nytimes.com — Do-it-yourselfers and technogeeks, tinkerers, artists, crafters and product and furniture designers, the hackers are united only by their perspective, which looks upon an Ikea Billy bookcase or Lack table and sees not a finished object but raw material: a clean palette yearning to be embellished or repurposed.
Sep 6, 2007 View in Crawl 4
fflemingSep 7, 2007
No, a real hack is clever. This is not close.
Closed AccountSep 7, 2007
funny how so much from public radio news (USA) ends up on digg.....
n88nSep 7, 2007
I see what they are trying to do, but I think they got it all wrong. They stated, "Not living live like a paint by numbers", but why go to Ikea to get there stuff. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of living outside the box. So buy some prefabricated piece junk from a huge corporation and use it for an unintended purpose... How does that make them rebellious?If they want to make this whole thing some sort of real movement then buy there stuff from small local businesses or artists. Oh, but that is more expensive, so once again they are fueling the giants of conformity.They think they are living outside the box but unfortunately they bought that box from Ikea.
nikkesenSep 7, 2007
<a class="user" href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=hacker">http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=hacker</a>I suggest that you learn something about the meaning of hacker. It doesn't solely refer to computers. It's got a non-computer meaning as well.
terr01Sep 7, 2007
Someone needs to know what they're talking about before looking iike a doofus.Those MIT guys modified the CIRCUITS in their trains. Algorithms in hardware!
halavaisSep 7, 2007
And yet, they didn't feel it was necessary to include the word "algorithm" in their own definition. From the Tech Model Railroad Club Dictionary, a hack is "1) an article or project without constructive end; 2) a project undertaken on bad self-advice; 3) an entropy booster; 4) to produce, or attempt to produce, a hack."But don't let me stand in the way of your language policing, Humpty Dumpty, I'm sure the word means whatever you have deemed appropriate in all your non-doofusdom.
mhmdkhamisDec 15, 2007
<a class="user" href="http://download.free-software.cc">http://download.free-software.cc</a>Ikea is a great source for bits and pieces for making things. They often are the only place I can seem to find something in a basic, low-style form. For instance, recently I needed a water tight glass jar to make something with. All the other "big box" stores had jars with writing, flowers, decoration, tinting, etc.. while at Ikea I found a perfectly boring clear glass jar with a silicone gasket and a bail clamp for like 2 dollars. I think that has a lot to do with why a lot of people who make things tend to start with Ikea items.<a class="user" href="http://game.paramegsoft.com/">http://game.paramegsoft.com/</a>
trickyt57Nov 16, 2008
TroubledMind wrote:And if I cut a hole in the seat of my 30 dollar IKEA chair, and lay a big growler in the hole, I have hacked a toilet? Or am I just a stupid fool who ruined a chair and took a dump in his living room?TrickyT's reply:I think the item you are looking for already exists at Ikea, EXCEPT, its use is much more interesting. You can find the seat with a hole here:<a class="user" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_pAe086n9-PM/SKmp0cq5b6I/AAAAAAAAAfw/ohPmxD2QwoU/s1600-h/stool.bmp">http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_pAe086n9-PM/SKmp0cq5b6I/ ...</a>Take a look at the secret sexy use that customers are putting this dump chair to:<a class="user" href="http://www.ericptak.com/emails-and-forwards/?p=2040">http://www.ericptak.com/emails-and-forwards/?p=204 ...</a><a class="user" href="http://disorderofnovil.blogspot.com/2008/08/wonders-of-ikea.html">http://disorderofnovil.blogspot.com/2008/08/wonder ...</a>Of course you could always use it to take a dump if you wish.