Working iPod Halloween Costume

Jrod1080 writes "I decided to be an iPod for Halloween this year. I didn't just want to be walking around in a box, so I made it a fully functional costume. I finally found a good use for a tablet PC, and used that for the display. A rewired USB mouse served as the 'Forward,' 'Reverse,' 'Play/Pause' buttons, and a bit of Java code played and displayed the MP3s. Some battery powered speakers provided the sound. It all worked out well, and I even won the costume contest!"

Comments

Idea for Apple?

[fembots]

Maybe Apple can place a couple of these iPod "kiosks" in shopping malls, what's the better way to experience iPod mini with a giant iPod?

On a more serious note though, a real scary Halloween custume is Death framed inside a blue-tinted Window.

With so many images on one page, this guy obviously didn't read the Do-Not-Slashdot ACT 1996, here's a coral link just in case.

I like this one better...

[unwiredmatt]

http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/ipod-costume-02455 5.php I like this one better

iPod costume, eh?

[Brandon Hume]

I think Red Robot might have beaten him out. (As opposed to merely beating him...)

More cool costumes

[base_chakra]

To see more really cool, ingenious costumes, check out these gems made by Rob Cockerham of cockeyed.com:

Paparazzi costume
Jenga costume
Africa costume
California costume

Saw one myself

[Zenmonkeycat]

In a college town in Virginia, I saw an iPod walking around. He had a huge iPod screen (with lovely blue backlight) with a nice big tinfoil Apple logo on his back. And music was playing from inside his costume, probably from a boom box or something.

That was one of the coolest costumes I've ever seen.

Re:why iPod costume?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's simple. Hot women are into guys who like to work out, spend their money on a hot car and spend their time in meat-market bars. Girls are not into you just because you can manage to get out of your cubicle once a year and wear a fancy GEEKY costume to a halloween party.

Damn, you're cynical. I went to a party a year ago as Dilbert. I was surprised to find myself going home with the phone number of a gorgeous, intelligent, caring girl. (The relationship didn't last much longer than a month, but I don't hold the Dilbert costume at fault.)

My point is that showing your geeky side doesn't disqualify you for getting a woman. Some even like it. And I do know many geeky people (myself included) who do like to work out in one way or another. Not so much the car or meat-market bar. Those aren't as important as you think.

Re:I decided to be a web server this year

[taped2thedesk]

Technically, you're correct... that's his "personal" web space hosted through EECS Departmental Computing Organization (DCO). The EECS "personal" web space is shared with the rest of the EECS department's web site (as in the personal and normal web servers for the department are not on separate servers).

On the other hand, anybody with an active e-mail account (i.e. him) gets 1 GB of space on www-personal.umich.edu, a bank of servers dedicated to hosting personal space for the entire university (and could probably accomodate the load). He probably also gets the 200 MB offered through CAEN, the engineering computer network, hosted at www-personal.engin.umich.edu and also probably more than capable of handling the load.

For whatever reason, the EECS department doesn't seem to have a web server capable of serving very many people, and it's come down a couple times over the last few weeks under normal loads. To think it would be able to withstand a slashdotting is laughable. This infrastructure problems aren't his fault, but it'd seem much more logical to place the page on servers that are designed to handle uber loads, instead of posting it on a shared server that contains project specs and homework assignments that students need access to 24/7.

My comment was only meant to say that he either didn't realize that the EECS web server wasn't a piece of shit, or didn't care that he was going to crash a server that a lot of people need access to right now.

On the other hand, one would think that a major computer science/engineering deparment that is getting grants to research ways to withstand DOS attacks would be able to withstand a slashdotting... obviously that's wishful thinking.

Re:"Finally" found a good use for a tablet PC

[geekoid]

Sorry, but I've seen the tablet PC be used in real life better then laptops.
With far better ease of use. The person using it would hold it on there left and write onto it as if it wqere a clip board. Far easier the trying to jugle a laptop while walking around.
There are really only three things holding back mass adoption:
1) Cost of manufacturing - It cast almost the same to manufacture a tablet as it does a laptop. Mostly do to the fact that there hasn't been enough of them produced to begin refining the manufacturing process.

2) Perception - Even though I have seen them used more naturally the a laptop, a laptop is percieved of having more value.

3) Presentation - They haven't been marketed well. Instead of saying "Here is what you can do with a tablet" thay say "Here is a tablet..er do something with it."

If I could afford it, I would have a tablet PC. It would make a nice tool.

God forbid someone mention soemthing dorkish on slashdot.

grumblegrumblewhinyimageekcauseitsnowexceptablep un kgrumblegrumble