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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."
Add a little James-Bond-Esque laser to it. Just make sure she takes it off with the rest of her stuff before you tie her up. ;-)
Informatus Technologicus
What ever you get, do *not* engrave a date inside - too often it turns out to be a "best before" date.
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
How about a secret compartment in which you can keep a cyanide pill?
:)
This is cool in a James Bond kind of way AND you will have a quick way out of the marriage if the mother in law gets too much.
People couldn't type. We realized: Death would eventually take care of this.
that when put into the hearth, shows funny-looking script characters on the inside, resizes itself to fit the wearer's finger, and answers to the name of "Precious."
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.
Eventually after lots of pain she came to appreciate her original ring more than the regular engagement ring, but it took many months and quite a few girlfriends to say "wow that is a nice stone".
Now about the use of the ring, it sends a message to her: I love you so much that I'm happy to waste a few grand on you.
Lastly, sometimes the most beautiful objects are those with no use at all. The caves of Lascaux painted 15,000 years ago are one of the most beautiful sights you could ever see.
** Try to argue that M$ is other than absolute evil or that Linux could be improved here, and you'll see what I mean
http://www.ibutton.com/
It allows you to store cryptographic keys, and more.
Design a ring that uses that as the facet, and you're all set. Very functional, very useful.
GPL'd web-based tradewars themed space game
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
My wedding ring is pretty geeky -- it's titanium with engraving -- dots and vertical lines representing 0's and 1's, which spell out my wife's initials in binary (in 5-bit letters). I got it here; the guy that runs the place is very open into making custom-made designs.
;-) Now only if I could find a titanium hat -- the tin ones are so 20th century.
I had thought about actually using it for something, like an encryption key -- for example if I started at a certain place on the ring, went a certain direction and counted up 7 or 8 bit ascii words, I could get a passphrase after a while, a pretty strong one. At this point all I would need to memorize for a theoretically very long passphrase would be the starting location, direction, and number of letters.
Even if the men in black kidnapped me and found my ring, they would still have a hard time figuring it out
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.
A lot of people really detest the diamond industry. I for one hate DeBeers, even more than I dislike Microsoft. At least Microsoft doesn't use slave labour, murder people, and abuse their workers. It's hard to justify a shiny peice of carbon with an artifically high price on it when you look at all the human rights violations the companies that mine them cause.
I know there's sociatal pressures that say you need to have a diamond. And why? Because DeBeers invented it!
http://www.africanfront.com/diamondboycott.php
There's one link, I'm sure you can find more with a quick google.
The concept that everything must have a function is indicative that you live in a capitalist society, which assigns value to objects which provide utility. That, which does not provide a function, is valued less than that, which does. I proffer, that a ring can be art for the sake of art without function and still have worth.
I assume you gravitate towards a utilitarian theme, as you are trying to avoid another vice of the capitalist middle class -- a flagrant display of wealth through the donning of ever-growing mass-produced gold rings with diamonds.
In an attempt to avoid both, my wife and I purchased our nontraditional rings at a modern-art museum. Thus finding something that didn't require the context of society to be of worth for its utilitarian appeal or it's perceived monetary value.
Good luck.
Linux : Mac
Rings with compartments were very common durring the late 70's and the 80's. They were used for storing cocaine.
... in fact I'm afraid that if I put forward a practical idea I might be modded down as on topic.
;-)
Still, I have no idea if this is possible, but would it be possible to make two rings that can sense when they are near each other and change in some way? Let see now, transmitter, reciever, power source (tiny solar cell?) indicator (led? heating element? not a noice or a vibration otherwise it'll drive you mad being together) - it might be just do-able. The japanese are fond of those badges that do this.
Problem will be size of course, so perhaps this idea is not practicable, unless you both have big hands.
OK, then, perhaps you need something mechanical. Hmm. Perhaps something that you get when you fit both rings together? A key, perhaps?
Best suggestion so far is the guy with his SO's name engraved on one of those cool titanium rings. Sequence her DNA and write that on it!
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
We found a local jewler and asked if he could fashion two gold rings in the shape of a mobius strip (a one sided one edged object). We showed him, out of paper, what a mobius strip was and what it could do. A month later, and for a total cost of $90 (in the 80's) we had two rings with a half twist. To make the rings comfortable and keep the twist in a certain place he had slightly flattened the underside of the ring so that it wouldn't ride around on our fingers. (for those interested, to make a one sided one edged solid gold object he created the twist in a mold and then poured the gold into the mold.)
I always liked the mobius strip rings... there is certainly symbolism in them (no 2 sides, but 1 side... 2 people working together as 1, etc...). Nobody else had anything like them and they were quite attractive.
Aloha Nui Loa for your upcoming wedding - hope to see you honeymoon here on the active volcano in Hawaii.
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!
Youll be lucky to get 1/10 of what you paid for it. GOld jewelery alwasy sells at a little bit above melt value, and noone buys diamonds for anywhere close to what they sell them for. This has been repeately documented, but hasnt sunk into the brains of the populaion yet. Want resale value? Buy gold, silver bars and coins.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
A diamond ring has the inherent functionality of being able to score glass. With a little practice, she can become adept at permanent warchalking on the windows of businesses with poor wi-fi security.
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
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'.
Just don't tell you fiance this when you have her in bed. She might start asking what her "use" is.
We didn't do the engagement ring thing, and we bought 2 beautiful silver rings for our wedding bands. Total cost with shipping was just shy of $100. We're both proud of the cheapness factor, as we know the price of precious metals/stones is such a sham. Though, you'd be amazed at how many women turned their noses up at the rings. She doesn't care (that's my girl!) and neither to I. The rings are beautiful and we both love them, and that's all that really matters.
I got this ring, the knots symbolic of my science/math/mechanical nature. I'm the organized one in the pair; I bring order to the chaos. In turn, she has this ring, the ivy symbolic of her being the more "wild" of the two of us. She gets me out into the sun and has a better sense of adventure. We're a perfect match, and over the years our personalities have melded a bit, which goes well with silver (a highly malleable metal). I'm thinking for our 10th anniversary, we might get a new set of rings, but with both having the ivy and knots intertwined (that is, if the owner of this site will custom make them). We may even try to get them in platinum or tungsten, much more sturdy metals.
We've been married 5.5 years and are closer than ever.
Yeah, it's all symbolic, and has no utility value. But my going on about this is simply to illustrate that one can ditch the status quo and have much more meaningful symbolism than "Look! he spent 2 month's salary on this boring ring of gold with a fleck of clear rock on it!"
I encourage everyone to browse the site linked above: metalsmiths.com. The guy has rings made of meteorite that I'd like to get -- too cool! His work is truly unique.
My only suggestion for a practical ring would be either a sun dial type of ring (calibrated for your latitude, of course) or a very simple, solid and heavy ring of platinum which you could hawk if you ever got into a real jam. About the latter suggestion... I've ready to many "urban survival" threads in misc.survival. ;-)
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