Slashdot Mirror
Hacking Santa
Inigo Montoya writes "Josh McCormick outlines how he has hacked a 5-foot tall, $49.84 Wal*Mart animated dancing and singing Santa into saying and doing things his creator, Gemmy, just hadn't intended him to do. With some outboard electronics hacked into the right places, Josh has made this Santa sound and act like a drunken old mall santa on Christmas Eve.
There is also a video too."
Wait for the first few trash pickup days after x-mas. 50 bucks is cheap enough for a lot of people to trash it rather than try to store a 5 ft tall corpse.
Then you have a year to come up with clever things for Santa to say and do.
Couldn't everything?
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Solve, yes...implement, no. The infrastructure needed to actually effect such big far reaching things such as "World Hunger" and "Global Warming" are largely controlled by those interests that profit directly from such things.
Oh yea... Merry Christmas or whatever
--- Nothing To See Here ---
Because he would want people to link to it through the Coral Cache, which it has been, to prevent a slashdotting.
www.gaian-mind.org - eco-punk/crust coop and collective | www.anarchistfederation.org - so cal anarchist federation
Really, the point is that it doesn't matter what you call it. If you came up to me first and wished me a Merry Christmas, I'd thank you and return it back to you. If I had been the first to approach you, I'd probably wish you a fantastic winter solstice or happy holiday. If some Jewish guy came up and wished me a happy Hannukah (about a week or two ago), I'd wish him the same in return. Not that I know almost anything about Kwanzaa, but if someone wished me a Happy/Merry/Whatever Kwanzaa, I'd thank them and do it in reverse.
See the trend here? If someone wishes you a $HAPPY_HOLIDAY, regardless of what it is, you thank them and do the same in return, regardless of how fucking stupid you may or may not think their religion or holiday is. All the same, though, demanding a business or person adhere to one particular holiday greeting is pretty pathetic, no? Let the people do whatever they want and take it as it is meant: happy whatever holiday you feel like celebrating, whether that is Christmas, Kwanzaa, Yule (as in the winter solstice), or Hannukah. Or, when it so happens to fall here, Ramadan (insert other holidays as applicable - I have no idea what Hindu, Buddhist, etc, etc follows). If someone wishes you Merry Christmas and you're Jewish, accept the well-wishing as it was meant! If someone wishes you a Happy/Merry/Solemn Ramadan, accept that as well! It's someone being polite! Stop being fascists about your season's greetings and go with the spirit in which it was meant!
Happy Holidays = "I hope things rock for you!"
That is why this whole thing is fucking hilarious. My hatred for Christianity runs high, but when someone tells me Merry Christmas, I don't get upset! Why? Because they're wishing me well! Regardless of the religious trappings or cultural overtones, it's the thought that counts, and it's the meaning that should be accepted, not the manner in which it is said!