Cliche response but has to be said, a daughter.
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Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
441–450 of 694 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#442I built a 35 foot steel boat that I ended up living on for years, sailing on the North Sea, and more recently throwing a bunch of great parties with. (If you're in the Netherlands and want to come to one, my email's in my profile!) It took about 5 years to build (on and off) and I say "built" but I actually bought a large part of the hull of the boat to start; however, somewhere around 90% of the boat by mass is stuf…
Post some pics please.
Exterior: http://owenversteeg.com/boat.jpg
Inside (excluding cockpit): http://owenversteeg.com/boatinterior1.jpg
Inside 2 (again cockpit invisible): http://owenversteeg.com/boatinterior2.jpg
Party photos are only for the guests, although with five thousand addressable LEDs, over 100 lasers, multiple underwater lights, moving programmable head lights, a fog machine and more it looks amazing, certainly wish I could share!
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#443I built (with my partner) a crazy all-aluminum camper trailer: https://luxurylandyacht.wordpress.com/ I've built some small boats and stuff, but this was a whole-nuther dimension Took about 11 months of pretty intense almost-every-day work by two people.
That design is very well thought out, as good or better than the commercial ones.
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#444My uncle had ALS and was slowly losing his ability to speak. I visited and in order to hear him, we had to gather around him closely. It was very fatiguing for him to project his voice. I went to a few audio stores and jerryrigged a portable mic-speaker setup that could attach to his wheelchair. No software, just the right series of devices and adapters. It worked well and provided a huge relief for him and our famil…
Thank you for that link. What a funny and engaging writer.
“My statue will be made of guano, highly compressed and polished to resemble marble, commemorating the victory of Bad Taste over Common Sense and Decency.”
Sounds like another great project for this thread!
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#445Earlier quoted context omitted.
Almost old enough to send into the mines and start paying rent!
This joke is funny because no one currently living has to make this choice.
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#446It is software-related, but also physical: pong with the bats moved by exercise bikes: http://lushprojects.com/cyclepong2/ It's been around more than 15 years in various forms now, but people still love playing it. If you're in London it is at https://www.novelty-automation.com/
What a clever idea! It got an exercise bike and noticed it was boring, so I hooked it up to a speed sensor and used that control VLC playback speed. Very motivating, to watch a movie like that because if you slack off it will slooowwww dooooowwwwnn.... And not nearly as boring :)
But I like yours better, it's more fun.
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#447Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is really cool, do you still do electrician work now?
No, I was actually really fascinated by the server and IT infrastructure in these types of operations and worked to make a career switch to programming. I’m a full stack engineer now professionally, and work on open source code on the side.
Really sorry to hear how things turned out for you career-wise. Just know that we all feel you and we are here whenever you need to talk about it.
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#448Earlier quoted context omitted.
Minecraft has definitely proved that the children yearn for the mines.
For my kids, at least (ages 5-12), "clicker" games are all the rage right now, as well as repetitive mining and harvesting in Minecraft.
I mean, when were we their age, we were playing lots of Diablo...
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#449I made a baseball bat that uses explosives to add a bunch of energy to your swing and hit a baseball really far. It uses the explosive blanks normally used to shoot nails into concrete (e.g. ramset). It worked way better than I expected, didn't have a kick, and turned out to be just a really neat thing to look at while sipping a frosty beverage. I also made a video about it if you're interested: https://youtu.be/Puo6…
Your channel and engineering skills are amazing. I've showed the series of increasingly awesome basketball videos to so many people.
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#450[deleted]