USB Menorah

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Posted by michael on Sunday December 21, 2003 @08:10AM from the christmas-cheer-topic-not-entirely-appropriate dept.

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."

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Saddam would love one of these by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-21 08:12 · Score: 5, Funny

+5 Confusing
USB toothbrush by fabio · 2003-12-21 08:13 · Score: 5, Funny

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*
1. Re:USB toothbrush by Savatte · 2003-12-21 08:25 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  how about a USB-powered UPS battery
2. Re:USB toothbrush by broken · 2003-12-21 09:09 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  You mean like this one? (link NSFW)
3. Re:USB toothbrush by Captain+Nitpick · 2003-12-21 12:45 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Yes, anything needing more than 500mA of power.
  
  Amps are for measuring current. You want watts.
  
  Given that USB's power is at 5V DC, that comes out to 2.5W of power.
  
  --
  But then again, I could be wrong.
Judging from the pictures.... by trotski · 2003-12-21 08:14 · Score: 5, Insightful

... 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"
1. Re:Judging from the pictures.... by Savatte · 2003-12-21 08:27 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  as long as all 8 candles are at the same elevation, and the Shamash (the candle you use to light the others is higher), it's all kosher.
2. Re:Judging from the pictures.... by cliffy2000 · 2003-12-21 08:29 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Well, LEDs on a menorah could very well suffice, depending on the circumstances.
  I mean, the lighting of the candles might be awkward, but it certainly can be done. Judaism is not really so much of a methodical religion as much as it is a spiritual one.
  Of course, what do I know? I'm a very bad Jew.
3. Re:Judging from the pictures.... by Otter · 2003-12-21 09:11 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  I think it's that the candles need to be in a straight line at the same elevation with the shamash out of line in any axis. But, yes, you're essentially right.
  The key word is candles, though, or preferably olive oil. LED's don't count as fire even for prohibitions against lighting fires on the sabbath or similar things and are certainly subotimal for candles.
  
  --
  What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Same kind of thing by Kethinov · 2003-12-21 08:14 · Score: 3, Interesting

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!
Next Poll ... by lemonjus · 2003-12-21 08:15 · Score: 4, Funny

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...
Yeah, well... by Faust7 · 2003-12-21 08:16 · Score: 5, Funny

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.
1. Re:Yeah, well... by Spazholio · 2003-12-21 09:16 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  As opposed to the non-combustible variety? =)
Why 2BCE? by panurge · 2003-12-21 08:17 · Score: 4, Insightful

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.

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Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
1. Re:Why 2BCE? by sigxcpu · 2003-12-21 08:52 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  The current Jewish calander is only about that old. (give or take a century).
  Before that the dates were decided apon witnesses of the new moon coming before the Sanhedrin. (the high court)
  So any exact date before that is meaningless, as there are no records for the length fo each historical month. (29 or 30 dayes - this is a moon month)
  
  --
  As of Postgres v6.2, time travel is no longer supported.
2. Re:Why 2BCE? by Stigmata669 · 2003-12-21 08:54 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  No clue about the software limitation, but I learned a little about Chanukah from a Rabbi who visited my highschool Western Religious Cultures class.
  Apparently, there is strong evidence that the myth of the eight days was actually developed some 500-800 years after the events of Syrian oppression that began the Chanukah celebration. The Rabbi explained that the current theory (he is a Reform Jew if that makes a difference?) is that some religious celebration was not observed because the group of Jews were in hiding and that after they felt safe to come back into the open, that they celebrated over the course of 8 days rather than just one, and the tradition stuck. The Menorah was adopted as a Rabbinic invention several hundred years later, so perhaps it is intentional (or appropriately coincidental) that it only goes back to 2BCE.
  
  --
  Yawn.
3. Re:Why 2BCE? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-21 09:00 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  about 2300 years ago if I remember correctly.
  
  Jeez, how old are you?
4. Re:Why 2BCE? by sigxcpu · 2003-12-21 09:15 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  We are not talking about a prehistorical time.
  There are outside confirmations that the battles against the Greek (Greek not Syrians) did in fact happen.
  About The candle lasting eight days, this is another matter.
  There is strong evidance that the religious leaders of later years moved the center of the story from the war victory to the re-opening of the Temple.
  This was done because they did not like the royal family, who were decendants of those who had led the revolt.
  
  --
  As of Postgres v6.2, time travel is no longer supported.
Re:Hmmm... by Some+Clown · 2003-12-21 08:17 · Score: 3, Funny

Now I just feel silly... and slow. I must need more coffee. Or maybe a USB Menorah.

--
"...The mice will see you now..."
Pervasive computing by DuSTman31 · 2003-12-21 08:20 · Score: 3, Funny

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.
As my mother would say... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-21 08:21 · Score: 5, Funny

Oy...and for this I sent you to MIT?
Planning by fiskbil · 2003-12-21 08:26 · Score: 5, Funny

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.
lame acrylic things? by Scrameustache · 2003-12-21 08:26 · Score: 4, Interesting

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...
Re:Don't forget... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-21 08:28 · Score: 3, Funny

why pay? USB devices rarely work under Linux.
Re:Morse code, eh? by Odin's+Raven · 2003-12-21 08:29 · Score: 4, Funny

Anyone got a translation of the video he's got linked?

Let's see, I believe it says:
Help...me...
Obi...Wan...Kenobi...
You're...my....
only...hope...

;-)

--
A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.
Up next by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-21 08:31 · Score: 4, Funny

A dreidel with Bluetooth?
1. Re:Up next by Ilan+Volow · 2003-12-21 10:35 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  I had wondered why the guy who won all my chocolate coins kept fiddling with his sony-ericsson phone.
  
  --
  Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
Menorah by mabu · 2003-12-21 08:41 · Score: 4, Funny

Think anyone's going to pay retail for that?
And the Hebrews celebrated... by CptChipJew · 2003-12-21 08:48 · Score: 4, Funny

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
Unfortunately it does not fulfill the requirement by DJStealth · 2003-12-21 08:54 · Score: 3, Informative

(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)
Re:Put the Mudslums in camps - nat'l alert is rais by Stigmata669 · 2003-12-21 09:06 · Score: 4, Interesting

Well, here's my 2c on the topic. Zionism refers simply to returning to The Holy Land (tm), and has been branded as distinctly Jewish the same way anti-semitism refers to being anti-Jewish rather than against the semite race. The current government in Israel is a secular Zionist movement, and some of the first settlements in Palistine were actually Christian Zionists. In 1866 43 families American Mormons (The Church of the Messiah) moved to Palestine to make ready for the "Second Coming of Christ". There were several other Christian Zionist movements, but all of them failed in short order. Many orthadox Jews in the 20s were strongly against Zionism.
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.

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Yawn.
"Menorah..." by BTWR · 2003-12-21 09:18 · Score: 5, Interesting

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...
Where's the USB Santa? by tjstork · 2003-12-21 10:02 · Score: 3, Funny

All this religious stuff, and here Chris Kringle is getting oppressed! I want my USB RUDOLPH

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This is my sig.
Yes. by Faust7 · 2003-12-21 11:07 · Score: 4, Funny

As opposed to the non-combustible variety?

Ever tried to burn wet wood?

--
The coolest voice ever.
Wow by Laconian · 2003-12-21 11:21 · Score: 4, Funny

That's the nerdiest thing I've ever heard about. Seriously. And I've used /. for almost six years.
Kosher elevators by Animats · 2003-12-21 18:27 · Score: 3, Interesting

There are Kosher elevators. Really. Two features are required, and both operate only on the Shabbat. The elevator runs endlessly, stopping on every floor. No user interaction is allowed.
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.