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Working iPod Halloween Costume

Posted by timothy on from the and-what-were-you-this-year dept.

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!"

44 of 313 comments (clear)

  1. Idea for Apple? by fembots · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
  2. I'll be the first to say it... by Electroly · · Score: 4, Funny

    NERD ALERT!

    1. Re:I'll be the first to say it... by cryptor3 · · Score: 5, Funny

      You think that's nerdy? Check out this picture I dug up of this guy I know. He went as a TI-85, back when they were "new."

      TI-85 Front
      TI-85 Back

      ha! beat that!

      Just for the record, my name is not Seth.
      (original article)

    2. Re:I'll be the first to say it... by ziggy_zero · · Score: 4, Funny

      Dude - my old high school's mascot was a TI calculator. The costume gets passed down to the new seniors every year.

      --
      I belong to the ______ generation.
    3. Re:I'll be the first to say it... by cryptor3 · · Score: 4, Funny

      What's to say you couldn't ask Seth a math question and that he wouldn't give you an answer?

  3. I like this one better... by unwiredmatt · · Score: 5, Interesting

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

    --
    Matt
    1. Re:I like this one better... by xanthines-R-yummy · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yeah, but the submitted story guy's iPod costume actually works!

  4. nice costume, but by geekoid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    it seems to me you went as "Guy with Giant iPod around his neck.".

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  5. Not only by computerme · · Score: 4, Funny

    Not only is this a surprisingly cool costume that uses technology in innvative ways...

    But it still looks better any model from creative, virgin, ogg vorbis player, out there!

    1. Re:Not only by almeida · · Score: 5, Funny

      I thought this was the virgin model.

  6. why iPod costume? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ever wondered why that chick in the picture has her legs on the other dude, and not you????

    1. Re:why iPod costume? by therevolution · · Score: 5, Funny
      Ever wondered why that chick in the picture has her legs on the other dude, and not you????

      I pity the fool.

    2. Re:why iPod costume? by ender1598 · · Score: 5, Funny
      Mod me down all you want, but it only illustrates your own self delusion.
      Wouldn't you need to be modded up first?? :-)
      --
      There are 10 kinds of people in the world; those that understand binary and those that do not.
    3. Re:why iPod costume? by bool+morpheus() · · Score: 5, Funny

      Shouldn't you be moving your cubicle down to Storage B about now? We have some new people coming in, and we need all the space we can get. So if you could go ahead and pack up your stuff and move it down there, that would be terrific, OK? Thanks Milt.

      --

      ----
      Ground Control to Major Tom...
    4. Re:why iPod costume? by StarKruzr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You should continue to qualify that statement with "hot women," though. And it IS just a generalization.

      Typically, the range of women presented to your average geek is:

      sane, hot, intelligent, available, nice

      Pick any four.

      Not only that, but typically, girls who are hot just don't have to be nice. Or intelligent, or pursue any kind of intellectual pursuit. And the ones that are hot AND intelligent usually have something seriously wrong with them emotionally/mentally. Something about being attractive and knowing you're attractive, and being told you're attractive and getting your way because you're attractive for most of your life, drastically messes people up.

      There are exceptions, of course, to these rules of thumb. But the exceptions always have boyfriends. Who aren't you, by the way.

      Not much has happened in my 25 years of life to ever shake me from this analysis of the situation, but I'd be very interested in the opinions of anyone who thinks otherwise.

      --

      +++ATH0
  7. The RIAA wants royalties by jlefeld · · Score: 5, Funny

    They want royalties for playing their songs out in public. Oh sweet costume by the way.

  8. just bad by Hellasboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    how does this get on slashdot?

    "I didn't just want to be walking around in a box, so I made it a fully functional costume"
    great, so instead of making something that represents an ipod, you strapped a facsimile of an ipod as a necklace. big whoop

    --

    "Tread softly because you tread on my dreams"
  9. Hey baby... by Bite-lover · · Score: 4, Funny

    I could imagine someone saying: 'Hey baby, I can show you how to REALLY use the scroll wheel' Pretty cool idea though.

    --
    Bite me. Seriously, I enjoy it.
  10. Extended Warranty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hope he has an extended warranty, because he is going to get the crap beaten out of him going out like that.

  11. Mirror by Rufus211 · · Score: 5, Informative

    As the site's dead and mirrordot hasn't pulled a copy of it, I managed to mirror it:
    http://rufus.hackish.org/~rufus/www.eecs.umich.edu /~jwinick/Halloween2004/

    1. Re:Mirror by Monkeyman334 · · Score: 4, Informative

      I put up a tiny resized version of the finished project, since that was really all I wanted to see (and all I can afford to host). HERE

    2. Re:Mirror by Rufus211 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well that would do it. The morron put up full-sized 4megapixel images then used "img size=" to resize it. Just resized the images down so I should be able to survive now.

  12. I decided to be a web server this year by The+Wing+Lover · · Score: 5, Funny

    I decided to be a web server at University of Michigan for Hallowe'en this year. I didn't want to walk around in a cardboard box, so I used some smouldering rags to provide the smoke and flames effect.

    --

    - In Capitalist America, law violates YOU!

    1. Re:I decided to be a web server this year by taped2thedesk · · Score: 4, Funny
      I was just trying to get to some project specs on www.eecs.umich.edu, and couldn't figure out why the server was down. Thanks Slashdot community - maybe this will give me a good reason to request an extension on our latest project.

      I don't know why this guy didn't put this on his personal web space instead of the department's web space.

    2. Re:I decided to be a web server this year by taped2thedesk · · Score: 4, Interesting
      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.

    3. Re:I decided to be a web server this year by MNJavaGuy · · Score: 4, Funny
      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...

      Well, then we just provided them with quite a bit of data on DoS attacks, didn't we?

  13. In other news... by cuteseal · · Score: 5, Funny

    "In other news, local man dressed as an iPod was found inebriated and trying to hump a boombox speaker, after a wild night at a halloween party. The man has been referred for counselling."

    --

    The friendliest digital photography forums on the net!

    1. Re:In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I saw him P2Ping on someone's lawn.

  14. I didn't want my homework anyway by thedillybar · · Score: 5, Funny
    Way to slashdot www.eecs.umich.edu...

    I didn't want to do my homework today anyway. :-)

    1. Re:I didn't want my homework anyway by Punto · · Score: 5, Funny

      I guess "slashdot effect" is the new "dog ate my homework"..

      --

      --
      Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!

  15. Re:Pictures? Same guy? by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, the guy in the article strapped a cardboard box around his neck, wrote 'ipod' on it plus some silver foil to represent the buttons, then proceeded to get his server slashdotted :)

    *really* slow news day today... They don't come lamer than this.

  16. Obligatory Triumph Quote... by Moridineas · · Score: 5, Funny

    Which button calls your parents to come pick you up??

  17. "Finally" found a good use for a tablet PC by Gothmolly · · Score: 4, Funny

    ..he made it into the 'display' of a costume. Of an Apple product. Finally, someone comes out and says that the Emperor has no clothes, that Microsoft's FUD machine can't spin something out of nothing, and that the tablet-PC-using-dork in Starbucks really is just that, a dork. Thank you, for pointing out the retardation of Tablet PCs.

    --
    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
  18. Re:Down by mrwonton · · Score: 4, Funny

    The server actually belongs to the EECS (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) department at the University of Michigan. You would definitely think they'd be geeky enough to have a decent server. I'm actually a student there and rely on that server for school. I actually ended up on Slashdot when I couldn't get the spec on a project because the server was down.

    Yep, Slashdot is destroying productivity as never before.

    --
    Not more than you need, just more than you want
  19. coralized link is working by blackburnrovers · · Score: 5, Informative

    coralized link to eecs server is working.

    i am amazed that the umich server went down. i was in ann arbor from 1996-2002, and the worst outage i ever saw was when the main data center caught on fire. university-wide, e-mail was down for about 15 minutes when the backup unix boxes kicked in and everyone began to breathe easy again. i would bet the eecs server will be back up shortly. they use the real-deal unix boxes, not linux on intel's.

  20. saint pauly girl should have won! by that+_evil+_gleek · · Score: 5, Funny

    Interesting, but I like the girls costume better ;-] RECOUNT!

  21. Here comes the Apple... by vwjeff · · Score: 5, Funny

    lawyers in 3...2...1...

    I guess it's not like he could get caught infringing on Apple's trademark. The only way he could get caught would be to post a description and links to pictures on a well known website. He shouldn't get in any troub...oh, nevermind. Good luck.

  22. Protection by HedonismBot · · Score: 5, Funny

    He'd better be careful; I've been hearing a lot about iPod killers lately.

    --
    Sailors. Oh man!
  23. More cool costumes by base_chakra · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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

  24. you suck by norkakn · · Score: 4, Informative

    I need this box to do my project work and you submitted it to slashdot?!?!

    Please don't ever put eecs up to the /.ers as it is much too small, put your shit onto caen's boxes

  25. Best costume idea ever. by WoBIX · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was going to go as a Wireless router, but I couldn't get the doc to prescribe Viagra for antenna maintenance. :( Maybe next year.

  26. *cough* by andreyw · · Score: 4, Insightful

    After fellow Slashdotters are done, *someone* is going to have to do a lot of explaining to UMICH's IT department... and convincing as well to keep his account around.

    1. Re:*cough* by norkakn · · Score: 4, Informative

      they brought the server back up but http is down. Only grad students have shell accounts to eecs. so all of us in the labs here are pissed as hell at him. If he'd put it on his engin space they would have just laughed at the spike, but eecs is a research server that's quite tiny (I don't know the specs off hand)

      I'd say rm -rf ~/* under his name and delete the account. A whole lot of us are stuck up here working without access to course websites.

  27. Genius costume, idiotic web design. by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 4, Funny

    Serious. Who taught web design to this moron? All his page is composed of HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES! No wonder it got slashdoted after the first 100 visits or so (wild guess). I'm reading the coral link.

    Doesn't he know how to use thumbnails?
    Perhaps we should add a guide to /.
    Before posting:

    I. Thou shalt not use high resolution images on your webpages.

    II. If thou do and link them from /., thou shalt be damned.