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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.
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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).
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
Why hand power it when you can get mice to do it for you
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
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
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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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...
That's not a DC generator! You've just got two coconut halves and you're banging 'em together!
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.