Slashdot Mirror
Zorb - Inflatable Human Hamster ball
Xyloc the Stone writes "The ZORB
has got to be the coolest product ever made. It's an inflatable human sized hamster ball. Kinda like in the movie 'The Avengers'. I want one, only problem is, where I go to school, BIG FREAKIN HILL. uh, I'll have to try anyway" Hmmm. AFAIK there is no official toy for Slashdot staff members. Yet. Wonder how much these things cost and if we can talk Andover into buying us one. Hmmmm again.
Noone escapes the village.
Aye! I've rolled off into the sea! Retrieve me!
(Seriously... is that what they meant?)
wouldn't it be relatively easy for water to shlop down into the entrance hole and drown someone?
:.(
Not really. If you keep the hole facing down, no more than a few drops will get in (and then only by splashing) and what gets in will drain out the bottom. You could also, I'd imagine, use a two-hole Zorb for that purpose; you'd get a lot wetter but because the Zorb floats you could always get one entrance above water and breathe.
what if the damn thing popped? You'd NEVER get out.
It looked to me like there was some kind of an internal frame. Not much when the weight of a person is put on it, but probably enough to hold the exit holes open.
As for me, I want a two-entrance, two-harness one of these. But, cruel as the designers of the Website are, they didn't say how you could buy one
Well they wouldn't load w/ a plugin, so here are the URLs for others w/ problems:
a vi i
http://www.zorb.com/Images/Video/original_test.
http://www.zorb.com/Images/Video/harnessed2.avi
http://www.zorb.com/Images/Video/hydro_zorb2.av
http://www.zorb.com/Images/Video/Simpsons.avi
http://www.zorb.com/Images/Video/Austria_1.avi
http://www.zorb.com/Images/Video/Austria_2.avi
http://www.zorb.com/Images/Video/Austria_3.avi
Someone should post a mirror before that site gets Slashdotted.
"Hmmm. AFAIK there is no official toy for Slashdot staff members. Yet."
Everyone who voted for Hemos the Hamster as their favorite breakfast cereal mascot should be real excited about the possibility of making their vote a reality and ought to back Roblimo up on this one. ;)
~ Kish
Here's a mirror of the movies in case the site is Slashdotted:
http://home.rochester.rr.com/crayz/zorb/
"You want one?"
"yeah!"
"Even if it is really expensive and impractical?"
"yeah!"
"Sorry, Zorbs aren't for sale"
Apparently the Zorb business model does not include selling the Zorbs. Even people who get a Zorb franchise only lease their Zorbs. The Zorb people make their money by bringing Zorbs to various events/meetings/fairs, and then having people ride around in them. I guess that makes sense considering a couple issues that we'd all like to ignore given the fun factor:
1) They are probably really expensive to buy/maintain/repair.
2) You really could kill yourself tumbling down the wrong hill, so you need some kind of skilled instructor/Zorb-wrangler to prevent massive liability lawsuits/injuries/death.
3. Come on folks, even the hamster gets tired of the hamster ball.
I'm sure Andover.net could have a couple Zorbs brought to the next big convention, huh folks?
Ewww...
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Suddenly the Zorb becomes one giant salad bowl and you are covered in thousand island dressing.
Seriously...what if this happened at the top of a hill? By the time you reach the bottom, you would probably have passed out from the acrid fumes...that might be dangerous.
Also, what happens if you are bouncing down a hill and a rock gets in the opening? Severe cits or bruises since you are pretty much pinned to the wall and at the mercy of whatever object is flying around with you.
All told, this is still a way cool invention. I just don't think it's something I would try.
- JoeShmoe
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-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
> Wonder how much these things cost and if we
> can talk Andover into buying us one.
What, you mean there's not already a category in Slashdot's budget for inflatable plastic devices?
I remember my hamster in his plastic ball; so excited to be allowed into the "real" world. (mind you at times there were troubles when he encountered the stairs). so what does this have to do with the average slash reader? well in a nutshell...imagine: Presenting the ZORB, the ultimate exploratory tool are you too attached to the computer? Do you continually here references to the "outside" and wonder what it's all about? Is your idea of having a good time taking down a Microsoft Server? Well then the ZORB is for you...it allows you to explore the "outside" world...all the marvels...all the scenery. The ZORB allows you to explore without leaving the sense of security of being seperated from everything else. ----ORDER NOW--- SUPPLIES ARE LIMITED CALL 1-800-BIGBALL for more information "The outside is waiting....are you ready?"
Hm.... :) I beleive you can do this just north of Auckland in New Zealand - it was invented (well, patented by, so one assumes....) by a Kiwi - one of my flatmates colegues, even.....
:)
And, the inventor is a software developer! Could it be a toy by a geek, for geeks?
BTW, if you read the history, DSIR = Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Long, long gone.....
Hehe - ok folks - nice to see all this interest in these babys. Let's see if I can answer your questions: 1. Yeah selling them is a major issue - in the interests of safety and quality and control and all that stuff - we have been setting up Master Franchises in other countries around the world and leasing the Zorbs - this works really well. So now all I need is someone with some cash and some smarts to call me up and say ... "hey Andrew let's do this right in the USA." 2. ummm what else did you want to know - well I'll tell you what if you want to discuss specific points with me - e-mail me from http://www.zorb.com or I'll be online as "zorb-boy" if you want to chat at http://www.xtrachat.co.nz for a few hours. Adios
Haha - yeah but consider this ... the only reason it rolls in the first place is 'cos it's round and inflated right - so if it starts to deflate - it stops being so round, and ... stops rolling - perfecto! Besides there's about 13 cubic metres of air in these babys so it sure takes a while to deflate.
Also available with spikes on the inside.
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
I think that would be the net equivalent to "Hey four-eyes, think fast!"
/.ers mob a page. Democracy in action.
Most people don't run their own servers, and a nice note from the Slashdot krew would just make it that much harder to go to sleep.
I agree with you on principle, but I don't think that would be very useful.
You know...
Slashdot: Hey, we're gonna link to ya! Get ready!
Webmaster: What?
Slashdot: Get set!
Webmaster: How?
Slashdot: Go!
*crunching sounds*
That and it's kind of fun watching
-- I can't think of anything witty to put here. Sorry.
Yeah - but if you take a 1 metre cut (as long as the whole thing's not bouncing which it doesn't where we use it) then it still takes a fair bit of time to deflate - works kind of like a stuntman's airbag
If ever there was a a project that had "Do It Yourself written on it, this is the one. all you'd need is some visqueen, scotch tape and a bike pump. Just do it! You could win the a prestigous Darwin award, err... for good Science! Remember to have a video cameraman on hand for it's maiden roll, cause you could win $10K on one of those TV shows where everybody gets hit in the nuts.
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
When I was in New Zealand last April, I tried zorbing at Rotorua. It's really cool.
:(
You roll down and bounce off the hill, not knowing what's up and what's down (much like a wipeout during surfing, only much more fun). My only problem: the hill wasn't big enough to pick up much speed
In some of the other comments I read about safety issues. Well, I don't think it's too unsafe:
1. The balls are made of thick plastic. A ball won't 'pop', but rather develop a leak. That way the ball deflates. While this can be rather quick, the few impacts after the leak occurs slow down the ball to a safe point. (try playing footbal with a partially inflated or even leak ball. It will take a while before all the air is out)
2. Water won't stay in. As I've seen it, there are two entrance holes in the Zorb ball, opposite each other. Water coming in from one side will get out the other, not allowing for much water to stay in, but enough to toroughly get you wet!.
3. If something happens, you can get out. You strap yourself in, and you get out yourself. It's probably easier when upright, but manageble in ayy position.
To anyone: try it. It's definately cool!
the pun is mightier than the sword
I'm no expert, but from the pictures it looks like this is constructed in the same manner as an air mattress: several different pockets of plastic that are connected by tiny air conduits.
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When inflating with a slow, steady stream...the air can flow into every single plastic chamber until the entire sphere is inflated. Plus, the plastic walls of each chamber (with sufficient air pressure on both sides) are what actually supports the sphere.
In the case of an extreme puncture, only one of the cells will completely deflate right away, and the surrounding cells will continue to leak air at the same slow, steady rate. Eventually, the entire thing will become rather floppy but hopefully by then you are safe on the ground.
This doesn't mean hurl yourself into a spike pit because if the "extreme puncture" happens to be in the place where your back is, all bets are off.
- JoeShmoe
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
Just a second...picture this: two hole Zorb rolling around in the water, and one hole goes below the surface. Water will pour in the submerged hole and Zorb and owner will sleep with the fishes because the only thing that keeps the Zorb afloat normally is air pressure on the inside, which is now being conveniently relieved by the other hole!
The Zorb floats, not because of air pressure inside the sphere, but because it's inflatable. An innertube floats with a hold on it; a Zorb is the same way.
As long as you don't puncture the Zorb, the thing will float even with one hole pointing straight down; water might splash up into the Zorb, but no more than a few drops (which run down the sides and back out through the hole). The Zorb itself would not sink.
How do you stop one of these things? If you're rolling down a hill at a fair clip of speed, how do you intend to make it stop? I don't think a person would want to get in front of it and get ran over, and you can just jump out. I guess the only solution is find a REALLY long flat landing area.