckn stuff. Only people in their league was Camp Chaos, famous for "Napster Bad!" and "This Thing Of Ours" which was The Sopranos before The Sopranos were The Sopranos. I think they're still around: http://www.campchaos.com/
Spumco now have the happy situation of being busy with two different projects, "The Ripping Friends" and the revival of "The Ren & Stimpy Show" so they can't really spend much more time doing online cartoons anymore. Their website isn't even up anymore, alas. But the prospect of more Ren & Stimpy episodes and more Ripping Friends episodes makes their web silence bearable.
Spumco contributed a lot of ideas to Macromedia during the evolution of the Flash product. Whether that's a good thing or not depends on what you think about Flash. But many of the improvements in the program during its evolution are directly traceable to feedback from Spumco.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
I'm not making any judgements, just making an observation.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
If you short large capacitors to ground, you are likely (At best) going to vaporize the screwdriver you attempted to do this with. Don't ask me how I know. Please use a proper capacitor discharge apparatus, and if you don't know how to build one or where to get one, then do not attempt this. Power supplies and monitors can carry lethal charges for days or weeks after they are unplugged.
..don't panic
No I never $av3 th8t pr0bl3m
dam6 keyb0ard 1t a1way5 d0e5 thi5. 1 can`7 f1gure 1t 0u7.
Just like a market sprang up to take advantage of idiot teenage kids by selling them coffee cans mufflers for $300 a piece, I'm sure an industry will also spring up to sell heatsinks engraved with Wozniak's autograph and licked by Torvalds' pet goat for $500 a pop.
No wait, how many of these teeny bopper leet-freaks even know who Woz is?
Why should I have to install a plug-in to view this content? This guy has basically decided he doesn't want to make the information on his site available in a standard fashion, so he went the "graphics design" approach and wrote it all in a little Flash application instead.
.exe file with my nifty little animations and custom display wisgets and all. Windows people can just click on 'Open' to start up my "web site", and to hell with other OS's that don't have a Windows compatibility layer.
If he doesn't want to bother making his information available for those that don't want to or can't install this plug-in, I'm not going to bother installing that plug-in to view his content. *shrug* It's really not worth it to me.
Standards should always be the lowest-common denominator, with fluff like Flash used for tasks where it's appropriate, and only as a supplement. Here it appears he's relying 100% on it for his entire web site (or is it a "flash site" now?).
I might as well build a web site that just contains a Windows
At least you're not a Lynx user:
"I'd like to see that case mod, but, man, that guy's using images..."
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
It appears that a LOT of readers either don't have or have disabled Flash, and I'm one of them. It might be worth waiting until the website repairs their site into something standards-conforming. HTML + PNG preferred.
give me a break... you know what you are? a standards snob. is xhtml ok? will gif cut the mustard if it's lighter and looks the same? do you roll over all of the images of every site you visit and get their url to make sure they conform to your standards?
marshall mcluhan aside, the medium is not the entirety of the message. it's really pigheaded to reject content out of hand based on the delivery format.
flash is an open file format (look here and the latest version of flash has gone a long way towards meeting accessibility requirements. so suck it up, and stop spreading FUD.
Just raise the taxes on crack.
> "Just install Flash" is a fair enough comment...
"Go bite a sidewalk" would be a fair enough reply.
> it's just a case of tracking where the main plugin directory
> is for each particular combination of distro and Mozilla.
That part's easy. I know where the plugins go. The problem is,
convincing myself to tollerate having Flash installed. I can't.
Last time I had it installed, it didn't make it 24 hours before going
into a deletium tube. I'm one of those guys who deletes the default
plugin just so I won't have to keep getting the "install flash"
dialog boxes. (The plugins I _want_, such as Java, I already have.)
I don't _want_ my browser to flash. I want it to lay the page out
once and then leave it that way so I can read it. If the page author
has a problem with that, there are millions of other sites out there,
and I won't have time to read even just the interesting ones anyway.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
Y'know, this always annoys me... If people want to browse without flash or javascript, more power to them, but don't try to tell the world it's evil and unnecessary.
Yes, you can make a perfectly good information bearing website out of pure HTML. If you're a company trying to promote your business, or just a person trying to promote themselves, then you probably do want to use the most backward-compatable code you possibly can. But not all of the internet is about doing business. I know it's hard to imagine, given that it has more ads than NYC, but there are parts of the internet not entirely about self-promotion.
HTML and its variants can also be an artistic medium; easily as much so as actual programming languages or traditional media. Maybe you believe that nothing on a webpage should move, but perhaps a web designer with an artistic streak feels that his personal, non-promotional webpage really Needs to have a spiffy rotating interface. If you don't like it, don't go look at it, but don't try to tell us all how to design webpages. This guy's page is just about his personal case-modding. He's not trying to sell cases or promote himself for something. He's not even offering any content that you might really need access to. He's writing about his artistic expression, and I can't think of any more appropriate subject matter to be creative in the formatting of. I'm sure he could have made a very sleek, stream-lined, professional page in pure HTML with PNG images, but he apparently didn't want to. I happen to have flash and javascript both enabled, and (as a former professional web designer with an artistic bent who never used flash or javascript for a professional page) I thought it looked pretty good.
So if you don't like flash, then fine, turn it off and be happy. But don't say that if it's not pure HTML it's not worth looking at. It's like saying that painters should only be allowed to use black and white, so as to not offend the colorblind.
"If a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live" -- MLK, Jr.
The worst part is, my company is developing products in Flash. They wanted me to help, so I installed their content-generation tool, Flash MX. I was afraid, but I guess so many people hate what they create with the damn thing, they forced the issue--there's a box at one point that allows you to not install the plugin for IE. AND IT DEFAULTS TO NO! I just about crapped my pants when I saw that.
Jouster
Java
.sig is "Macromedia sucks" or something to that effect, and it links to a press release on Macromedia's site about a partnership between them and DoubleClick, the ad people. Bah!
/., I'm a /. subscriber.
a) runs in a sandbox.
b) runs in a window.
c) requires my explicit permission to do anything more than add one and one together and display the result.
Neither JavaScript nor Flash have these properties. I'm on WinXP, so it's trivial for me to install Flash (just click once on the "Missing Plugin" image). There is, of course, no chance in hell that I'm going to do this.
Somebody's
And before you accuse me of hypocrisy for not liking ads but using
Jouster
My point was simply that until Apple came out with their "tract homes", nobody really paid much attention to how their PCs looked. If you've moved beyond the Mac and are making your own modifications to your PC case, that's great, but you have to admit that Apple sparked something.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
"Tricking out her box" (on images.google.com) is "What prompted the transformation in my political thinking"
http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
...more of your wife in her swimsuit...woo hoo!
http://www.designmethod.com/JWF/Swim/
I'll take a picture #9, but could you have her switch the the bikini next time? Thanks man. Oh yeah, um, nice case.
Why is that no one takes the time to link their links anymore? it takes like two seconds and saves god knows how many people from having to cut, open a new browser window manualy, and paste. You also don't have to wory about slashdot putting spaces in your links that way either.
Im seeing this more and more all the time.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I wouldn't go so far as to call these mods 'beautyfull'. The Furby-modded case shure is cool and shows a stylish consistency thoughout - allthough I don't like the style.
But the rest? Cutting holes, spraying bizare paint and setting up even more bizare lighting isn't what I call beautyfull.
In fact, that monitor-mod really is ugly as hell.
I do admire his craftmanship and clean work though. He must have a good shop in order to get that finished in 6 hours.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Disable: %windir%\SYSTEM32\regsvr32.exe C:\WinNT\System32\Macromed\Flash\swflash.ocx /u
Enable: %windir%\SYSTEM32\regsvr32.exe C:\WinNT\System32\Macromed\Flash\swflash.ocx
That's what I have for my shorcuts, you may have to change the path a bit for your box.