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Top 5 Dead Hard Drive Projects
hackedgadgets.com — What do you do when your hard drive dies or is so small it is no longer useful? Easy, rip it apart and make something cool out of it! Here are 5 ideas to get you started. See project VIDEOS and PICTURES. (Includes the never before seen Hard Drive Oscilloscope)
abbtech- 1472 diggs
- digg it
- Afrochu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Heh.. 5 years on and people still dig the hd speakers
- abbtech, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Yes :) they are very cool!
- jeffreyan12, on 10/12/2007, -31/+6cool now i have something to do with my 1GB hardrive or tell my friend what he can do with his 100MB(1024Kb) hard drive lol
- Grimdotdotdot, on 10/12/2007, -7/+291024KB is 1MB.
- pred8tr, on 10/12/2007, -29/+8If you really want to be technical 1MB = 1,024,576B. or 8,196,608b
- The_Decryptor, on 10/12/2007, -13/+6Or if you want to be correct (in the meaning of the terms)
1MB = 1000KB and 1MiB = 1024KiB.
(mega and kilo are decimal, not binary) - Tkkt, on 10/12/2007, -7/+4If his friend has a 100MB hard drive it's going to really be 100000KiB, or 97.65MiB of storage due to hard drive marketing terms.
- barthosch, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9on a C64 that would read
4227331 BLOCKS FREE - BMWcrazy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I think he means the cache of the hard drive and not the conversion of 100mb to kb
- Travisrd, on 10/12/2007, -14/+7site = owned
- zaid, on 10/12/2007, -6/+20that implies that owned = site...which isn't neccessarily true...
- cybertron3, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13I think it is more like:
dugg(site:blog) -> owned .
That is, a dugg site of type blog implies it is owned. If the site is not there, it is not owned; and no amount of owning will imply a specific site.
That said, would it be so hard to implement on digg an algorithm to alter the digg URL to a cache site if it gets past 500 hits? (And maybe a whitelist for sites that can handle it like ny times/wiki/engadget? - skwid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I just use the greasemonkey script that provides the link to the different cache sites for each article.
- theragu40, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Assuming site and owned are declared variables, doesn't that mean that site does equal owned, but owned retains its value until assigned another?
- Kitsune818, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5To me it says assign variable site the value of variable owned. Either way it's undefined.
- Tkkt, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3How about site == owned. :)
- Fosnez, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2site.status = "pwned";
- bmauter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4site.setOwned( true );
- ankit_shankar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3site == owned SHOULD be:
(site == owned) returns true - mangojump, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3oh my god! this has to be THE geekiest set of comments on digg
- redivider, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7nerds = [zaid, cybertron3, theragu40, Kitsune818, Tkkt, Fosnez, bmauter, anki_shankar];
- Terc, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7bandwidth limit exceeded
- Terc, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Sigh, why did this go front page AFTER it went down? My post above was while the article was still not front page.
- EricTheGrey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Possibly people are digging this, in order to come back once the site is up.
EtG
- djdole, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Anyone got a mirror to post?
- Arbinshire, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Wordpress seems completely unable to support any sort of DIGG affect.
- zigzagdesigns, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8Effect not Affect
- Halden, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It can with simple precautions:
http://mnm.uib.es/gallir/wp-cache-2/ - mporcheron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1sorry, but that's like saying the lock on your front door is secure, as long as you buy another one - no-one wants to download wordpress and then after modify just to make it work properly.
- abbtech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thanks Halden, I downloaded and installed WP-Cache. Seems to work well, I think the issue is with my hosting service (limiting the number of concurrent CGI scripts) :(
- hags2k, on 10/12/2007, -13/+3-deleted-
- fullwaza, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Seems like it is back up now....
- agoodm, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4CGI limits, Dug :)
- appidydafoo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I think the developers of Wordpress should really change that error message about misconfiguration to something more along the lines of "This software is unable to bear a large load, if you would like to serve your content to more than three users every ten minutes please switch to a different CMS"
Seriously. I have seen that error on every wordpress blog linked from Digg. Ridiculous.- eigh, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1well, unless the arcticle is EXCLUSIVELY on his blog, then i dont think we should have so many people linking to their personal blogs, only to see them utterly decimated (besides the fact that its also annoying).
- jeffreyan12, on 10/12/2007, -19/+2"1024KB is 1MB."
lol sorry made comment when i got up at 4am lol- Grimdotdotdot, on 10/12/2007, -10/+6And there's a reply button.
It's not your day, is it?
- Grimdotdotdot, on 10/12/2007, -10/+6And there's a reply button.
- ravan, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Cool projects! must do one
- akifbayram, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2digg effect has taken action!
- rprouse, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Although I admit that the error message is misleading, you get a more useful error if you go to the root of the site - "Database connection limit exceeded" so we shouldn't be blaming Wordpress, but the configuration of the database server that limits Wordpress. Any CMS that doesn't pre-compile the pages would have the same problem.
- rrittenhouse, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Its dead already :( grrr!
- zerovertex, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4http://hackedgadgets.com.nyud.net:8080/2006/04/25/top-5-uses-for-a-dead-hard-drive/
- neo17262, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1not working, either
- rudolphdude, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Seriously, I suppose that when one submits a link to digg they only can guess what kind of interest there will be. That said, I can't imagine there are THAT many of us trying to see this. So no digg.
- wilf_brim, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Still down, CGI limits exceeded. Mirror, anyone?
- CooLSpoT, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Blah, I know someone has the images. re-host!
- Terc, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1It was dead 22 minutes ago (I commented before it went front page) and somehow people still dugg it to the front page aparently without even clicking the link. Nice job
- ChuyMatt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Actually, I was just on it and watched it crash after the 3rd page. Poor guys. We are just trashing them...
- fullwaza, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Link to the original project:
http://www.afrotechmods.com/cheap/hdspeakers/hdspeakers.htm - peter303, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1More fun to look at other peoples' hard drives.
Since almost no one does "true" erasesures (just move sector lists to the freelist
leaving the original bits there), its more fun to collect HDs fromt he trash as see
whats still there. Like peoples p)rn, business records, emails, and so on.
Lots of entertainement.- Kitsune818, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Caught an ex-girlfriend cheating on me that way.. Juno stored all email in an unencrypted file at the time. I honestly didn't even know it was her old HD until I started seeing my name in places.
- adml_shake, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2When I was in HS a bunch of us in the IT club took some old HD's out of the parts room and made some of those disk things people used to hang around their rear view mirrors using music CD's......
- Kitsune818, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Wow.. I'm getting old... when *I* was in HS, we took apart a HD and couldn't get the platters into our car.. they were a couple of feet in diameter and about 1/4-1/2" thick, and weighed a ton. (It was '94 and the drive was something off of a DEC PDP)
- benhorstmann, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Nothing is better than the super fridge magnet... for those stacks of 30 papers that you don't want falling off!
- rebz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1ahhahha
- Kitsune818, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Heh, nyud.net mirrors the CGI error message.
- r3z0nate, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Just refresh the page acouple times to view it(or wait)
- PaulOwen, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Hehe.
Did Digg kill his CGI script server's hard drive too then? - Bonez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm currently working on a mechatronics project where we use the voice coil actuator of a dead 80 gig hard disk as a velocity sensor for a moving plane which in turn via a regulating system powers a speaker that keeps a connected plane (via springs to the moving plane) as steady as possible.
Another group is using the voice coil for hitting a ping pong ball (which got air born by the "pump" of a speaker)
It's sufficient to say that you can do lots of cools stuff with dead hard disks ...
+digg - IcanFLY, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Another fun thing to do with dead drives... is to blow them up! =D. You take a molex connector and wire it to a standard 120V A/C plug. Use a long extension cord and a powerbar and then turn on the power and let the fireworks begin! Make sure someone is standing at the powerbar switch or breaker box to turn to thing off after one or two seconds. This creates some nice toxic fumes and should be done in a ventilated area, if at all. And if you are feeling particularly stupid, try it with a dead motherboard which gives a much bigger effect. When I tried it there was a blast of sparks and fragments of IC's 20-30' across and we never tried that one again.
- infiniumetal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6These links are to each of the 5 projects. They are not as 'Dead' as the main page. If you get the CGI script then click on the refresh button until you see your browser loading bar begin to load the page up. (works within 2-3 clicks if needed.) [Thanx to r3z0nate ]
1) Hard Drive Laser Oscilloscope (page 2) http://hackedgadgets.com/2006/04/25/top-5-uses-for-a-dead-hard-drive/2/
2) Hard Drive Clock (page 3) http://hackedgadgets.com/2006/04/25/top-5-uses-for-a-dead-hard-drive/3/
3) Hard Drive Speakers (page 4) http://hackedgadgets.com/2006/04/25/top-5-uses-for-a-dead-hard-drive/4/
4) Hard Drive Generator (page 5) http://hackedgadgets.com/2006/04/25/top-5-uses-for-a-dead-hard-drive/5/
5) Hard Drive Wind Chimes (page 6) http://hackedgadgets.com/2006/04/25/top-5-uses-for-a-dead-hard-drive/6/- Sixcolors, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I was able to view two out of the three before getting 403 errors. This serves as a warning to all tech related web sites: Prepare to be Dugg.
- mageofdeath, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1thanks infiniumetal...
- pixogen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"CGI-limits reached, please try again later!"
Looks like it's dead.- marnaq, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2No, it looks like those CGI-limits has been reached.
- geekworking, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The HDD clock has come a long way from the old 10MB MFM drive platters with a mechanical clock screwed to the back and the clock face numbers written in binary.
- indulgence, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2assert(Site('http://hackedgadgets.com') == SITE_OWNED);
// notes the lack of assertion failed error... - EvilOtto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1not as exciting as the link but hd magnets make nice cheapo stud finders too. I've got one in my toolbox.
- Sixcolors, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I love the comment the guy left on the HD Speaker project about using the platters to make a TV aerial antenna. I've got a dead 40 Gig sitting in my closet back home, I'll have to consider putting it to good use.
- DigDugDigger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /2006/04/25/top-5-uses-for-a-dead-hard-drive/ on this server.
Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.- Trenton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I have the same problem, url is dead atleast I hope it comes back up.
- Sippi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Site has come down with a bad case of the "digg effect"
- abbtech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You are right Digg killed the hosting service... It is being transferred to a dedicated server... Should be done in one hour they tell me.
- kriminalintent, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2They should have also done a Top 5 Dead Website Project.
- abbtech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1LOL give it a bit longer, it will be up soon :)
- MrZop, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Lol, i have an old 20GB sitting under my modem right now. i wanted to take it apart but those stupid oddly shaped screws have prevented me from opening it. and i don't want to spend money on some fancy screwdriver.
- bluekangaroo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@ mrZop
Just take it to a drill press and drill out the screw heads. If you're patient, you can also use a dremel and cut slots into the screw heads and use a standard flat blade screwdriver.
These projects were cool. They beat my "hard drive paperweight" and "hard drive non removeable refrigerator magnet" project by a long shot
- bluekangaroo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@ mrZop
- abbtech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Site is back up :) Sorry for the wait.
- Splitt3rxx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I need to make myself an hdd speaker, looks easier than i though it would be, all I need is an amp, an old hdd and some wires.
- jpesicka2, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1if you really want to get technical, a megabyte is not a million kilobytes (or should i say, a comma doesn't = a decimal ass) no digg, what gould of a project is it if i can't get instructions or tutorials (for the clock, i didn't check others) & you expect me to digg a list of 5 previously front-page stories. that's something you post on slashdot.
- abbtech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The instructions for the hard drive clock were linked from the article, to build one go here:
http://www.alan-parekh.com/hard_drive_clock.html
The Hard Drive Scope was not shown anywhere before today, so you would not have seen this one (not sure if there is another that I could not find when I looked)
- abbtech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The instructions for the hard drive clock were linked from the article, to build one go here:
- abbtech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Still seems to be a slow down every now and then. I uploaded the videos of the hard drive scope to YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxskBFPc_7c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izi2wqaLLmM
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