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Suggestions for Functional Jewelry?
szyzyg asks: "I'm getting married and my girlfriend and I have been looking around at rings and not really getting anywhere. I have all sorts of high concepts about what this should represent and I keep coming back to the thought 'nothing which is useless can be truly beautiful'. So I've been fighting with the idea of how to make a ring which has some use beyond simple symbolism... concepts like using magnetic minerals to turn it into a compass, or engraving some sort of measuring mechanism into it. So here's the challenge I'm putting to the Slashdot bright idea machine: How do I make a simple piece of jewelry useful? Someone out there must have better ideas."
For those who are not socially inept the wedding ring serves as a very simple communication device. It informs people as to who is 'off the market'. This same type of communication has been acheived by other cultures in different forms, eg a red dot on the forehead or a basil plant in the window.
Thoughts on tech, Software Engineering, and stuff
You dont want your future mother-in-law saying "Well that Billy is a nice boy - but geesh did you see that ring he bought her? I thought those computer people made good money?" know what I mean? :)
If you want to make her one - go for it - but get a expensive one to put on her finger in front of the preach...
Duke
FreeBSD: Nothing runs like a daemon with a pitch fork.
I really do wish you luck, but did you run this past her?
Are you **ABSOLUTELY** **CERTAIN** she's OK with the idea of jewelry that "does stuff"?
Don't get me wrong - I'd love the idea of having a ring that could double as a compass or has a laser or maybe has a web server in it. But I'm not a chick for a reason. My wife would have killed me if I got her a ring that did anything except sit there and depreciate - that's why I let her pick it out. If nothing else, tell her that its super-power is that it also cuts glass.
Seriously, man -- stop the bleeding before it starts. THIS COULD BE A TEST! Chicks *love* doing kind of thing to us.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
Whatever else you might try to make it do, first ensure that your choice accomplishes the basics. It must:
Oh, and one more suggestion, something I learned the hard way: make sure that it doesn't have any sharp points sticking up. My wife's first ring (the diamond fell out at the beach one day, so she got a new one) had these fairly sharp points on the tips of the prongs around the solitaire. Every time she'd roll over to cuddle up in bed, I'd end up bleeding.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Jewelry is very functional: it advertises disposable wealth and social status. In that sense it serves as a piece of a larger key to open doors in circles you may not otherwise have access to... Even things you may not expect like recieving bank loans are easier if you have properly announced status. However, if your ring is too otherwise functional, it ceases to advertise either wealth or location in social heirarchy.
Jewelry also serves as a store of value... if anything happens she can sell the ring and live for a month. On the finger at all times is a very convienient location for a rainy day fund, especially if you have to leave suddenly with nothing but the clothes on your back and your children.
The ______ Agenda
Don't forget that any technology that you put into the ring will probably become obsolete within a few years, so unless you are specifically planning on either upgrading the ring or upgrading your wife, I recommend going the traditional route.
What may seem novel or cool today will probably not seem so novel or cool 20 years from now. Remember that the ring is a symbol of your marriage. What ring you select should reflect what you value in your marriage and your spouse.
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
There's always synthetics. :P Same molecular arrangement, better quality, lot less exploitation. :P
really? I have one that would rather have a trip to hawaii, surf for 10 days straight, put the little silver band around her finger and grin like a school girl hooped up on sugar.
You see bud, it is not about the diamond. It is about knowing your girl. Some women want the diamond to show it off, others want a basic ring with a huge ass story behind it that every time someone asks her why she does not have a diamond she launches into her month long surf trip around the pacific.
I have that girl, and I am going to keep her. You can have the one that wants the diamond.
Neck_of_the_Woods
#/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
geeks are products of a utilitarian society. why do you think geeks get paid so much? it's our utility to society (which is mirrored in his desire to seek functionality in his jewelry).
Oh, please. My dad got into programming long before it was fashionable or lucrative. And I started young, spending far too much of my youth in my basement, hacking away, without thought of lucre.
I do well programming, but for me it's something I can't not to, like a musician and his music. If I had a day job waiting tables, I'd still be writing code at night. And I frequently choose jobs that are interesting over ones that pay better.
Many of the most geeky people I know are budding scientists who work 60 or 80 hours a week for wages so low that it's probably illegal. But they don't care, because they're doing what they love, and they think of themselves as lucky.
And many of the most money-driven people I know aren't utilitarian at all. They spend absurd sums of money on fancy cars, fancy clothes, and big houses that they don't use, but only after spending more money decorating the place in shockingly un-useful ways.
So the notion that socially clueless geeks are the ones most influenced by society doesn't strike me as a very plausible thesis.
.... have an use, 15000 years ago, the paintings also.
Arts in any era fullfill many very important social functions.
Diamonds do, but the horrifying background of how that trade works should put off all but the most indecent people.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
This part of the parent post is entirely false. As a matter of fact, it highlights the most common misconception about diamonds.
Within the United States, you can buy a diamond for exactly what you can sell it for, no more, no less (otherwise, you couldn't buy and sell diamonds on eBay, for being able to buy something on eBay is defined as being able to buy it for what you can sell it for). If you buy a raw diamond for anything more than 1%-2% more than you can sell it for, you are being ripped off. Indeed, it is THAT fact which "hasn't sunk into the brains of the population yet". Diamonds are one of the most fungible goods known to mankind, even more fungible than gold (because the value of gold fluctuates widely and regularly, but the value of diamonds typically do not).
However, finished jewelry is different. A Diamond + A setting will ALWAYS cost more than the sum of the parts. If you're looking to buy a diamond ring, the best thing to do is to buy a diamond wholesale and take it to a jeweler to have a setting custom-made. Alternatively, sites such as BlueNile will allow you to buy a diamond and then have a setting made (although you will pay more than it is worth, you will not get as ripped off as with pre-finished jewelry.)
I first became interested in diamonds several years ago (when traveling to Russia and then Brazil) and have taken several courses in identifying and appraising diamonds from different Gem Labs in the US and overseas. One of the first things they taught us was the misconception in the parent post, and how to exploit it.
Statistically speaking, there's a 99.998% chance that my IQ is higher than yours. Get over it.