DataStorm V1.0, a Full-Auto Floppy Disk Cannon

Bob Loblaw writes "I ran across a huge stash of floppies at our office, and after some discussion, it became clear that rather than throw them away, we should build a gun that fires floppies. I had just bought a welder so this was a challenging first project. After about a month of work in my garage at night the DataStorm was born. It was constructed of scrap metal, a kid's bike, a weed-eater motor, and an electric screwdriver. The most difficult task ended up being how to add spin to the disk without significantly reducing its velocity. After a week and a half of trying different options, a stack of zip ties was found to work best. Since we had so much time in it we elected to shoot an infomercial showcasing the device, and had to learn to shoot & edit video as we went. It was basically an office joke that spiraled out of control. My wife is not amused. At all. I hope you like it."

Comments

What the hell

[0100010001010011]

What's up with Slashdot and the Videos lately? I was hoping to be taken to a page with drawings schematics, etc of a floppy gun. Instead it was a straight to video.

The video was obviously shot directly for Fark, one big fark cliche (the B&W picture of the chick with White Teeth) 'Photoshopped' in.

I like both sites and for different reasons. If I want stupid internet videos I'll get them on Fark.

Re:What the hell

[zwei2stein]

Like whatever you want, videos directly linked from Slashdot (autoplaying, stupid and loud ones especially, not marked NSFW) are not amusing. Not at all.

There are sites for people who like this stuff. On slashdot, something like this should never get through moderation and firehose.

Re:What the hell

[Mikachu]

Hey, come on now. No one RTFA anyways, so what difference does it make? They can link to a picture of goatse, and everyone would just be arguing about how great/bad of an idea it is.

Re:What the hell

[Quantum Jim]

Like whatever you want, videos directly linked from Slashdot (autoplaying, stupid and loud ones especially, not marked NSFW) are not amusing. Not at all.

There are sites for people who like this stuff. On slashdot, something like this should never get through moderation and firehose.

Why isn't it amusing? If a transcript of this video was created, and pictures demonstrated the device, it would be ok? Why? What if it had links to the demos and just had the "padding" as text? Would that be ok? So why not the entire thing? The article is entirely entertainment, and the video was not only funny but also presented the topic in an entertaining way. This /. article was actually written a lot better than most others. I really hate those stories that copy the first few paragraphs from the source. It shows no creativity and is borderline plagiarism. (One even had a dangling footnote still in the /. summary.)

If you are angry because you got caught at work, well that sucks for you. But don't blame us. I have my browser set up not to autoplay flash unless I specifically allow it. This not only blocks spam, but also prevents this issue. You are already playing around. Why do you have your speakers on? Why do you not check the address first (which is not hidden - the domain is Revver.com aka a well-known video site). Why do you not take precautions when browsing /. at work? Especially for an article clearly marked for entertainment.

You are at work. It is your responsibility to take precautions when you are doing non-work related stuff on your computer. You don't have to be an robot slaving away - I can understand browsing /. on your off time. But you should be smart about it and take precautions like using the mute button or using headphones at very least when at work. Personally, I am not amused by coworkers who keep their speakers on so everyone else can hear Windows startup, beep, alert, and shut down.

Re:What the hell

[torgis]

Firefox + NoScript + that little mute checkbox in your sound control panel. Problem solved.

6:46

[catdevnull]

6 minutes 46 seconds of my life I'm not getting back.

Maybe next time somebody invents a office product canon, they'll just make a one-part video: the part that doesn't suck.

Seriously, a highlight reel of this thing would have been so much easier to make (and so much more satisfying) than whatever that was. The thing about a "parody" movie is that don't have to have a working model of whatever you're featuring--people just assume it's special FX.

A tech video of how to make it and showing it in use goes pretty far amongst the geekerati here at /.

ps. Kudos to the girl for her righteous Ash impression, tho.

Re:That's funny

[lakeland]

Out of curiosity, how did the co-worker gun work out? I imagine it would have to be almost as big as the car gun.

Re:Good, bad, and ugly

[SeekerDarksteel]

Bad - Sure, you can buffer those floppies into a pile at 2.88MB/s, but can your drive read the data that fast? Methinks not.

Sure it can. Just build a floppy drive raid and you're all set.

Re:Better uses for your time

[mwvdlee]

It could have been worse; instead of building a toy gun whilst he could have been solving world problems, he could have been complaining about somebody else building a toy gun whilst he could have been solving world problems.

ridiculous

[Anonymous Coward]

A week and a half of your company's time for evidently more than one employee, to create something with no value other than to entertain an apparently overpaid and easily amused group of employees. Good grief, I have not worked anywhere within the past 26 years where such a waste of company time would be tolerated. Not even in that stupid government job I once had. God bless you for finding such morons to work for- I'd have wasted no time sending you packing.