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Modding A Paper Shredder
detaks writes "The university of alberta's undergraduate computing science student group modded the office shredder, with duct tape, 110volt case fans, and a athlon fan, to increase the speed of the paper shredder from 12 to 37 pages shredded before overheating. You can also read it in the google cache"
They can now cook their books in half the time!
Can you imagine this in the hands of the corporate people who want to "cover" their paper tracks - I shudder to think this is what is becomming of the world
OS/2 - because choice is a terrible thing to waste.
Just burn all the important docs at once instead of using fans to keep the motor on theirs from catching fire.
Slashdotted already? Before any comments were posted?
Wow. Either that, or the link, is, well, wrong...
Maybe they should have used some of those fans, and the duct tape, and overclocked their server.
Not everyone deserves a 320i
Duct Tape, of course! Ever see the Red Green Show? Now all they need are some blue tarps.
If only Enron and Worldcom had invested in this new type of shredder, they would still be in business!
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
Call me a troll, but what is so special about this? :) Their server appears to be down, so I can't read the article to find out.
Speaking of which, that's the last place you think of having cooling problems. Why not put the thing outside a save a few bucks?
"Da ist ein Technölüst in mein Unterpanten!"
One heavy duty paper shredder, for all you CFO's needs. Cut your bottom line in half, literally!!!
"As long as defiance continues, they can't claim victory." -Slashdot comment
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I was just wondering how and when the corporate scandal news would finally pass from the minds of large corporate investors, and now this.
I wonder if this qualifies as enabling technology for comitting corporate crime, much like watching DVDs on Linux is for copyright violations. I wonder if it would be pursued as stridently.
...I'm scared to think of what these people would do to this poor shreader if they were introduced to liquid nitrogen cooling.
--
http://nemilar.net - Not your grandmother's soup kitchen
Now all that they need to do is add some stripes and a backwards "R" to it. ;)
Don't call my crazy, that's what they called me back in the home!
http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~uacs/events/shredder. html
french bread slicer we made which, when modified to run backwards, could shoot the two halves to hit the ceiling at such speed that if it was days-old, it could shatter the bread :)
;)
But then again, that's what mechanical engineering students should be up to
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
the right URL is:
. html
http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~uacs/events/shredder
At least in Calgary we know how to spell. Or were they putting med school volunteers through El Shreddoro? All you Edmontonians can give us is a modded shredder and Space Moose.
[/playful troll]
(BTW, those Space Moose comics are not office friendly. You've been warned!)
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
This story reminds me of the vid clip I saw on this page. Totally pointless, but very cool - I've never seen anything chop through wood quite so quick - and the sound it makes it almost worth the effort...
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
Anyone know what mods work best for converting it to do puppies?
The server is down because they ripped its fans out to sup-up the shedder.
Patent: from Latin patere, to be open
Did anyone else see that new Heineken commercial where you see a nice
Christmas party looking into the apartment from outside. Snow is
falling. Then the camera moves up to where a bunch of executives are
shredding paper out the window.
NIce.
Now they should mod a garbage disposal and see how fast it can eat up a christmas ham. The puree will go to charity of course...
Highly entertaining read, and props for putting the Google Cache link into the summary.
On that note, I'm going home.
--
Santa isn't going to deliver your first post because you're such a bitch.
Modding it to be cooler so it runs longer?
...
... really ... hot ...
Nah.
I bet you it destroys more paper if you mod it to run hot
really
I love how the whole thing is held onto the recycle bin with the shaft of a sledge hammer!
___ This sig is in boldface to emphasize its importance!
Maybe you should check the "No Score +1 Bonus" box and start posting responsibly.
You don't need a bonus to point out that a site is slashdotted, and the editors have provided a link to google's cache.
Whit it, troll, offtopic and flamebait posts would be auto-erradicated enabling moderators to dedicate points to quality posts.
All it takes is mention of the words "case fan" for Slashdot to get a hardon and proclaim the story "news worthy".
oh santa please please please
RTFM; please, I beg you.
Now you americans have to make something even faster, bigger and ofcourse cheaper! Oh wait it's korea that makes it cheaper :p
I fought the corporate America, and the corporate America bought the law.
If someone can wade through the uber-cool-intelligent-student humor and tell me what the fuck they actually did, that would be much appreciated.
I had to stop reading after about the third paragraph due to a headache.
"And like that
It's overclocked. It would be modded if it gained an aluminium case with a window, some blue lights, something to measure fan RPM and "whohoo, l33t" dremelled into the side.
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
A flamethrower made from an old Gateway would have been more economical!
Bored with karma, be a fan/freak
Look at the bottom of the Web page and look for modded water bottle. Insane. :)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
...they need to paint it black, put a window on the side, and put neon light sticks inside!
If they're going to take it to the next step, they should have SHRED parties where all they do is show off their l33t 5hr33d1n6 machines.
Using some duct tape, a gerbil, and a shoe-horn, some students got their pooper to go from 12" turds to 35" monster turds!
I hate to think what happens when your tie gets caught in this machine ;D
--
You know it makes sense, a little reminder from jointm1k.
Will it run Linux?
Mmmmmm... Bold, yet refreshing!
When I used to live in the US I loved that show .. ahh the memories it brings back
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Wouldn't a full-on geek have bypassed the heat sensor entirely and put a gas engine in there?
Nitro-charged brush shredders, and then some vacuums exploding.
That, my friends, is a well-booked weekend.
Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
Posting at 0, I'm not going to be bothering the majority of the slashdot crowd.
It just irritates me to see people use their +1 bonus for every single post.
Guess what? Everything you post doesn't necessarily deserve to be scored at 2.
I'd be afraid to go to this hospital.
My Ass hurts.
the speed was not increased from 12 to 37 pages. the number of books shred before overheat was increased from 12 to 37
Paper shredders mod YOU!
(Try not to imagine it)
...were these students once aspiring to be Enron employees or something? (Seriously though, A: who cares and B: what's the point)
...by an episode of Home Improvement.
Soon we'll see a Slashback linking to the Darwin Awards.
1) there sense of humour is lame
2) there idea of fun is warped
3) if they were engineering students they would well have directed the shredded output to a mini incinerator and used this to a run a cooling pump - this is also more secure (ask the Iranians).
4) they did a half assed job to make it work and expect to get rewarded (are they on MS scholarships?)
The Singularity is closer than you think
Quant
We should outlaw shredder "mods". These are obviously an attempt to rob shredder manufacturers of the profits from their "razor-and-blade" business model of selling third-rate plastic products and expecting customers to buy a new one every year. Shredder hackers must be stopped.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
Pooper Shitter mods YOU!
Or is this a Canadian thing?
--sdem
What the hell is this doing on slashdot.
They demonstrated a tripling of the throughput of the machine with those soup-it-up fans! That's impressive. I'll bet that's better than the fan-and-heatsink donor got from his Athlon. It's too bad they couldn't get that "1 Roll eXtreme Duck Tape" to physically support the twin 120 volt fans to really cool off the beast. My experience with these (shredder) devices is that there is another metric besides raw throughput that makes all the difference in perceived "beastliness", and that's the speed of the feeder, analogous to the "first page" speed of a printer, except obviously the opposite. And as long as they have to run 120 VAC to it, they can add all sorts of lights and stuff. (For more 120 VAC computer projects, see etherkillers). Maybe with some tweaking they can hack a truly useful device that attaches to the output bin of a fast printer, and shreds as fast as the pages come out. Then they can haul away the incriminating evidence as fast as it's output.
Everything I've ever learned the hard way was based on a statistically invalid sample.
-CF
All it needs now is to be water cooled, a hand painted case, a window kit on the side, and some neon lights!
http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~uacs/events/bottle.ht ml
What are they putting in the food up there?
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
I always thought it was a pun on "Splashback", as in urinal.
A perfect example of people who have far too much time on their hands.
Watching them stuff magazines into this baby was a blast, and there was a croud well into the hallway trying to look when I was there.
and by reading that page, you can get an idea of what our weekly department e-mails are like.. it's nice to have VP's with a good sense of humour for once.
What is the use in having so many links, when all we want to see is the actual article? I take it as a jab at my computing abilities that the poster must link to the University of Alberta, since I can easily just remove all but the meat of the URL. I guess it doesn't really matter either way, but, just seems kinda useless to me.
I think my principles are reachin' an all time low
It couldn't make it through the number of credit card offers I get in the mail everyday.
What's up with all the stupid links? Is the poster from that university?
Nuff said
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
As if grammar nazis weren't enough, now we have the semantics gastapo! Lovely! ;)
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
Not much snow, except the upper heights, here in BC either. Kamloops, Merritt, Vancouver... all bare.
Which leads me to think... computers+snow, not good.
that university is a waste of time, talent, energy and money?
If you're an employer, who would you rather have on your EE team:
1) Someone who had to go to university to play with paper shredders(??????)
2) Someone who since age 12 has explored electronics on his own, owned a scope in high school, handed in high school work printed out with graphics and captured video stills in the late 80s, and who still has a home lab and programs microcontrollers, but because of social and uncontrollable forces hasn't gone to university?
Employers choose 1 all too often.
That's why technology is in the shitter.
Have fun people!
I'm sweeping floors in Metro stations and making good money!
Ok, so there are legitimate uses of shredders that would make it bad to just send out copies, but legitimate users wouldn't mind having their picture taken (much). Maybe the mods should enable themselves after hours.
Illinois Gov. George Ryan would never have become Governor if it hadn't taken so long before we learned about the shredding party at the Sec. of State offices before he was elected.
... I wonder if this work contracted by Global Crossing or Adelphia?
"We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it" -- Winston Churchill
Was one of the most stupid things I have ever seen.
I could be wrong. I could also be overthinking this entire thing and your post should be modified as funny over interesting (no offense).
This article has to be one of the most amateur efforts at 'humorous' writing that I have ever had the displeasure of reading. If you're a funny person, by all means incorporate that into your writing. However, if you aren't, as this person clearly is not, stay away from this type of writing!
you find out what other comp sci students are doing through slashdot. Man I go to U of A, yet I learn more about my school through the internet then through social contact. Could it be time for me to step outside? Wait, this is Edmonton too cold. I'll just wait until summer
So many clever witticisms, it just gave me a headache reading it. What's up with the lame, wannabe "geek" humour?
The Welkin: Online Music Reviews
Yeah we all know college is a party, but carrying stories like this, where an acredited learning institutions students are wasting their research time with such frivoulus pursuits makes CS look bad in general.
If I were an ulumni I would be less inclined to donate.
Its not 1 modded paper shredder, its 32425. Some of them just happen to be fast.
That way you can scan the documents as they are being shred.
I have seen military grade. They'll shred 100's of pages per minute, into pieces roughly 1/4" by 1/10".
Then they go out and burn it.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Don't you hate news stories where almost every damn word is a link ?
what's this off-brand shredder they modded?? You want a high-performance shredder, start with a quality unit: FELLOWES POWERSHRED.
these bad boys can shred paper, staples, paper clips, CREDIT CARDS, cardboard, you name it, if it fits in the slot, it can probably be shredded by the POWERSHRED
I've got one of the $200+ units and MAN I LOVE SHREDDING STUFF it's better than when you were a kid and set fire to everything (well at least that's something I did, those of you who are socially adjusted probably didn't).
800 pages per day!
8 sheets at a time
heavy duty
boo-yah
hm. so heat is generated by resistance of paper to cutting. sharpen blades, decrease reisistance, decrease heat, increase life of paper shredder. THEN add cooling fans.
just a thought.
moox. for a new generation.
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!
bash$
a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ens ue
at a time of peace and without provocation
LOL - this bit alone is proof enough you don't know what you're talking about. You're spoon fed by CNN and think you understand the world. Sad.
Real shredders use 3-phase!
"What I look forward to is continued immaturity followed by death."
I've had a pillow duct taped around my head since I was a child.
Take that, whoever you are!
Apologies if this is redundant, the URL to the story should be:e dder. html
http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~uacs/events/shr
Kind of interesting to see something from my University posted on slashdot. Kind of sad that it required modding a paper shredder...
When I read the title I was hoping they build a scanner into the shredder that sends the almost-shredded documents via wifi to somewhere else, preventing sabotage.
The FBI should make these and plant them at Accenture. Handy industrial espionage tool, too.
Just checking.
You don't need 115v to shred! This is only crap the shredding industry feeds to you to get you to upgrade! Try running the motor with 80volts and see how long it will run. So it runs slower. You don't need a 3Ghz cpu either!
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Just pour the LN2 on the paper and hit it with a hammer a few times. I bet that would shatter the old record. Pun intended!
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
We've had a number of placements from their CompSci Co-Op program -- I can't recomend it enough. If you're looking for good students, this place has them.
:)
They have extremely long placements (16-18 months -- unlike some other programs we've termed "bungee" programs *cough*Waterloo*cough*) which allows the students to become part of the team, and take on much meatier tasks.
We've hired a few of the students we've had after they graduated... take some time and investigate the program if you're either looking to go to school, or looking for some interns.
Did I mention I think quite highly of the program?
Modding a bookcase? How about a CD rack? A toolbox?
Yeah, I've got a space heater in my garage that would benefit from a new coat of paint, a plexiglass window, and some pink neon lights.
Now, if somone were to mod a Mainframe. Like an old 370 or something... THAT would be cool to see.
Huh?
How about a modded toaster. It'd be just as useful.
What the hell else are they going to do in alberta?
Bitch about kyoto?
Count the cows?
I'm sure their next project will involve overclocking a milking machine.
Sigh.. just what big corporations need..
I am not this bored yet. I have enough fun playing with PCs
one for obvious reasons.
666 for legal(DMCA) reasons
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
Not a single Enron or Andersen joke to be seen. Come on people, what's this place coming to?
a Beowulf cluster of these!
The proper link is http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~uacs/events/shredder. html (Note the lack of a leading 'www'). I presume that ugweb stands for undergraduate web pages.
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
That they're down to buying cheap paper shredders leaves me worrying that the society is now in dire financial straights -- and they're probably selling beer for $2.00/glass now.
And the proper link is http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~uacs/events/shredder. html (note the lack of a leading 'www').
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
With more pitful disregard for anything remotely resembling quality journalism, it seems slashdot editors don't even click on links to see if they work now.
CORRECT SHREDDER LINK
Hemos, working as he usually does, repsonds to CmdrTaco's question about the link working. "Of course it works. Why wouldn't it work? No one would send us a broken link. That's impossible. Also, since i'm telepathic now, I don't even need to read the story to know it's front page material. Damn I'm good."
Hemos cliks *post*, grinning smugly, "Congratulations, Hemos, another feather in your cap. Job well done."
If you really want to shred papers faster, just use a mulcher or high-power bulk chipper. The larger version can turn a full tree trunk into chips in mere seconds.
Forget paper shredders.
www.Beyond7.com Insane modern art water sculpture.
Being winter and all, why not use something like this to fulfill your phone book destruction needs instead? Rather than stopping when it overheats, it works faster as it gets hotter. And instead of having to take a break after A-C, it can handle two or three area codes at a time.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the War Room!
The Richard Nixon Model!
yes, www.dotcomforwardslash.com is my real URL.
Gay !
Canada must really be a crappy country. Viva USA!
I was in Costco the other day, and I noticed that they now sell shredders that can shred CDs and credit cards. They have a slot on top to slide them in and shred them. This is great, as I can now shred all my crap if the feds bust me ;)
Because you have no sense of humour
Not only that I would imagine Dick Cheney's energy task force or how about Cardinal Law?
Yeah, but how many frames per second does it do with FSAA?
**NOTE:
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
There's a link to their modded water bottle, too!
http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~uacs/events/shredder. html
....
...I'm sure most of you already figured that out...
The original post added the "www"
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
Umm... not reading the article you would be lead to believe that this shredder only shredded 12 pages before it overheated, and now it can do 37! Wow! Says nothing about the speed of the shredding though.... but of course we all read the articles now don't we?
You're nothing; like me.
Grand Master Turing once dreamed that he was a machine. When he awoke
he exclaimed:
"I don't know whether I am Turing dreaming that I am a machine,
or a machine dreaming that I am Turing!"
-- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"
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