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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."
+5 Confusing
i saw a usb powered toothbrush at some obscure japanes page, are there anything YOU cant power with usb?
*resistance is futile, or fuzzy, i dunno*
... 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.
"Entropy is the bad-guy, and he is everywhere"
This story goes well with this story.
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
The lamest USB gadget you can think of :
...
1) USB machine gun
2) USB umbrella
3) USB Inflatable doll
4) USB stapler
help me out here...
My FireWire Christmas tree beats the crap out of that!
Though perhaps "FireWire" isn't such a good word to use in the context of combustible wood...
The coolest voice ever.
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.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Now I just feel silly... and slow. I must need more coffee. Or maybe a USB Menorah.
"...The mice will see you now..."
While basically gimmics, stuff like this USB powered menorah and the USB toothbrush may be looked back on historically as the dawning of the pervasive computing age..
Next thing will be to make them interface via wireless ethernet.
Oy...and for this I sent you to MIT?
I hope the people buying this tree realize that they have to keep an old computer working for a few thousand years and pass that computer to their children and so on and so forth. It would be a shame to not take advantage of its ability to calculate a thousands years into the future.
It would be really cool though if it could masquerade as something else when it's not christmas (holidays whatever). Both me and some of my friends are usually too lazy to take away decorations after christmas and you usually end with some smartass comments during summer.
How about lame LEDs on a circuitboard?
Jeez, if you're gonna be making fun religious hacks, don't knock the other stuff for being lame until your stuff doesn't look like it was ripped out of something else.
Here I was expecting some fun candle-shaped thingy...
You can't take the sky from me...
I woud love one too. Maybe there is some electronics magazine with the schematics for one? If you don't mind going over the top, then there is WiNRADIO and for Linux LiNRADIO which makes use of it.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
why pay? USB devices rarely work under Linux.
Let's see, I believe it says:
A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.
A dreidel with Bluetooth?
http://www.usbgadget.com/usb-misc.htm
...
I got mine for 10 from www.maplin.co.uk - they don't seem to carry them anymore tho
Think anyone's going to pay retail for that?
for their UPS kept their menorah lit for 8 full nights after the Syrian army cut the power!
Thus thou shalt celebrate for 8 days, lighting one LED each night.
Vonal Declosion
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.)
(For those who are interested)
Although, most people who use this would probably know that this should not be intended to replace the actual lighting of a menorah.
In order to fulfill the religious requirement of lighting the menorah for the 8 nights of Chanukah, you need to use either candles or olive oil (to burn). (the other requirement is that all the candles except for the one used to light the others, must be at the same height)
I'm not Jewish and I don't pretend to be an expert on the subject. All of the specifics in this post come from a book i've been reading, "War Without End" by Anton La Guardia, a reporter for The Daily Telegraph in the 90s.
Yawn.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Just to be precise, the device that is used during Hannukah is not a "Menorah," but rather a "Chanukiah" [Chah-noo-kee-yah, with "Ch" pronounced gutterally]. A "menorah" is the seven-branched candelabra that was around in the ancient temple (and often used today in synagogues as decorations). A "Chanukiah" is a nine-branched candelabra that is used on Hannukah to celebrate the 8-day "hannukah miracle," where legend had it the temple candles burned for 8 days and nights with oil that should have only lasted one night (so therefore a chanukiah has 8 candles plus one candle to hold the shamash, the candle that lights the other 8). Sometimes the nine-candled version is called a "Hannukah Menorah," but just "Menorah" is technically the seven-branched one, not the one used druing the holiday.
No, I'm not someone who goes around correcting people about this. I really don't care either way, but rather just in case anyone was interested...
(to start, this may be offtopic, but I am merely responding to the above question to settle this issue which seems to come up every time something Jewish or Israeli appears on Slashdot)
There are many kinds of zionism.
Zionism is a political point of view; Judaism is a religion which may incorporate some kinds of Zionism.
The term Zionism comes from biblical verses referring to Jerusalem as Zion (or Tsion in Hebrew). At its core, Zionism is the belief and aspirations that the Jews should have a homeland in Israel.
As I stated at the beginning, there are many kinds of Zionists..
- Political Zionism - there should be state that can be used to protect Jews from violence (i.e. holocaust, etc.) and will give them a sence of normalicy
- Cultural Zionism - Israel should be the cultural centre of the Jewish people.
- Labour Zionism - To express the love for the land through working it (i.e. agriculture)
- Religious Zionism - Certain Jewish laws can only be kept in Israel, as a result, in order to fulfill these laws, one must be in Israel
- Socialist Zionism - To build Israel as a socialist state where all classes can unite and overcome anti-Semitism.
It should be noted there are other Zionists that are not Jewish that believe that all the Jews need to return to the Holy Land in order to fulfill the messianic prophecies
I hope this helps.
All this religious stuff, and here Chris Kringle is getting oppressed! I want my USB RUDOLPH
This is my sig.
---
USB Menorah (Y/M/N) Y
Why not?
As opposed to the non-combustible variety?
Ever tried to burn wet wood?
The coolest voice ever.
That's the nerdiest thing I've ever heard about. Seriously. And I've used /. for almost six years.
He is using the computer's clock. But that's not quite enough. This year Chanuka began on the evening of December 19. Next year it will begin on the night of December 7. Computing the phases of the moon doesn't seem to be built into my BIOS, is it in yours?
Not to split hairs or anything, but plenty of Jewish people wouldn't touch a USB menorah because they forego use of electronics on holy days. Also, no one lights menorahs during Hanukkah. They're called hannukiahs. A menorah has a completely different spiritual meaning and was kept lit in the Jerusalem temple. People like hannukiahs at home.
I actually have one, made by D-Link. The hardware works fine, but the accompanying software is crap.
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.
The other required feature is that regenerative braking isn't allowed to dump power back into the power line. It has to dump it into a resistor bank, so as not to do "work" with the energy of descending riders. This is normally enabled only on the Sabbath.
Of course, these features combine to use far more energy than normal mode, so they don't comply with the spirit of the Shabbat, not to do work. Just the letter.