The Complicated Way to Turn on a Flashlight

jangobongo writes "A machine built by the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers employed an outer-space theme and used steps that incorporated a bouncing water balloon, a fireman action figure fleeing a fire and weights attached to a spinning bicycle wheel to win the 18th national Purdue Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. The winning machine told the story of rocket being launched. As the rocket traveled into space, a meteor hit Earth and started a fire. While the mock fire was put out, the rocket turned on the flashlight to shine back down on Earth. A short video clip can be seen here. The contest was filmed by the Game Show Network to be featured on the network's show, 'Games Across America,' at some future date."

mirrors, including .mov

[winkydink]

1.2Mb .mov

This ought to stress-test the machine. :)

Here [networkmirror.com], here [networkmirror.com], here [networkmirror.com] and here [networkmirror.com]

Re:mirrors, including .mov

[CdBee]

"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey (Parent's Sig

That poor server would probably rather be either, right now.

Re:mirrors, including .mov

[random_culchie]

No mplayer included. tut tut :)

Re:mirrors, including .mov

[CSMastermind]

You can us vlc, http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ [videolan.org]

Re:mirrors, including .mov

[op12]

Perhaps I'm speaking too soon, but the server seems to be holding up quite well. Got it at 60k/s.

Re:mirrors, including .mov

[winkydink]

So far so good. Load average = 3.3

No signs of smoke.

Yet. :)

Re:mirrors, including .mov

[ruiner13]

I dunno, the link is to a purdue.edu account, when I went there we had an I2 feed that was pretty peppy. I'm not saying this server is on the I2 feed, but I was able to view the video instantly.

Re:mirrors, including .mov

[cawpin]

$100 to /.s charity of choice, or to /. itself, if the Purdue server goes down. I went there and they do have a healthy backbone. Many many m/bits were pulled by me and my pals. Never a problem, nor a whimper. ;-)

Re:Jesus Christ People

[winkydink]

Thank you for your feedback.

Re:Jesus Christ People

[game kid]

Thank you for your feedback.

Microsoft website, is that you?

*gives funeral rites to now-burning networkmirror.com servers*

Re:mirrors, including .mov

[spoonsman]

Realize that that's on the Purdue servers. In other words, it's on a University network that's used to handling tens of thousands of users without breaking a sweat. If you look at the University's network graphs you'll see that there's really no activity that's too far out of the ordinary. http://xadar.noc.purdue.edu/traffic.php?local_grap h_id=480

Re:mirrors, including .mov

[spoonsman]

Oops, forgot to make that a link.

http://xadar.noc.purdue.edu/traffic.php?local_grap h_id=480 [purdue.edu]

Re:mirrors, including .mov

[winkydink]

Ah but what about the server it's hosted on? Is it on a busy/overloaded LAN segment? Is it running on hand-me-down hardware?

The university has a butt-load of bandwidth, but if the other links in the chain are not equally as strong, well...

I read about this on CNN on Saturday

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess CNN is now the place to go for breaking geek news.

Re:I read about this on CNN on Saturday

[Neuroelectronic]

This is boring.

Movie on front page of slashdot!

[random_culchie]

Heres a link just in case. Mirror [compsoc.com]

Re:Movie on front page of slashdot!

[OverlordQ]

another one here [thedarkcitadel.com]

Re:Movie on front page of slashdot!

[random_culchie]

another one here

Not no more :)

Gone
The requested resource
/index.php
is no longer available on this server and there is no forwarding address. Please remove all references to this resource.

Re:Movie on front page of slashdot!

[OverlordQ]

RHEEEEE mod_rewrite kicks my ass again, should be fixed now.

Film at 11. No, 12. Er, 1. Well, eventually...

[gidds]

[NT]

I have a rue goldberg where...

[deft]

you post a 1.2 meg video on the front of slashdot which activates 50,000 people with fast connections to right click and download, thus setting a server on fire...

but do I get filmed? nooo....

Honda Commercial

[cgoody]

Anybody remember the Honda commercial like this?

Re:Honda Commercial

[Hogwash McFly]

I think everyone remembers Cog [wikipedia.org]

Re:Honda Commercial

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes [ebaumsworld.com]

Re:Honda Commercial

[andy17null]

Yeah, it was called "Cog" and took 606 takes. Link [194.29.64.17] [Honda?]
Mirror [ebaumsworld.com]

Re:Honda Commercial

[meowsqueak]

The clip is actually two takes cleverly edited together, because they had so much trouble trying to get the entire thing to work in one continuous take.

Re:Honda Commercial

[danila]

Actually it was because they could not fit the whole contraption in the room.

Re:Honda Commercial

[Mister Transistor]

That commercial was supposedly based on another rube-goldberg-like video short. It's named "lauf.avi", I have it, but I can't find any relevant links to it from Google to point to. It starts with a spinning garbage bag unwinding and descending to hit something else, etc. One very clever thing about it is that it ends with something hitting a garbage bag and starting it to spinning, so the whole thing is an endless loop!

Re:Honda Commercial

[hairykrishna]

It's a film by some swiss artists called "The way things go": http://www.frif.com/cat97/t-z/the_way_.html [frif.com]

Re:Honda Commercial

[thebudgie]

Never mind that one- What about the 118118 spoof of this commercial shown in the UK cinemas. It was the greatest.

Re:Honda Commercial

[Tibe]

The parody by the118118experience [the118118experience.com] is good for a laugh too.

.... A short video clip can be seen here.

[macaulay805]

A short video clip can be seen here.

Not anymore.

Re:.... A short video clip can be seen here.

[Hogwash McFly]

The sequence is as follows:

• Video file posted on Slashdot
  
• Server whimpers like a schoolgirl as it catches on fire
  
• Fire burns through a string which was suspending a weight
  
• Weight falls onto a see-saw which switches on a table lamp
  
• Light from lamp activates a light sensor, switching on a DVD player
  
• DVD plays, showing a pimply engineering student repeating the words 'Fuck you Slashdot' over and over.

A lot more than a whimpering is involved....

[way2trivial]

You've obviously never actually set a schoolgirl on fire..

(I don't reccomend the experience without earplugs)

Re:.... A short video clip can be seen here.

[Grayskies]

Being on the floor below ITaP (Information Technology at Purdue), I could have swore that I heard the high pitched screams of many undergrad IT folk as the server melted...no wonder it's so hot in here...

Video clip = guy talking about machine

[TheLittleJetson]

It's not really a video of the machine in action, as one would expect. They could have cut down their traffic by 80% by simply mentioning that in the article blurb.

Re:.... A short video clip can be seen here.

[Forthan Red]

It was mostly a talking head (no, not the group), and didn't even appear to be entry discussed in the /. post.

Gee, this sounds familiar...

[FusionDragon2099]

Didn't Sierra do this with The Incredible Machine?

Re:Gee, this sounds familiar...

[UWC]

Didn't Sierra do this with The Incredible Machine?

Yeah, but don't tell that apparently time-traveling Goldberg guy.

Re:Gee, this sounds familiar...

[Propaganda13]

No, you're thinking about the milkshake that brings all the boys to the yard.

Re:Gee, this sounds familiar...

[bobalien]

oh man that game was great, i'd completely forgotten about it

Complicated Way

[blatantdog]

So civilians figured out what the US Military does everyday.

*ducks*

[cmacmanus]

You haven't heard the one about how many Purdue Society of Professional Engineers does it take to turn on a flashlight? :P

I can see it now...

[IBeatUpNerds]

Snippet from one of their resumes:

Part of team that won award three years running for devising the most complex and inefficient machine possible.

Oh yeah... HR departments will jump these guys.

Re:I can see it now...

[macaulay805]

Oh yeah... HR departments will jump these guys.

Sadly, I know of at least three different compaines that will!

Re:I can see it now...

[Koiu Lpoi]

Who knows, he may yet have a job at the Penagon!

Re:'Fire' as a theme

[Jtheletter]

To the moderator:

First off, this was posted within 6 minutes of the article going up, at which point browsing at 3 I didn't see any other comments of this nature.

Secondly, it was posted at 1, did it really warrant being brought to 0? Maybe if it were at a 2 or 3, sure, but a 1 was just too high for you I suppose.

Seriously guy, find something better to do with your mod points than to jerk around other ppls karma on posts that are clearly meant to be humorous. +1 Funny doesn't bring you up but negative mo

Maybe..

[Anonymous Coward]

The webserver is hosted on the flashlight..

Morse Code...

[Krankheit]

Maybe the movie is transferred via morse code over the flashlight. Must take a while to turn the flashlight on and off.

Yes!

[Krankheit]

This will be great for me! Where can I order? I will never have to worry about people using my flashlight batteries up again, as long as I don't keep the operation manual nearby. This is similar to the solution I put in place with my laptop. Students used to come in and drain my laptop's battery when it ran Windows. Now my laptop runs Linux. When tehy try to use my laptop, they tell me my laptop crashed. I wonder if those who attempt to use this new light emitting will think it is broken or something...

Re:Yes!

[Proney]

I will never have to worry about people using my flashlight batteries up again

One of these [thinkgeek.com] might do pretty well for that too.

first linked slashdotted already

[kgruscho]

In any case I read the AP feed and it confused me.

What is the point of a machine contest, where the machines are needlessly large and complex. It really sounded like the ideal machine did one basic function and then 12-14 extraneous and overcomplex functions.

Was the contest specifically about how to make tasks more complex than necessary? Like an obuscated code contest for machines?

(usually the code seems a fair amount more useful/clever than this machine though...)

Re:first linked slashdotted already

[stratjakt]

That's exactly the point of the contest.

Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist from the turn of the century, famous for drawing really fancy complex ridiculous machines to do something simple.

When you see a cartoon where a bowling ball runs down a ramp, knocks a peg into a cup, which spins around a loop, and then pops a balloon, which makes a hamster run in a wheel, which in turn releases a latch which makes an anvil fall on Daffy Duck, that's a direct homage to Rube Goldberg.

Re:first linked slashdotted already

[Anonymous Coward]

ah yes like MS office

Heath Robinson

[meowsqueak]

Commonwealth readers may be more familiar with Heath Robinson [liverpoolmuseums.org.uk] (1872-1944) than Rube Goldberg (1883-1970).

Re:first linked slashdotted already

[kidgenius]

This is a Rube Goldberg machine. That is the point. To make something overly complex to do something simple. Here's some more info [wikipedia.org]

Re:first linked slashdotted already

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

I guess you won't enjoy this [pipex.com] paper then.

you know what I love?

[badmicrophone]

how many Rube Goldbergian machines we use without realizing how much so they are...yeah, that was english.

Take for instance my friend's cell phone, it rings; like, as in ringing. You know, the sound a bell makes.

Well, to me the funny thing is how much processing has to occur to create this ringing sound - all the decompression, digital to analog conversion - how some IC's are monitoring the juice from the battery - all to mimic a simple, age-old bell.

----
Check out my Music Video! [mp3unsigned.com]

Re:you know what I love?

[stratjakt]

The other day my kid brother and I both fired up XBConnect and Halo 2, he joined my game, and we each had our XBox controller cords streched across our respective rooms - just so we could talk on the headsets, since neither of us have a dedicated USB adaptor to plug the headsets right into the PC.

All so we could talk while we played Super Mario Kart via ZSNES netplay feature.

Re:you know what I love?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not surprised your friend didn't get the external ringer/bell attachment; that thing hurts when it goes off in your pocket.

Re:you know what I love?

[Lord_Dweomer]

When you think about it, all of technological invention is kind of a Rube Goldberg machine, except the end result is not necessarily known ahead of time.

Watch the Connections series and you'll see what I mean.

Re:you know what I love?

[nEoN nOoDlE]

cell phone, it rings; like, as in ringing. You know, the sound a bell makes.

Mine plays the guitar solo in Stairway to Heaven

A walk down memory lane...

[Anonymous Coward]

It would be difficult to describe all 125 steps, but the items included billiard balls, a boxing glove, a space cowboy, a satellite, a vacuum cleaner and a spaghetti fork.

From volume 2 of the Kama Sutra, I presume.

Re:A walk down memory lane...

[Infinityis]

There's a volume 2?

Link please!

I see

[Bootle]

The Purdue society of professional engineers won the Purdue contest...

That's almost as bad as having a Vice President's oilcompany winning US oil contracts in Iraq... Oh wait!

Re:I see

[Anonymous Coward]

As a member of a team that lost to the one in question I can tell you it wasn't won because they are from Purdue and the contest was at Purdue, our machine got 2nd with one bad run and 60 steps, theirs looked better, worked perfectly twice (which is very very hard to do), had 125 steps (twice ours), we agree to defeat from the better team, but promise to be back next year to chew some boilermakers up.

Re:I see

[hayfever]

What's your point? The contest is hosted by the Psi Chapter of the Theta Tau fraternity, the national engineering fraternity, not by PSPE or even NSPE. It started as a competition between different clubs at Purdue and has expanded beyond it to some other universities, but is still largely a Purdue event. It makes sense then that Purdue tends to do well, groups at Purdue have been building these for decades competing against each other.

Re:I see

[doublem]

It makes sense then that Purdue tends to do well, groups at Purdue have been building these for decades competing against each other.

Man, that's a LOT of time as an undergrad.

Fascinating.

[A Sea and Cake]

The things that come out of really great minds that are really bored consistently baffle me. Cases in point: The USB fishtank, the belt-driven watch.

Or...

[th1ckasabr1ck]

They could have just used this [gamleys.co.uk]

Rube Goldberg, the early years

[killermookie]

Might I add one of Rube Goldberg's first attempts?

Not Quite Rube Goldberg [killermookie.org]

Re:Rube Goldberg, the early years

[feronti]

What the hell did I just watch? Actually, it was a pretty cool performance piece, but damn.

Re:Rube Goldberg, the early years

[Phatboy]

That was an official, web-based followup to a British TV advertising campaign for a directory enquiries service (with the telephone number 118118 - see here [the118experience.com] for more, if you must), which in this case was a spoof of a Honda advert (available from this site [absolutelyandy.com]).

The original 118-118 adverts featured two 70s style 'atheletes' running around and telling people they'd "Got your number" with each runner having the number 118 displayed on their costume. Personally, I found them mildly irritating.

The Honda advert its

"rocket being launched"

[MisterLawyer]

"The winning machine told the story of rocket being launched."

In case you haven't heard of him, he's the great grandson of dances with wolves.

Lost Rocket

[DrunkenTerror]

if I looking for rocket

him name is hopkin red rocket

\_______ |
|_______> -0-
/ |

I lost my rocket
555-3228

Love, Jerry

P.S. I'll find my rocket

Who took my rocket
Who found my rocket

Flashlights!

[rlk]

There are, if you can believe it, real flashlights that are almost as complicated. This one [candlepower.us] has a thirteen page user's guide [hdssystems.com] in addition to a quick start guide and a reference card.

(The LED Museum [att.net] is a site that all nerds should bookmark. I believe it's been Slashdotted before.)

Re:Flashlights!

[Infinityis]

It looks like they're trying to copy the Macintosh "all you need is one-button" approach. However, in this case, you only have a single "pixel" of output, so it's a much different situation.

I don't think I'd buy something with such poorly thought out UI...

Re:Flashlights!

[feronti]

Especially since, to put it into tactical momentary, you have to do like 15 flashes... rather silly, considering the whole point of tactical momentary being to keep the light on for the least amount of time (i.e. to not give away your position). Granted, if you need tactical momentary, one would hope that you would have enabled it before you left, but you can't always know when you're going to need to hide.

I saw better on Tom and Jerry

[LoverOfJoy]

Tom had much more complicated techniques.

Re:I saw better on Tom and Jerry

[cynic10508]

Wile E. Coyote all the way. He was just a victim of Acme's shoddy quality control department (or lack thereof).

torrent

[xbmodder]

here is a torrent dude: xbmodder.us/rub.torrent

If only...

[mikael]

... the Mars Rover had a night light.

Redundant

[Datamonstar]

Shouldn't this whole article be modded -100000 redundant?

Rubes

[Monkey Angst]

No description of a good Rube Goldberg device is complete without the phrase "...which scares the chicken, who lays an egg, which rolls down a tube..."

Is the video of the full sequence...

[BcNexus]

...licensed, or what? Can't we see it now?
How dare those engineers tantalize us with the story and the photos and the frustratingly short clip!
I would love to see a video of the contraption operating from start to end, as I'm sure many other people would.

Mine is better

[clambake]

My rube goldberg machine involves the evolution of Gerbles until the point that they are capable of building thier own flashlights and turning them on. I hope there isn't a time limit.

the complicated way is simpler...

[jpellino]

I've been teaching science for 25 years - the complicated way to turn on a flashlight is apparently to hand someone a bulb, a battery, and a wire and ask them to make it work. It's amazing how many people (kids AND adults) can't do this or do it after many many wrong tries.

I go to Purdue..

[jajawarrior]

..and I'm proud to say that we keep things complicated around here! -jajawarrior

the ENTIRE video clip

[krunk4ever]

i found this as i was poking at the site:
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/mov/2005/rube05localwin ner.mov [purdue.edu]

it seems to be the long version of the machine. it's 1:01 in length and 3.3megs big. since it's not the opening post and probably wont be modded too high, i don't think there should be any bandwidth problems. but if there is, shoot me a email and i'll mirror it.

Re:Concept

[curufinwe741]

You really have no idea what you're talking about. Rube Goldberg was the name a cartoonist who died in 1970. He was the one who began the trend of creating ridiculous and complex devices for accomplishing mundane tasks, such as a machine the size of a room built for the sole purpose of making a piece of toast.

Re:Concept

[crisco]

I think the OP was trying to be funny or sarcastic. The Honda ad was inspired by a short film (that I can't track down at the moment) that was in turn, inspired by Rube Goldberg.

Of course, by having to explain it, it looses teh funney.

Re:Concept

[hairykrishna]

It's a film by some swiss artists called "The way things go": http://www.frif.com/cat97/t-z/the_way_.html [frif.com]

Re:Concept

[nzlemming]

[ObZen] One needs to have teh funney in order to lose it...

Re:Concept

[Hognoxious]

You really have no idea what you're talking about. Rube Goldberg was the name a cartoonist who died in 1970. He was the one who began the trend of creating ridiculous and complex devices

Of course those who live to the right of the pond refer to them as Heath Robinson [wikipedia.org] contraptions. The two cartoonists seem to have been roughly contemporary. No doubt these days they'd be suing the pants off each other over IP infringement...

Re:Concept

[kidgenius]

The whole concept behind this originated from a Honda ad.

Actually, both this contest and the Honda commercial were inspired by Rube Goldberg machines.

Re:Honda Ad

[DrKyle]

The whole ad was real, nothing was faked. People usually have a problem with the wheels rolling uphill, but they are real wheels just with top weights in them so lowering the center of gravity makes the wheels go uphill slightly.

Nope

[wantedman]

A very small section was fake. If you recall the prevous slashdot article, the pipe rolling was CG'ed, because their warehouse was too small to hold the entire contraption.