Mac GUI City :: The Fentix Cube and other cool stuff

cactus · **Citizen** Topic Starter

I saw this originaly on the BBC web site: Touch cube points to future toys,
but the guy has his own web page with lots of really cool images
and You-tube movies of stuff he has made: Andrew Fentem.

Well worth a look.
An example to all of us of what can be achieved.
I'm not sure if any of this stuff is on sale at reasonable
(i.e. not one-off) prices, but if anyone has loads-a-dosh
for startup money .............. Wink

heavymetal4god · **Citizen**

Interesting to say the least

Dog Cow · **Mayor**

John Lennon used to have this very expensive (for the time) box called his "Nothing box" where lights would blink on at random and he would lay around for hours trying to guess which one would come on next.

heavymetal4god · **Citizen**

Sounds like what a Lava lamp is. Like your just thinking about the object...

cactus · **Citizen** Topic Starter

Back in John Lennon's day, trendy art galleries used to feature plastic
boxes with half a dozen lamps inside, turning on and off apparently at
random, although if you watched for a bit a pattern usually emerged.
WOW !

Most of those light displays were controlled by electromechanical rotary
switches designed for washing machines, and / or a handful of relays.
You can buy more sophisticated Christmas tree light displays these
days, with a range of effects programmed into a small processor.

The transistor had hardly appeared and they tended to be expensive,
fragile and only suitable for small loads at low voltages. Most trannies
available to amateurs were Germanium and only worked at audio
frequencies. Most electronic projects were designed around a single
trannie, or two for luxury !
Real men still used valves at high voltage. Some of these provided
a pleasing light display in their own right.

LEDs (if you could get them) were really exotic, very expensive,
very fragile and rather feeble. But again, WOW ! a solid state light.

Dog Cow · **Mayor**

cactus wrote:

Quote: Back in John Lennon's day, trendy art galleries used to feature plastic
boxes with half a dozen lamps inside, turning on and off apparently at
random, although if you watched for a bit a pattern usually emerged.
WOW !

Yeah, I read about his nothing box and I didn't know all you just told me, but I had a strong feeling that back in 1965 or so, something like that would have been expensive.