What Can You Do With $100? 223
An anonymous reader asks "I was recently gifted with $100 and thought, 'What's the coolest geektoy--new, used, cobbled together, hacked--that one hundred clams could buy?' Home automation? Older PDA streaming client? Bathtub ROV? Basic stamp robotic kit? Something fun, something useful, something educational, something that says 'Look what I put together for $100.' Lemme know!"
Swiss Memory USB! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Swiss Memory USB! (Score:3, Insightful)
Or just the Cybertool (Score:3, Interesting)
Bonus, it fits in that little pocket on the right side of your jeans. You know, that one that you never have any use for?
Re:Awesome Hosting (Score:2)
SCO License (Score:5, Funny)
Re:SCO License (Score:2)
and aren't personal licenses 199
meaning you need
sniff.
Re:SCO License (Score:2)
Re:SCO License (Score:4, Funny)
Me) I would like one personal license please.
SCO) Will you be using this for more than one person?
Me) Well, I'll be using it for less than 2 people, is that ok?
SCO) Profit!
Re:SCO License (Score:4, Funny)
If you have a 99/100th of a friend laying around, please don't make friends with me....
Re:SCO License (Score:4, Funny)
Hmmm... 1% of the mass of a person is his or her cerebral cortex. In that sense, I know lots of people that are only 99% there. And that type of person is the perfect SCO customer.
Re:SCO License (Score:2)
Re:SCO License (Score:2)
512MB iPod Shuffle (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:512MB iPod Shuffle (Score:3, Funny)
Re:512MB iPod Shuffle (Score:2, Funny)
Better yet, waste the money on a domain and a year's worth of web hosting.
http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?objekt [dreamhost.com]
You could get something geeky like igotmyownwebsitefor100bucks.com
Re:512MB iPod Shuffle (Score:3, Funny)
*screee!*
Re:512MB iPod Shuffle (Score:2)
Whoah! That's the noise my last Western Digital hard drive made!
iBrator? (Score:3, Funny)
a blowjob (Score:5, Funny)
Re:a blowjob (Score:2, Funny)
Re:a blowjob (Score:2, Funny)
Re:a blowjob (Score:3, Funny)
Re:a blowjob (Score:4, Informative)
'Course, about 5% of the pros were working their way through a sex-change, so you might get more kinky than you really want...
And yes, that made the database really difficult to design...
Re:a blowjob (Score:2)
Re:a blowjob (Score:2)
Tools (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Tools (Score:2)
well, okay, not that one with the blonde and the midgets and the mayonaise
Why have midgets?
Re:Tools (Score:2, Insightful)
Because the blonde's too tall to ride a llama through the bathroom door.
Duh!
Re:Tools (Score:2)
magazine article (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:magazine article (Score:5, Funny)
Save It! (Score:4, Insightful)
What about (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What about (Score:3, Funny)
If you're coming from the right, then the homeless are homeless because of their own laziness and moral failings, and it would be immoral to protect them from the consequences of their actions. Better to let them die in the street.
If you're coming from the left, then homelessness is a government problem, and the $100 should be used lobbying the government to give more money to the homeless. Or used to improve a homeless person's self-esteem. Or to keep the homeless from
Re:What about (Score:2)
Take your significant other out... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Take your significant other out... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It depends... (Score:2)
I guess I go out and buy something fancy.
A nice suit would be great.
If only I had some money to buy one.
Re:Next Ask Slashdot: (Score:2)
Spend it on soap, deodorant, toothpaste and mouthwash, and some quality Romantic novels (e.g. Bronte, Dickens, Trollope). Then go out on the pull with what's left of the money, your new found cleanliness, and well-rounded education.
Christmas Lights (Score:5, Funny)
5,000 Christmas lights at post holiday prices: $100 ;-)
Linux/Apache/Perl/etc.: Free
Duping the world: [komar.org] Priceless!
Doing it for real will cost a little more than $100 if you want a decent webcam, but maybe I'll do that Christmas 2005 ... [komar.org]
Re:please do :) (Score:2)
Don't know if Special Agent Cody would work as the live hostage [fark.com] - he was good enough for the Associated Press! Some things that I didn't even try to fake because they would be difficult is day/twilight and/or the moon with clouds [komar.org] - might those would be convincing enough for 'ya if they showed up?!? ;-)
The Slashdot
Buy a grammar primer (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Buy a grammar primer (Score:2)
Subscribe to Make (Score:4, Informative)
Take a look at Make (Score:5, Informative)
A bunch of stuff! (Score:5, Informative)
Or, you can buy a bunch of little stuff, like:
Super-strong neodymium magnets [kjmagnetics.com]. Magnets sound boring, but these things are really, really strong. Get the spherical ones.
There's a whole host of cheap, unusual geeky projects at American Science & Surplus [sciplus.com].
Get a cheap computer. Buy a Used Xbox [ebay.com], and install Xbox Linux [xbox-linux.org] on it.
Color changing lights [thinkgeek.com]. The color change is nice and smooth. Popular with the kids.
Re:A bunch of stuff! (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, I know, you're not supposed to let them click together, and you're not supposed to handle them with you bare hands. They will chip if you're not careful, and they'll make a pressure hole in clothing if you let them click through a polo shirt. The most fun is handing one to a friend, then tossing them the second one. Its almost as much fun as tossing a charged capacitor (oh how I miss high school science class)to someone not expecting it.
Re:A bunch of stuff! (Score:2)
Re:A bunch of stuff! (Score:2)
Although, maybe there is some shipping restriction on these things since they might demagnitize things... I accidently erased a bunch of my BART cards last week. The magnets were a 6+ inches from the cards.
Re:A bunch of stuff! (Score:2)
Re:A bunch of stuff! (Score:2)
The spherical magnets have many fun applications. You can do roll them across the floor and do tricks, if you put a bunch magnets on the ground 6" from the other magnets, they slowly wobble towards each other and eventually join up with each other, which increases the strength of the magnetic field and sucks in more magnets and more and more-- nice magnetic effect.
My friend can get his magnets spin for 5 minutes straight. I am not sure how he does it, but it has somethin
Re:A bunch of stuff! (Score:2)
Re:Try Lee Valley for magnets (Score:2)
Re:neodymium magnets (Score:5, Funny)
Let someone play with the magnets. The magnets are so strong, that most people will pinch their fingers within a few minutes
I'll tell you what I'd do man... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'll tell you what I'd do man... (Score:2)
Re:I'll tell you what I'd do man... (Score:4, Funny)
Before graduating from high school.
Three year subscription to (Score:3, Interesting)
You can't buy love... (Score:2)
real geeks... (Score:2)
Drive to work (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Drive to work (Score:2)
Brew your own beer! (Score:5, Interesting)
It is only $70, you can use the other $30 for a Brew ingredients Kit [flyingbarrel.com]
Nothing beats home made beer.
Re:Brew your own beer! (Score:2)
See my brew log [andersonfam.org].
Re:Brew your own beer! (Score:2)
Back to the topic of this article, if I had $100 laying around I'd spend it on a nice grain mill. That's the only thing really holding me back from going to all grain brewing at this point.
Re:Brew your own beer! (Score:2)
If you aren't getting "good enough" efficiency with a $100 mill I think you are doing something wrong. Hundreds of very experienced people would strongly disagree with you on this.
Re:Brew your own beer! (Score:5, Interesting)
The number of variables and parameters that can be tweaked throughout the beer brewing process is a hacker's dream come true.
Plus, it helps to relieve some of the general ignorance that most people have about what beer actually IS. I actually read here on Slashdot once that different beers are achieved by, get this, roasting the hops in various ways. My gawd.
Re:Brew your own beer! (Score:2)
Sounds like terrorism to me! But then, I'd use the 100 bux for a tinfoil hat.
Re:Brew your own beer! (Score:3, Funny)
the real terrorism is perpitrated by Anhueser Busch [anheuser-busch.com]
Gahh! How people dring that stuff is beyond me...
wifi detector, the canary (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.canarywireless.com/ [canarywireless.com]
leaves half your cash in pocket.
Re:wifi detector, the canary (Score:2)
Wipe your ass with it (Score:5, Funny)
RC Car (Score:2, Interesting)
RFID Gun (Score:2)
For about $100... (Score:5, Interesting)
What I mean by this, is that you can buy the rocket (D thru F engine model), launch kit (launch pad, controller, engines, igniters, batteries), and wireless video camera - and do something that while it has been done before by others, is still a cool thing to do for yourself.
First - the camera: For about $30.00 (approx. $10-20.00 for the camera, and $10-15.00 shipping, depending on seller), you can buy off of ebay drop-shipped from hong-kong a miniature 900MHz-1.2GHz wireless "sugar-cube" camera and receiver combo, which runs off of 9 volt batteries. The camera is designed to transmit a few hundred feet thru walls in a security setup - but outdoors up in a rocket you can expect around 1000 ft or so. This is the cheapest way of getting these cameras - don't bother with an american dealer, they will charge you $80.00 minimum, plus s/h - not a good deal at all.
The rest of your money will go into the rocket and launch needs - a larger scale Estes rocket will be perfect - you might even be able to get away with one of the egg lofters if you want (you might want to try a different/lighter battery tech for the 9V camera, though). Anyhow - you won't spend anywhere near $70.00 on everything - the rocket kit will be about $20-30.00, everything else will fill (or not) the rest of the cash.
Then - spend your time to build the thing. Remember to pad/protect the camera, and mount it securely (but make it airodynamic, too!). Mount the battery securely as well, so it won't rattle around and change your C/G mid-flight. You are going to want a rocket made for payload lifting or similar - something designed for the extra weight (unless you want to experiment!).
Take it to a field, set it up, check your camera feed (heh - maybe some extra cash could be thrown to a 12VDC video recorder - you want to record your first flight, right?), install the engine and igniter, begin your countdown - and get ready to enter an interesting aerial photography hobby!
Cool Tools (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/index.php [kk.org]
You already found the answer (Score:2)
33 cups of coffee (Score:4, Funny)
Home automation (Score:2)
Home automation is a lot of fun, and once you get over the initial cost of the controller and possibly a remote interface you can pick up extra devices for under $20. I started mine a while back and love the geek factor. Plus, there's nothing like dimming all of your lights wit
Re:Home automation (Score:2)
Re:Home automation (Score:2)
If you use Linux... (Score:2, Funny)
Like a second video card, a radio tuner, or a winmodem.
Doing new kinds of things under Linux is always fun and educational. Well, it is for me, anway.
zerg (Score:2)
It is easier for a zergling to pass through the needle of an eye than for a rich man to enter heaven!
Starbucks card (Score:2)
$100, that's like 15 cups of coffee now?
Lego.... (Score:2)
The fun will never end
A fucking grammar checker (Score:2)
With $100 I bought myself a Palm PDA. (Score:2)
$5 - Palm folding keyboard.
$30 - PalmPix camera for m100/m105.
$20 - 8MB Flash card (Northstar MemorySafe) for m105.
Doesn't do color or multimedia, but I don't care -- it's a wonderful PDA, it uses standard AAA alkaline or NiMH batteries, and I don't have to replace the batteries very often (four weeks for NiMH, 6-8 weeks for Alkaline). And it plays a good game of chess, hearts, solitaire, blackjack, and scrabble (along with maybe 40 other gam
If you like Dr. Who... (Score:2)
(It should provide adequate substinance for the marathon...)
I'd suggest you're a jerk (Score:2)
Language Nazis are a pain. Not because they're obnoxious. But because they're stuck on the idea that the only purpose of language is to satisfy your High School English teacher. Communication, preferrably with grace, economy, and clarity, is a much higher priority.
Re:I'd suggest you're a jerk (Score:2, Funny)
errm...that should be "preferably." You don't have anything against correct spelling, do you?
Re:I'd suggest you're a jerk (Score:2)
Re:My point exactly (Score:2)
Language comes from people, not textbooks.
Re:My point exactly (Score:2)
Let me get this straight--you are telling me (a person, not a book) that I am wrong to object to a word that I find unclear (and, in fact, ugly) and demanding that I justify my objection by citing a textbook ("where is it written") and in the very same post you are telling me that "Language comes from people, not textbooks."
Well, I'm a native English
Re:My point exactly (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I'd suggest a dictionary (Score:2, Informative)
Try this link for example: Dictionary.com says gifted can mean 'to present something as a gift to' or 'to endow with' [reference.com] and cites the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition [reference.com].
Re:Dictionary this, word nazi (Score:2)
Re:100 lap dances (Score:2)
Re:laptop (Score:2)
OK, so it's an old Toshiba Satellite, with a cramped hard drive and cramped RAM, but a more-than-minimal installation of Slackware plus a 100Base-T PCMCIA card (another $15, dongle included) and it's quite the portable NC. And at home, "X -query joseph" gives me a login on my much faster desktop, while I'm still sitting on my couch.
I'd say for $125, I've gotten my money's worth out of it.
Re:donuts (Score:2)