As an IT professional, this is just the funniest thing ever. Best of all, it’s all true… Yeah, it’s a little old-school, but still completely relevant.
Got $342,275 USD to blow on a clock? Look no further than a wind-up clock that writes the time on a piece of paper. Bleeding-edge Swiss watch-maker Jacquet Droz invested ten years in engineering and building “La Machine a Ecrire le Temps” (the machine that writes time). Personally, I was thinking that when I staff my mansion in New Zealand after overthrowing its government and installing myself as a dictator, I could use this machine for punching employee time-cards.
By some coincidence, in the 18th century, Jacquet Droz’s founder used to build automaton dolls to help sell his watches. Manuel Emsch’s idea was to build a similar machine that would be useful for the new millennium.
There are more than 1,200 components, including 84 ball bearings, 50 cams and 9 belts inside the machine. Wind it up, press the button, and the time is written on a small pad using a stylus. Manuel Emsch, creative head of Montres Jacquet Droz, came up with the idea and passed it on to the engineers and artisans of the company. The mechanism is kept inside a case made of liquid crystal, so that you can conceal or reveal it whenever you want.
Via DVICE
[Narrator Voice-Over] In a time… of post-apocalyptic destruction. Mechanical ragdolls have risen from the ashes of the old world to replace mankind. But in the darkness lies an evil robot monster that feeds on the souls of slain ragdolls. Only ragdoll #9 is left to fight alone in a desperate attempt to save their dystopia, and free the undead.
This is now a big-budget film with Tim Burton’s name stamped on it. It was based on a short film of the same name. The little mechanical ragdolls are cool. The big movie website, and the original short-film on YouTube. The plot (Wiki) is compelling, and the movie trailer makes it look very interesting. I’m certainly going to see this on the big screen. Oh, and watch the above trailer all the way through, because there are two of them one after another.
OMG, this is so funny. I love these College Humor guys, and this parody of Billy Joel’s “We didn’t start the fire” masterfully captures the modern internet. Also, I saw Billy Joel’s video debut on MTV back when they played videos. For anyone over 30, this should be a scary wake-up call.
I remember a world populated with Commodore 64s, VCRs the size of microwave ovens, microwave ovens the size of dog houses, cassette tapes coming in as 8-tracks went out, and you could smoke anywhere (bus, airplane, library, work, you name it). I’m an IT professional, and the modern Internet is a very scary place. The future is cloud computing, wireless video and power and everything else, throw-away data centers, and vertical farming. Whoa, I need to live a life of solitude in my airship as it floats along the air currents high above civilization; kind of like that world in BioShock, but up in the sky…