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Beyond Pringles: 802.11 Antenna From A Floppy Disk

Posted by timothy on from the but-who-has-floppies-anymore dept.

real gumby writes "Shades of E.E. "Doc" Smith! Thomas Gee has made an 802.11 antenna from an old floppy disk and a paper clip. He credits this site for the inspiration (featuring an antenna from an old ice cream spoon). As MacPlus comments: "It's stylish, effective, and doesn't detract from that `everything computing' ambience in your home."" Warning: French. Update: 06/07 18:27 GMT by T : (Not Fremch ;))

23 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Alien language... by SpikyTux · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... No wonder I can't understand a word. It's in 'Fremch'.

  2. Warning: Fremch by DJPenguin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Warning: Fremch !! Beware!!

    Reminds me of the RH8.0 install, was doing one today and noticed a package that was apparently to support "Brisish English"...

  3. Now to find a floppy by nilepoc · · Score: 5, Funny

    I had a hard enough time finding one floppy to make into an Enterprise, and now I have to find another one to make an antanae. Where will the madness end?

  4. Fremch. by saintlupus · · Score: 5, Funny

    Warning: Fremch

    I'm so sick of these misspellings. It's supposed to be "Freedom" you illiterate git.

    * This post brought to you by the 2003 "The Flag Sure Is Purty Act". *

    --saint

    1. Re:Fremch. by mattACK · · Score: 4, Funny

      Oh great: more Fremch bashing. Will the madness never end?

      --


      "My God, this must be a truly remarkable corn chip, to be so widely and confidently touted."
    2. Re:Fremch. by Saint+Stephen · · Score: 4, Funny

      Here's some more memes I'd like to start:

      "Freedom" fries and "freedom" toast is kinda stupid sounding. But how about "free" fries and "free" toast -- it rolls off the tongue easier and isn't so in-your-face. If you like free software, you can dig on this too. That's what I'm calling them -- cheeseburgers and free fries!

      The other meme I want to start is let's just call the next few years: 3, 4, 5. Since we can write the 00's but can't pronounce it sensibily, let's just knock off the whole 200x and call it 3. What year is it? It's Three! Next year, it's Four! Kind of like a new "A.D.", we don't need that old point of reference no more.

      Three: the year of Free Fries and Free Toast!

      Wonder who will be president in Twelve?

      -Living in his own world, Saint S.

  5. Awh geeze! by saskboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just when I throw all my old floppies away and start stocking up on Pringles Spicy Cajun cans I find out I didn't have to eat all those chips or throw away those disks. /. is just too slow at getting the news out ;-)

    --
    Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
  6. Ca ne marchera pas by crakrjak · · Score: 5, Informative

    the last thing the article says is that its not going to work...

  7. Cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Makes me want to build my own 802.11 antenna out of an old phone, a Speak n spell, a record player, a bent fork, and some string.

  8. It's clear. by WalterDGeranios · · Score: 5, Funny

    From reading Slashdot, I've come to understand that there are two kinds of people in this world: those who see everything as it might relate to 802.11 antennae, and those who don't.

    1. Re:It's clear. by brianosaurus · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm still waiting for some hardcore body piercer to turn his penis into an 802.11 antenna.

      --
      blog
    2. Re:It's clear. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      > I'm still waiting for some hardcore body piercer to turn his penis into an 802.11 antenna.

      Homer Simpson voice:

      Signal goes up, signal goes down, signal goes up...

  9. Translation for "this site" by saskboy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Babelfish

    Hope the link works for you. Read English, right?

    --
    Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
  10. OMG by Malfourmed · · Score: 5, Funny

    MacGyver is alive and well and living in Paris.

    --
    a world in progress...
  11. Obligatory bandwidth gag... by henele · · Score: 5, Funny

    With it already /.ed, it looks like he was serving the site with that thing...

    I can smell the smolding plastic and paperclips etc... :)

    1. Re:Obligatory bandwidth gag... by Soko · · Score: 4, Funny

      I can smell the smolding plastic and paperclips etc... :)

      Yeah. They've been Fremch Fried by "L' Effect de Slashdot".

      Soko

      --
      "Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
  12. Unloved Floppies Looking for a Loving Home by bj8rn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Each year, thousands and thousands of floppies get thrown away, as their owners switch to CD-R's and memorysticks. Most of them sadly end up in garbage dumps and incenerators, never to be seen again. We at the Floppy Disk Rescue Center care. Every day, we provide a new home and, quite often, a new life as a toy or a scinece project, for tens and hundreds of old floppies. This may be just a tiny drop of water in the sea, but with your help, we can make a difference. For more information about the locations of our Centers, just call 1-800-FLOP.

    --
    Hell is not other people; it is yourself. - Ludwig Wittgenstein
  13. Re:I dont understand by YU+Nicks+NE+Way · · Score: 4, Funny

    Clippie: It looks to me like you're trying to turn my in to an 802.11b antenna.

    Would you like me:

    (a) to find you a different victim to work on?
    (b) to turn you in to the BSA?

  14. Funstuff with 802.11 - maybe off topic... by techturtle · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This whole 802.11 home brew stuff is pretty interesting. I live less than a mile away from a buddy of mine and have been kicking around the idea of setting up our own little wireless lan using something like this (doubt I'll be building the antenna out of floppies though).
    Ran across this: Reach Out and Touch Someone. Warning: Engmish!

    One of the funniest things about the aricle is him going door to door offering to pay for DSL service to get help with the expirement. Most people turned him down! Show's how paranoid and distrustfull we've become (not surprising)... And man if he'd been caught peeping around at houses with his binoculars or telescopes! The big problem I have is that it took him $1400 to get it going. Seems like it could be done way cheaper to me.

    --
    If you don't have something nice to sig, then don't sig anything at all.
  15. Re:Fremch? by techturtle · · Score: 5, Funny

    Fremch is what you learn AFTER French, but you can only take it during Period 6 & 9...

    --
    If you don't have something nice to sig, then don't sig anything at all.
  16. Linux and 802.11g by Styx · · Score: 4, Interesting
    A very easy to build antenna for 802.11b/g is the cantenna.
    It's much simpler than the Pringles can yagi, and to top that off, it delivers a much higher gain.

    A bit more OT. Did you know that the Linksys WAP54G access point is based on Linux?. Somewhat strange, that there are no linux drivers for Broadcom 802.11g wireless NICs.

    --
    /Styx
  17. A Floppy and a Paperclip??? by ProfessionalCookie · · Score: 5, Funny

    A floppy and a paperclip? That must mean it has to be a Mac floppy drive.

  18. cardboard & aluminum foil horns by TheSync · · Score: 4, Informative

    The easiest and highest-gain 802.11 antennas to build are of the waveguide + horn variety. Horns can easilly get you as much as 12-16 dB additional gain over just a waveguide (e.g. Pringles can).

    For example, check out this horn build from cardboard and aluminum foil.

    Yagis and other antenna element arrays are just too tough to build right, especially without a SWR meter. At 802.11 frequencies, just go horn. Save the Yagi's for lower frequencies, like 10MHz, where a horn would be nuts.