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Interesting Uses For a USB LED Screen?
Hogwash McFly writes "My boss gave me one of those USB-powered red LED scrolling displays as a Christmas gift, and while cycling the usual 'I read your emails' and 'ID10T Error' messages will be entertaining for a day or two, I was wondering if it could be put to more constructive uses. The configuration file is plaintext and supports different scroll speeds, flashing, bitmaps, and WAV sounds. The font is defined as 5x5 pixels per character, also stored in plaintext as 5 hex values, one for each vertical line of pixels. A dynamically generated message could prove useful in my day-to-day work on the helpdesk, but are there any interesting uses beyond network notifications and news feeds?"
A never ending game of pong
porn video => avi to ascii converter => red hot LED action
Unless you plan to put it in your car to give the finger to people honking at you in queue
Why give 'em the finger? You could generate messages instead:
"If you are close enough to read this, watch out for brake checks."
"This car protected by Smith & Wesson"
"If I passed you on the right you are in the wrong fucking lane"
"My kid beat up your honor student"
"Bad cop. No donut."
The possibilities are endless ;)
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Getting it to display audio level meters for your music would be kinda fun.
For maximum freakout potential you'll need two things:
1) A microphone
2) Speech recognition software
Set the microphone up in a hidden place where it will pick up speech from folks hanging around your desk, and connect it to your computer. Set up the speech recognition software so it will spit out text to the LED display's interface.
Viola! Instant "Have we entered the twilight zone?" machine!
"If I passed you on the right you are in the wrong fucking lane"
This is the one I would use the most. Apparently Ohioans don't understand the term "passing lane".
Post-rock/Ambient/Drone and other noise.
>:)
I see... an Asteroids-esque space ship during reentry.
I've been thinking it would be cool to get a sign like that and post it in a visible place at home, then use it to post announcements about my kids' accomplishments. I'd set it up so my wife could change it as well. We'd post things like "John did the dishes every day this week", "Mary aced her math test", etc.
The intent would be to show them we care and to give them positive reinforcement.
The result would be that not only will your kids know you're dorks, everyone else will too.
PC LOAD LETTER
Yeah, I can imagine the kids' horror when they bring over their friends, and have to explain why their parents are so lame. "Uhhh, what's that on the wall" "Nothing, my dad's just a dork" "Oh" "Come on, let's get out of here"
(>'.')>
Don't just say you read his emails. Actually put them up there! Continuous scroll of everything in your boss's inbox.
If you're slightly less daring, feed your log of all URLs (site name only, perhaps) as they're being viewed by anyone in the office. Your boss did make you keep a log, didn't he?
What do you mean they cut the power? How can they cut the power, man? They're animals!
OK! Useful. Here's what you do...
The day before you leave on your next vacation, set it up so that it loops the message "I love you!" and then set up the .wav file of Barney the dinosaur singing his "I love you, you love me" theme song. Remove the socket covers from your cube wall and attach the electrical leads that power the device directly to the power lines, covering them with two-inch thick conduit. Then epoxy encapsulate that power connection really well (if the connection happens to be through a wall wart, be sure to conduit and encapsulate those connections as well). Disable any power switch the device might have and leave. When you get back from your vacation, your co-workers will have all either quit or committed suicide and your path to the next level up the corporate chain will be cleared. Repeat as necessary until you are CEO. Take golden parachute and leave. You win!
That is all.
Depending the the tolerance level at your job for some of these; mix and match as many as you like, just give 'em ID headers:
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
There was an episode of the X-Files where people started seeing messages in digital displays--microwave ovens, watches, radios, etc. I forget the story of that episode, but the messages always urged violence, and something about them made people snap and go berserk.
If I had one of those displays, I'd have it displaying something mundane and useful like news, but periodically it would flash KILL HIM and YES YOU and KILL THEM ALL and KILL THEM BEFORE THEY KILL YOU.
But then, I am a sicko.
looks more like zoidberg with a paper hat, which is of course ridiculous, because he would have eaten it.
sigs... don't talk to me about sigs....
Just because the guy flying up my butt is anxious is no reason for me to be a dick.
You're doing it wrong.
Just have it blink 12:00 repeatedly.
tracking the U.S. deficit in real-time
ERROR: Buffer overflow. Integer out of range.
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
Fill it with internet memes.
With a row of 5x5 pixel characters, Goatse is going to be limited to '=3OE='