281–290 of 311 posts
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"Some kind of custom connection" is the real issue here.
The Raspberru Pi has I2C support, right? I would expect that can be used for data transfer, though it will probably be slow.
I wish I had the wherewithal to have applied myself in college and learned more than I just needed to learn!
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People like having something special and permanent. All those pictures on your general-purpose computing device? They're gone as soon as you lose the device, get ransomware, and/or temporarily run out of money to renew the cloud storage subscription. A polaroid picture that starts playing as soon as you attach it to a suitable power source (please make it something standard like an AA battery or USB cable), on the ot…
Your grandchildren are unlikely to be using AA batteries or USB cables.
I wouldn't be surprised if they were still around in a few decades' time - there's simply too much cheap consumer electronics out there relying on AA for it to make sense to introduce a new standard. (Energy density is likely to keep increasing - but as for the form factor itself, I suspect it will outlive me.)
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Tangential, but at some point of the last 15 years I thought the music industry might move to distributing what amounts to dedicated MP3 players/USB sticks. The simplest ones would be squares with album covers (shrunk like CD covers have shrunk from vinyl), but artists could get 3D creative. You could wear your music in necklaces or in your belt. People would flock to these things as conspicuous consumption (as they…
I can't even find a picture of one they were such a failure, but there was a time that what you're describing existed for AudioBooks. For a ridiculous markup (I think they were like $80+) you could buy an iPod sized device that held a single audiobook. They were gimmicked up to look like a tiny plastic hardcover with basic nav buttons on the side.
They've pushed an eBook standard where you buy a dedicated reader, then buy proprietary memory cards in sleeves much like the ones used for compact cassettes - the idea being that people want something tangible, even when buying eBooks. (The cynical among us assume they just invented that tangible bit to have people still come to tangible bookstores, but that is another story)
It has not turned out to be a massive success. Cough.
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People like having something special and permanent. All those pictures on your general-purpose computing device? They're gone as soon as you lose the device, get ransomware, and/or temporarily run out of money to renew the cloud storage subscription. A polaroid picture that starts playing as soon as you attach it to a suitable power source (please make it something standard like an AA battery or USB cable), on the ot…
Your grandchildren are unlikely to be using AA batteries or USB cables.
For those on the cross-roads of life.. Consider NYU's ITP program to be your next spring-board into the future: https://tisch.nyu.edu/itp
you won't regret it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
People like having something special and permanent. All those pictures on your general-purpose computing device? They're gone as soon as you lose the device, get ransomware, and/or temporarily run out of money to renew the cloud storage subscription. A polaroid picture that starts playing as soon as you attach it to a suitable power source (please make it something standard like an AA battery or USB cable), on the ot…
>A polaroid picture that starts playing as soon as you attach it to a suitable power source (please make it something standard like an AA battery or USB cable), on the other hand, is something you can keep in a box in the attic for your grandchildren to find after you're gone. Unlikely, unless it's very carefully engineered. For example, the flash life of most microcontrollers is measured in decades.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tangential, but at some point of the last 15 years I thought the music industry might move to distributing what amounts to dedicated MP3 players/USB sticks. The simplest ones would be squares with album covers (shrunk like CD covers have shrunk from vinyl), but artists could get 3D creative. You could wear your music in necklaces or in your belt. People would flock to these things as conspicuous consumption (as they…
That already happened in 1999, but with the limited storage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HitClips https://i.pinimg.com/736x/37/db/da/37dbda2593cb4889feb05b3a8...
Or that Weird Al would release ones shaped like (a cartoonish version of) himself with the headphone plug located between his butt cheeks.
This is one of those projects that at first, is easy to dismiss as "silly" or "useless". On the surface, sure. But looking at the imgur album and reading the comments (and I would imagine going to the website, etc - which I haven't done), it becomes clear (and the author even says so on the album) that this project ultimately served a larger purpose: From start to finish, this project has helped the person develop a…
You analysis is on point. The comments on Reddit in particular were so far off base. On one hand you had people raving about how this needed to be patented and produced for sale - those people are (perhaps optimistically) out of touch with reality. On the other hand were people laughing in his face for how ridiculous this was to produce as a project, because it's obviously not marketable ("I am so smart"). It goes to…