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USB Menorah

Posted by michael on 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."

9 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. Saddam would love one of these by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    +5 Confusing

  2. USB toothbrush by fabio · · 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*
  3. Judging from the pictures.... by trotski · · 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 cliffy2000 · · 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.

  4. Yeah, well... by Faust7 · · 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.
  5. As my mother would say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oy...and for this I sent you to MIT?

  6. Planning by fiskbil · · 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.

  7. Re:Why 2BCE? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    about 2300 years ago if I remember correctly.

    Jeez, how old are you?

  8. "Menorah..." by BTWR · · 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...