USB Menorah

Fiver-rah writes "There's USB Christmas trees; lame acrylic things with LED lights that are powered by your computer. It's an amusing idea, but it doesn't really take advantage of being attached to a computer. Enter the USB Menorah. It can correctly calculate the dates of Hannukah for at least the next few thousand years (or any historical date back to 2 B.C.E.). As well as 'lighting' the candles based on when the sunsets (I set the default geography for San Francisco/Berkeley, but you can enter any latitude/longitude and (assuming you don't live too close to the arctic circle) it will be correct to within a few minutes. Furthermore, the shamas (candle you use to light the other candles) can blink out any morse-code message you want--it'll convert the words to morse code for you! And you can even put it into Kwanzaa mode! Each candle can take three different colors (Red, Green & Yellow), allowing you to do some animation. Software is a GPL command line program for Mac OS X. Basically only the USB communication stuff needs to be ported for other OS's. Delcom (the manufacturer of the USB interface chip) supplies drivers for Windows, and a few people have written Linux drivers, so it wouldn't be too hard for a motivated individual."

Comments

Judging from the pictures....

[trotski]

... they need an industrial designer to make a candle stick shaped body for these suckers. A bunch of LED lights on a bread board a minorah do not make.

Couse what do I know, I'm not Jewish.

Re:Judging from the pictures....

[Anonymous Coward]

Judaism is not really so much of a methodical religion as much as it is a spiritual one.

Which is of course why the Torah is full of highly detailed rituals, a vast body of law, a handful of stories (often lewd), lots of genealogies, and a minimum of spiritual guidance. Which are then followed by books of histories.

Re:Judging from the pictures....

[Chacham]

The obvious answer to "why wouldn't LEDs count" is "because light bulbs don't really count either".

According to many, it would count. However, not everyone holds of it, and traditionalists would go for oil, to match the original.

Why 2BCE?

[panurge]

Why does thing go back to only 2BCE? The origins of Chanukah go back further than that, to about 2300 years ago if I remember correctly.

I'm just curious. It's like a program to work out the day of the week on which Christmas Day fell that only went back to the time of Constantine.

Re:Why 2BCE?

[MobyTurbo]

you find all kinds on /. Any other Judaica geeks out there?

To be a good Jew you have to be a Judaica geek, there's no other way to understand the 613 commandments, their derivations, and millenia of folklore and halachos (laws) other than through intense study. Now you know why there are so many Jewish scientists.

Heil Hitler!

[Anonymous Coward]

You already invoked the Godwin rule by uttering neo-nazi trash.

You've got to "live and let live" when it comes to Israel. Obsession with hating the Jews will bring you to no good end.

Re:Morse code, eh?

[atrader42]

It says "Morse-Code-Message". (Yes, I can do morse code, but I prefer to just read the page that links to that and says what the message is.)

Re:No, it does not

[Hrothgar The Great]

No, actually sometimes phrases adopt a meaning which is not implied in the basic definition of the words involved due to colloquial use. Fox holes in the Vietnam War come to mind as they for instance did not ACTUALLY contain foxes.

AD and BC are generally inoffensive to anyone unless they have a specific problem with Christians. Many of those people may not admit, even to themselves, that they hate Christians because they don't have a problem with individuals of that faith but instead associate the group as a whole with other things they dislike.

Disclaimer before you jump on me about this: I am an atheist. I just also happen to be an individual who doesn't like to see stupid, unnecessary language changes because of extremely whiny people who like to stereotype others of particular groups.