Gizmodo: binary

Gigantic Polish Binary Clock

Kat Hannaford — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:56:38 EST

Like a giant Tokyo Flash watch, this binary clock installation at the Technical University of Wroclaw, Poland, was erected by students hoping to promote the technical nature of their university. How noble.

The Big Binary Clock project displays the time using 18 round windows, with the green LEDs representing the hours, the blue representing the minutes, and the red the seconds. The time can be set remotely via Bluetooth, and an NXP ARM7 processor keeps it ticking over nicely. Certainly beats the usual "projects" students "erect" in US colleges. [Big Binary Clock via Hacked Gadgets]

Awesome 1980s Computer Pop-Up Book: A Floppy What Now?

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 09 May 2009 16:00:00 EDT

Now this is one amazing Goodwill find: A vintage pop-up book designed to teach burgeoning nerds about the wonders of the modern computer. Floppy disks, ASCII, and the dot-matrix printer. Oh my.

Some of this stuff is amazing, like an ASCII and binary decoder, and the hilarious message on the dot-matrix printer:

Now that we've met, I'm ready to work—and play—with you. See you soon! Goodbye.

Computers used to be so adorable (and polite!). [JonathanRyan]

Epoch Clock: A Rosetta Stone Timepiece for Number Codes

Sean Fallon — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:00:00 EST

The trend in timepieces these days is to display values in terms that only math nerds and engineers can possibly understand. Finally, a product has been developed that helps make sense of the madness.

Like the Rosetta Stone, the Epoch clock helps you convert from one language to another—or, in this case, numbering systems. It displays time in multiple formats (Standard, Hexadecimal, Octal, Binary, Roman) so you can impress your nerdy friends with your knowledge. It's kind of like learning Spanish, only less useful. The Epoch Clock is available now from Think Geek for $50, but if you are looking for something a little more straightforward, the Verbarius clock from Art Lebedev should fit the bill nicely.

Features:
•Displays the time in multiple formats: Standard, Hexadecimal, Octal, Binary, Roman
•Unix epoch time display
•Day, month, year display
•Date display and Unix epoch display can be turned off/on
•12-hour (AM/PM) or 24-hour (military time)
•Alarm clock with snooze and two volume settings
•Back-up power from two AA batteries
•USB port on back provides output power
•Awesome LED display
•Dimensions: 7" x 2.6" x 2.2"
•Comes with: Clock, AC power adapter, instructions, conversion chart (for the weak minded)

[ThinkGeek]

His and Hers Binary Button-Downs Fuse Subtle Geek With Work Wardrobe Chic

Jack Loftus — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:00:00 EDT

These dry-clean only shirts from Rhombuswear are, perhaps, the perfect "next step" for geeks looking to spruce up their wardrobe with a few articles that aren't open source project-branded polo shirts. From a distance, they're all business. But get close, and the little 1's and 0's start to take shape. Or Iowa test ovals, your choice. Just don't come complaining to us when you get reprimanded for making nasty words with the filled-in ovals. Then again, for $75 a pop, you might want to leave the No. 2's at home. [Rhombuswear via Geek Sugar via Technabob]

Room Sized K'NEX Calculator

blongo3 — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 23:05:35 EDT

The best thing that I can remember making with K'NEX was a ferris wheel, and I followed a set of directions. However, a couple of engineering-crazed kids from Olin College have devised a gigantic K'NEX Binary calculator that can add or subtract numbers as high as 15 (That's way more impressive than it sounds).

It works by utilizing 9 little balls that you drop down from the top, think Plinko on the Price is Right. As they fall certain levers are flipped that in turn move a flag that shows you what number is being entered. The first four balls (remember they're using binary) tell the machine what the first number is, the fifth ball says whether you're adding or subtracting, and the last four indicate the other number.

Here's a very confusing video of the calculator in motion. I will never under-appreciate the free little calculators that my bank sends me ever again.

The K'NEX Computer [Make]
The K'NEX Computer [Product Page]

Offensively Binary: Passive, Aggressive

Mark Wilson — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 13:35:20 EST

For the cynical guy who has everything, Offensive Binary makes t-shirts featuring dirty binary code. Sure, you can get your run-of-the-mill fuckwear, but where is the danger in that? Want a real rush? Try passing through airport security with a shirt reading,"I am a terrorist". There is like a 1 in 1,000,000,000 chance some resident TSA agent will be fluent in binary code and nail your ass. Yeah, you're bad.

For a complete list of Offensively's NSFW slogans (just curses, no boobies), hit the jump.

* Fuck
* I am a Terrorist
* Fuck Karl Rove
* Fuck You
* wtf
* Fuck the DMCA
* Fuck Christmas
* Bomb
* Fuck the TSA
* Fuck the RIAA
* I Fucking Fucked my Fucking Fuck Fuck Figgity Fuck
* Fuck DRM
* we will not be silent
* I am a Douchbag and my "Friends" are Fucking Jerks
* Eight Forbidden Words
* I can't fucking believe you decoded this
* Fuck Michael Arrington
* I Fuck Goats
* Off Cycle Designs

Those folks at Offensively Binary really take the f-bomb to the next level.

01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01001101 01100001 01110010 01101011 00100000 01010111 01101001 01101100 01110011 01101111 01101110 00100000 01100010 01110101 01110100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110010 01101111 01100010 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100110 01110010 01101111 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100110 01110101 01110100 01110101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110011 01101100 01101111 01110111 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110010 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110101 01110000 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101001 01100100 01100101 01100001 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101000 01110101 01101101 01100001 01101110 00100000 01100101 01101110 01110011 01101100 01100001 01110110 01100101 01101101 01100101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01110101 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110010 01110101 01101100 01100101 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101001 01010000 01101111 01100100 01110011 00101110 00100000 01001101 01111001 00100000 01100001 01110000 01101111 01101100 01101111 01100111 01101001 01100101 01110011 00101110 00100000 – Mark Wilson

Product Page [via tcritic]

Analog Binary Wall Clock

Jason Chen — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 17:00:09 EST

Had your fill of binary clocks? Check out this analog binary wall clock, which combines traditional clock technology with the computer science nerditry that ensured you never got laid in high school. The clock looks like an actual clock, but instead of numbers or even roman numerals, you get the binary representation of 1 through 12 instead.

This costs $40, so you may be better off going to a garage sale, buying a clock for $2, and making your own binary clock out of some construction paper. Better yet, make one that just says "BEER" twelve times. Heh, beer o'clock. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Computer Gear via Sci Fi Blog]

Welcome All Your Geek Friends in Binary Code

Charlie White — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 09:29:44 EST

Here's a companion piece to that custom-made Ascii carpet we showed you yesterday: it's a floor/doormat that gives your guests a cheery greeting of welcome encoded in binary.

In our book, this is not quite fancy enough to get into Geek Chic territory. If they would just make another one that reads Go Away, we would be first in line. The 2'x3' vinyl-backed entrance mat is $39.99.

Product page [via Red Ferret]