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Hardware Hacking In The WSJ

Posted by timothy on from the it's-been-in-low-rider-for-years dept.

NaDrew writes "The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece called "So Your Roomba Vacuums ... Does It Also Take Pictures?" (No reg. req.), profiling a couple of hardware hackers. Phillip Torrone has modified a laptop-brained robot to follow his Segway, which he is modifying to follow a pink ball. He's also modded his Roomba with a built-in Webcam. The article goes into a bit of the history of hardware hacking, from the CueCat to Andrew 'Bunnie' Huang's Xbox hacks."

1 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Re:My Roomba doesn't take pictures by AbbyNormal · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Did you read the article? How was that marked as "Insightful"? The article is about what makes the tech industry Great. Innovation. The article focused around people that had problems or issues with current technologies, and decided to invent something to better their lives (okay, so the Atari Gameboy, probably wasted more time). I think rather than externalize their actions, they bring a whimsical nature to technology that is often times unnapproachable by other people. Cmon, the computer inside of a beer case? Why not? How is that going to harm anything?

    If we all accepted the norm and did things only as we've been told, the state of technology will never change. What about if some "search and rescue" company sees the roomba with the webcam and says: "Eureka! A way to make a cheaper disaster search vehicle".

    You can have your high-brow ways. I am going to continue to innovate and play around with stuff ina "juvenile" way.

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    Sig it.