Slashdot Mirror
Building Your Own Glowing Cyber-Balls?
krezel asks: "So I've been drooling over the Ambient Orb, a cool little gadget 'glowing ball' that you changes colors based the 'health' of things you specify. It can do stuff like fade from red to yellow to green as your stock portfolio improves. However, being a poor college student I can't afford its $200 price tag. I've found lots of sources for super bright multi-color LED's. Cast a couple of them in some translucent resin, hook them up to a power source, and you've got yourself a cheap glowing ball. But I've yet to find any good information on how to build hardware that will let me control relays for devices like this through my serial or parallel port. Basically I'm looking for a cheap way to build a board that will let me control 4-8 relays (for each color) over my serial port, and some info on how to write the software for it. This could be a very cool project, and I plan on making the plans available, and the code Open Source, when I'm done with it. Any ideas?"
This post won't be abused... no. Carry on.
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Usually I try to avoid being afflicted by glowing cyber balls, myself.
You know you need to get laid if "Hey baby, wanna cyber?" gets your balls glowing...
IBM had PL/1, with syntax worse than JOSS,
And everywhere the language went, it was a total loss...
Ate my cyberballs!
I've got a webcam, a blacklight, and a whole can of Gold Bond medicated powder if anyone wants to see my glowing cyber-balls...
evil adrian
Looks like we have a new candidate for this old poll.
Happy Fun Ball
It's Happy! It's Fun! It's Happy Fun Ball!
Yes, Happy Fun Ball, the toy sensation that's sweeping the nation. Only $14.95 at particpating stores!
Get one Today!
Warning: Pregnant women, the elderly and children under 10 should avoid prolonged exposure to Happy Fun Ball.
Caution: Happy Fun Ball may suddenly accelerate to dangerous speeds.
Happy Fun Ball contains a liquid core, which, if exposed due to rupture, should not be touched, inhaled, or looked at.
Do not use Happy Fun Ball on concrete.
Discontinue use of Happy Fun Ball if any of the following occurs:
* Itching
* Vertigo
* Dizziness
* Tingling in extremities
* Loss of balance or coordination
* Slurred speech
* Temporary Blindness
* Profuse sweating
* Heart Palpitations
If Happy Fun Ball begins to smoke, get away immediately. Seek shelter and cover head.
Happy Fun Ball may stick to certain types of skin.
When not in use, Happy Fun Ball should be returned to its special container and kept under refrigeration...
Failure to do so relieves the makers of Happy Fun Ball, Wacky Products Incorporated, and its parent company Global Chemical Unlimited, of any and all liability.
Ingredients of Happy Fun Ball include an unknown glowing substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space.
Happy Fun Ball has been shipped to our troops in Saudi Arabia and is also being dropped by our warplanes on Iraq.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.
Happy Fun Ball comes with a lifetime guarantee.
Happy Fun Ball: ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES!
Karma be damned, this is easily one of the dumbest things I have ever seen. It's a ball. That glows. The glow shifts, for example, on the rise or fall of the stock market.
Cliff, give me $200 dollars. You can call me whenever you want. Sometimes I'll hum. Sometimes I'll hum louder.
My
Limekiller
Hook up a couple thousand and making the best_disco_ball_ever!!! ...or not.
...nevermind the bitterness ;)
Or Use them as a product indicator to turn green when Microsoft finally makes a product worth paying 400 freakin dollars for?
So I can easily keep track of the ever-changing terrorism threat level.
Just imagine what you could do with one of these!
Why, you could set it to blink green to notify you when ThinkGeek gets these things back in stock!!!
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Thank you for your concise and easy-to-follow instructions.
Quit wasting water you masturbating whale.
Power to the Peaceful
what's the freq., kenneth?
The 90's were fun. The 90's were made of stuff like this. You know, PDAs and stuff. Don't pick on him. Goofy crap like this can pay for Real Estate.
At the very least Cliff is a barometer. If people still has the leisure to actually care about this we're doing fairly well. Look man, we're about to topple a regime. We have "Ambient Orbs" to fill the commercial breaks.
Anyhow, when I hit the term "Ambient Orb", I immediately recalled "Happy Fun Ball", from SNL. Does anyone else remember hyperventilating over that bit when it was new? Difference is that was parody. "Ambient Orb" you pay for. I bet the guy who wrote the "Happy Fun Ball" skit is kicking himself now.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
Move it around quickly in a dark room? Perhaps possible with an iBook, it would be quite entertaining to see attempted with an iMac... :)
Have you ever seen an apple iBook or Powerbook breathing while its sleeping...
Yeah, i've seen it, AND ITS FUCKING CREEPY!! God, if i had one, i'd have to cut the light out.
That application would be much simpler than the glowing orb.
All you would need are 2 LED's that alternately blink yellow and orange.
I think you will find a normal wiener functions just as well for this.