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The Complicated Way to Turn on a Flashlight

Posted by timothy on from the complicationism dept.

jangobongo writes "A machine built by the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers employed an outer-space theme and used steps that incorporated a bouncing water balloon, a fireman action figure fleeing a fire and weights attached to a spinning bicycle wheel to win the 18th national Purdue Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. The winning machine told the story of rocket being launched. As the rocket traveled into space, a meteor hit Earth and started a fire. While the mock fire was put out, the rocket turned on the flashlight to shine back down on Earth. A short video clip can be seen here. The contest was filmed by the Game Show Network to be featured on the network's show, 'Games Across America,' at some future date."

5 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Honda Commercial by cgoody · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Anybody remember the Honda commercial like this?

  2. you know what I love? by badmicrophone · · Score: 5, Interesting

    how many Rube Goldbergian machines we use without realizing how much so they are...yeah, that was english.

    Take for instance my friend's cell phone, it rings; like, as in ringing. You know, the sound a bell makes.

    Well, to me the funny thing is how much processing has to occur to create this ringing sound - all the decompression, digital to analog conversion - how some IC's are monitoring the juice from the battery - all to mimic a simple, age-old bell.

    ----
    Check out my Music Video!

  3. Rube Goldberg, the early years by killermookie · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Might I add one of Rube Goldberg's first attempts?

    Not Quite Rube Goldberg

  4. Flashlights! by rlk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There are, if you can believe it, real flashlights that are almost as complicated. This one has a thirteen page user's guide in addition to a quick start guide and a reference card.

    (The LED Museum is a site that all nerds should bookmark. I believe it's been Slashdotted before.)

    1. Re:Flashlights! by Infinityis · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It looks like they're trying to copy the Macintosh "all you need is one-button" approach. However, in this case, you only have a single "pixel" of output, so it's a much different situation.

      I don't think I'd buy something with such poorly thought out UI...