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Hand-Powered Hardware?
quiddity writes "Following the Goofy USB Devices post, one has to know what can be self-powered when the batteries all die. You can handcrank your Gameboy, recharge your cellphone or pda (even grandpa), wind up a webserver (with minions, a beowulf..), see in the dark, and project a movie. What else can we propel through the next blackout/apocalypse?" Some of these devices have have been on Slashdot before; what cool hand-powered tech hasn't been and should be?
So that's what they're calling it these days...........
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Yeah, I use Beowulf to power my server.
...
Every day, I toss in the pallets of discarded Beowulf pallets from geeks who though it told you how to build a redundant array of inexpensive computers (RAIC).
...what the fuck is a "Minnesota wristwatch"? Could someone take just 30 seconds to tell me what it is?
Unknown host pong.
Sell energy back to your local utility!
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
I think it would be really cool if someone would invent a two wheeled electric scooter, with a seat, and add pedals, so you could charge the battery. That way, instead of constantly going home to recharge, you could just hop on, turn the pedals, and ride it all day...
--- Generation X: The first generation to have SIG lines inferior to their parents... ---
It worked pretty well: we were able to power a boom box, a Game Boy Advance, a small water pump, a large light, and a few other items.
Did you friend manage to get rid of the cramps in his arm?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
How many slashdot editors does it take to handcrank the slashdot servers?
Why hand power it when you can get mice to do it for you
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
My sex life.
Hate me!
with some Barry White and my wife fsck all that other stuff
Real shame about that missing period...
Doesn't that make five?
1 + 3 + 1 ?
*has a flash back to the movie Clue. "1 + 2 + 1 + 1"*
If you can figure out a way to convert such a paltry amount of heat into useable electricity, tell me, and we'll both be billionaires.
-Reid
And oh yes, hand-cranked ice cream freezers never fail to produce a product that beats store-bought hands down. :-)
"Obviously, I'm not an IBM computer any more than I'm an ashtray" (Bob Dylan)
By the name, you'd think it's some mutant child or a perverse intercourse between Sun and Apple.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Got to love the glow-in-the-dark telco-powered vibrator for "sore muscles". Guess some chicks can't even make it through a power outage!
Love the anecdote though...
"Last time I was in LA, I had to walk down eight flights of stairs with two big bags to check out of the hotel that had been without power twice during my stay. The vibrator would have really helped my muscles after that stressful hotel stay!"
There's muscles down there, but c'mon, they weren't worked hard from carrying bags.
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This is just a bad idea! Forcing nerds, geeks, and dweebs into physical activity would give them the ability to finally defeat the jocks and get the girl.
You just need a coconut shell!
As a matter of fact, there are lots of things you can do with:
and of course, Some Basic Ingenuity...
You forgot the most essential DIY tools, Duct Tape and Bailing wire..
______ Eagles may fly but monkeys don't get sucked into jet engines.
That's not a DC generator! You've just got two coconut halves and you're banging 'em together!
Thats a great idea, a universal Dynamo that can power any portable device. Then if you hands get tired, you could build another device with a motor & batteries to turn it for you and..
oh.. hang on a minute..
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
you could use a diesel generator (engine) converted to run on vegetable oil, while its not as green as a hand crank, its from a renewable source and recycling oil that would usually be disposed of (by restaurants so its more or less free)
Downside: Your car now smells like a chip shop.
American readers will now be scratching their chins... "a *chip* shop?!" In this context, chips are french fries (but usu. thicker than McDonalds) and often sold with fish, pie, sausage etc. And you get to sprinkle vinegar on the chips.
Dammit, I hate explaining jokes.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Well, you could use a bank of huge caps and a bank of coils in a big LC circuit.
sort of keep the magic smoke trapped in a continuing cycle.
Might have some loss to heat, and I would use REALLY good conducters, to avoid that whole "lightning bolt" problem.
it's not technically a battery, and as a added benny, you could do neat light shows.
Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.