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Laid Off From Job, Man Builds Tweeting Toilet
dcblogs writes With parts from an electric motor, a few household items, an open-source hardware board running Linux, and some coding, Thomas Ruecker, built a connected toilet that Tweets with each flush. The first reaction to the Twitter feed at @iotoilets may be a chuckle. But the idea behind this and what it illustrates is serious. It tracks water usage, offers a warning about the future of privacy in the Internet of Things, and may say something about the modern job hunt. Ruecker built his device on a recent long weekend after he was laid off as an open source evangelist at a technology firm undergoing "rightsizing," as he put it.
okay poop is coming out
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
I think if the words 'Evangelist', 'Maven', or 'Prophet' are anywhere in your job title, you probably don't actually have a job, you just have people giving you money at regular intervals.
Welcome to 2009 - http://gizmodo.com/5259381/twi...
Actually bad puns are never obligatory. I consider it a privilege.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Rather than a wire to the metal plunger arm, or one that he added brushing against another wire, he gutted a, most likely, $10 servo for a friggin analog pot.
"oh god, I'm choking after that last fat bastard sat on my face, quick, gimme a flush, no ice, I don't care if the glass hasn't been cleaned"
Between this and the rest of Twitter? It's all about shit
What else can I say? Sometimes when I see people posting pictures of their food on facebook, I can't help wonder what it looks like when it comes out the other end. Perhaps you could tie it into the Yelp API for reviews.
Many people get laid off. If one of them develops a tweeting toilet, it does not deserve a Slashdot story.
Back in the 90s, I went to convention in Detroit. I met a fellow who had sensors in his hot tub connected to a webserver so he (and anyone else) could monitor the status of the tub. He also had sensors in a minifridge connected to his server. His website went offline several years ago.
Don't try to out wierd me, three-eyes. I get stranger things than you, free with my breakfast cereal. --Zaphod Beeblebr
They'd totally be into this... unless they've already done it and you're violating their patents. In that case, hide resume from Japan.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Thomas Ruecker said he was flushed with the success of his project.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
Check out the Twitter feed here.
Not only does it report the weight of my cat's droppings, but it reports the duration and total cat weight. It also generates amusing facts about Nibbler's pooping habits.
I have some basic build instructions available. I use Bluetooth, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, load cells, and an external ADC.
We'd see more of this if people were given a basic salary just for existing (as is frequently suggested when discussing how automation takes away jobs). Just a lot more intricate and advanced projects. Some say people would just goof off, some say people would work just as before. Maybe it's somewhere in between, like this, and I don't know if it's good or bad.
A line of code, reporting imaginary flushes if number of flushes in last 24 hours is 0, would fix that.
Salting the flushes, so to speak.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
A tweeting toilet is the shit.
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
From the country of Onamonapia
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
How long until somebody figures out where this toilet is, watches the pattern of timing of the tweets, and cleans out the place with a robbery when they determine him to be away due to a lack of flushing?
@Whee
If you build a useful and clever thing you will go out of business like Palm, Nokia etc. If you build a stupid-ass thing you will make millions like Yo, GroupOn, Twitter etc. So by intentionally building a very dumb thing he is on the path to success.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
The guy made his very own toilet tweet. If you don't want to announce to the world when you're going to the bathroom (and therefore when you're home, etc), then don't make your toilet tweet.
will be Faraday cages.
And while I have your attention, maybe a tweeting toilet is intended as a commentary on Twitter in general as in everything that's on that site is worthless crap.
his unemployment is not a mystery.
"Successful toilet flush at 10:30:26 AM", "Failed toilet flush at 6:30:26 PM. Call a plumber IMMEDIATELY!"
When deciding if fancier controllable flush volume toilets are better, you also need to factor in the additional cost of the mechanism and whether it needs more repairs or adjustments and the costs of those repairs and adjustments against the cost of the water wasted. It could be that old fashioned toilets are more efficient all things considered.
Controllable flush volume is not 'fancier' since it contains all the same elements as the fix-volume toilets. In fact, the controllable volume toilets are likely less sophisticated since there does not need to be any sort of mechanism to determine flush volume - just a simple spring-loaded valve.
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.